Combusts layers of synths, drum machines, guitar over songs composed around sonic imagery instead of chord progressions; Debut by Ivory Fields out Oct. 28.

Duo comprised of Alejandro Cohen (Pharaohs, Languis) and Mahadev (f/k/a Matt Gangi of GANGI); RIYL: Psychic TV, Wire, The Legendary Pink Dots.

 
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Ivory Fields (L-R): Mahadev, Alejandro Cohen. Photo credit: Jeanette Getrost.
 
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PLAY, POST & SHARE
 
Ivory Fields | “Land and Sea Boundaries”
 

[YOUTUBE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQra1Jv9LqU
 
[SOUNDCLOUD]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/ivory-fields-land-sea-boundaries
 
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Ivory Fields
S/T LP
(Simballrec / Office of Analogue and Digital)
Oct. 28, 2022
 
 

Track Listing:
 
01. Everything Is Okay
02. As If
03. Well Well Well
04. Land And Sea Boundaries (YOUTUBE | SOUNDCLOUD)
05. Blasted
06. GV
07. Bells
08. Saint Colors
09. Following The Path
10. Notice All Of These Things
 
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Ivory Fields | About
 

Ivory Fields (October 28, 2022, Simballrec / Office of Analogue and Digital) is the self-titled ten-song debut album from the Los Angeles-based duo of Mahadev (f/k/a Matt Gangi) (GANGI, Fake Estates) and Alejandro Cohen (Pharaohs, Languis.)
 
In their own words, Ivory Fields “combusts layers of synths, drum machines and guitar over songs composed more around sonic imagery than chord progressions.”
 
The description is as accurate as it is mysterious. Indeed, the music here often feels like it is both floating just out of grasp, and overwhelming and omnipresent at the same time.
 
Even so, Mahadev reminds that the record is grounded in a “flare for pop context in its songwriting and production.” Cohen concurs, saying, “Ivory Fields mixes a desire for pop songs, dance production values, and experimental influences.”
 
The album’s upcoming singles – the electro-goth inspired “As If” and the danceable glow of “Blasted” – contain these musical multitudes. Catchy and eluding capture.
 
In reality, this music was dormant for some time, which belies how relevant and modern it sounds in its reverence for contemporaries (Animal Collective, Geneva Jacuzzi) and classic artists of the genre (Psychic TV, Wire.)
 
Cohen elaborates on the latter, explaining that Ivory Fields actually began “as a loose tribute to Dome –the experimental side project by members of Wire.”
 
Mahadev adds another touchstone, saying, “My friend, David Chaim Cohen (who mastered this album) said he heard The Legendary Pink Dots in the record. That made me happy, since I was actually listening to their album Brighter Now quite a bit at that time.”
 
“That time” was many years ago.
 
“Ivory Fields has been years in the making,” Mahadev says.
 
Many of the synths and vocals on the record were tracked between 2010 and 2012 in what Mahadev describes as “a slow-burning collaboration.”
 
This scenario is similar to Mahadev’s other recent release as one-half of GANGI. That duo’s “As Fake Estates” EP is also comprised of songs created many years prior to being shown to the public. Somehow, in both cases, it feels right that these compositions have had the time to silently evolve.
 
“The album wasn’t completed sooner, not because of lack of inspiration or too much time in the studio,” Mahadev explains. “We took our time to let it smolder, and either because of what was brought to light through the burning of time, or because of the process of completion we achieved by looking back into the fire, Ivory Fields is work we are very proud of.”
 
The self-titled debut album by Ivory Fields arrives on October 28, 2022 via Simballrec / Office of Analogue and Digital preceded by the singles “As If” and “Blasted.” Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
 
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Ivory Fields | Links
 
ASSETS : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM (ALE) : INSTAGRAM (MAHADEV) : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP (SIMBALLREC) : BANDCAMP (OOAAD)
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

Life-altering brain injuries nearly ended Dani Meza’s ability to make music; His new style of playing, writing became the crushedvelvets.

Born, raised, living in Indio, California — Coachella's home — is where nine songs over three EPs were “written while I healed,” Meza says.

