{"title":"Synth","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"oneida-rhys-chatham-whats-your-sign","title":"Oneida \u0026 Rhys Chatham - What’s Your Sign?","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1492617847\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/oneidarhyschatham.bandcamp.com\/album\/whats-your-sign\"\u003eWhat's Your Sign? by Oneida \u0026amp; Rhys Chatham\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFour years after their inaugural union at Ecstatic Music Festival inside New York City’s Merkin Concert Hall produced a cosmic din for the ages, two genre-obliterating renegades who’ve made indelible marks in the experimental music pantheon—the NYC-bred, Paris-based avant-garde guitar legend and minimalist composer Rhys Chatham and long-running psychedelic free-rock juggernaut and Brooklyn institution Oneida—have joined forces on their first collaborative album proper titled What’s Your Sign?, due November 11th, 2016 via Northern Spy Records.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith pedigrees carved in hall-of-fame-caliber collaboration and ever-expanding symphonic ensembles (a Chatham touchstone is A Crimson Grail (For 400 Electric Guitars) while Oneida’s twelve hour long free-improvisational drone-fests is stuff of legend), it’s no revelation the legendary composer and No Wave veteran and the left-field freethinking noisemakers would make for kindred spirits.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Collaborating with Rhys was a way for Oneida to connect with the legacy of NYC experimental rock,” explains Kid Millions. “It was gratifying and exciting that Rhys was completely wide open. No hesitation as he stepped into the O.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs it turns out, Chatham stepping into the O—a sonically deep and sprawling mind-fry of triptastic psych-stoner dirges and marathon-length organ-splattered space-jazz noisescapes—was a match made in drone, noise and Motorik groove heaven. But even Chatham had jitters upon entering the hypnotic sound-world that would ultimately serve as the foundation for What’s Your Sign?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“When I first met up with the merry men of Oneida at their rehearsal studio in Brooklyn, I was a little nervous about how things were going to go, because I was thinking of them as basically a rock group, perhaps with a bit of an edge and a bit of noise, but essentially rock,” recalls Chatham. “I was nervous about it because I was coming to the session with my Outdoor Spell loop\/delay setup, and I wasn’t too sure about how that would work with straight ahead rock. So you can imagine my surprise when the drummer, Kid Millions, started playing in a style that owed more to free music and noise than it did to rock. And so did what the other guys were playing. It worked just fine, and the music sounded great!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith six compositions credited to Oneida and Rhys Chatham, What’s Your Sign?—Oneida’s first set of original material since 2012’s A List of the Burning Mountains and Chatham’s second LP in 2016 (Pythagorean Dream the first) and third overall for Northern Spy—is an exercise in freethinking sonic explorations from an uncompromising, genre-defying group whose collective output has shaped the experimental music landscape extending over the last four decades.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRecorded and mixed at Menegroth The Thousand Caves by Colin Marston, Oneida and Rhys Chatham and mastered by James Plotkin, What’s Your Sign?’s six shapeshifters are ecstatic journeys into a psych-rock future-world. Warped, alien jam action like the jet engine-drone roar of “Well Tuned Guitar” and the in-your-face noise-rock screams of “You Get Brighter” harken back to the legendary free-improv all-nighters that took place at The Ocropolis, Oneida’s former studio\/performance space in Williamsburg.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven with Chatham thrust deep into Oneida’s sound-deconstructing fray, the songwriting process didn’t stray too far from the norm of past efforts. What’s Your Sign? was born out of playing together, jamming on monolithic riffs and squelching electronics, discussing and editing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBoth “Civil Weather” and “A. Philip Randolph and Back Bay Station” approach firebreathing 60’s free jazz vibes driven by Millions’ rolling and manic beats and ear bleeding double-horn-fueled drone, thanks to a Hanoi Jane-Chatham trumpet duet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom its drums-bashing, cacophonous beginning to its skronky trumpet-loaded conclusion, the instant chemistry betwixt Rhys Chatham and Oneida is what makes What’s Your Sign? such a seamless and natural partnership: ageless vanguards of minimalism, free-improvisation and noise banding together in a holier than thou union of NYC experimental\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"LP + Digital","offer_id":44667150958815,"sku":"LP-NS-080","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667150926047,"sku":"CD-NS-080","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667150860511,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667150893279,"sku":null,"price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/unnamed-1-e1646851972956.jpg?v=1703788602"},{"product_id":"parlor-walls-opposites","title":"Parlor Walls - Opposites","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=701442117\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/parlorwalls.bandcamp.com\/album\/opposites\"\u003eOpposites by Parlor Walls\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eParlor Walls’ debut album Opposites is appropriately named. The trio of Alyse Lamb (guitar, vocals), Kate Mohanty (saxophone), and Chris Mulligan (drums, synth) channel a sound that plays with extremes. At times heavy and playful, vulnerable and strong, dark and humorous, exacting and unhinged, it recalls the everyday taming we all do to harness our wild parts, and invites us to let them be. The band explores how far they can push the listener in one direction, while still holding the opposite qualities intact. How much dissonance and melody can exist at once? Can a rhythm be fun yet challenging?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the opening track “Crime Engine Failure”, we get the unsettling feeling of gears churning. A relentless drumbeat refuses to evolve as the vocals begin the song in an all-together different timing. This push and pull is where the band thrives. Unsure where the anchor is, they perform a balancing act. Second track “Cover Me” whips in like a charging bull and settles on a groove-laden bass, only to dive into chaos with Mohanty’s box-cutter tone and Lamb’s pleading, urgent vocals. In “Play Opposites”, she begs the question, “Is this what you wanted Mother? Empty shells to fill your hole?”, as the music slowly unravels into a wash of noise. On songs “Love Again” and “Hesitation”, the trio walks the fine line between pure pleasure and madness, encouraging you to thrive in between the two.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt would be best to listen to Opposites in a giant cavern around a fire surrounded by your tribe for one last dance before you head out to fight the revolution. Walking a tightrope between genres, you could take this to be true: It rocks, it drops, it grooves, it melts, it rolls, and like most forces of nature and spirit it’s wisest to relax and maneuver with the current rather than wondering why.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Parlor Walls are the band you hire to play while you dance around the world burning. This record plays like The Pop Group if they were fronted by Kim Gordon and James Chance. At times droney, dreamy, and disturbing, while still adhering to pop song constructs. This is fine decoupage of art-noise-punk stuck together with double sided scotch tape and then doused with glitter.\"\u003c\/em\u003e –Kevin Diamond\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"In their new album, Opposites, singer Alyse Lamb doesn’t so much wear her heart on her sleeve as she does throw it on the floor in a blood-spattered mess, piecing it back together with a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers. It’s not an album for getting out of one’s head or escaping one’s troubles, but rather, it’s for confronting and wrestling with them head-on.”\u003c\/em\u003e – JP Basileo\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"LP + Digital","offer_id":44667154530527,"sku":"LP-NS-089","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667154596063,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667154563295,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/a2595409884_10.jpg?v=1703788620"},{"product_id":"on-fillmore-happiness-of-living","title":"On Fillmore - Happiness of Living","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1293544510\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/onfillmore.bandcamp.com\/album\/happiness-of-living\"\u003eHappiness of Living by On Fillmore\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is Happiness of Living: the latest musical transmission from On Fillmore, the long-running duo of percussionist Glenn Kotche (Wilco) and bassist Darin Gray (Tweedy). Carved from an ecstatic multi-day session in Rio de Janeiro, these 11 new tracks, which make up their fourth studio album, move effortlessly between pools of celestial vocals, deep cosmic pockets and occasional pop tunes, to create a glowing mood unlike any previous dispatch from On Fillmore.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSculpted from eight hours of sessions made with old and new comrade musicians, including esteemed producer Kassin (Caetano Veloso, Arto Lindsay), On Fillmore has invited others into their deepest creative space for the first time with Happiness of Living. Emerging from something deeper than improvisation, the sessions unfolded in a spirit of openness: like the analog tape loops borrowed from an installation by Sao Paulo artist, Chiara Banfi; or the voice of Brazilian-American singer-songwriter Gabriela Riley; the otherworldly percussion of Mauro Refosco (Atoms for Peace, Red Hot Chili Peppers); or even the words sang by Guillereme Valerio on \"Jornada Inteira”, who is the brother of their Sao Paulo promoter. The synchronicity of those recordings is evident upon listening to Happiness of Living, from the first touch of thumb piano (kalimba) on album opener, \"Pintado.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst visiting Brazil to perform at the 2005 Perc Pan Festival in Salvador and Rio, On Fillmore had what they describe as \"a musically life-changing experience.\" They arrived, laden with mini-discs and effects pedals, to play music from their then-new album Sleeps With Fishes (Quakebasket, 2004), but it was while watching a performance by +2 collective (Domenico, Moreno, Kassin) that something shifted. A friendship with those musicians took root and grew into an ensemble performance later that year at Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago which, though unrehearsed, remains one of the duo's favorite shows. It opened the door for what continued to grow into Extended Vacation (Dead Oceans, 2009), and eventually becomes fully formed in Happiness of Living.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn Fillmore have always embodied a collaborative spirit, most recently serving as the rhythm section for William Tyler’s acclaimed Modern Country (Merge, 2016). On Fillmore formed in 1999 on a plane ride home from performing in London with Jim O’Rourke, and met a few years before while working on O’Rourke’s Eureka (Drag City, 1998). On Fillmore has since remained a band without a geographical home: Gray based in St. Louis and Kotche in Chicago (or wherever Wilco's currently at). Since joining Wilco in early 2001, Kotche has become one of the most acclaimed and in-demand percussionists in the world, occupying a musical space at the intersection of pop and experimental music, orbiting within the worlds of classical commissions as well as rock and roll amphitheaters. Gray has worked with a range of underground music heroes, including Loren Connors, Chris Corsano, and Rob Mazurek, in addition to serving as bassist in Tweedy, with Wilco’s frontman, Jeff Tweedy, and his son Spencer. In cultivating their long-term friendship and musical partnership, Kotche and Gray’s still-unfolding On Fillmore discography showcases a process of exploration that is consistently pushing both musicians beyond the traditional divisions of labor in a bass\/percussion duo.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter discovering a new musical place with Extended Vacation in 2009, On Fillmore found themselves with the longing to transform their ongoing musical conversation to a wider specter of possible landscapes. Neither jazz nor Brazilian, not exotica, not free music, nor anything else. If anything, Happiness of Living has On Fillmore in uncharted land. For certain types of music fans, a dream record; the type one might put on and immediately be transported to some place filled with strange creatures and inviting sounds, some place you’ve never been but maybe find you’ve been missing. This is Happiness of Living.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"LP + Digital","offer_id":44667154628831,"sku":"LP-NS-083","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667154694367,"sku":"CD-NS-083","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667154661599,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667154727135,"sku":null,"price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/NS083_OnFillmore_cover-e1646851449785.jpg?v=1703788630"},{"product_id":"arto-lindsay-cuidado-madame","title":"Arto Lindsay - Cuidado Madame","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=2674611517\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/artolindsay.bandcamp.com\/album\/cuidado-madame\"\u003eCuidado Madame by Arto lindsay\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e• The album is titled after an infamous 1970 Julio Bressane film about oppressed housemaids revolting against and brutally murdering their mistresses. The literal translation is “Careful, Madame.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e• The album is produced by Lindsay. It features Melvin Gibbs, Paul Wilson, Kassa Overall, Patrick Higgins, Ryu Takahashi and Thiago Nassif.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e• Candomblé (spiritual rhythms revolving around possession and trance) served as the foundation for the record. The process began with recordings of atabaques in Brazil. Lindsay wrote melodies and lyrics over the rhythms in the studio in Brooklyn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e• The album is an exploration of the cultural nexus of Afro-Brazilian spirituality and western modernity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen people talk about Arto Lindsay’s body of work, they often project a reductive dichotomy. There is Scary Arto and Sexy Arto.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eScary Arto’s music is stormy and serrated and ruthless and almost deranged; evoking perhaps the glare and noise of New York City. Sexy Arto’s music is seductive and warm and textured and ethereal; evoking perhaps the dappled sunlight of Brazil. Both musics seem dreamlike. In the sense that there are many kinds of dreams.