One of Portland's most dynamic experimental duos during their
time, Project Perfect have remained (mostly) shrouded in mystery. Most
active between 2001-2004, the band performed frequently, always upping
the ante both musically (with constant introductions of new instrumental
and technological elements) and performatively (appearing on stage in
costume, with dancers, or in collaboration with other groups.) In spite of their
frequent live explorations, the band's studio sessions have gotten little public
exposure.PM, essentially a privately released CD by a Portland-based
conceptual arts organization, was largely undistributed and unpromoted, so
the band has been in relative isolation until ComLib's republication of their entire
works in one anthology. During the course of their several-year reign, Project
Perfect mastered an advanced, varied, improvised sonic language. At the core of
this was a sinuous, intricate, and circumspect vocabulary that seemed to
simultaneously embrace melodicismand atonalism. Beyond this, the band incorporated
various jarring, swooping, non-sequitur elements, such as musical use of radios,
integration of drum machines, and even oddball experiments in pop/rock quotation.
Andy Brown (synth, electric piano, drum machine, formerly of Fontanelle and Jessamine)
went on to be part of the audio-visual trio Paint & Copter; Charlie Smyth has spent the last
several years in Chicago, Berlin, and Seattle, becoming an accomplished folk-rock
songwriter along the way.
Discography
PM CD (Red76, 2002)
PM+ CD (Community Library, 2006)
