“….fare perhaps best described as world music from an imaginary planet….quite compelling and magical….” (Seattle Times)
“Crystal Beth creates her own sonic cult through stage thrashing her way through “cathartic hardcore purge pop,” and wielding psychedelic clarinet melodies and bethnic chants.” (The Stranger)
“If you’re getting tired of music that’s even remotely formulaic, {Crystal Beth} is for you. Her experimental mixing of genres is powerful and refreshing.” (Seattle Weekly)
“Beth Fleenor transcends labels – a multi-talented, creative force in Seattle.”
(City Arts Magazine)
“…a supremely versatile and virtuosic maverick”
(The Stranger)
“exceptional clarinetist”
(Seattle Times)
“excellent”
(New York Times)
“one of the most fearless and innovative musicians in the city…”
(Earshot Jazz)
ABOUT THE SOLO WORK
“anguish rubs shoulders with euphoria here, in her hypnotic melange of vocal acrobatics, where human beatboxing and phonetics-based artificial language create a certain disquiet, and instrumental numbers, where clarinet and loop pedals lay down a strange elation, the overall results amounting to catharsis.” (DME: Let it Rock)
“multiple voices that chant, cry and summon inner demons – often simultaneously – yet the trance they induce is irresistibly pleasant” (DME: Let it Rock)
“Crystal Beth wields her clarinet like a magic wand to create unearthly, genre-defying compositions” (Bored in Pittsburg)
“Crystal Beth flexes glossolalia-laced vocals in alpha-female modes, like a Pacific Northwest Yoko Ono or Urszula Dudziak, and transfers her skills into art songs that sometimes rock, sometimes trance out, and sometimes float enigmatically. It’s a remarkable fusion of Fleenor’s experimental and song-based instincts, and it really flaunts her panoply of idiosyncratic skills….If you heard this unawares on the radio or in public, it would freeze you in place and turn your face into a facsimile of that “wow” emoji.” (Dave Segal / The Stranger: Jukebox Track of the Day)
“a voice that can do anything, from sweetness to incantation, from sigh to cry of rage, supported by an unusual instrumentation that strikes wonderfully the imagination, and often reaches the heart….This girl is totally crazy and it’s fabulous…the most hallucinating is the speed and ease with which she speaks her invented language. We explore with this album, the very particular and original musical universe of an artist who found her sound identity, her way. As atypical as artist as Björk can be, where experimentation is everything and does not limit itself in its creativity.” (ProfilProg)
“a sonic universe all her own…. a totally different style…. well written, recorded and performed with a sound I have not heard before”. (Oasis Entertainment Blog)
“…made me quickly sit up and take notice of a sound, a vibe, an incredible musical passion and presence that has been missing from the industry for decades now…..explosive, thunderously impassioned…aching melodies and soaring soundscapes…Showcasing her aptitude for both the amplified clarinet and bass clarinet, Crystal Beth has most definitely crafted herself one aurally ethereal lo-fi sonic masterpiece.” (Exclusive Magazine)
“She is one of the most unusual artists to come out of Seattle. With her loops, chants, delays, and pedals, Crystal Beth destroys the rule book with a gigantic battering ram that is ready to hit at any second…..She creates her own primal scream that is completely out of this world with some beatboxing scenarios that will make you want to take notes from…..she’s bursting the flood gates wide open.” (Echoes and Dust)
“It finally happened. Someone finally decoded the feedback of “Metal Machine Music” into something discernable—-and it’s new age/world music from another planet….this multi layered sonic adventure often takes you to hell and back while threading its way through the whole of everything. Wild stuff….” (Midwest Record)
“a work of exceptional art and creativity…Her voice is an incredible instrument, spanning from soothing clear tones to rhythmic noisemaking to shrieks of primal emotion, often venturing beyond words into a kind of language all her own. Add in her prodigious clarinet capabilities, and she is a one-woman force of musical nature. This is quite literally music from another world —and it’s a world where our normal rules don’t apply….it is unique and unusual, but very human and relatable….it’s like visiting a place of profound peace and beauty, though there are touches of deep sadness and pain lurking in the fringes. The important fact is that the sadness and pain don’t rule the day, and in the end, it’s the peace and beauty that win.” (Expose)
“Crystal Beth….all tweaked and twisted around space rock, psychedelia and more to create something unique and very intriguing. You probably won’t find anything quite like this. It really defies classification or definition. Yet, it’s somehow manages to really grab the listener…There is plenty of cool weirdness on display here…..bizarre, but oddly compelling…” (Music Street Journal)
“The audience for Fleenor’s music spans the fertile rock scene in Seattle, the engaged experimental and improvised music community, and the vibrant modern jazz scene. She is as much herself as any artist can be. While she is undoubtedly blessed with a wondrous sound, great facility, and uncommon intuition, her projects are truly driven by an impressive fearlessness. It’s a fearlessness that is torn down to the studs. Artistically, it shifts from space to space, from shape to shape strongly, while revealing a certain vulnerability. It’s the thread that ties, the discipline of being, from emotional center to artistic output.” (Earshot Jazz)
ABOUT THE BAND
“You can find {Crystal Beth} fearlessly indulging her wildest creative inklings whenever she materializes in a musical forum…Crystal Beth & the Boom Boom Band falls somewhere between the grisly skronk-punk of Stickers and earthy freak-indie of tUnE-yArDs, but even fans of those left-of-center acts will be thrown for a loop. Wailing vocals not bound to any conventions but {her} own, paired with percussive “Bethnic chants,” are set over freely drawn jazz figures and world-y rhythms.” (the Stranger)
“Beth Fleenor – aka Crystal Beth – is an undeniable, unstoppable musical force, and one of Seattle’s treasures. She uses her voice and clarinet – not to mention the deep connections she forms with her collaborators – to channel strange, disturbing, and beautiful sounds into existence from beyond most of our imaginings. “Battle Cry” has no words that would be recognized in any language, but words would be needless ornament here. The band’s joyful, stomping skronk and Beth’s chants and shrieks bypass the language centers of the brain and drill directly into the deepest, primal folds, beckoning you to surrender to sound, to find peace and clarity through a modicum of musical insanity.” (Ball of Wax)
“Crystal Beth & the Boom Boom Band are what happens when accomplished jazz musicians decide to take a reckless holiday in the rock realm. The Seattle group—led by the feral vocalizing and bass clarinet of Crystal Beth and featuring the flagrantly virtuosic guitar of Tristan Gianola—assay a kind of artful, deranged rock that recalls the Dirty Three and the Geraldine Fibbers at their most agitated and, alternately, at their most lugubrious. Check out the waltz-time rager of “Flesh” off Yugen 3 for evidence of the former.” (the Stranger)
“Each song by Crystal Beth & The Boom Boom Band is so different that it’s difficult to describe their sound, but I will give it a shot. The five-piece group makes multi-instrumental psychedelic jam rock with a sense of humor. Singer/songwriter Crystal Beth’s (Beth Fleenor) vocal chords seeming possessed by a different and equally talented spirit on each song. Always shocking. Always odd. Never boring.” (Tim Basaraba / Nada Mucho)
LINKS AND FULL ARTICLES
Crystal Beth 