 

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Dani Meza of the crushedvelvets as photographed by Cristopher Cichocki

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PLAY, POST & SHARE

the crushedvelvets | “Like I Do”

[YOUTUBE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARtBU6TDYrE
“Their style came out of necessity,” says Dani Meza of how his recovery influenced the sound of the crushedvelvets. RIYL: Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Prince, Serge Gainsbourg, Julee Cruise, and Erik Satie.
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the crushedvelvetsEP 1(S/R)Out Now
Streaming Link:STREAM FULL EP

Track Listing:

01. Like I Do (YOUTUBE)

02. Intertwined

03. Mosaic

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the crushedvelvets | About

After citing Al Green, Marvin Gaye, and Prince as influences, it is only natural that Dani Meza of the crushedvelvets concludes, “These songs are all about the groove.”

The nine new tunes by the crushedvelvets are presented three at a time, as if placed on a dark club’s bar like mixed drinks over the course of a mild summer evening.

EP 1 is out now, with the second arriving Sept. 2, and the third on Oct. 21.

For Meza, getting to that stone cold groove meant first getting his own groove back, and not just in the sense of the popular turn of phrase. Meza literally lost his ability to write and perform following an aneurism and stroke.

“These new songs and style came out of necessity,” Meza confides. “The incident forced me to change my perspective on how to write and perform. My vocal delivery had to be more laid back and the groovy pace of these songs keeps me from over-stimulating myself.”

The circumstances surrounding these recordings are out of the ordinary, but for listeners, they are even more alive with Meza’s soul and survival because of it.

“These songs were written while I was healing and the influences on this sound and these songs comes from the variety of musicians and bands that I listened to while I was recovering,” he says.

In addition to the aforementioned artists, Meza also mentions Serge Gainsbourg, Julee Cruise, and Erik Satie.

“I wanted to combine my love of R&B and Soul music with surreal sounds and imagery,” he explains.

With this concept in mind, Meza knew he should reach out to producer Chris Schlarb, an artist in his own right with several releases on Sufjan Stevens’s Asthmatic Kitty label, as well as  production credits for releases on Asthmatic Kitty, Joyful Noise, Jealous Butcher and many more.

“Chris knew exactly what I was trying to achieve and gathered the players he knew would bring my new songs to life,” Meza says.

Musicians Davin Givhan (Bass & Guitar), Ben Lumsdaine (Drums & Percussion), and Heather Sommerhauser (Keyboards & Backing Vocals) join Meza on Guitar, Keyboards, and Vocals.

“At our very first session, the songs seemed to fall into place on their own. I had no ambitions other than capturing the groove,” Meza remembers.

In conclusion, Meza drops an inspiring reveal of his continuing ambition on the other side of emerging from recovery.

Following the release of these three EPs, he plans to take the songs he amassed during his healing and head back into the studio to start working on “one of the many albums I have ready to record.”

The first of three new three-song EPs by the crushedvelvets is streaming now. EP 2 arrives on Sept. 2 with EP 3 following on Oct. 21.

Dani Meza of the crushedvelvets is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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the crushedvelvets | Links

ASSETS : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SPOTIFY : APPLE

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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact

WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

GANGI spent $5 on Craigslist for a Mattel Vidster kids camera to make duo’s 12-minute, three-song “As Fake Estates” short film; RIYL: The Pop Group, Black Dice, Salem.

Conceived as “mangled” re-recorded versions of songs from duo’s 2007 debut, 100 vinyl copies of “As Fake Estates” — stored for over a decade — are now finally available for sale.

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GANGI (L-R): Mahadev, Eric Chramosta. Photo credit: Jeanette Getrost.

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GANGI | In The Press

“Dark and rich.” — Los Angeles Times

“Aural collage that seems aimed at warping any expectations.” — LA Weekly

“A soundtrack to cognitive dissonance.” — Under the Radar

“GANGI’s electro-psych evolution has been years in the making.” — SPIN

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GANGI | “As Fake Estates” Short Film

 Watch GANGI’s “As Fake Estates” short film at Treble or at the links below.

[WATCH]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFcNUWx_O50

[LISTEN]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/GANGI-AsFakeEstates

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“Pulsing, dub-inspired rock to psychedelic pop and more abrasive industrial grooves... It’s a strange and disorienting trip.” — Treble

“For the three-track, 12-minute video for GANGI’s ‘As Fake Estates’ EP, I shot using on an old children’s toy camera called the Mattel Vidster,” says Mahadev (fka Matt Gangi) of GANGI.