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2014, Northern Spy issued a unique and conceptually provocative double-disc anthology of Arto’s solo work, called Encyclopedia Of Arto. Disc 1 was a “best of Arto LIndsay” survey of his solo albums. Disc 2 was something much more unusual: many of the same songs from disc one, performed live with Arto's signature haywire noise guitar (Scary Arto) juxtaposed against his lilting, slyly erotic, post-Caetano vocal style (Sexy Arto).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe choice to marry Sexy and Scary into a single performance was striking and bold. I cannot speak for Arto, but my read of the statement was that it rebuked the notion that his vision is somehow binary. It felt like fresh terrain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis brings us to Cuidado Madame, the long awaited new album, where Arto’s mastery is in full bloom. Though the album certainly favors Sexy Arto, its fearlessness makes us let go of our boring, dichotomous ideas. On offer is the full, inimitable Arto Lindsay range of texture, noise, technology, ensemble playing, melody and poetry, sensuality and intellect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou will find that you stop analyzing and parsing. You will find that you surrender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the sense that there are many kinds of dreams.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e- Chad Clark\u003cbr\u003eBeauty Pill \/ Washington, DC \/ Spring 2017\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"LP + Digital","offer_id":44667154858207,"sku":"LP-NS-090","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667154923743,"sku":"CD-NS-090","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667154956511,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667154890975,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/a1543875685_10.jpg?v=1703788648"},{"product_id":"horselover-fats-liberty-ashes","title":"Horselover Fats - Liberty Ashes","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3445144871\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/track=4091609691\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/horseloverfats.bandcamp.com\/album\/liberty-ashes\"\u003eLiberty Ashes by Horselover Fats\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLiberty Ashes is an exercise in not only deliberation but also impulse. Side A and Side B act as inverse of each other, sharing similar three-movement structure. A is the more deliberate, ecstatic piece, its hulking movement arranged for the appearance of the State Street Singers men’s choir, led by Matt Morello. Ferocious wormhole guitars and irascible walls of drums weave in and out of the Latin incantations of the choir, producing a bliss both pineal and cerebral. Side B focuses more on chance–the composition builds around blooming synth pads and wanderlust guitars before dropping into synthetic percussion, processed into oblivion. By the end of the piece, vocals lace the ambient washes of the keys and guitars, again achieving a bliss–this one subliminal. The contrast between the two sides of Liberty Ashes is stark, but the spirit is similar. The music comes fast and easy, both seamless and sawtooth, sacred and profane. It’s a record built toward the end of post-modernity, exploring dichotomies of loud\/quiet, space\/occupation, light\/dark, and free\/unfree. Liberty Ashes refers to the remnants of an ideology, that deliberation and impulse together lead to something more sustainable than either on their own.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Cassette + Digital","offer_id":44667155742943,"sku":"CS-NS-078","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667155710175,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667155775711,"sku":null,"price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/a3867845011_16-1-1.jpg?v=1703788686"},{"product_id":"shilpa-ray-paisley","title":"Shilpa Ray - Paisley","description":"\u003cp\u003eSIDE A: When Doves Cry\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=464065851\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/track=3167338915\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/shilparay.bandcamp.com\/album\/paisley\"\u003ePaisley by Shilpa Ray\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis was the track that got me. I was 4 years old when I heard this song. There was a story about him on the evening news and I told my mom I was gonna marry him. Why not? He looked like me. He had brown skin, black hair, big dark eyes and the longest lashes. Watching Purple Rain as an adult I was floored that I was allowed to watch it at all as a child. I didn’t remember it being so sexual. All my 4 year old self could absorb was that in the TV there was a world where you could get up on stage, wear glamorous clothes, and be surrounded by beautiful babes. I watched the older girls in my parent’s friend circle copping Appolonia’s style—big 80’s hair, purple shadow and bright red lips. She was a whole lot of woman, and Prince was the magic man from outer space. Those were good times. RIP\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSIDE B: Where Evil Grows\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=464065851\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/track=3347800726\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/shilparay.bandcamp.com\/album\/paisley\"\u003ePaisley by Shilpa Ray\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEver watch the video of this song on the Kenny Rogers show? It’s sublime. A wholesome white couple, seemingly Jesus loving hippies, singing a song about where evil grows. I first heard this track while working the door at Pianos this past winter. My friend, DJ Andy Haynes, a connoisseur of creepy music, was spinning that night and the lyrics to this grabbed me. “Evil grew. It’s part of you and now it seems to be that every time I look at you evil grows in me.” Like I said, really creepy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“When Doves Cry” is a collaboration with soul singer Deva Mahal.\u003cbr\u003e\nJeff Berner of Psychic TV engineered the tracks.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Limited Edition Lathe Cut Single + Digital","offer_id":44667156037855,"sku":null,"price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Cassette + Digital","offer_id":44667155939551,"sku":"CS-NS-084","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667155972319,"sku":"","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667156005087,"sku":null,"price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-06-at-2.21.01-PM.png?v=1703788706"},{"product_id":"cloud-becomes-your-hand-rest-in-fleas","title":"Cloud Becomes Your Hand - Rest In Fleas","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=2880046892\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/cloudbecomesyourhand.bandcamp.com\/album\/rest-in-fleas\"\u003eRest In Fleas by cloud becomes your hand\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike visions from a 3D comic book, color fantasies explode in vivid new sound-­tones on Cloud Becomes Your Hand’s Rest in Fleas. The band’s second album for Northern Spy establishes the Brooklyn sextet as purveyors of googley­-eyed psych-­pop of the highest order, delivered in a kinetically singular dialect of the musical language of fun. Over eight tracks, Cloud Becomes Your Hand affirm their position in the secret lineage that links the pingings of the BBC Radiophonics Workshop to the happy goofing of Syd-­era Pink Floyd (like if the busted gearwork at the end of “Bike” started its own band?), a line that connects the energy dome power of Devo to the collage-­happy Frosted Ambassador wing of the Elephant 6 Recording Company. Feed your head, right? But while the collective destination might be the sweet innocence of marmalade skies, the Cloud irregulars are hardly musical naifs, executing dazzling conceptual and compositional turns that puts them just as much in the family of New York’s uncompromising experimental music scene.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLed by multi­-instrumentalist and composer Stephe (the ph is hard) Cooper, Cloud Becomes Your Hand’s complex art-­pop bursts into being from fragments and scraps, collaboratively sewn together into benevolent smoke­spewing contraptions that spin around drumming drummer Booker Stardrum and Sam Sowyrda’s MIDI-­triggered malletKAT percussion. Along with Hunter Jack (violin) and Weston Minissali (synth\/vocals) comes the addition of bassist Simon Hanes­­–formerly of comrade DIY brain­-exploders Guerilla Toss–whereby the Cloud gang gains some new rhythmo-­melodic heft on their journey to the centre of our mind. Lyrics come courtesy of ongoing collaborations between Cooper, his friends, and some anarcho muse guiding the whole cotton candy ship, and Rest in Fleas sets down on our planet with enough bouncing choruses and surprise left-­turn hooks for the whole happy mutant family.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMuch like Cooper’s songs, Cloud Becomes Your Hand has multiple origins. One is a theatrical stage experiment produced by Cooper and Cloud malletKATer Sam Sowyrda called Living Things-­currently neither active nor disbanded–­­which yielded the stage instruction from which the Cooper drew the Cloud Becomes name. Another origin are Cooper’s subsequent home recording endeavors released on cassette under the Cloud Becomes moniker, including Cloud Becomes Your Hand (2010) and Doggy Paddle (2011) before drafting an ensemble into service for live work. “Like punk rock coming out of a music box,” Stereogum described one such performance. “A joyful journey through a strange land,” said the New Yorker. Rocks or Cakes, the band’s 2014 Northern Spy debut “thrills, buzzes, dives, \u003cand\u003e surprises,” wrote Relix.\u003c\/and\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJust at home at hanging out at Brooklyn avant­-garde institutions like Roulette as on homemade stages in over­-enthusiastic loft installations, Cloud Becomes Your Hand are ready to find the doorway to elsewhere in any environment. Rest in Fleas functions much the same, using sleight of hand and pure charm to lash open a portal to the giddy surreal by any means necessary, from learned technique to spontaneous creation. Along with fellow travelers on the kosmik-­noisenik highway like aggro­-eclectic Northern Spy labelmates Dva and Horse Lords, Cloud Becomes Your Hand continue to fight the good fight by not fighting at all, just emitting only the most colorful of vibrations and letting the air and all available ears do the rest.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"LP + Digital","offer_id":44667156365535,"sku":"LP-NS-074","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667156431071,"sku":"CD-NS-074","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667156398303,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667156463839,"sku":null,"price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/a0738448119_10.jpg?v=1703788738"},{"product_id":"tcot-st","title":"#tcot - S\/T","description":"\u003cp\u003e#tcot is John Darnielle and Christopher R. Weingarten\u003cbr\u003eProduced by Ben Greenberg at the Magic Shop\u003cbr\u003eDesign by Paul Jeffrey\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Cassette + Digital","offer_id":44667156758751,"sku":null,"price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-06-at-8.18.56-PM.png?v=1703788756"},{"product_id":"zs-xe","title":"Zs - XE","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=4020678438\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/zstheband.bandcamp.com\/album\/xe\"\u003eXe by Zs\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eZs is devoid of genre and unclassifiable. Since 2000, founder Sam Hillmer has remained its purveying constant, and with the addition of loose-limbed, meditative percussionist Greg Fox (Liturgy, Guardian Alien, Man Forever), and virtuosic avant-classical guitarist and composer Patrick Higgins, the band has found its epochal lineup. The trio’s vision is crystallized on Xe, Zs’ first full-length featuring the new trio, and first proper since 2010’s critically acclaimed New Slaves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHillmer, Fox and Higgins—three supremely heavy sages who exchange their pulsating phraseology with a mind-blowingly telepathic bent—in one room, nailing Xe in one miraculous live take, manned by Higgins and noted A-list producer Henry Hirsch (Lenny Kravitz, Madonna, Mick Jagger) at the boards in Hudson, New York’s Future-Past Studios.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe music on Xe even transcends artistic mediums, influencing renowned visual artist Tauba Auerbach, who believed Zs was examining the same structural concerns as her own work. She created several copies of two 3D printed steel sculptures derived from the mathematical varieties of helix known as the Z helix and S helix which she then arranged and photographed in various configurations for the Xe album art. From these, she also developed an original 3D typeface to construct ZS and XE on the interior of the packaging. The album’s minimalist, esoteric vibes aligned perfectly with Auerbach’s mind-bending and shadowy metallic sculptures. The artist attests to have never worked so hard on a record cover, nor gotten so much out of doing so.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLike a bat out of futuristic and primal hell, Xe clangs and clatters out of the gate with “The Future of Royalty,” setting a sinister tone with a pummeling march of doomed knob-twiddling electro-shocks. Ghostly transmittals burst through cascades of hyper-distorted serrations on brutal synth twister “Wolf Government,” not unlike the cataclysmic solar systems of composer Ben Frost – whom Fox has also collaborated with. There’s the fractured sci-fi percolations of the electro-sax futureworld of “Weakling” and “Corps”. Xe’s jaw-dropping sonic architecture is manifested on the eighteen-minute title track, a controlled, yet chaotic, ecstatic marathon thick with its trademark crafted quiet\/loud heavy repetition, bleeding of tense, throbbing logic that erupt into euphoric explosions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere might be no other way to describe Zs than as the deepest of DIY die-hard spiritualists exploring a genre-defying unheard music free of compromise and commercial leanings. Those aesthetics are illuminated on Xe. “The record starts with an explosion of caustic guitar noise and blazing drums and is then followed by a 7-minute desert of noise, finally, 10 to 12 minutes in you get a pulse,” Hillmer says. “No effects, no editing, nothing done in post, just a snap shot of three guys in a room who worked really hard on some music for a long time. That’s what we are bringing, and we really hope people can get into it, BUT! If they can’t, on a certain level, good. It’s alternative music for people who are seeking an alternative, and with this crisp domesticated indie\/EDM work on the rise, there may be more and more people seeking that. 