Experimental music project Cereal Banter was founded in 2010 in Cleveland by drummer Joseph Joseph. In 2015, he recruited Nicholas Gunzburg (an avid Cereal Banter fan and chiptune artist) as the ‘other half’ for Cereal Banter’s next incarnation.

Keeping Cereal Banter duo-minded, instead of a solo project, was a priority – with their forte being waves of electronic fuzz, prog-riffs, minimal melody, spoken word, and anything audible colliding against Joseph’s loosely tight, virtuosic drumming.

In this version of Cereal Banter, Gunzburg brings a ferociously limber style of ukulele-tuned bass playing, expertise in electronics-building and manipulation, and the will to experiment. Their first effort together was the 2015 Oatmeal Outburst cassette that features two blistering 15-minute freeform jams resembling the likes of Lightning Bolt and King Crimson.

The 2017 JUNK JAZZ LP, out via Sea Bee Records, picked up where that explosion left off in the form of a cohesively recorded album; featuring their first co-written composition, the riffs-upon-riffs “Spare Particles,” and other prog-heavy pop songs like “Gnarly Chaplin” and “Junk Jazz.” The record garnered favorable reviews from our site and Drumhead Magazine.

Early 2019 foresees the release of concept album, Wonderful Quest: a chronicle of realized, improvised & progressively de-formed audio outcomes. The record was self-recorded, self-mixed, and self-released. It details the process of a disintegrating musical composition and a decaying sense of creative purpose.

The new single is the kicky and ever-changing “Nepotism Prism”, which The Big Takeover is excited to host the premiere of here. It starts the record off with an ebullient energy and danceable groove reminiscent of Sonic Youth and Devo.

Smooth and enthusiastic vocals glide through the rock guitar and dynamic drums crunch for a while – until the song dashes off with sudden bursts of kinetic energy, flaming guitar lines, rapid-fire, quicksilver drumming, and exclaimed vocals. It’s quite a wild – and wonderful – trip that incorporates psych, prog, and heavy rock to heady effect.

The duo have plenty of plans for this year, stating, “We’re planning an east coast tour in the spring. And, we’re putting together a surround-sound type audio/visual listening party for Wonderful Quest. We’ve spent over a year (off and on) mixing and editing the work, so we’d like people to experience the detailed sonics in a controlled setting. We haven’t decided whether listeners will be packed in a small room with a stereo PA setup or if everyone will have bluetooth headphones.”

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