Just in time to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of their debut album, Pablo Honey, Radioheadhave announced a 2018 U.S. tour beginning in July and running through August. The dates are as follows:
Sat-Jul-07 – Chicago – United Center
Tue-Jul-10 – New York – Madison Square Garden
Wed-Jul-11 – New York – Madison Square Garden
Fri-Jul-13 – New York – Madison Square Garden
Mon-Jul-16 – Montreal – Bell Centre
Tue-Jul-17 – Montreal – Bell Centre
Thu-Jul-19 – Toronto – Air Canada Centre
Fri-Jul-20 – Toronto – Air Canada Centre
Sun-Jul-22 – Detroit – Little Caesars Arena
Mon-Jul-23 – Columbus – Schottenstein Center
Wed-Jul-25 – Cincinnati – US Bank Arena
Thu-Jul-26 – Pittsburgh- PPG Paints Arena
Sat-Jul-28 – Boston – TD Garden
Sun-Jul-29 – Boston – TD Garden
Tue-Jul-31 – Philadelphia- Wells Fargo Center
Wed-Aug-01 – Philadelphia – Wells Fargo Center
Tickets go on sale tomorrow. Don’t wait to get them. They will sell out, and resale prices will be high enough to enrage you and them (Radiohead have railed against ticket scalpers for years.).
Smashing Pumpkins on 5/10/91 in Chicago, Il. (Photo by Paul Natkin/WireImage)
Smashing Pumpkinshave had a countdown clock on their website for days now, and it finally ended to reveal a 34-city not-quite-a-reunion tour for 2018. It’s not a full reunion because front man Billy Corgan and original bassist D’arcy Wretzky have been involved in a public feud via social media regarding Wretzky not being asked to join the tour.
Regardless, Corgan and guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin are soon criss-crossing the U.S. on the “Shiny and Oh So Bright Tour.” Tickets go on sale February 23rd, and I suggest not waiting too long to get them. I’m sure many venues will sell out fast.
July 12 — Glendale, AZ @ Gila River Arena
July 14 — Oklahoma City, OK @ Chesapeake Energy Arena
July 16 — Austin, TX @ Frank Erwin Arena
July 17 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
July 18 — Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
July 20 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
July 21 — Louisville, KY @ KFC Yum! Center
July 22 — Atlanta, GA @ Infinite Energy Arena
July 24 — Miami, FL @ AmericanAirlines Arena
July 25 — Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
July 27 — Baltimore, MD @ Royal Farms Arena
July 28 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
July 29 — Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
July 31 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
August 1 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
August 4 — Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
August 5 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
August 7 — Montreal, QC @ Centre Bell
August 8 — Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
August 11 — Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center
August 13 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
August 16 — Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
August 17 – Indianapolis, IN @ Bankers Life Fieldhouse
August 19 — St. Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
August 20 — Omaha, NE @ CenturyLink Center
August 21 — Sioux Falls, SD @ Denny Sanford Premier Center
August 24 — Seattle, WA @ KeyArena
August 25 — Portland, OR @ Moda Center
August 27 — Oakland, CA @ Oracle Arena
August 28 — Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center
August 30 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Forum
September 1 — San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena
September 2 — Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
September 4 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Vivint Smart Home Arena
September 5 — Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
September 7 — Boise, ID @ Ford Idaho Center
Keep your mind open.
[No angry social media stuff here, just music news and reviews when you subscribe.]
Makeness Announces Debut Album, Loud Patterns, Out April 6th On Secretly Canadian
Watch The Video For New Single “Stepping Out Of Sync” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SaXuy2isS0 North American & European Tours With Unknown Mortal Orchestra This Spring
Makeness is pleased to announce his debut album, Loud Patterns, coming out April 6th on Secretly Canadian. Crafting tracks which make a virtue of disparate influences, Kyle Molleson manages to pull off something difficult: songs which have been tirelessly worked on, although sound loose-limbed and to-the-point.
Loud Patterns is noticeably indebted to house and techno; there are 4/4 rhythms, and a no-nonsense directness that harks back to the Detroit pioneers. Channeling avant-garde experimentalism and an outsider’s interest in pop, Kyle embraces the distance between those two poles.
Loud Patterns arrives after a series of releases that have established his particular, in-between approach to dance-minded music. He put out two EPs on Manchester-based imprint Handsome Dad, a one-off single with Adult Jazz and self-released Temple Works EP; Whities also released a limited-edition white label of a Minor Science dub of one of his tracks.