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A double CD that presents the different musical souls that have always been the basis of the musical creativity of this American musician and composer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSince his infancy, spent mostly in Brazil, Arto has been absorbing the music that surrounded him and elaborating a synthesis between experimental music and pop music. His first group, DNA, along with Ikue Mori, Robin Crutchfield and Tim Wright, without ever publishing an actual album, has deeply influenced the New York and worldwide experimental music scene, helping bring about the No Wave movement, brought to light by a compilation produced by Brian Eno in 1978 and titled No New York. As was clear from the innovative rhythmic elements already present in DNA, his Brazilian musical development already stood out in those years with Tropicalismo, Samba and Bossanova and with the Ambitious Lovers, the project which he gave life to in 1984 with the keyboard player Peter Scherer. No Wave and Post Punk were being enriched with Brazilian sonority such as Pagode and Bossanova which reached their heights in the cover of “Dora” by Dorival Cayimmi, an example of a popular Brazilian tradition showing up for the first time in a musical contest, that being that of the alternative American music which, up until then, had been absolutely distant. In this unique journey and in the many other collaborations with artists of varying extraction (from John Lurie and Marc Ribot to Ryuichi Sakamoto) and in important musical productions, (the most important of all being Estrangeiro in 1989, a turning point album in Caetano Veloso’s artistic career) and reaching deserved recognition in 2002 with the victory of the Latin Grammy Award (for the production of Marisa Monte‘s record, Memorias, Cronicas e Declaracoes de Amor), these apparently contrasting elements permeated each other more and more, giving shape to the unmistakable style and creativity of Arto Lindsay.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first CD which makes up Encyclopedia of Arto includes the tracks that Lindsay has chosen from his solo albums of the period between 1996 and 2004, “O Corpo Sutil”, “Mundo Civilizado”, “Noon Chill”, “Prize”, “Invoke” and “Salt”, tracks that he wrote with exceptional travel companions like Amedeo Pace (Blonde Redhead), Marisa Monte, Caetano Veloso, Kassin, Vinicius Cantuaria, as well as the faithful Andrés Levin and Melvin Gibbs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the second CD we find a solo performance of Arto, voice and guitar, a naked, cutting sound where the vocal melodies and the atonal guitar playing manage to epitomize all his “musical poetics”; it’s the essential Arto. 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Bits of breakbeat and Afropop are heard within the jazz, ambient and electronica elements of their unmistakable grooves. Also in the mix is a Ghanian folk tune and Ennio Morricone played on cornet, drums, mbira, ballophone, bamboo flute and Game Boy. The pairing came out of the Chicago Underground Orchestra founded by Mazurek almost 20 years ago during a series of weekly workshops at the famed Chicago nightclub Green Mill Cocktail Lounge. The Orchestra morphed into the Chicago Underground Duo, Trio and Quartet as situations demanded, and while the orchestra has counted among its members such jazz greats as Sun Ra drummer Robert Barry and the late bassist Fred Hopkins of Air, the younger wunderkind Taylor has been the only other consistent member of the Underground bands. The duo remains core to most everything the uncompromising Mazurek takes on. 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The heady new album, out on Northern Spy Records, expands dramatically on the band’s primordial polyrhythms + noise palette to embrace lush digital psychedelia, enveloping vocal textures, and unexpected explosions of pop melodicism. The thunderous live drums that have always been Aa’s hallmark are still very much in the foreground, and now frequently hybridized with electronic beats and percussive blasts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile clearly in dialogue with contemporaries like Black Dice, Gang Gang Dance, Parts \u0026amp; Labor\/Dan Friel, HEALTH, Dan Deacon, and others, Aa’s continuous evolution has mapped out an utterly singular course. ‘VoyAager’ spans diversely unique sonic worlds – from the ecstatic drum workouts of “Glow Wreath” and “Fish Phone,” to the menacing, post-industrial grind of “Mossy” and “Gowntower,” to the vividly atmospheric electropop of “Koosh” and “Eyebells,” and other previously uncharted territories.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePainstakingly produced by the band with long-time collaborator Billy Pavone and mastered by drummer Josh Bonati of Bonati Mastering, ‘VoyAager’ works both as deep headphone listening and as blisteringly loud, heavy-in-the-red avant-rock. Recorded over several years in Brooklyn, New Jersey, Los Angeles, and southern France, and following tours of Europe, Australia and New Zealand, the album vibrantly reaffirms the band as one of experimental rock’s one-of-a-kind institutions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667161706719,"sku":"CD-NS-050","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667161641183,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667161673951,"sku":null,"price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/61l-VQ2Mc-L.jpg?v=1703788937"},{"product_id":"cloud-becomes-your-hand-rocks-or-cakes","title":"Cloud Becomes Your Hand - Rocks or Cakes","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1666744903\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/cloudbecomesyourhand.bandcamp.com\/album\/rocks-or-cakes\"\u003eRocks Or Cakes by cloud becomes your hand\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe spirit of discovery has made heroes of mountain climbers and deep sea divers. We rally around it with undaunted belief that one day aliens will be our best friends, if we can just push deep enough into space. Cloud Becomes Your Hand reminds us that this magic of new worlds isn’t just on the edges of civilization; it is all around us. Like a children’s show on PBS, depicting urban life with a frenetic jazz of togetherness and purpose, theirs is the sound of exploring your own city. It is the sound of meeting all the surprising people around you. Surrealism, Dada, psychedelia; these are just fancy words to describe the simple thing this group has done. They’ve collected a bunch of exciting sounds and tied them together with the exclamation, “We’re all here, living these wild lives with each other!” It is a sentiment explaining the joy and wonder in a child’s eyes. 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The session was originally broadcast on WNYC’s “Spinning on Air” with David Garland in early January 2013, and is now released exclusively for Record Store Day Black Friday 2013 in a one time pressing of 1,500 units.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSean Lennon’s improvisational collaboration Mystical Weapons is primarily a duo of Sean and Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier. Here, the duo is expanded with the addition of animator and projectionist Martha Colburn (her projector can be heard on the recording) and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily. This version of Mystical Weapons has only performed about three times together and never released a recording.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs WNYC’s Garland writes, “Both Sean and Shahzad share electric guitars, basses, and keyboards. 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From pop to country to noise to psych to oldies and even a little rapping, he does everything that makes up Col the man on COL the album.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFeatured Artists:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eColin Langenus; Allie Klein; Wes Buckley; Max Hodes; Dave Kadden; Casey Glover; David Ramsden; Eli Winograd; Pete Vogl; Sebastian Paulson; Jesse Lent; Brendon Wood; Jonah Rapino; Daren Ho; Matt Mottel; Will Berney; Andy Puls; Dre Skull; David Whiteman; Greg Might; Jonny Corndawg; Kieren Lally; Jimmy Thomson; Greg Fox; Turner Williams; Alex Drewchin\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667166392543,"sku":"CD-NS-030","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667166359775,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667166425311,"sku":null,"price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/a1281908737_10.jpg?v=1703789094"},{"product_id":"diamond-terrifier-kill-the-self-that-wants-to-kill-yourself","title":"Diamond Terrifier - Kill the Self That Wants to Kill Yourself","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=2584506419\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/diamondterrifer.bandcamp.com\/album\/kill-the-self-that-wants-to-kill-yourself-2\"\u003eKill the Self That Wants to Kill Yourself by Diamond Terrifer\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eDiamond Terrifier‘s debut full length Kill The Self That Wants To Kill Yourself is a towering monolith of spiritual free-RnB sax riffing, embedded in world dub fragments, and harmonizer pedals. Instrument, genre, and technology are pushed to failure. The resulting ‘spooky action at a distance’ darts around in the margins of what’s possible, erratic in sentiment and aesthetic. Uncreative music journalists might say, ‘Clarence Clemons meets Mad Max’, but a broken clock is right twice a day, and in this case, they’d be right!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eZS’ saxist Sam Hillmer connects the dots from Beefheart to Kenny-G to future African saxophones. The only saxophonist in America coming straight out of the noise scene, inventing the saxophone as though Jazz weren’t awesome, he opens new space for the instrument on this deeply irreverent first LP. Kill The Self That Wants To Kill Yourself. 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Two weeks of shows; fantasy driven collaborations; signature beers; limited edition lavender 7-inches – a 90-minute cassette is but another cog in the Northern Spy machine, one that should not be overshadowed by the vibrant big picture. 5,429 seconds (the actual runtime is 90-minutes and 29-seconds) of virgin sounds created by eight artists appearing at the festival leaves you wondering: could I ask for anything more? The answer to that comes in the form of another question: would you expect anything less?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFeatured Artists:\u003cbr\u003e\nRhys Chatham, Gold Sparkle Band, Arthur Doyle \u0026amp; His New Quiet Screamers, K-Salvatore, Rhyton, Diamond Terrifier, Tom Carter\/Pat Murano, PC Worship, Starring, Colin L Orchestra (with Guardian Alien), Chris Forsyth, Steve Gunn, Bird Names\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Cassette + Digital","offer_id":44667167736031,"sku":"CS-NS-029","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-25-at-6.37.56-PM.png?v=1703789149"},{"product_id":"starring-abcdefg-hijklmnop-qrstuv-wxyz","title":"Starring - ABCDEFG-HIJKLMNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3332059164\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/starringmusic.bandcamp.com\/album\/abcdefg-hijklmnop-qrstuv-wxyz-2\"\u003eABCDEFG-HIJKLMNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ by Starring\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eStarring’s ABCDEFG-HIJKLMNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ combines minimalist musical patterns with dreamy poetry to create a new style front-woman Clara Hunter likes to call “sparkle prog.” It captures the frenetic energy of the band’s live show, but here it is overlain with a new palate of synthesizers, delay effects, drum processing, aux percussion, and vocals that create delicate, but sometimes radical juxtapositions between the lyrical and the experimental. Though songs like “the best” and “aphonia” channel the loud, raw, and repetitive “circus punk” of Starring’s early releases, much of this record speaks with a broader sense of expressive depth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the course of the album’s six cuts, choruses soar at monstrous heights framed by mechanical and occult trances. Dead jazz turns up with fuzzy 8-bit solos, whistling synths pipe beneath ghostly choral arrangements, viola lines in Turkish modes swoop into ornamented curls and loops, and singer Clara Hunter’s girlish vocals whisper the record’s secrets with surreal, woozy melodies. 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Coming down slow with a clear vision, it’s a sure hit. Since the late 90s, Shepperton, England native Dan Melchior has consistently delivered an avant-pop that is off-kilter and literate, with a sense of menace and a stronger sense of play. He’s a new Jesus of Cool, riding just about the underground like the antipodean Chris Knox. The sound of Catbirds and Cardinals is clean, lo-fi, deeply-engaging, and guaranteed to pull in new legions of fans. It’s a clever garage pop set that will lick your pate clean.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn Catbirds and Cardinals, Dan Melchior und das Menace successfully meld a hodge podge of disparate elements into a cohesive whole, bringing to mind veteran UK and US underground bands like The Swell Maps, Andrew Klimek, Chrome and Alternative Television more than they do old blues men or the tweedy garage rock conservatives of Dan’s past.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCatbirds and Cardinals is probably the most overtly ‘poppy’ Das Menace release, with songs like ‘Poison Pete’s Holiday’ and ‘English Shame’ lodging in the cranium like carpet warehouse jingles. 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It is a fully-realized reflection on the sun and the fount of organic energy, or human energies, as the speech of the sun.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"LP + Digital","offer_id":44667172159711,"sku":"LP-NS-006","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667172225247,"sku":"CD-NS-006","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667172192479,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667172258015,"sku":null,"price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/51wIDlcryqL._SS500.jpg?v=1703789326"},{"product_id":"the-usa-is-a-monster-r-i-p","title":"The Usaisamonster - R.I.P.","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1610355475\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/theusaisamonster.bandcamp.com\/album\/r-i-p\"\u003eR.I.P. by The Usaisamonster\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt’s been a long journey for Northern Spy artist Colin Langenus and Tom Hohmann, like floating stoned on the back of the turtle that carries the world. Or primal scream therapy. That trip culminates with R.I.P., the group’s final release, and the first of Brooklyn’s newest indie label. A swan song of a group at the top of its form, flowing with ease through psychedelia, stoner rock, prog, Native American mythos, and even political disintegration. R.I.P. was mixed by sludge-riff wunderkind, Max Hodes and features local NYC luminaries such as Jeremy Danneman (Parade of One) and Matt Mottel (Talibam!). Graced by Tom Hohmann’s original cover art and pressed both on high quality vinyl and CD digipack, it will be a small treasure to carry forward for both the band’s fans and those just discovering this fascinating group as they embark on their next journeys.