Cul de Sac

Cul de Sac

Cul de Sac is a Boston-based instrumental rock group formed in 1990 and active until 2009. The band comes from Boston, United States, and works across folk, free folk, krautrock, post-rock, psychedelic rock and space rock, with a sound that also draws on experimental rock, psychedelic rock, surf rock, Middle Eastern folk music, free jazz and avant-garde industrial textures.

History and style

The group takes its name from a Roman Polanski film. Guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Glenn Jones leads the band, which is mainly instrumental. Vocals appear on the debut album from Boston folk singer Dredd Foole. Jones describes the group as the most musically satisfying project he has been part of, and as the closest he has come to the band he wanted to form. He says it brings together his interest in open-tuned fingerstyle guitar, electronics and noise within a rhythmic rock setting.

Cul de Sac is often associated with post-rock. Writer Simon Reynolds coins the term for music by groups including Cul de Sac, Stereolab and Bark Psychosis, but Jones is uneasy with the label and prefers the band to be heard on its own terms. The post-rock description is still a useful one in relation to the group’s use of rock instruments for texture and timbre rather than conventional riffs and power chords.

Collaborations and work outside the studio

Cul de Sac collaborates with guitarist John Fahey and with Can vocalist Damo Suzuki. The band also attracts the attention of Lou Reed, who describes them as “very ambient, very cool.” In 2002 it composes the soundtrack to Roger Corman’s film The Strangler’s Wife.

Line-up

Members associated with the group include Robin Amos, Michael Bloom, Chris Fujiwara, Chris Guttmacher, Dan Ireton, Glenn Jones, Michael Knoblach, Jonathan LaMaster, Phil Milstein, Jon Proudman, Jim Siegel, Jake Trussell and Ed Yazijian.