Along with today’s announcement, Makeness is sharing a video for his new single, “Stepping Out Of Sync.” “‘Stepping Out Of Sync’ for me is about losing a little bit of a grip on reality,” says Kyle. “There’s a big nod to the world of pop music in the track and I wanted to reflect that in the video too. Josha and Felix, who directed the video, came up with this great time splicing technique using a custom 3-camera rig. The idea was to use the technique as a character in the video to add a sense of detachment from reality and subtly invert the upbeat aspect of the music. I had also been talking to my friend Maddie who is a brilliant dancer about working on some choreography for the video. These aspects seemed to come together perfectly when Josha and Felix started sending ideas across. I think the video really captures the range of emotions that exist in the track, it’s upbeat and positive aspect alongside a layer of dissonance and confusion that lies under the surface.”
Following the release of Loud Patterns, Makeness will tour with label kin Unknown Mortal Orchestra across North America and parts of Europe. Makeness will play his largest venues to date since his last North American trip with Jungle in December 2017. A full list of dates is below.
Makeness Tour Dates: March 1 – March 3 – Oslo, Norway @ by:Larm April 12 – @ London, UK @ Corsica Studios April 22 – Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra April 23 – Portland, ME @ Port City Music Hall w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra April 25 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra April 26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra April 27 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra April 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra April 30 – Boston, MA @ Royale w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 1 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 2 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 3 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 4 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 7 – Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 9 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 10 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 12 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 18 – Hamburg, Germany @ Uebel & Gefährlich w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 19 – Berlin, Germany @ Kesselhaus w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 20 – Heidelberg, Germany @ Karlstorbahnhof w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 21 – Düsseldorf, Germany @ zakk w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 22 – Paris, France @ La Gaîté Lyrique w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 24 – London, United Kingdom @ Roundhouse w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 25 – Bristol, United Kingdom @ SWX w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Loud Patterns Tracklist:
1. Loud Patterns
2. Fire Behind The 2 Louis
3. Who Am I To Follow Love
4. Stepping Out Of Sync
5. Gold Star
6. The Bass Rock
7. Day Old Death
8. Rough Moss
9. Our Embrace
10. 14 Drops
11. Motorcycle Idling
L7, as usual, aren’t screwing around. Case in point, their new single, “I Came Back to Bitch.” This will soon be your new favorite song and is already sure to be one of my top ten singles of 2018.
They’ve also announced some spring U.S. tour dates. Don’t miss them. They were great when I saw them in Chicago a couple years ago. They haven’t lost an inch.
04/11 – Boston, MA @ Paradise
04/13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
04/15 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
04/16 – Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Club
04/18 – Indianapolis, IN @ Vogue
04/19 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
Today, Unknown Mortal Orchestra proudly announce their new record, Sex & Food, which will be released April 6th via Jagjaguwar. The follow-up to their critically acclaimed record Multi-Love, Sex & Food sees UMO mastermind Ruban Nielson tap into both familiar and unexpected territory. The delightfully shape-shifting album filters real-deal serious themes such as “What are we consuming? How is it affecting us, and why does everything feel so bad and weird sometimes?” through a vibrant sonic lens that spans battered drum-machine funk, doomy and thrashing rock, and pink-hued psychedelic disco. It’s not a dark record, per se. Even the album’s title, Sex & Food, focuses on two of the most undeniably pleasurable experiences in life; positivity despite the strangeness of our times. The album was recorded in a variety of locales from Seoul and Hanoi to Reykjavik, Mexico City, and Auckland, not to mention Nielson’s home base studio in Portland. It is a practical musical travelogue, traversing the world as well as a wide spectrum of human experience. Nielson grapples with new, sometimes dismal realities, but succeeds in pulling the epiphanies from the chafe. Watch the video for the first single, “American Guilt,” and pre-order the album below. Additionally, here is some context behind “American Guilt” from Ruban Nielson:
“American Guilt” is an attempt to capture some of the feelings floating around these days. In a perverse way I wanted to embrace this abandoned genre of rock music that I keep reading is “dead” and invite people to hear what this living dead genre sounds like in the UMO universe. It was recorded in Hanoi, Vietnam during monsoon season in a studio built for traditional Vietnamese music. Additional recording was done in Mexico City but our sessions were interrupted by one of the devastating earthquakes that occurred there last year. As we slept in the Parque de Mexico, unable to get back to our Airbnb, we heard a man yell “viva la Mexico!” and I put this in the song out of respect for them.
