Who are The Nightcrawlers? They are a now-defunct three-man band -- initially
from Philadelphia (in Pennsylvania), but transplanted to New Jersey early on -- who
produced the single greatest amount of music reminiscent of 1973-1977 Era Tangerine
Dream, ever. At this point in time (Y2K), The Nightcrawlers have still
produced more TD-style E-music than Air Sculpture, Node, Radio Massacre International,
Redshift, Synco, and Waveshape combined.
Comprised of founder Peter D. Gulch, his brother Tom Gulch, and friend Dave Lunt, The
Nightcrawlers recorded largely improvisational space music epics in Peter's basement
from 1980 to 1991. They released about 30 cassettes, three albums, and one 2-CD set,
entitled
Travelling Backwards (the set contains all three of the albums).
Some folks find the 'Crawlers' music too ephemeral and sometimes shrug it off as
Conrad Schnitzler-style noodlings (by and large, a mistake), but for those with
a taste for dense soundscapes and dark ambient, the 'Crawlers really deliver.
More than anything, The Nightcrawlers sound like Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream
circa 1971-1975, what with all manner of free-form improvisational
sound-crafting (but their music also has much in common with the soundscapes of
Brian Eno). And like Tangerine Dream's early work, 90% of The Nightcrawlers'
recordings were created live (in Peter's basement; recorded on a boombox). If you
listen closely, you can often hear the sound of switches being clicked on and off on
the synthesizers!
When the Nightcrawlers were still an on-going concern, Peter Gulch collaborated
with Canadian synthesist Steve Brenner under the name Symbion, and with
Chuck van Zyl and
D. Andrew Rath under the name
Xisle.
Since the 'Crawlers breakup, Peter has teamed up with Chuck to create the terrific
CD, Regeneration Mode
(this CD is readily available from most E-music distributors and is as good if not
better than anything the Nightcrawlers ever did; don't hesitate to buy it!), and
formed a new e-music ensemble with Chuck van Zyl and
Art Cohen called
The Ministry of Inside Things (click
here for another MoIT site). So far, The Ministry of Inside Things have
recorded two limited edition (still available) CD-Rs, the second of which is
much like Tangerine Dream's Berlin School days.
This page first constructed by Steven Feldman
<scfeldman@juno.com>
12/9/98. Last update: 10/17/01.
Who are The Nightcrawlers? They are a now-