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"LP + Digital","offer_id":44667172683999,"sku":"LP-NS-001","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667172749535,"sku":"CD-NS-001","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667172782303,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667172716767,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/a2242879476_16.jpg?v=1703789352"},{"product_id":"inverted-jenny","title":"Ross Goldstein - Inverted Jenny","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=2947042657\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/rossgoldstein.bandcamp.com\/album\/inverted-jenny\"\u003eInverted Jenny by Ross Goldstein\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe transformative cross country road trip, the devastating break up, the mind-melting all night mushrooms experience-- these are the types of main events that have inspired lots of great art, but what happens in the interim? What does it feel like as life moves through these chapters and has to bounce around the echoes they leave behind? With his second solo album Inverted Jenny, Ross Goldstein patiently ponders this theme as he travels through a glowing internal world, observing moments of both stillness and the sublime from a distance. There’s a sheen of loneliness that runs throughout, but never a bitterness. The record opens with a trifecta of Van Dyke Parks-tinged open road songs, but even in the joyful discovery of these songs there’s the sense that they’re viewed from a loner’s perspective. This feeling only grows as things shift from roadside distractions to the plush instrumentals and gentle vibes that make up the record’s second half. Gorgeous arrangements set up a playful conversation between warm synths, stoned guitar leads, meticulously placed touches of chamber pop orchestration and even sounds of the natural world from Ross’ own field recordings, always buzzing with life. The question never overtly asked but always in the air on Inverted Jenny is “what happens after the big thing happens?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs a photographer, visual artist and musician (member of the cosmic brain bending trio Devin Gary \u0026amp; Ross, among other projects) Ross has built a layered catalog of softly psychedelic artistic output, but last showed up in rare solo form on Trail Songs, a quietly-released 2007 collection of more Americana-leaning songcraft. A decade later, he picks up on threads started on that debut, but continues in a far more inward direction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten and recorded in fits and starts over the course of two years in Ross’ home in the Catskill Mountains, there are audible traces of solitude and stillness everywhere on the record. An incredibly personal product of a sole creator, even when guest players came by to record additional parts, they would confer with Ross and overdub their parts in hushed one-on-one sessions, rather than more collaboratively-minded large ensemble sessions. This chapter of the already isolated process furthered the strange intimacy of the album.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLyrics and vocal parts were written for most of the songs, but as the recording continued, some songs seemed to say more as instrumentals, lyrics feeling overwrought or even redundant. Possibly informed by his work collecting field recordings, Ross made the deliberate decision to scrap vocals from a good number of the tracks, offering them up as scenes without dialogue, every bit as important to the bigger picture as their sung counterparts. By the end of the album we’ve walked alongside for a while, watching the songs navigate their lonesome internal landscape like a late night passing blissfully into morning. At the end of this night (and every other night, really) there’s no answer to be found, no great revelation besides wandering along into another beautiful morning.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"LP + Digital","offer_id":44667173273823,"sku":"LP-NS-091","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667173306591,"sku":"CD-NS-091","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"WAV Download","offer_id":44667173372127,"sku":null,"price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667173339359,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/NS_091_cover-1-e1646850994632.jpg?v=1703789389"},{"product_id":"exo","title":"Parlor Walls - EXO","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3771543889\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/parlorwalls.bandcamp.com\/album\/exo\"\u003eEXO by Parlor Walls\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Shit needs to be shaken up,” says Parlor Walls guitarist\/frontwoman Alyse Lamb.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe’s talking, as you might have guessed, about the larger social reverberations that work their way into the scope of the New York City trio’s new EP EXO. But she’s also talking about the personal inconstancy that powers the band’s creative engine. That’s in there too -- and it’s with this internal unsettling that Parlor Walls truly shake things up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I’m always moved by unrest or agitation,” Lamb continues. “That’s what moves me. We need to shake things up. We like to be shaken up.””\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFormed in 2013 around the partnership between Lamb and drummer\/keyboardist Chris Mulligan, Parlor Walls essentially started even before they played a note together. The pair fell fast into a profound rapport based on their myriad shared interests. Mulligan saw Lamb, a former ballet dancer, fronting the experimental noise rock outfit EULA wearing ballet shoes and a leotard. Intrigued by her stagewear, Mulligan introduced himself and offered to custom-paint a leotard for Lamb. He did, she began sporting it at shows, and although they didn’t realize it at the time, they were on their way towards forging an unprecedented sound that neither had heard before -- and that they couldn’t have arrived at without one another.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCrucial to the equation was the way each nudged the other person of their respective comfort zone: Mulligan helped Lamb (who holds a degree in composition) get more comfortable with improvisation, while Lamb helped Mulligan get more comfortable with unstructured noise. Oh, and Mulligan learned how to play drums and keyboards simultaneously -- a decision that, as Mulligan describes it, forced him “into a corner” by requiring him to be more inventive on both instruments. His distinctive technique (Mulligan prefers to write parts that he can physically play at the same time) lies at the heart of what makes Parlor Walls so unique.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDecades after the wall between rock and jazz began to fall, the band’s 2017 full-length debut Opposites took us further down the road towards finally being able to envision the two styles commingling without an awkward language barrier or self-conscious air of dilettantism between them. Perhaps it took polymaths like Lamb and Mulligan to get us there with such natural ease. (Both bounce freely between mediums, including instruments, fabrics, various dance forms, film, acting, etc.) On EXO, which introduces clarinetist\/programmer\/multi-instrumentalist Jason Shelton to the band’s lineup, Parlor Walls erode at the divisions between no wave and new wave by balancing melody and what Lamb and Mulligan refer to as “anti-melody.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLikewise, the pair possesses a rare gift for creating a sinister mood that’s rife with antagonism yet still feels inviting and, even cozy. Throughout EXO, soaring vocals co-exist alongside brittle, spray-painted guitar chords and rumbling drums as keyboards cast ominous shadows for clarinet lines to skulk behind. At other times, the instruments trade dispositions -- take, for instance, the soaring swoon of “Love Complex,” which hints at what the B-52’s might have sounded like had they honed their act at the Knitting Factory. (It helps that the songs bear the recording and mixing touch of Joseph Colmenero, who has served as RZA’s personal engineer over the last decade and has also worked with Philip Glass, Björn Yttling and others.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll in all, you’d be hard-pressed to point to another contemporary release that renders what we would commonly refer to as “darkness” using such a wide range of color. There’s plenty of music that gets us riled up to shake our fists at external targets -- in fact, EXO works quite well for that. Presumably, there’s no shortage of listeners who, like Lamb, realize that things around us can no longer remain as they are. But this is music that cuts just as deeply when pointed inward. You can take it any number of ways, for example, when Lamb sings “Get out in front of it” on “Low Vulture.” Without a neat bow of resolution or even a clear-cut antagonist\/protagonist relationship, the song leaves you with a lingering sense of uncertainty -- and it’s all the more rewarding for it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Cassette + Digital","offer_id":44667174322399,"sku":"CS-NS-096","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667174355167,"sku":"","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667174387935,"sku":null,"price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/a3493178836_10.jpg?v=1703789450"},{"product_id":"nihilism-ep","title":"Shilpa Ray - Nihilism EP","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=4292959126\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/shilparay.bandcamp.com\/album\/nihilism-ep\"\u003eNihilism EP by Shilpa Ray\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShilpa Ray’s Nihilism EP comes hot on the heels of 2017’s critically acclaimed LP Door Girl. Inspired by and written after binge watching the Grateful Dead documentary series Long Strange Trip, her original song “Shoot This Dying Horse” is a rainy day waltz about how bad things can happen to anyone, at any time in the most random and meaningless ways. More specifically, it’s about getting dumped at a bar two days before Christmas. No horses were harmed during the writing and recording of this track.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdditionally, Shilpa decided to cover Alice Cooper’s “Is It My Body” after spinning a lot of Cooper in the tour van while on tour in support of 'Door Girl.' She explains, “When I paid closer attention to the lyrics, I realized if sung by a woman this song could be a feminist anthem. Who knew Alice Cooper wrote feminist anthems?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Shoot This Dying Horse\" written by Shilpa Ray 2018\u003cbr\u003e\n\"Is It My Body\" written by Alice Cooper, Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce, Neal Smith + Glen Buxton 1971\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMusic performed by\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShilpa Ray\u003cbr\u003e\nVocals, Wurlitzer, Rhodes, Farfisa\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlistair Paxton\u003cbr\u003e\nGuitar\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTurner Stough\u003cbr\u003e\nBass\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRichard Hutchins\u003cbr\u003e\nDrums, Percussion\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChristian Lee Buss\u003cbr\u003e\nBacking vocals, Farfisa, Synth\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEngineered by Jeff Berner at Studio G\u003cbr\u003e\nAssistant Engineer - Alexis Berthelot\u003cbr\u003e\nMastered by Alex DeTurk at Strange Weather\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArtwork by Russell Hymowitz\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Cassette + Digital","offer_id":44667175043295,"sku":"CS-NS-102","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667175076063,"sku":"","price":3.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667175108831,"sku":null,"price":2.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/a1349547931_10.jpg?v=1703789480"},{"product_id":"days","title":"LIP TALK - D A Y S","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=4013495150\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/liptalk.bandcamp.com\/album\/days\"\u003edays by Lip Talk\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp bis_size='{\"x\":12,\"y\":9,\"w\":565,\"h\":19,\"abs_x\":393,\"abs_y\":289}'\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp bis_size='{\"x\":12,\"y\":45,\"w\":565,\"h\":97,\"abs_x\":393,\"abs_y\":325}'\u003eLIP TALK is the project and alternate identity of frontwoman Sarah K. Pedinotti, and D A Y S is her debut album. “I imagined characters in the songs like scenes in a movie, emotion expressed like colors on a canvas,” Pedinotti says of D A Y S. Throughout, Pedinotti’s production mixes singsong simplicity with densely ambitious art rock, charming and challenging her audience in equal measure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp bis_size='{\"x\":12,\"y\":159,\"w\":565,\"h\":156,\"abs_x\":393,\"abs_y\":439}'\u003ePedinotti first started singing as a pre-teen, performing at her parents’ family restaurant and jazz club in Saratoga Springs, New York. The restaurant became a hotspot for music in the area, and as a girl Pedinotti got to meet and perform with Jazz legends as they passed through town to drop in on sets. The past couple years have found Pedinotti performing with musicians as stylistically diverse as psych-noise group Cosmicide, rock band Okkervil River, experimental-pop band Kalbells, and R\u0026amp;B songwriter Cautious Clay; on D A Y S, you can hear her drawing from all those influences and more to craft something distinctly her own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp bis_size='{\"x\":12,\"y\":331,\"w\":565,\"h\":608,\"abs_x\":393,\"abs_y\":611}'\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YBMXz5s6RoY?rel=0\" bis_size='{\"x\":12,\"y\":331,\"w\":804,\"h\":604,\"abs_x\":393,\"abs_y\":611}' bis_id=\"fr_0cb288l6vx6l9bwp45873r\" bis_depth=\"1\" bis_chainid=\"1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Limited Edition Light Blue Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667176911071,"sku":"LP-NS-107C","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Standard Black Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667176943839,"sku":"LP-NS-107","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667177009375,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667176976607,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/small-Lip-talk-cover-e1646850473913.jpg?v=1703789521"},{"product_id":"towards-the-shadow","title":"Wume - Towards the Shadow","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3667764556\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/wume.bandcamp.com\/album\/towards-the-shadow\"\u003eTowards the Shadow by wume\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eTowards the Shadow, the third full-length from Wume, the Baltimore duo of April Camlin (drums, vocals) and Albert Schatz (keyboards, electronics), offers eight exploratory, polyrhythmic jams taking the listener on an excursion deep into inner space—not as a form of escape, but rather in search of purpose and personal liberation in a time of chaos.