Crib Notes

Update:  an ummastered mp3 of Ecstatic Sunshine’s “Turned On” from Yesterday’s Work has been added to this post.

The Baltimore/Atlanta/Washington D.C.-based accessibly weird and vinyl friendly label Hoss Records has unveiled its fall release schedule. First up is the third full-length from Baltimore duo Ecstatic Sunshine, titled Yesterday’s Work. According to Hoss boss Brad Hurst the album presents “an evolved version of Papich’s post-Frippertronics guitar work married to skittering Berlin-school electronics.”

In August the LP will be preceded by Ecstatic Sunshine’s “Turned On” 7-inch, which features a non-album track and a remix by Rjyan Kidwell (A.K.A. Cex).

In the meantime the first installment of of the label’s new techno 12-inch series has also arrived with the first installment coming from San Francisco’s Mi Ami. The idea behind the series is to take bands that aren’t traditionally associated with techno music and get them to make techno music.

The Mi Ami 12-inch features two side-long and somewhat conceptual electro-riffs on the deep, dark, mutant bass and slow grooves of Shackleton’s “Blood On My Hands.”

“Blood on My Hands” is used more as a reference point for the source material at the center of the record. “Towers Fall” merges the group’s signature use of polyrhythms and massive bass to create a sustained drum and synth odyssey. “Towers Fall (Cassette Mix)” presents the previous rhythmic work out as a much slower and dirtier dub-heavy dirge that pushes the song deeper and higher into the electronic ether, and any and all vocal yelps have been boiled down to a bare-bones minimum.

Also just-released is the LP edition of Food For Animals‘ critically acclaimed Belly (200 copies are on translucent gold vinyl).

Also in the works for 2009 will be a new EP and a digital full-length from Atlanta expat and Prefuse 73 cohort Ryan Rasheed’s Leb Laze. A new Food For Animals full-length will also see the light of day as well as new releases from All The Saints, Brass Castle, Ben Lawless and more.

Ecstatic Sunshine’s “Turned On” (unmastered) mp3

Bookmark to:

Thursday night (Aug. 28th) wasn’t quite business usual at Kirkwood Ballers Club. The regular cast and crew of local yokels twiddled knobs, bowed cymbals and plugged away to the sounds of vintage videogame consoles on stage.

Headlining act Hungry Bodies from Baltimore ended with a show of hypnotically amorphous beats and textures that melted-down the bass elements of hip-hop, drone and maximized minimalism into pools of liquid noise.

Sam Garner from Baltimore’s Lexie Mountain Boys wailed a muffled banshee howl into the microphone, adding a haunted, human layer to the mix of sloshing sounds and resonance. The group also featured members of Washington D.C.’s hip-hop experimentalists Food For Animals, alongside ATL expat. and Hoss Records owner Brad Hurst. It was a happy homecoming for Hurst who was a KBC fixture when the weekly open mic Ballers Club nights were held at the old Lenny’s. Hungry Bodies’ set was surreal, short and sweet, which is one of the greatest things about the Ballers Club. Be it a weird indie rock dude beating violin strings with a turkey baster, a lonely young gal strumming on an acoustic guitar or a spontaneously formed ensemble of noise rockers lost in a moment of teeth-gnashing Sonic youth-style feedback, you take the good with the bad. After all, KBC is ground zero for the most adventurous and unorthodox music in the city. So if one particular performer is absolutely unbearable, you can take solace in the fact that it won’t last for much longer. If a band puts on a fantastic performance you’ll be left wanting more and you can talk them up when they’re finished and maybe walk away with a CDR of some stuff they’ve been working on.

All night long the audience was buzzing with word that Geologist from Animal Collective was in the house and hanging out, if only for a brief while. Animal Collective is in town mastering their forthcoming album produced by Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, All the Saints, Constellations). Sadly there was no impromptu AC performances, but for the scene of anything-goes musicianship that KBC has cultivated, a visit from Animal Collective is like a nod from royalty, and a sign that experimental music is on the up swing in Atlanta.

Bookmark to:

Hungry Bodies from Baltimore, MD features members of Food For Animals, Lexi Mountain Boys, Mexcellent and Atlanta expat and Hoss Records founder, Brad Hurst. The group revels in improvised beat, mutant hip-hop, deconstruction, pure sine tones and digitally “digitally-scrubbed glossolalia.”

The group is performing at The Kirkwood Ballers Club this Thursday night at The Highland Inn Ballroom. Music starts around 9 p.m. It’s free but the out-of-towners could sure use a donation.

To listen to the song, titled “Singles (Radio Edit)” from Hungry Bodies’ forthcoming 7-inch, click here.

Bookmark to: