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Interview w/ Tyree and Dobbins from Miscellaneous Flux, 2005

Imagine a delicate latticework of clear guitar chords that makes you want to cry, chiming against rhythmic fluttering drumming and anchored with bass lines as slithery and sexy as uncoiling pythons. Then a voice enters, a confident rapper/poet who darts and weaves through the architecture like a king bee, leaving behind food for thought. This is Miscellaneous Flux: Ben Tyree on guitar; Rashad Dobbins, voice; Ameen Saleem, bass; Jeremy "Bean" Clemons, drums; and electric piano by Ryan Weaver.

Ben and Rashad formed a fast friendship at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., went through various musical permutations before arriving at Miscellaneous Flux in 2000, and brought the band to New York City in 2002. "Do we get on each other's nerves? All the time!" Ben says, laughing.

They describe their influences as: "all innovative and conscious music with earnest intent and uncompromising intensity: John Coltrane, Bad Brains, Public Enemy, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Iannis Xenakis, Frank Zappa, Black Sabbath, Roni Size, Radiohead, Mars Volta, Sun Ra, Charles Mingus, Tool, Ravi Shankar, Wayne Shorter, Donny Hathaway, etc."


UGLY PLANET: Why do you list the Bad Brains as an influence?
RASHAD: Their energy. And they were very innovative. They were mixing punk with reggae at a time when no one had done that. That was remarkable.

U.P.: The Bad Brains definitely were a huge influence on musicians in D.C. but what has inspired you the most since you moved to New York?
BEN: For me, being around a lot of musicians who are a lot better than me. And being able to see a lot of musicians all the time.
RASHAD: New York doesn't really inspire me. But neither does D.C. I realize that it is an internal journey so no matter where I am I can find that spark. New York is material first, then music.

U.P.: Rashad, do you write to the music that Ben composes, or do you write your lyrics separately?
RASHAD: I usually have a concept. I like albums that, you know, the first song is about someone waking up, the second song is about going to the store, the third song is about what the person bought in the store. I like to create a linear collage, and then once I get the music, I'll write the lyrics.
BEN: He'll tell me the concept and then I'll try to write, although sometimes I'll just give him music and he'll write to it. But often he'll give me a concept and I'll write to the concept and it all just fits somehow.
RASHAD: We don't ever clash musically. I think there should be 40 percent vocals and 60 percent music…and the vocals shouldn't talk that much! Besides, what I'm talking about is a sort of sci-fi/political/magick kind of thing and I don't want to talk about it too much. I want to say what I have to say and get out.
BEN: We grew up on separate sides of the same town., yet we listened to the same stuff. He listened to hip hop and rock and I listened to everything, too. What we do also came from reading and our interests in physics, metaphysics, and spirituality. Rashad came up with a phrase from a book he read to describe what we do. [Visions by physicist Michio Kaku, inspired by the civilization classifications of astronomer Nikolai Karashev] He calls it Type 1 Information.
RASHAD: Humanity is being pushed towards what this author call a Type 1 civilization, meaning we're going to have to work together as a planet to survive. There will have to be political stability and a planetary economy involving us working together in order for humans to survive as a species. Just that idea of the planet becoming one…I thought that's what we should call our music: Type 1 art, Type 1 information. I'm trying to make art that can involve humanity-not just a certain class or a certain culture.
BEN: Art has worked in the past because it sections and separates different movements and genres that are inclusive to some but alienate others. We're trying to do something that is all-inclusive.

U.P.: Your band is a metaphor for that, in terms of the musical mix and the mix of people.
BEN: We're trying to make something that we haven't heard before that includes the best of everything we like. We all came out of studying jazz yet we all love rock. I like to hit power chords now and then, even though I know all kinds of other chords, because they still have an effect that I sometimes want to achieve.
RASHAD: I don't want to be jazz; I don't want to be rock. I love the intricate patterns of jazz; I love the heaviness of rock; I love hip hop. As Ben said, we draw from the best of everything we like. My culture came through slavery and is now going through the effects of that in this capitalistic economy – yet knowing that at one point our art was the only thing we had to push us, now we're using our drum to enslave us. I feel like some of the rap and rhythm and blues being produced today is betraying our ancestors. It doesn't have an adventure in it. I'm not trying to dis people, but how we went from Ray Charles to Beyonce is crazy. I understand how the evolution happened, but the fight is missing now. So I really have a job to do. Like James Baldwin used to say, "I'm only responsible for the people that produce me."
BEN: We're here to evolve. We're not put on this planet to just dance the night away. You should have fun and feel good, but there has to be some dimension of your life beyond that.
RASHAD: I think Bob Marley is the great metaphor for how to dance and rejoice at the same time.