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile Wume draws much inspiration from past masters, with a particular rooting in German cosmic sounds of the 1970s, their music has always celebrated forward-motion and growth—the name “Wume” both nodding to the hometown of the legendary band Faust and homonymously suggesting gestation. Towards the Shadow announces a new phase for the band featuring a bold expansion of their palette, distilling influences as different as Francis Bebey, Midori Takada, Erkin Koray, and Alice Coltrane into interdimensional songs born of profound personal change. While Wume’s sound remains rooted in crisp, precise, and dizzyingly intricate percussion worthy of comparison to Can wedded to harmonic synth patterns and kaleidoscopic electronic textures, Towards the Shadow also features guitar, treated violin, hand percussion, field recordings, and, on “Pool of Light,” a player-piano improvisation (an instrument borrowed from Dan Deacon, with whom both Camlin and Schatz frequently collaborate).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSignificantly, Towards the Shadow centralizes vocals and lyrics more than any prior Wume outing. It’s not simply that Camlin’s voice is more dominant in the mix. Once employed to ride waves of sound or convey abstract feeling, Camlin’s lyrics here grapple head-on with deep philosophical issues probed during an intense period of reading, self-teaching, and focus on her artistic practice in weaving, resulting in real breakthroughs and dramatic shifts in perspective.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn standout “Shadow,” Camlin sings about facing the darkness that many bright and creative people bury deep within. Lyrics like “I embrace my shadow\/ It’s the self that I know\/Go below the ego\/And welcome your shadow\/Repression serves no one\/And limits our freedom” affirm a willingness to not only confront the most secretive aspects of ourselves, but learn to love them. “Pool of Light” reconjures dream images Camlin experienced over the course of crafting this record; “It’s Okay” champions an acceptance of human impermanence unreliant on religion or a belief in any afterlife; and “Functionary” even features a reading from Herbert Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization, a transformative and empowering text for Camlin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWume hail from the collaborative, radical, and highly varied Baltimore music scene that includes such artists as Dan Deacon, Abdu Ali, Horse Lords, Raw Silk, Smoke Bellow, and Chiffon, and Towards the Shadow offers one of this community’s most exciting and essential documents yet. This is a record that looks within and asks listeners to do the same, a record that has the guts to give its listeners not only diversion, but challenges: to know themselves better; to question and confront systems of power; to not just keep going, but keep growing. But Wume never ask for more than they give; each time the listener takes Towards the Shadow’s illuminating journey through to the album’s stunner of a closing track “GenSeq,” they’ll find their inner battery recharged, their ears and mind newly attuned to the complex worlds they face—both within and without.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"LP + Digital","offer_id":44667177304287,"sku":"LP-NS-106","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667177337055,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667177369823,"sku":null,"price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/201374716819-e1646850417770.jpg?v=1703789540"},{"product_id":"ghost-box","title":"SUSS - Ghost Box","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1742994579\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/suss.bandcamp.com\/album\/ghost-box-expanded-2\"\u003eGhost Box (Expanded) by SUSS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat would it sound like if ambient pioneer Brian Eno had produced the Western film scores of Ennio Morricone? We’ll never know, but we’re now a step closer thanks to Ghost Box, the debut album by SUSS, an NYC quintet whose members have worked in various capacities with Lydia Lunch, the B-52s, Rubber Rodeo, k.d. Lang, David Bowie, John Cale, Ed Sheeran, Wilco, Norah Jones, The War On Drugs, Burt Bacharach, and countless others. More than a literal reconstruction of an imagined collaboration between Eno and Morricone, Ghost Box opens a door onto a world where ambient music and country-western make for natural bedfellows.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat world, as it turns out, is the one we already live in -- it just took someone to make the connection. For Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist and cowpunk pioneer Bob Holmes, that connection has been hiding in plain sight for decades. The catalyst behind SUSS, Holmes views electronic acts like Boards of Canada and shoegaze icons like My Bloody Valentine as more recent avatars of the “high lonesome” vibe that we tend to think of strictly in terms of traditional roots music. In that light, you can trace the melancholic sprawl of classic titles by both of those acts back to Hank Williams. Looking at that lineage in reverse then begs the question: What is twang, anyway, if not a form of ambiance?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGhost Box, then, embodies “ambient country music” not as a gag or a novelty or even a postmodern recontextualization, but instead as the organic offspring of forms that, in a sense, were already conjoined. One of the album’s charms, though, is that the rest of SUSS didn’t necessarily see it that way. So it required quite a bit of exploration as a group -- Holmes on mandolin and guitar, guitarist\/keyboardist Pat Irwin, pedal steel player Jonathan Gregg, synth looper\/visual artist (and New Yorker\/New York Times illustrator) Gary Leib, and William Garrett, architect of the “high lonesome” quality in the album’s mixing stage -- to arrive at a blend that felt natural. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"In the past,” says Holmes, “Gary and I were well known as the guys who mashed-up Dolly Parton and Devo -- but you could see the stitches. This time, we wanted to make music where you couldn't see the stitches.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe goal, in a nutshell, was to create ambient music using (mostly) traditional instruments -- a kind of reverse-engineering of Holmes’ longstanding conviction that electronic music is today’s folk expression. Ostensibly, Ghost Box achieves what Holmes was aiming for, but it also accomplishes much more. As tumbleweeds continue to blow across the screen of modern musical fashion, artists appear to yearn for the mythical America of yore as if they could somehow get there by re-creating vintage sounds. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday, we’re practically inundated with music that evokes the hills of Appalachia, the never-ending Western sky, the hallowed halls of the Grand Ole Opry, and so on. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between reverence for these cultural artifacts and a fascination with them as kitsch. In both cases, the resulting music can exude the fragrance of social archeology. Ghost Box echoes from a more genuinely inviting musical landscape where the cowboy-hatted Brooklynite and the native Kentuckian are no longer confined to their respective stereotypes as tourist and tourist attraction.  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhatever your frame of reference, wherever you stand when it comes to notions of “authenticity,” Ghost Box will transport you, as Irwin puts it, to “other places.” Irwin, who shares Holmes’ love of Brian Eno but “wasn’t totally familiar with” the ambient country direction Holmes wanted to pursue, sums up one of the album’s most enticing qualities when he admits that “we don’t even know where those places are.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe course this band is charting, he notes, “is something we’re discovering as we go along.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667177402591,"sku":"CD-NS-105","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667177468127,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667177435359,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/201374716702-e1646850399474.jpg?v=1703789549"},{"product_id":"from-untruth","title":"Amirtha Kidambi Elder Ones - From Untruth","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3887533018\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/amirthakidambi.bandcamp.com\/album\/from-untruth\"\u003eFrom Untruth by Elder Ones\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe second release by Amirtha Kidambi's ensemble Elder Ones, From Untruth is comprised of four pieces grappling with issues of power, oppression, capitalism, colonialism, white supremacy, violence and the shifting nature of truth. This music means to give the listener momentary relief from the anxiety and pain caused by living in our current reality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom Untruth builds upon the bedrock foundation of Kidambi's previous compositional and conceptual work with Elder Ones, while forging uncharted territory. After a journey into wordless abstraction on Holy Science (Northern Spy, November 2016), Kidambi felt the urgency of the political moment required a direct and verbal call to action.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe instrumentation adds a layer of technology as a metaphor for modernity, with Kidambi on analog synthesizer and Max Jaffe's drumming talents extended to electronic Sensory Percussion. The frenzied improvising of Matt Nelson on soprano sax and gravity of Nick Dunston on bass, anchor the music in the tradition of free jazz, while it pushes into new futurist realms. The aesthetic seamlessly reels from modal meditation, atonal expressionism, free improvisation and melodic invention, to unabashed bursts of punk rock energy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is Elder Ones at an unadulterated breaking point; on the edge of a knife that cuts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmirtha Kidambi: Compositions, Vocals, Harmonium, Synthesizer\u003cbr\u003e\nMatt Nelson: Soprano Saxophone, Moog\u003cbr\u003e\nNick Dunston: Bass\u003cbr\u003e\nMax Jaffe: Drums, Electronic Sensory Percussion \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRecorded at Birdwatcher Studios, Big Indian, NY\u003cbr\u003e\nEngineer: Chris Weiss\u003cbr\u003e\nMixing and Mastering: Matt Mehlan\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"LP + Digital","offer_id":44667179925727,"sku":"LP-NS-113","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667179892959,"sku":"CD-NS-113","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667179991263,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667179958495,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/NS113_FromUntruth_cover-e1646850113495.jpg?v=1703789610"},{"product_id":"practice-magic","title":"Tōth - Practice Magic and Seek Professional Help When Necessary","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3698307368\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/tothtunes.bandcamp.com\/album\/practice-magic-and-seek-professional-help-when-necessary\"\u003ePractice Magic And Seek Professional Help When Necessary by Tōth\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn July 2016, Alex Toth was recovering from a broken foot and a broken heart, stuck in his fourth-floor apartment in Brooklyn with cast and crutches. This is where Tōth’s “achingly beautiful” debut album, Practice Magic and Seek Professional Help When Necessary, was born.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA few months earlier, Alex and his Rubblebucket cofounder and love of more than eleven years had “consciously uncoupled,” after a period of helping each other through devastating challenges. Alex was lightning-struck by sadness. “Almost convalescent” at times, in his words, though rarely still. A jazz trumpeter by training, Alex is always, always writing. And that spring, a new kind of music started to come—raw, stripped-down songs unfurling without agenda, bent over an acoustic guitar. It never occurred to Alex that he was making an album.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe idea sprouted in songwriting sessions with his friend Kimbra, when she heard this new sound and encouraged Alex to make a record. But it didn’t solidify until June 2016, when Alex was onstage with his punk project, Alexander F, and broke his foot. Stuck there in his apartment all summer, Tōth came to life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePractice Magic and Seek Professional Help When Necessary, due May 2019 from Northern Spy Records (worldwide) and Figureight Records (UK\/Europe), is a self-help guide unlike any other—a breakup album before wholeness, but after anger. The album turns as it goes, through “lush, windswept sonics” (Gorilla Vs. Bear), bebop trumpet solos, and spare guitar, recalling the Beach Boys in one bar and Arthur Russell in the next. It’s an album for remembering and letting go—and discovering what magic remains.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCREDITS\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eall songs written by Alex Toth, except for:\u003cbr\u003e“Down For The Count” written by Alex Toth \u0026amp; Kimbra Johnson, “No Reason” written by Alex Toth \u0026amp; Kris Barrett\u003cbr\u003e“Funny Business” written by Alex Toth \u0026amp; Brad Truax\u003cbr\u003e“Decay” written by Alex Toth \u0026amp; Jen Goma\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMixed by Andrew Sarlo\u003cbr\u003eMastered by Sarah Register\u003cbr\u003eMostly self-recorded in Alex Toth’s apartment in Brooklyn, NY between June 2016 and February 2018\u003cbr\u003eCover photo by Chris Weiss\u003cbr\u003eCover design by Aaron Denton\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 self-recorded in Alex's apartment in Brooklyn, NY\u003cbr\u003eTracks 1 \u0026amp; 9 engineered by Aaron Roche at Loft in Gowanus, May 2017\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTrack 4, violins on track 8, \u0026amp; vocal overdubs (trk 7) engineered by Sam Owens at Figure Eight Recording in Prospect Heights\u003cbr\u003eDrums + upright bass overdubs for tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 recorded at Rivington Studios engineered by Nico\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmbient overdubs tracks 3, 4, 10 \u0026amp; violas track 7 via Aaron Roche at Loft in Gowanus\u003cbr\u003eAdditional overdubs recorded in Alex’s apt in BK and at Sonora Recorders in LA (with Andrew Sarlo)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI got so much really crucial encouragement early on from very dear humans I love — without which I never ever would’ve followed through with this record.