“I love the look of it. The giant pixels seem to match our sound. We call the sound material ‘mangled,’ and I did the same with the footage by zooming into the landscape of pixels... crushing tape... pushing pixels on a camera that already makes them super compressed... working with technology at its edge just before it turns into total feedback of revolutions upon revolutions.

“The camera, which I bought for five bucks on CraigsList, has since stopped working, which is even more of a drag as they have a real following now and it is too expensive to buy another one!”

In its premiere coverage of “Animals Figure 427,” the first of the EP’s three tracks, Buzz Bands says, “‘Animals Figure 427’ is revelatory — imagine if 2008 visitors from a distant galaxy got just close enough to Earth to pick up warped snippets of the song ‘Animals,’ says of the track from the upcoming three-track, 12-minute GANGI EP “As Fake Estates,” the duo’s first official release in about a decade.

Buzz Bands continues, “The song is an eye into their creative process, which incorporates feeding the music through hand-built circuits and using noise from revived reel-to-reel tape machines.”

“‘Animals Figure 427’ is a re-recorded and then ‘mangled’ version of the song ‘Animals’ from our debut album A. We sampled our own re-recordings to deconstruct it,” Mahadev (fka Matt Gangi) of GANGI explains. “The only sample that we didn’t record on instruments is from the band POWERSOLO, friends of ours from Denmark who found A through Seb Doubinsky, an amazing sci-fi writer.

“We thought ‘Animals Figure 427’ was a fun title, as in ‘See figure 427’ in a book, i.e. ‘See this map to tell you how to understand the previous iteration of animals here. See figure 427.’ I thought I chose the number at random, but I was born on the 27th and 27 has always been my favorite number, but I don’t understand 427.

“(Bandmate) Eric (Chramosta) and I played the original ‘Animals’ live at many shows. It’s a song where we would go really ‘out’ sometimes. I remember a show where Eric was playing synth during ‘Animals’ and I went out into the audience and started reading out interesting things that I found in the local paper for quite a long time.”

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GANGI
“As Fake Estates” EP
(Office of Analogue and Digital)
Out Now

Streaming Link:

STREAM FULL EP

  

 
Track Listing:
 
01. Animals Figure 427 (YOUTUBE | SOUNDCLOUD)

02. Toshiba Maxwell (STREAM | SOUNDCLOUD)
03. Subject Positions Redux

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GANGI | About

 

“Two men’s trash can be the same men’s treasure.”
 
Previously praised as “dark and rich” (Los Angeles Times) for its “aural collage that seems aimed at warping any expectations” (LA Weekly) or more esoterically, “a soundtrack to cognitive dissonance” (Under the Radar), GANGI’s “electro-psych evolution has been years in the making” according to SPIN, writing in the summer of 2012 about the Los Angeles-based duo’s second album.
 
Now, “making” is made as GANGI (Matt Gangi and Eric Chramosta) lands in the future with a three-song suite of sonic disturbance from the past. “As Fake Estates” arrives Aug 5 on the artist’s Office of Analogue and Digital label.
 
The material on “As Fake Estates” was recorded around the same time as the 2012 GANGI album gesture is, and is mostly comprised of what Matt Gangi describes as “mangled” versions of songs that date back to the debut GANGI album A, released in 2007. “We sampled and re-constructed our own re-recordings to make most of it,” he explains.
 
Chramosta terms the new release “a multiple-decade long lineage of assembly, disassembly and reassembly” or the re-examination of “that which had been left to collect digital dust. Two men’s trash can be the same men’s treasure.”
 
The elements that call back GANGI’s psych-pop past are heavily spliced and fed through myriad electronic components, channeling the anarchy of The Pop Group and melting warble of DJ Screw. Other influences include Black Dice and Salem.
 
A collaborative brotherhood that began when Gangi and Chramosta were only 12-years-old, “As Fake Estates” represents the first official release in this decade for GANGI, a project that will go forward with the name Fake Estates from this point on.
 
Just as this long-overdue release is transitional, Matt Gangi himself is traveling a new path with a new name.  “I found Sanatana Dharma and the traditional yoga since I last released music,” he explains. “My main Guru gave me the name Mahadev.”
 
“After GANGI as Fake Estates, GANGI will BE Fake Estates,” Mahadev says.
 
Just as Gangi the man is now Mahadev, the band’s moniker represents a permanent change for the pair after recording and touring throughout the world for years as GANGI. The decidedly more experimental sounds of “As Fake Estates” are heavily colored by hand-built circuits and the noise of revived reel-to-reel tape machines.
 