SEX & FOOD TRACKLISTING 1. A God Called Hubris 2. Major League Chemicals 3. Ministry of Alienation 4. Hunnybee 5. Chronos Feasts on His Children 6. American Guilt 7. The Internet of Love (That Way) 8. Everyone Acts Crazy Nowadays 9. This Doomsday 10. How Many Zeros 11. Not in Love We’re Just High 12. If You’re Going to Break Yourself UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA TOUR DATES: April 22 – Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street w/ Makeness April 23 – Portland, ME @ Port City Music Hall w/ Makeness April 25 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Makeness April 26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Makeness April 27 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club w/ Makeness April 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer w/ Makeness April 30 – Boston, MA @ Royale w/ Makeness May 1 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre w/ Makeness May 2 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall w/ Makeness May 3 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre w/ Makeness May 4 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue w/ Makeness May 7 – Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre w/ Makeness May 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom w/ Makeness May 9 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater w/ Makeness May 10 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater w/ Makeness May 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern w/ Makeness May 12 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s w/ Makeness May 18 – Hamburg, Germany @ Uebel & Gefährlich w/ Makeness May 19 – Berlin, Germany @ Kesselhaus w/ Makeness May 20 – Heidelberg, Germany @ Karlstorbahnhof w/ Makeness May 21 – Düsseldorf, Germany @ zakk w/ Makeness May 22 – Paris, France @ La Gaîté Lyrique w/ Makeness May 24 – London, United Kingdom @ Roundhouse w/ Makeness May 25 – Bristol, United Kingdom @ SWX w/ Makeness May 26 – Manchester, United Kingdom @ Strange Waves May 27 – Leeds, United Kingdom @ World Island May 28 – Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique w/ Makeness May 31 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound June 10 – Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands @ Best Kept Secret Festival July 6 – Richmond, VA @ The National w/ Shamir July 7 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel w/ Shamir July 8 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse w/ Shamir July 9 – Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre w/ Shamir July 11 – New Orleans, LA @ Republic w/ Shamir July 12 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall w/ Shamir July 13 – Austin, TX @ Stubbs BBQ w/ Shamir July 14 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater w/ Shamir July 16 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre w/ Shamir July 17 – Ogden, UT @ Ogden Amphitheater w/ Sylvan Esso, Shamir July 18 – Las Vegas, NV @ Vinyl at Hard Rock July 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom August 10-11 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Haven
The latest additions to the lineup for Levitation Austin have been announced, and (no surprise) they’ve added more great acts. Ty Segalland Thee Oh Seesadding second shows is great news for fans who couldn’t make one or the other. Count me in for Segall’s Friday show, especially since Ron Gallowill also be playing the same night and location. Other additions that caught my eye are No Joy, True Widow, Pow!, L.A. Witch, Jjuujjuu, and Holy Wave.
It’s quickly getting to the point where set times will be announced and sacrifices will have to be made to determine which shows we can make. Plus, tickets will go even faster once set times are determined. Don’t wait much longer to get your tickets.
“So rare that diehard fuzz junkies say you’d have a better chance of winning the lottery than finding a physical 45 rpm single by one of the bands featured on their latest installment.” — Dangerous Minds
“Will do for hard rock, proto-metal and heavy psych what Nuggets did for garage rock, and bring it to a wider audience of collectors and music fans.” — The Guardian
The forthcoming latest edition of the popular compilation series of long-lost vintage 60s-70s proto-metal and stoner rock singles, Brown Acid: The Sixth Trip, is set for release on April 20, 2018. Hear & share the first track, “No Parking” by Gold via Paste Magazine HERE. (Direct YouTube HERE) The series is curated by L.A. label RidingEasy Records and retailer/label Permanent Records.
About Brown Acid: The Sixth Trip:
This time around we have 10 deep cuts from across the continental US of A and one from our neighbors up North. This Trip kicks off with an outrageous number from Gold out of San Francisco circa 1970. The band used to open their sets with this over-the-top frantic jammer which is absolutely mind-blowing and also leads one to believe that the only band that could’ve held a candle to Gold back in the day would’ve been the mighty Blue Cheer.
As we delve deeper into the depths, Canadians continue to prove that they could bang heads with the best of ’em! Heat Exchange from Toronto released the rollicking ripper “Inferno” on the Yorkville label way back in 1968 and it’s still thumping almost 50 years later! Missouri isn’t a state that brought us a lot of heavy 45s, but there are a handful of outstanding tracks from the Show Me State, one of which is the funk-laced anthem “Give Me Time” by Backwood Memory from Kansas City.