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpecial Thanks:\u003cbr\u003eBrad Truax, Drew Robinson, Kimbra Johnson, Aaron Roche, Kris Barrett, Jen Goma, Jeremy Gustin, Ryan Dugre, Rob Abelow, Nicoll Bien, Northern Spy team (Chris, Adam, Tom, Cody and all), Figureight Records team (Hildur, James, Shahzad), Hannah Epperson, Joanna Sternberg, Julie Hill, Grey McMurray, Aaron Roche, Michael Leviton, Monica Hofstadter, Kalmia Traver, Kenneth Edwards, Julia Easterlin, Bridget Kearney, Andrea Diaz, Ben Davis, Mu Tunc, ThrdCoast, Amanda Bonaiuto, Lyla, Kathleen Toth\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Limited Edition Purple Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667180024031,"sku":"LP-NS-114C","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Standard Black Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667180056799,"sku":"LP-NS-114","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667180089567,"sku":"CD-NS-114","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667180122335,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667180155103,"sku":null,"price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/a0164097588_10.jpg?v=1703789621"},{"product_id":"chisholm-trail-aurora","title":"SUSS - Chisholm Trail b\/w Aurora","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=842242712\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/suss.bandcamp.com\/album\/chisholm-trail-b-w-aurora\"\u003eChisholm Trail b\/w Aurora by SUSS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eNew York-based ambient country quintet SUSS follows up its acclaimed album Ghost Box (Expanded) on Northern Spy Records with a new 7 inch EP, “Chisholm Trail” b\/w “Aurora”. Together, these tracks find the musical horizon line where the end of the trail on the A-side meets the cosmic expanse of the B-side. Drawing on psychedelic influences as diverse as the Flying Burrito Bros and Boards of Canada, SUSS uses a combination of bignote guitars, pedal steel, harmonica and synthesized sound to take a chill, heroic trip into the great American West and beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Chisholm Trail\u003cbr\u003e2. 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The first is that of my old address in Upper East Side of NYC. The song \"454\" refers to my apartment number, \"BORO\" to the \"Queensboro Bridge\" visible from my room, \"LEX\" to the nearby Lexington Avenue subway station, and \"20150716\" is the date of recording. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe other meaning of ‘Oa’ considers the history of Manhattan. I produced the sounds while imagining the Manhattan of old. There is a shift from the Manhattan that was once surrounded by nature, to a metropolis like the Manhattan of today. Through music, I tried to capture the meaning of \"address\" on a grand timeline. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs an artist, I create works that make use of human-object relationships. ‘Oa’ is a sound that derives from a very personal space, but I hope that it will provide an opportunity to imagine \"places of old\" through sound. I believe that this means we must think about the coming future that connects from the present.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Cassette + Digital","offer_id":44667181760735,"sku":"CS-NS-119","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667181826271,"sku":null,"price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667181793503,"sku":"","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/Shuta-Hasunuma-oa_3000px-e1566237386578.jpg?v=1703789652"},{"product_id":"highline","title":"SUSS - High Line","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=4240622064\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/suss.bandcamp.com\/album\/high-line\"\u003eHigh Line by SUSS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHigh Line represents a new path into the high country for the NYC ambient country quintet known as SUSS. The follow-up release to their acclaimed album Ghost Box (Expanded) on Northern Spy Records, High Line explores the horizon line where the cosmic meets the landscape of the American West. Drawing on influences such as Ry Cooder and Bruce Langhorne while forging new paths alongside fellow travelers like Daniel Lanois and Boards of Canada, SUSS uses a combination of acoustic guitars, pedal steel, harmonica, mandolin and synthesized sound manipulation to take the listener on a blissful and mythic trip into the unknown.  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“...a vivid landscape where mellifluous tones foster the mystery and magic of a fabled landscape.” - Allison Hussey, Pitchfork\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"...a creature unlike any other, where slide guitars and tremolo-heavy string pluckings paint a picture of a desert horizon facing a gorgeous sunset.\" - Evan Sawdey, PopMatters\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Limited Edition Green Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667181924575,"sku":"NS-120-GREEN","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Standard Black Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667181957343,"sku":"LP-NS-120","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667181891807,"sku":"CD-NS-120","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667182022879,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667181990111,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/suss_highLine_lo.jpg?v=1703789665"},{"product_id":"spinningcreature","title":"Spinning Creature - CUP","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3537989166\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/cupmusicentity.bandcamp.com\/album\/spinning-creature-2\"\u003eSpinning Creature by CUP\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCUP is the duo of Nels Cline (the guitarist\/composer best known for his work with Wilco) and Yuka C Honda (the composer\/keyboardist\/programmer best known for her work with Cibo Matto). Combining aspects of electronica, folk, improvisation, and some heated rocking, this debut recording—perhaps predictably—defies easy categorization. But fear not! Contained within this package is a sometimes sweet, sometimes jarring, but always compelling excursion into what a shared sensibility sounds like, and after taking the journey that is ‘Spinning Creature’ it all feels just right as CUP's music veers from the accessible to the abstract and back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Spinning Creature’ was recorded in about three days in Brooklyn. In the last several years, Nels and Yuka had performed some of the songs included on this record, while always leaving room for improvisation in their sets as well. This recording was approached with those same parameters. Thus, one hears songs with lyrics and some semblance of song structure as well as pieces that were created spontaneously. A significant bonus factor in the recording process is that Yuka could take tracks to her home studio and give them the \"Eucademix\" treatment, meaning to sculpt details of the tracks, adding her often meticulous sound production while still honoring the live performance aspects. This balance is what CUP music is all about. Nels and Yuka (who are married, by the way) even sing a little here and there as they enter their singular sound world. And now you can enter it, too!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"LP + Digital","offer_id":44667182874847,"sku":"LP-NS-117-P","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667182842079,"sku":"CD-NS-117","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667182940383,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667182907615,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/CUP-Spinning-Creature-digital-art-e1646842833980.jpg?v=1703789677"},{"product_id":"please-advise","title":"Beauty Pill - Please Advise","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1322819076\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/beautypill.bandcamp.com\/album\/please-advise\"\u003ePlease Advise by Beauty Pill\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe title of this record was inspired by our circumstance. Please Advise is a liminal work. A document of a time of uncertainty and fragmentation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI'm proud of this record, but it's not perfect. I will go one step further: I'm proud of this record because it's not perfect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll I wanna do is keep moving. Please Advise meets this criterion. For me, at least.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI hope people find it valuable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe named our record PLEASE ADVISE after producer Teo Macero’s famous 1969 memo to Columbia Records about Miles Davis (“Miles just called and said he wants this album to be titled BITCHES BREW. Please advise.”) It’s darkly funny to us now, but I bet it wasn’t funny to Teo then.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI find that memo to be encouraging. Even in working with an artist as brilliant and masterful as Miles Davis, there were moments of uncertainty and maybe even panic. Like “What is this motherfucker doing?” panic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere's probably no aesthetic connection between Miles Davis and Beauty Pill, but that memo makes me feel better about my own path. It’s okay if sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s okay if sometimes you don’t know what I’m doing either.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe paradox of any artist’s life is you need to cultivate confidence AND humility to survive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut you know what? That’s the paradox of your life too.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks for listening.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChad Clark\u003cbr\u003eWashington, DC\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Limited Edition \"Bone\" Colored Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667183759583,"sku":"LP-NS-128LE2","price":23.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Standard Black Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667183792351,"sku":"LP-NS-128","price":22.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667183825119,"sku":"CD-NS-128","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cassette + Digital","offer_id":44667183857887,"sku":"CS-NS-128","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667183923423,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667183890655,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/BeautyPill_PleaseAdvise_5x5_300dpi-SQUARE-e1646418786664.jpg?v=1703789738"},{"product_id":"play-at-night","title":"Masma Dream World - Play At Night","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3465007925\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/masmadreamworld.bandcamp.com\/album\/play-at-night\"\u003ePlay At Night by Masma Dream World\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eDevi Mambouka’s evolution in becoming a multidisciplinary artist is rooted in her past informing her present and future. Born to a Gabonese ambassador and a Singaporean mother makes her a child of the world, and one who learned to tap into her inner magic to overcome trauma, abuse, and addiction. Play at Night, her debut album under the moniker Masma Dream World, is the resume of such learnings and experiences.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSinging is the refuge Devi has known since she was six years old, with nature being the first audience encouraging her to sing from the heart. Abruptly moving to the Bronx at 12 yielded more intense challenges—with music being her balm and escape. Influenced by the likes of Amel Larrieux, Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, and Zap Mama, she immersed herself in the world music section at Tower Records, finding her voice and her understanding of music composition and production. Her world opened up even more when she took up DJing at just 16. Devi was a mainstay in NYC nightlife, with a lucrative DJ gig in the meatpacking district.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTapping into her training as a reiki practitioner and a Butoh dancer (a Japanese avant-garde, spirit-led performance art), Devi’s debut showcases her ability to abide by her own precise rules when producing music. Play at Night was recorded in four days—encompassing elements of butoh, theta frequency (which creates a trance state in the mind) and the need to hold sacred space.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe project is not only for the subconscious mind, but also serves as a call for those who are truly ready for change; those who are yearning for a new world. The ear will catch soundscapes she recorded from her travels to respective home countries—spaces that further awakened her connection to frequencies. The bass-heavy undertones of the album are an ode to Devi’s first audience when she began her musical journey—trees and the elements—as they too exist on a low frequency.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlay at Night is Devi’s intentional offering and token of thanks for those who’ve walked with her as she endured her own personal healing and shadow work. The album challenges your preconceived relationship with darkness, guiding you to step into it—to play in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis space is a prime opportunity to awaken one’s power source from within.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Limited Edition Transparent Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667184480479,"sku":"LP-NS-131D2F","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Standard Black Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667184513247,"sku":"LP-NS-131","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667184578783,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667184546015,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/Masma-Dream-World-Play-At-Night-digi-art-scaled-e1646418434722.jpg?v=1703789769"},{"product_id":"freedom-exercise","title":"Josh Johnson - Freedom Exercise","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3189035354\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/joshjohnsonmusic.bandcamp.com\/album\/freedom-exercise\"\u003eFreedom Exercise by Josh Johnson\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Chicago-area native Josh Johnson moved to Los Angeles eight years ago, he thought his stay would be temporary. The saxophonist and keyboardist would spend a year or two there: enough time to learn from two of his heroes, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, but not a complete geographic pivot. After all, for musicians — especially those making improvised, collective music — where you live and what scene you’re part of can have a monumental effect on the kind of art you make. His hometown had a vibrant musical community in which he was already immersed; there was no immediate reason to seek out something new.