U.P.: Do you think the internet is helping musicians regain control over the means of production?
BEN: I like that idea that even if you don't "make it big," you can still have a CD out there. You don't have to wait to "get signed" or go to all these record labels' offices and beg them for a record contract. You can just put your own thing out and put up a web site. I think that's great. It connects the world. You can talk to someone across the planet and realize we're all the same and want the same thing.
RASHAD: The internet is a web of consciousness. We sit down and focus our consciousness and create a whole other world. So we have to put our stuff into that web.
BEN: I have a feeling that it's part of our biological evolution. At some point in time, it's going to advance to the point where we'll be able to connect our brains to it. We read in so many mystic and religious texts about the universe coming to one, all is one. How do we know that technology is not going to play a part in that?

-Debra DeSalvo, Ugly Planet Magazine (Fall 2005)


Miscellaneous Flux: Dead In Dreams (10/04)

One part traditional jazz, one part hip hop and one part poetry slam. Is this a battle? Yes! (as the lyrics go on their song "1980"). Led Zeppelin, Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Ravi Shankar, Radiohead, Bad Brains and Frank Zappa, the band Miscellaneous Flux is a combination and collage of sounds. Composition and fusion which is both orchestrated and improvised. True creativity is what they seek, and universal vibration with art, life and politics rolled up into one. They consist of Dave Althen on drums, Rashad Dobbins on vocals, and Ben Tyree on electronic bass and guitars. The experimental sound shines through with each musician contributing a distinct sound in the mix. It's apparent that good musicanship is revered, as many songs feature solo intrumental mo-ments, and the band jams in a way that is free and soulful. Lyrically they verge on revolutionary themes which give them a thoughtful and at time abrasive edginess.

-Kira Yustak, Ugly Planet Magazine (Fall 2004)


Flux praised in Heiruspecs review, 2003

"...if you're interested in a live band that does more than using their instruments to mimic samplers, may I humbly recommend Miscellaneous Flux's Dead in Dreams?"

-David Morris, Pop Matters (2003)



Independent Musician July/August 2003

"Old school was here to go beyond 1980," bellows Miscellaneous Flux on the album Dead In Dreams. This New York based band in fact seems to have been influenced by an intricate network of schools, culminating in PhD's from the University of Funk, Hip-Hop, Rock, and Jazz. The cocky chops that these guys have built up are on full display, along with the brash, splintering rhym-ing by their front man Rashad Dobbins. Many bands that attempt a hip-hop/jazzy sound end up sounding like a beatnik poet backed by the house band at an open mic night. But Miscellaneous Flux is genuinely sweet when necessary, then blasts out of a cannon that makes everyone take notice. The musician-ship of this group is enough to grab you, but the hip-hopnotical force of Rashad's voice is truly transforming. An amazing pool of talent with a diverse bag of tricks, Miscellaneous Flux will no doubt pump you up.



Skyline 24Seven Magazine, NYC (February 2003)/ Miscellaneous Flux: Dead In Dreams

Keeping intelligent hip-hop relevant seems to have been a passing fad. But throw on any Tribe Called Quest album and that thought will quickly fade. Miscellaneous Flux hold on to that vibe pretty tight and bring it with a live band. Blending jazz rhythms with a soulful appeal one minute and then switching to an improv-jazz freakout on "Bleed," shows diversity. Then throw smart lyrics into the mix by Rashad Dobbins and now you've got a complete meal! Sometimes when a band combines elements of hip-hop, rock, jazz and soul there is one voice that overpowers the rest but these guys do a good job of keeping things even for everyone to shine brightly.



Miscellaneous Flux: Dead In Dreams
Hip Hop Infinity.Com (2002)

Miscellaneous Flux isn't exactly the first hip hop group that plays their own instruments. From Stetsasonic to The Roots to Heiruspecs, the hip hop world has seen enough live bands to remove the novelty of having a drummer and a bonafide emcee sharing a stage. Miscellaneous Flux is much more than a novelty, though. This Washington, D.C. trio approaches their instruments not as a producer approaches a sampler (to complement the rhymes of the emcee-in-charge), but as though the guitar, drums, bass, keyboards and other instruments featured on their full-length debut, Dead In Dreams, have as much say in the content and meaning of the music as the vocalist. This is not as daunting a task for Ben Tyree and Dave Althen as it may be for other musicians, because they are masters of their instruments (guitar and drums, respectively). Their riffs and solos display as much emotional depth as a listener could hope for from a singer or emcee. Yet they never outshine or diminish the impact of Rashad Dobbins' impassioned vocals. It is obvious from listening to Dead In Dreams that the three members of Miscellaneous Flux have achieved a remarkable musical balance, one rarely seen in any style of music.

But looking past all the album's technical merits, what really makes Dead In Dreams a winner is its heart. Both personal and political, the album reflects on history through Dobbins' blunt metaphors and Tyree's diverse and compositions, while forging its own new, instantly recognizable (though difficult to categorize) sound. The past, present, and future of music, and in turn, the people who make and listen to music, are all represented on this album with great care.

Dead In Dreams' second track, "1980," is a fresh commentary on the state of music in 2002. Is hip hop so narcissistic and redundant that it will self-destruct and fade into insignificance? Dobbins' hook of "Is this a battle? yes/ but you must ask yourself one thing/ purpose, goal, get props or save souls?/ old school was here to go beyond 1980/ as the bodies pile up, you can battle, but what you saying?" indicates that while it may do just that, Miscellaneous Flux does not want that to happen. The mentality of battling for fame or making a career out of dissing emcees, real or imagined, is questioned here, and in an intelligent, thought provoking manner. The backdrop, while not overtly hip hop, bumps in a way that recalls rap's golden years without being any kind of overt throwback. Like the rest of the album's songs, "1980" looks back on the music of the past while creating a new steez and moving forward.

"Sad Sunshine" is probably the most straightforwardly personal song on Dead In Dreams. Rashad Dobbins brings an as-always passionate performance on the topic of self-perception and physical beauty. Risky business, but Dobbins comes off both emotional and sensible over the ethereal accompaniment, and his time in the spotlight is followed superbly by Ben Tyree, who drops a top-notch guitar solo to end the song. "Four Toes" features a similar theme of self-worth-- believing in the power of music and the power of one's self. The lyrics, with a chorus of "Reaching for the elevated cloud/ mouths in the well can't speak but spread teeth to smile, you/ laugh, pain won't rape our sound/ 'cause when I break down and cry, my tears die you," speak beautifully of trying to find happiness in a damaged world, and the song's instrumental bridge is straight up sublime. This is fantastic music right here.

Put simply, Dead In Dreams is an inspired album. Here you can find great lyrics and even better music presented in a soulful and skilled package. Whether you are disappointed with current hip hop or loving the latest releases and trends, Miscellaneous Flux have released an album that deserves your attention. It is one of the best albums to come out so far in 2002, and it would be a shame if it goes unnoticed. Intelligent, soulful, innovative and flavorful, Dead In Dreams' virtues are countless. Hopefully, the least important question this album raises is, "Is this even hip hop

***HipHop Infinity.com is now defunct***



Washington Post.com interview on Miscellaneous Flux, 2001

At the Black Cat on March 16 are three bands that may be different in style, but have one thing in common - they're making some noise. Composer guitarist Ben Tyree and former Freestyle Union lyricist/rapper Rashad Dobbins drive Miscellaneous Flux. A music major at Howard, Tyree has spent most of his life so far studying classical and jazz. He's bored with everyday radio and not interested in "manufacturing a product to sell." Rather, he strives to "process jazz, heavy metal, rap, funk into a story about all our lives." The result is a fusion hip-hop that he half jokingly warns is not for the simple mind.

Though Tyree adamantly rejects what he characterizes as artistic compromise, he hopes that the group can progress and fund itself without having to leave Washington. And what of Miscellaneous Flux's love-us-or-hate us posture?

"We're doing something new," says Tyree. "We don't try to alienate, but we do elicit a reaction. Either way it's good for us."

-Maria Villafana, Washington Post.com (2001)


Maria Villafana's 1st. B-Day picks for MP3.com, 2001

The eccentric Rashad Dobbins has connected with a composer (guitarist Ben Tyree) bugged-out enough to structure soundscapes befitting his Mobius strip lyrics. Tyree in turn assembled a band talented enough to bring his intricate arrangements to life. The cut featured here, "Dream Sequence", steamrolls through nearly 8 minutes of morphing structure, tempo and style.