23 Results for : reek
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Nautical Mile
I was 19 when I started writing many of the songs for the Nautical Mile. I lived in the 100 degree desert heat of the Coachella Valley...miles from anything nautical, save the Salton Sea. More precisely, the desert was where this record began. It took time-- working as the assistant to the conductor of the local community orchestra in addition to working at a southwestern bar and grill at minimum wage + tips --to save enough money to buy my first digital recorder. But as soon as I purchased it, I started recording. While I was part of the pit orchestra in a small production of the musical, 'Dammed Yankees' in Riverside, I met a drummer who agreed to learn four songs and give me a few hours to record. I brought out my minimal microphone setup to Riverside and we knocked it out. About a week later I decided to move with my brother and a good friend to West Lafayette, Indiana on a whim. Where else do you go when you're broke and looking for inspiration? My grandfather who is featured later in the album and the subject matter of the song, 'Skiing In Mexico,' had a 13-acre dilapidated estate, and offered us free lodging, a pond, poison ivy, and plenty of tirades about the of digital modern era. I picked a room on the second floor of his creaky, but spacious abode and set up my equipment. This is where I began recording the bass and vocal parts of the album. The incredible amount of accumulated pollen, dust, and other toxicity--some of which came from the nauseating reek of a local dog food factory--clogged my sinuses while I recorded a great majority of the vocals. I remedied this problem by constantly dosing with nasal spray between takes. After seven cold months of hard-drink and fast-eat, between arguments with my 85-year-old grandfather, I finally decided I could not endure The Crossroads of America any longer. So I drove back the way I had come, the 10 West, passing the desert altogether and into the heart of Los Angeles. I needed the Pacific to quench the aridity of my Midwest experience. But it took me some time to settle...I never did find the tranquility. I was still on rough waters trying to stay afloat in Hollywood. I continued to write and amass songs while I worked as a production assistant on a Sony financed television show. This enabled me to buy a few more decent microphones and finally in 2003, I decided to pull out the old recordings and expand on what I had. During a production hiatus I used an executive's corner office to set up recording shop with a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue. I added new songs, guitar, bells, banjo, and tuba to tracks. By the time I was done, the bottle was finished and the last drops were poured neat, sitting in a car in Inglewood with a buddy listening to the mixes. I had, at that time, mixed down the album myself. My good friend and artist Henry Membreño offered to paint and photograph my conception of water, self reflection and inability to dry oneself out. I used a company printer to make 50 copies of the artwork which I cut, folded, and placed into slim jewel cases. A few years later the digital recorder decided not to work and was beyond repair. I said, 'Hell! Well this is it! This is the culmination of what I've been through.' So here in 2010--at 30 years old--clinging to a buoy, I decided to master the record and print it properly. It is now either sink or swim.- Shop: odax
- Price: 19.90 EUR excl. shipping
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En Route ! Electrodisco Hits the Road / Various
Specialising in sideburn-sporting albums that evoke the reek of vintage, mouldy studios, Belgian label Freaksville is back on the road with « En route », a compilation featuring a 100% synthetic sound, with one beady eye focused straight ahead on the best of the francophone electropop scene. Unbuckle your seat belts and hold tight ! Following hot on the heels of their first unashamedly rock compilation (Pan Vol. 1, 2010), this second offering transports the listener on a musical voyage which rides a solitary groove, like some dreamed up FM radio playlist to accompany lonely lovers to digital paradise. Chosen by audition from Paris and beyond, this batch of artists are for the most part already signed up to labels, so they know how to rev their engines. Our road trip on this compilation starts off with a member of Telex (Michel Moers) colliding with a Phantom Conductor resulting in a new take on Suicide with an added oil change. Passing by the moon we glimpse out of the window for some French retro-futurist pop, a dizzy mix of Dondolo and Kraftwerk. Then it's the turn of Accident, a whizz-kids keyboard duo who join the fast lane with « Vert Bleu Noir » an ode to the 80s but without the shoulder pads. Now that we're at full speed on the autobahn, we encounter more weird and wonderful faces. The spirit of John Carpenter permeates The Game is Over by the mysterious TSTR and the remix of Phantom feat. Lio by duo Destin evokes an era of Malibu cocktails, crisps and a spinning disco ball, while Orion by Livio Mosca is like a James Dean piloted porsche on a distant planet. If few of these artists on this Freaksville compilation are destined for a future of high-rotation on MTV - we can only but dream - .- then they've nothing to lose by driving recklessly in the fast lane - and screw the speed cameras. One year after the release of the « Parisien » compilation by Kitsuné « En Route » is proof that France is far from done with synthesizers, certainly not with the bizarre side. We can also cite Kozushima by the group Planète or the remix of Deadride Phantom, which closes this electronic odyssey but hey what's the attraction ? Well, on Route 666, the Hell's Angels 2.0 have simply replaced their communion hosts with chips and their journey has been modernised. Promised to a long line of collectors, these musicians of the future have traded in major bodywork - guitars, groupies - for frail synthetic vehicles - a keyboard, beatbox - and are about to set off on the tarmac in a sidecar. Are they men or machines in a rut ? It's of little importance as this is a journey guaranteed not to waver and just as visionary as crossing National 7 in a spaceship. Watch out UFOs....- Shop: odax
- Price: 21.98 EUR excl. shipping