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut eight years later, Johnson is still in L.A., where he recorded his debut album Freedom Exercise with three of his closest friends that he describes as “musically omnivorous” — the same quality that inspired him to stay on the West Coast. “A lot of people I've connected with here have opened me up to a lot of things I hadn't imagined,” he says. Johnson’s corner of the L.A. improvised music scene has its epicenter at a long-running Monday night gig helmed by his friend and frequent collaborator (and fellow former Chicagoan) guitarist Jeff Parker at a bar called ETA in Highland Park. There, when he’s not experimenting with Parker — on whose latest album, the critically-acclaimed Suite for Max Brown, he’s featured — Johnson has gotten to know musicians and artists of all stripes. The vibe is intimate and expansive at the same time, much like the album itself: as numerous as Johnson’s influences are, on Freedom Exercise they’re showcased in a way that feels organic, straightforward and unpretentious. Even at its most surprising and complex, the project is ultimately still inviting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“It brings in a lot of people who don't go to jazz clubs,” he says. “It's a thing that's been very stimulating for me, because it doesn't feel insular.” That diverse community helped him remember that music-making was most fun for him when he resisted genre orthodoxy — like when he was in high school, learning saxophone and jazz while playing keyboards in church, making minimalist electronic music on his parents’ computer, playing in indie bands and listening to hip-hop and Chicago post-rock. Through friends he met at ETA, he became the touring musical director for crooner Leon Bridges; an unlikely assignment as his reputation has grown rapidly in the jazz world thanks to his work alongside Makaya McCraven and Jeremy Cunningham, but one he says has been transformative. “It’s helped me be a better listener in improvised settings,” he says. “Not just playing to play, but really thinking about why, and what something is for.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat intentionality is self-evident on Freedom Exercise, a collection of songs tied to that same idea of genreless exploration — jazz, post-rock and electronic music are certainly all inspirations, but none reigns exclusively. The stripped-down, urgent album is built on layers of intertwined, distinct melodies occasionally softened by distortion, delay and reverb. Asymmetrical but still inviting, Johnson’s compositions spotlight his sensitivity and restraint; the synth seamlessly interspersed throughout adds an unexpected dimension. The result is concise — 10 songs, most under five minutes — but still expansive, like an intimate gathering in a sprawling city.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Limited Edition Purple LP","offer_id":44667185692895,"sku":"LP-NS-133-PURP","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Standard Black Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667185660127,"sku":"LP-NS-133","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667185725663,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667185758431,"sku":null,"price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/JJ_FrontCover-e1646418365682.jpg?v=1703789785"},{"product_id":"promise","title":"SUSS - Promise","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=253371050\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/suss.bandcamp.com\/album\/promise\"\u003ePromise by SUSS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile their first two albums, Ghost Box and High Line, explored panoramas that evoked the American West as well as the cosmic beyond, Promise--the third and latest album by SUSS on Northern Spy Records--takes a more personal journey that maps out the rocky terrain of the American dream. Written, recorded, and mixed during the pandemic quarantine, the members of SUSS used their music to come to grips with concepts such as “promise” and “hope” and what they could still mean in this day and age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn Promise, the NYC quartet creates sonic landscapes using pedal steel, baritone guitar, ebow, harmonium, synths, loops and other Americana instrumentation. Drawing on influences from their younger years, SUSS has created music that evokes early psychedelic Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk and the seminal soundtrack work of John Barry. The result, which they call “pastoral psychedelicism,” is a music that is beautiful, haunting and challenging.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Limited Edition \"Fools Gold\" Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667186020575,"sku":"LP-NS-134D2F","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Standard Black Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667186053343,"sku":"LP-NS-134","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD + Digital","offer_id":44667186086111,"sku":"CD-NS-134","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667186118879,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667186151647,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/suss_promise_lpCvr_3000px_300dpi-scaled-e1646418060925.jpg?v=1703789809"},{"product_id":"charismatic-megafauna","title":"PSYMON SPINE - Charismatic Megafauna","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3405422813\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/psymonspine.bandcamp.com\/album\/charismatic-megafauna\"\u003eCharismatic Megafauna by PSYMON SPINE\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eBiologists define \"charismatic megafauna\" as plant and animal species whose size and appearance tend to draw larger groups of people to ecological causes. It's a curious, fascinating phrase that also perfectly defines the sneaky appeal of Psymon Spine's second album of the same name. Fusing psychedelic pop and the deep grooves of dance music, the Brooklyn electronic pop outfit's music is oozing with approachable melodic hugeness on first contact—but the places these guys take their songs is truly out there, exploring complicated feelings and catharsis through a singular approach to left-of-center electronic and dance sounds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePsymon Spine's origins date back to core members Noah Prebish and Peter Spears meeting in college and finding common ground in their artistic aims: \"We wanted to make something that was experimental, but also accessible and satisfying,\" Prebish states while discussing the thrust of the band's origins, citing influences like Talking Heads and Os Mutantes along with the rush of the NYC dance scene. Eventually, Brother Michael joined Psymon Spine, as the trio hashed out the demos for what would become their debut, 2017's \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eYou Are Coming to My Birthday\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. \"We've always wanted to make people feel good with our music, but challenge them too,\" Spears explains.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAnd Psymon Spine continued on that aesthetic mission by becoming figures in the Brooklyn dance scene through throwing the immersive art and dance parties of the Secret Friend series. Meanwhile, Prebish's work in dream-pop band Barrie—who broke out last year with the excellent debut \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHappy to Be Here\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e following a string of buzz-making singles—led him to meet singer and multi-instrumentalist Sabine Holler, who eventually joined Psymon Spine's ranks after they both parted ways with the rest of Barrie.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThat band's eponymous lead singer also guests on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eCharismatic Megafauna\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e's first single \"Milk,\" and the album's glimmering melodies bear resemblance to the pop smarts of Prebish and Holler's previous outfit—but \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eCharismatic Megafauna\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e is proof that Psymon Spine are on a whole different journey too, embracing and exploring left-field electronic sounds ranging from disco's high-energy rhythmic breakdowns to the upward build of early techno and motorik's indelibly incessant pulse. Psymon Spine put their own loopy and addictive stamp on the sounds of the past throughout, with surprises at every turn and the type of lush synth work that could only come from such brilliant students of dance music.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThematically, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eCharismatic Megafauna\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e—which takes its title from a biological term passed down from Prebish's biology professor father—reflects on the changes the members of Psymon Spine have experienced in their lives over the past several years. \"There's a lot of recovery on this album,\" Prebish explains. \"It's music about catharsis and being together. We've all had a crazy few years, and for all of us this band is a safe haven—a community, and a way to create something about what we were experiencing.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHe describes the squishy synths of \"Modmed\" as \"a breakup song for our previous band,\" an elegy to his and Holler's parting ways that features contributions from Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT, while Holler defines the message underneath \"Channels\"' shouty dance-punk vibes as \"Channeling whatever's in you to something constructive in a healthy way.\" \"It's a therapy song about channeling inner turmoil,\" Prebish adds, \"and connecting the things that define us to create a system where you can relate to the different parts of yourself.\" Reflecting optimism and emotional catharsis, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eCharismatic Megafauna \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eis a heady trip through left-field pop that packs its own emotional wallop.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Limited Edition \"Opaque Pink\" Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667186282719,"sku":"LP-NS-129D2F","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Standard Black Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667186315487,"sku":"LP-NS-129","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667186348255,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667186381023,"sku":null,"price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/CharismaticMegafauna-e1646418031253.jpg?v=1703789821"},{"product_id":"laughing-eating-cake","title":"LIP TALK - Laughing \u0026 Eating Cake","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3645719022\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/liptalk.bandcamp.com\/album\/laughing-eating-cake\"\u003eLaughing \u0026amp; Eating Cake by Lip Talk\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eBrooklyn singer-songwriter and producer Sarah Pedinotti’s newest release as Lip Talk plays like a greatest hits collection of a pop artist from a world built in the image of our own, but one full of anomalies and deformities. On \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLaughing \u0026amp; Eating Cake\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, Pedinotti imagines contemporary pop and R\u0026amp;B through a refracted lens, where tidepools of electronic malfunction form between hooks that could go toe-to-toe with the Top 40 hits of this planet.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe music creates a sonic environment as decadent as its title suggests, and as stylistically varied as her resume as a collaborator and session musician. Its ten tracks are brimming with musical ear candy—twinkling synth counterpoint, psychedelic guitar sludge, brittle drum machine sputters, and vocal processing that runs the gamut from spectral Autotune to gritty overdrive. Sometimes, it feels redolent of the chilly hyperpop grooves and digitally contorted vocals of acts like Charli XCX or SOPHIE, but Pedinotti’s performances are never devoid of soul. Often, she channels aspects of the R\u0026amp;B-informed experimentation of her group Kalbells, with funky Prince-like guitar chops and vocal rhythms that stick with you as much as her melodies.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe virtuosic musical pivots mirror lyrical shifts between celebrations and indictments of human excess. In the former category is the neo-soul-inflected “Marie,” from which the album title is taken, in which Pedinotti recalls a moment of familial celebration and reconnection over mouthfuls of cupcakes. On the bleaker side of the spectrum, “Bargain Day” evokes a rabid and undirected hunger for consumption; “More” takes that theme a step further, striving to conceptualize, as Pedinotti puts it, “a dream world of cosmological camp that gestures toward a world beyond capitalism.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eOn many of these songs, Pedinotti drew material from writing exercises: a song-a-day challenge and an ongoing practice of writing songs inspired by a single image. These rituals give birth to some of the most disarmingly intimate moments of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eL\u0026amp;EC\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, where Pedinotti suddenly seems to be whispering in our ears, drawing us into small scenes and moments. The nostalgic and patient “Solar Return,” for instance, recalls Kate Bush’s tributes to the sun and cosmos on her album \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAerial\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e plus one Dolly Parton reference; muted drums careen across the stereo image like waves at high tide.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe closing track—the aptly titled “This Is a Song”—seems to strip things back to the very root of Pedinotti’s process and creative impetus: “This is the sound of my voice in the morning,” she sings, against a spare circular chord progression and a hypnotic marimba drum loop somewhere off in the distance. Later, she personifies and addresses the song itself—a temporary lover or friend providing a salve: “This is a song that I never cared about\/and this may be one of the weeds that I tear out\/But today I’ll let her be, I’ll let her cover me\/She’ll wrap her arm around me.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe track distills a throughline across this singular release: these songs feel like celebrations of their own process. More than drawing us into overt emotional turmoil or autobiography, Pedinotti’s songs brim over with enthusiasm for musical creation for its own sake. The music on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLaughing \u0026amp; Eating Cake\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e is dynamic enough to make this kind of sonic self-actualization feel more resonant and life-affirming than the work of many conventionally confessional songwriters. It draws the listener into a musical universe that, even with its unearthly digital trappings, feels intimate and welcoming.