The longer we do this, the more we begin to believe that Youngstown, Ohio was the Hard Rock Mecca back in the day. Travis is yet another Youngstown group that aimed to get asses out of seats and out in the streets. “Lovin’ You” is a groovy banger with a sultry riff originally released on the prolific Starshine Productions imprint. Six years prior to his Arcadian synth-funk novelty hit “Space Invaders” from 1980, Victor “Uncle Vic” Blecman took Flight into the studio with a list of relationship requirements. Amongst which are his need for “Luvin’, Huggin’, & More”, with emphasis on the “More” part if we’re to believe the urgency with which he delivers this fist-pumper.
If you don’t immediately recognize the Truth & Janey moniker, you need to get with it and familiarize yourself with their incredible 1976 LP No Rest For The Wicked. It’s a proto-metal masterpiece that’s been reissued on Rockadrome. Released four years earlier than their debut LP, “Midnight Horseman” is a 45-only track backed with a cover of “Under My Thumb”. Another Iowan group, West Minist’r, self-released three 45s between 1969 and 1975. They’re all great in their own way, but “My Life” hit the crunchy sweet spot in ’71 with vocals sounding like a fresh from primal scream therapy John Lennon over a zonked-out Hendrix groove. You can count on hearing more from West Minist’r on future Trips.
It’s nearly impossible that Dayton, Ohio’s Purgatory didn’t seize the “Strange Days” and join “The Soft Parade” while “Waiting for the Sun”. And although “Polar Expedition” wears its influences on its sleeve, 1969 would have been at least a little worse off if the band hadn’t self released this single. Johnny Barnes was definitely “smokin’ that reefer” and “drinkin’ that wine” when he released “Steel Rail Blues” in 1976. The label states that you could order a copy of this 45 for by sending $1 to a PO Box in Boston and it’s the only record on the Brown Acid series that seems to be obtainable currently for about the same amount it was sold for over three decades ago. That said, it’s doubtful that it will remain so cheap for much longer.
With a track as heavy as “Is There No Peace” it’s easy to let the name of the label on this 45 slide. In Chicago in 1970 PSLHRTZ seemed like as good a label name as any for the guys in Zendik to release this insane recording on. Halfway through the track you might be wondering to yourself, “How was this not a hit?”, and then you hear the lyrics to the last bit of the song and understand.
About the Brown Acid series:
Some of the best thrills of the Internet music revolution is the ability to find extremely rare music with great ease. But even with such vast archives to draw from, quite a lot of great songs have gone undiscovered for nearly half a century — particularly in genres that lacked hifalutin arty pretense. Previously, only the most extremely dedicated and passionate record collectors had the stamina and prowess to hunt down long forgotten wonders in dusty record bins — often hoarding them in private collections, or selling at ridiculous collector’s prices. Legendary compilations like Nuggets, Pebbles, ad nauseum, have exhausted the mines of early garage rock and proto-punk, keeping alive a large cross-section of underground ephemera. However, few have delved into and expertly archived the wealth of proto-metal, pre-stoner rock tracks collected on
Brown Acid: The Sixth Trip.
Lance Barresi, co-owner of L.A./Chicago retailer Permanent Records has shown incredible persistence in tracking down a stellar collection of rare singles from the 60s and 70s for the growing compilation series. Partnered with Daniel Hall of RidingEasy Records, the two have assembled a selection of songs that’s hard to believe have remained unheard for so long.
“I essentially go through hell and high water just to find these records,” Barresi says. “Once I find a record worthy of tracking, I begin the (sometimes) extremely arduous process of contacting the band members and encouraging them to take part. Daniel and I agree that licensing all the tracks we’re using for
Brown Acid is best for everyone involved,” rather than simply bootlegging the tracks. When all of the bands and labels haven’t existed for 30-40 years or more, tracking down the creators gives all of these tunes a real second chance at success.
“There’s a long list of songs that we’d love to include,” Barresi says. “But we just can’t track the bands down. I like the idea that Brown Acid is getting so much attention, so people might reach out to us.”
Brown Acid: The Sixth Trip will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on April 20th, 2018via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available for digital (with immediate download of the first single) at Bandcamp, physical pre-orders at RidingEasy Records.
Weird rock maestros Primus, metal giants Mastodon, psych-rockers Jjuujjuu, and blues-psych heavyweights All Them Witchesare going on tour starting in May. Primus and Mastodon will share the stage with Jjuujjuu and All Them Witches on various spots of the tour, but any of these dates are worth seeing. This will probably be one of the heaviest / trippiest tours of the year, so don’t miss it.
DJ Koze has announced the release of his new album, Knock Knock, on May 4thvia Pampa Records. Along with the announcement comes the first single, “Seeing Aliens,” and its B-side “Nein König Nein,” both of which debuted this morning atPitchfork and are available to stream now.Like all DJ Koze records, Knock Knock exists outside of trend and influence. In fact, Knock Knock is a step further beyond: absolutely every single thing here, from grooves to voices to handclaps, is otherworldly and unique. Which is not to say it is utter alien abstraction. There is still disco, there is still soul, there is still techno, there is still hip hop, there is still psychedelia – there are even wafts of easy listening, lost crackly thrift store record memories and indie rock – but though it may sound familiar, it never does what your brain thinks it’s going to do.
More than ever before on Koze’s records, there are fascinating, individualist and well-known voices throughout Knock Knock. Each of them is rendered strange, drawn into a different reality. Bon Iver‘s ghostly hymnals on “Bonfire” are very recognizably his own, but the way they twist and merge with synthetic sounds until choir and computer are writhing around one another in bliss are something else. The ever-unique Róisín Murphy, on two stunning tracks, becomes a cyborg funk diva. Speechfrom Arrested Development delivers luscious and lazy R&B-funk on “Colors of Autumn”, but Koze’s warping bass, dubwise echo and alien nature sounds take it to an alternate-dimension tropical landscape. Kurt Wagnerof Lambchop is a vocoder bohemian, Sophia Kennedy is a sci-fi Weimar cabaret star and José González is a holographic projection from an old film of the South Sea Islands. On it goes, nothing is real, everyone is an inhabitant of Koze-world.
And that’s what is crucial here. Koze is a world-maker. You don’t get to choose how you hear his music – you enter his world or you don’t, that’s it. And that’s why individual influences, whether it’s the trippy German techno that’s always rippled through his albums or the beat-scene abstract hip hop that he incorporated into his DJ-Kicks mix in 2015, are all but irrelevant. Though he’d never compare himself to anyone else, Koze only makes sense in the way that other world-builders do, from Bowie to Sun Ra, Outkast to Kate Bush. And Knock Knock is far and away his greatest statement of that. It’s an album that came together slowly and steadily, his working processes arcane and mysterious in their steady accumulation of sound and inspiration. It’s so complete and bursting with detail and consistency from every microsecond that you’d swear it was meticulously planned (but there was no master plan) to create a definitive artifact: the record itself decided when it was ready. And now it is ready, the most perfectly constructed portal into that other world, you had better be ready too!
Listen To DJ Koze’s “Seeing Aliens” b/w “Nein König Nein” https://soundcloud.com/pamparecords/sets/pampa030-dj-koze-seeing-aliensKnock Knock Tracklist:
1. Club der Ewigkeiten
2. Bonfire
3. Moving in a liquid (feat. Eddie Fummler)
4. Colors of autumn (feat. Speech of the band Arrested Development)
5. Music on my teeth (feat. José González)
6. This is my rock (feat. Sophia Kennedy)
7. Illumination (feat. Róisín Murphy)
8. Pick up
9. Planet Hase (feat. Mano le tough)
10. Scratch that (feat. Róisín Murphy)
11. Muddy Funster (feat. Kurt Wagner)
12. Baby (how much i LFO you)
13. Jesus
14. Lord knows
15. Seeing Aliens
16. Drone me up, Flashy (feat. Sophia Kennedy)
As much as is said of our current times being new lows, where things have changed for the worse and we’re unsure of the future, it’s worth returning to study the past to understand how steadily low we remain.
“Nothing’s changed,” says a younger BarackObama in a sample for the opening track to Long Trax 2, the second album from Tokyo-based, America musician, writer, and photographer WillLong, out March16th on SmalltownSupersound. The album will be released as three separate 12” singles, in addition to CD and digital.
Long Trax 2 follows Long’s deep house debut, LongTrax, released in 2016 on 2016 on DJ Sprinkles’ (TerreThaemlitz) ComatonseRecordings. Receiving a 4.2 rating, Long Trax was praised by ResidentAdvisor and described as a “meditative listen.”
It’s follow-up, Long Trax 2, presents as an ongoing criticism of cultural stasis, conveyed via minimal synthesizers, sampler, and rhythm machine. Dance floors are widely perceived by the masses as safe zones, but few can imagine how to apply notions of safety and equality to other aspects of society. We shouldn’t need clubs to hide from our fears and differences in the outside world. Looking ahead, we should look not so optimistically upon what we have accomplished, but with urgency and empathy upon what we haven’t.
Since 2005, Long has produced ambient music under the name Celer, and is a member of the pop music band Oh, Yoko with Miko. He curates and manages the label TwoAcorns, and is also involved with the NormalCookie and BunTapes labels. Stream “Nothing’s Changed” — https://soundcloud.com/smalltownsupersound/nothings-changed/