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667187331295,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667187364063,"sku":"","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/Lip-Talk-1-Square-3-e1646413911772.jpg?v=1703789879"},{"product_id":"instant-night","title":"Beauty Pill - Instant Night","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=2496786268\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/beautypill.bandcamp.com\/album\/instant-night\"\u003eInstant Night by Beauty Pill\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe title track to Beauty Pill's new EP, \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=73LJV8CBdM0\"\u003e\"Instant Night,\"\u003c\/a\u003e was originally written by bandleader Chad Clark in 2015 after he watched Ann Coulter, as a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher, predict that Donald Trump would win the 2016 US presidential election. The Washington, D.C. based artist recorded and surprise-released the single in October 2020 out of urgency to inspire people to vote in the presidential election. Because the song was being recorded during the pandemic, and because Clark has an artificial heart that puts him at high risk for COVID-19, it was recorded on a rooftop, with meticulously planned social distancing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Instant Night\" is Beauty Pill's first single without drums, and it is also the first Beauty Pill song to conspicuously highlight the band's woodwind quartet. The single was released alongside a music video featuring time-lapse footage of Trump, Lindsey Graham, and Mitch McConnell being drawn and depicted as monsters. \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=73LJV8CBdM0\"\u003eThe video\u003c\/a\u003e was created and directed by the artist \u003cex-beauty\u003e Ryan Nelson.\u003c\/ex-beauty\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e+ + +\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf \"Instant Night,\" Beauty Pill's Chad Clark says:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLast year I came to my band with a song called “Instant Night.”  I was nervous about presenting it to them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“This one is unusual.  There are no drums and it kinda sounds like Philip Glass music.  I don’t know where it came from exactly.  I wrote it a few years ago, but I think we should do it now. I think it’s kind of urgent, actually.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBeauty Pill is not a dictatorship.  The people in my band are all strong-willed artists themselves and they don’t just agree to do whatever I tell them.  Not every idea gets ratified, trust me.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut they seemed to quickly understand the song and understand the reason why I wanted to do it.  Remarkably, it took us only a few hours to develop and learn the arrangement that you hear now.  It came together almost magically.  And it felt natural.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe next step was convincing our label Northern Spy to rush-release the song before the election of 2020.  The label staff had a full docket of planned releases with other artists at that point. This was certainly an unwelcome request.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’m sure the label was privately exasperated with this request, but they understood why it was an important song for that moment.  “Instant Night” was released digitally a couple weeks before the November election.  It was a complete surprise to Beauty Pill fans.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eListen, I operate under no delusions that my little arty DC post-punk band brought about the downfall of Donald Trump.  But I do think we contributed in a tiny, granular way.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe last words of the song are “Scared is alright” and I think everyone who heard it, felt it.  I do think that America was teetering on the edge of a very frightening plunge into the obliteration of pure fascism and bigotry at that moment.  And I think voters narrowly averted that crisis.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lyrics of “Instant Night” are insinuating and allusive, not topical. It’s only a political song in the way that Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” or Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power” are political songs. People call them “protest songs,” but neither of those songs is as specific as people think.  Go back and listen again.  They’re pretty abstract!  They are more poetic than polemic.  I see “Instant Night” as existing within that spectrum too.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd I think it will last.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e+ + +\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf the EP's send single, \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/music.beautypill.com\/bettermind\"\u003e\"You Need A Better Mind,\"\u003c\/a\u003e Clark says:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Roland TB-303 is an old Japanese synthesizer that was designed to convincingly mimic the sound of a bass guitar.  It was introduced in 1981, it sounded like a toy and failed miserably, and it was ultimately discontinued in 1984.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt makes freaky, wiggly, cartoony sounds.  It sounds fuck-all like a bass guitar.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhy am I telling you this?  One ended up in my hands for a week.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI did a lot of silly stuff with it.  I did come up with this one worthwhile riff, which I built a song around.  The song is called \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=z6Ulig_f7IQ\"\u003e\"You Need A Better Mind.\"\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was recorded with my band in a single take at the end of a recording session for another song. We were tired. None of us cared that much if we failed. The fun spirit you hear in this song is mostly exhaustion… that kind of punchy exhaustion you get late at night when you’ll laugh at anything.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lyrics were inspired by the spooky\/funny 10-minute movie \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/341842996\"\u003e“Rachel.”\u003c\/a\u003e  The song is about the scourge of American loneliness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is by far the fastest, easiest song Beauty Pill has ever created.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe hope you like it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e+ + +\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBeauty Pill - 'Instant Night'\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProduced by Brown Eno\u003cbr\u003e\nRecorded in Kimani Clark's rooftop apartment, Washington DC\u003cbr\u003e\nand Magpie Cage Studios, Baltimore\u003cbr\u003e\nMastered by Heba Kadry\u003cbr\u003e\nDesigned by Nora McKelvey\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBeauty Pill is\u003cbr\u003e\nBasla Andolsun: bass\u003cbr\u003e\nChad Clark: voice, guitar\u003cbr\u003e\nDrew Doucette: guitar\u003cbr\u003e\nErin Nelson: voice\u003cbr\u003e\nDevin Ocampo: drums, guitar\u003cbr\u003e\nwith\u003cbr\u003e\nVictoria Banos: trumpet\u003cbr\u003e\nAaron Harman: bassoon\u003cbr\u003e\nSarah Hughes: saxophone\u003cbr\u003e\nDon Godwin: tenor horn\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"Limited Edition Transparent Vinyl + Digital","offer_id":44667188805855,"sku":"LP-NS-137C","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Limited Edition Transparent CD + Digital","offer_id":44667188838623,"sku":"CD-NS-137","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667188871391,"sku":"","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667188904159,"sku":"","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/BP-Instant-Night-digital-2-1-e1646413671934.jpg?v=1703789919"},{"product_id":"night-suite","title":"SUSS - Night Suite","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1224081827\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/suss.bandcamp.com\/album\/night-suite\"\u003eNight Suite by SUSS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003eDriving through the night on U.S. Route 66, the flat stretch of road between Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Los Angeles—the Purple Heart Highway. On that last leg of the great American journey, you feel the melancholy, the strain, and the high you get from being awake too long. It’s the endless horizon, the sodium arc lights of a truck stop, the slap of windshield wipers, the all-night talk radio, the rumble of the tires on the road, and the smell of burnt coffee before the first light of dawn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/music.sussband.com\/nightsuite\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eNight Suite\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e represents a new musical exploration for the members of SUSS—the NYC-based quartet of Pat Irwin, Bob Holmes, Gary Leib, and Jonathan Gregg. The EP is a sonic road map pointing the way from the dark of night to a new dawn. After the release of their latest album \u003cem\u003ePromise\u003c\/em\u003e, in 2020, SUSS longed for a change of scenery; an escape; a trip into an uncharted landscape. As the fathers (or: architects) of the Ambient-country sound, the band built the five tracks of \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/music.sussband.com\/nightsuite\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eNight Suite\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e with their unique combination of classic Americana instrumentation: pedal steel, National guitar, harmonica, and fiddle, interwoven with loops and synthesizers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDays after these tracks were completed, SUSS lost original member, synthesizer player, and \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.lareviewofbooks.org\/article\/im-going-to-make-a-fire-the-transmogrifications-of-gary-leib\/\"\u003efilmmaker\u003c\/a\u003e Gary Leib. This loss\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\"\u003e added a new, personal resonance to the music that Leib had such a large role in creating.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe release of \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/music.sussband.com\/nightsuite\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eNight Suite\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e on Northern Spy Records represents the first part of a multi-release schedule SUSS has planned over the next 12 months that point the band toward new horizons.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667188969695,"sku":"","price":5.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667189002463,"sku":"","price":5.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/suss_nightSuite_final-1-scaled-e1646413551939.jpg?v=1703789929"},{"product_id":"bootlickers-of-the-patriarchy","title":"Shilpa Ray - Bootlickers of the Patriarchy","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1275045839\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/shilparay.bandcamp.com\/album\/bootlickers-of-the-patriarchy\"\u003eBootlickers of the Patriarchy by Shilpa Ray\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"'Bootlickers of the Patriarchy' was written about Senator Susan Collins and her infamous press conference after the Kavanaugh\/Blasey Ford hearings. It’s about women who succeed from undermining the success of other women or choose to gain success from exploiting the oppression of other women. This is a character who has taken many forms throughout history, the kind of woman who seems perfectly content playing Gamma to the Alpha male. \"Bootlicker\" is my direct challenge to the notion of “women supporting other women,” and the falsehoods and unrealistic expectations that comes with a statement like that.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"I wrote the song to be played in two different arrangement styles, the first half being slow and haunting and the second going balls-to-the-wall rage. I was re exploring a lot industrial\/proto industrial music I had listened to as a teenager in the 90s and used some elements of synth\/drum machine sounds to convey all that anger, panic and darkness.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\/\/\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Well, why not do a cover of your influences as a B-side? I was obsessed w\/ the Ministry album 'With Sympathy' when writing tracks for my upcoming album. It is the record Al Jourgenson has stated multiple times that he’s ashamed of most, which is saying a lot considering this man’s autobiography. I teamed up with my friend Heather Elle of Flossing, formerly of post punk bands Bodega and The Wants for this collaboration. It’s my first official recorded track where I’m playing guitar, so as the saying goes, it’s never too late to pick up a new instrument and get totally lost in it.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- Shilpa Ray\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"7\" Vinyl","offer_id":44667189100767,"sku":"SI-NS-145","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC Download","offer_id":44667189133535,"sku":"","price":1.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667189166303,"sku":"","price":1.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/bootlickers-cream-cover-FINAL-1-scaled-e1646413520892.jpg?v=1703789937"},{"product_id":"mr-metronome-drums-valentino","title":"Psymon Spine - Mr. Metronome \/ Drums Valentino","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=4184680813\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/psymonspine.bandcamp.com\/album\/mr-metronome-drums-valentino\"\u003eMr. Metronome \/ Drums Valentino by PSYMON SPINE\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Mr. Metronome\" and \"Drums Valentino\" were among the first song ideas \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/northernspyrecs.com\/psymon-spine\/\"\u003ePsymon Spine\u003c\/a\u003e came up with when writing their sophomore record, 'Charismatic Megafauna'. They were written near the end of a two year hiatus, during which individual members of the band spent time pursuing other projects. Following the break, everyone was hungry to make a new Psymon Spine record, and together they began exploring the sonic palette that would define the album. This exploratory process left the group with \"Mr. Metronome\" and \"Drums Valentino,\" two outliers that didn't quite fit on 'Charismatic Megafauna', but certainly belonged together.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 'Mr. Metronome \/ Drums Valentino' 7\" — out Dec. 7 via Northern Spy — explores the opposite ends of Psymon Spine's sound and vibe. While \"Mr. Metronome\" is high-energy and synth-centric, drawing on electronic\/dance artists (such as Kraftwerk and Soulwax), \"Drums Valentino\" is more plaintive, and at times almost medieval-sounding. Both tracks, however, begin with a percussion loop and end with a wonky bongo solo.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/music.psymonspine.llc\/MMDV\"\u003eListen now!\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Northern Spy Records","offers":[{"title":"WAV Download","offer_id":44667189231839,"sku":"","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"MP3 Download","offer_id":44667189264607,"sku":"","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/metronome-valentino-FINALART-1-scaled-e1646413453944.jpg?v=1703789948"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.northern-spy.com\/collections\/instrument-synth.oembed?page=4","provider":"Northern Spy Label Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}