“I was building circuits when we were recording this material and we passed sounds through all kinds of things,” Mahadev explains. “Eric grew up around Otari reel-to-reel tape decks. In middle school, he recorded a mangled symphony to his dad’s Otari deck.”
 
“We were inspired by all the glitch music that was happening in LA at the time that we recorded this material,” Mahadev continues. “GANGI performed at (weekly experimental hip hop and electronic music club) Low End Theory during those days. The experimental electronics that were happening there influenced these sounds.”
 
“As Fake Estates” by GANGI arrives on Aug. 5, streaming on all digital services, and as a vinyl release with etched B-side. These very limited vinyl copies are artifacts, having been pressed and stored at the time that the original recordings were made a decade ago, only to be released now.
 
Their trash, our treasure.
 
“As Fake Estates” by GANGI is out now via the band’s Office of Analogue and Digital label. Members of GANGI are available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
 
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GANGI | Links
 
ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : INSTAGRAM : TWITTER : BANDCAMP
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

Instrumental bass & vibraphone duo CLIFFWALKER takes you into a hypnotic crime-noir universe ala John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream; Debut EP out now.

Hayes to Ghettoblaster: “We’ve broken ground on some new ideas for the next release.” | “Gloriously mesmerizing.” — Treble | “Sci-fi thriller.” — Glide

 

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CLIFFWALKER (L-R): Cliff Hayes, A. Walker Spring. Photo credit: Cliff Hayes, A. Walker Spring.
 
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PLAY, POST & SHARE
 
CLIFFWALKER | “Pulling Threads”
 

[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r8g7kUIZ00

[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/cliffwalker-pullingthreads

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Stream “Pulling Threads” by CLIFFWALKER at the links above or here.

CLIFFWALKER, the Portland, Oregon-based instrumental duo of Cliff Hayes (Bass, Keys) and A. Walker Spring (Vibes, Drums, Keys, Guitar), released its debut EP “Painted Gray Sky” on June 24.

In its premiere coverage of the “Pulling Threads” single, music discovery site Treble says, “The duo find an unexpected harmony between ethereal, hypnotic vibes and a distorted, robotic bass groove. It’s a gloriously mesmerizing track that makes natural counterparts out of (seemingly) unnaturally paired elements—not quite jazz, not quite rock, definitely not prog but some kind of dirty lounge groove space in between. And it’s a lot of fun to listen to and get lost in.”

“When it came to making this video, I thought that Walker’s vibraphone gave the song a bit of a ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ feel,” says Hayes. “Combined with my microsynth-fueled bass line, the song approaches something like an electronica ballet.”

In its premiere coverage of the “Pulling Threads” video, Glide Magazine says, “ The blacklit video brings together florescent colors with a space-funk groove that showcases this unique pairing of vibes, bass and synth. The instrumental track feels like it could be the score of an 80s sci-fi thriller, or maybe just the soundtrack to your next dance party.”

Hayes further comments on the concept saying, “I was at lunch with some co-workers one afternoon when one of them brought up ‘gloving’ from the rave scene. Inspired by gloving, I realized I could buy neon strings, put them on the bass, wear white gloves and perform under UV light to get a somewhat similar effect. We focused on our hands (or mallets) to get interesting shapes and perspectives of our performances.

“It just worked out that our instruments filled up the frame while cutting off our heads and that was perfect because I wanted the focus to be on our hands not our faces. The homemade ‘I'm hiding from the cops’ shirt is what Walker chose to wear when I came over to film her.”

Hayes recently chatted with Ghettoblaster Magazine about what comes next for CLIFFWALKER. Read the in-depth full interview here.

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CLIFFWALKER
“Painted Gray Sky” EP
(S/R)
June 24, 2022

Streaming Link:

STREAM FULL EP

Track Listing:
 
01. Calm Sea
02. Painted Gray Sky
03. Reflected Sun (STREAM)
04. On Her Last Legs
05. Pulling Threads (STREAM | VIDEO)
06. Punching Clocks (STREAM | VIDEO)
 
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PLAY, POST & SHARE
 
CLIFFWALKER | “Punching Clocks”
 

 

[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQGuuBO9hpE
 
[STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/cliffwalker-punchingclocks
 
“Delightfully teeters on the edge of chaos...” says music discovery blog Independent Clauses in its coverage of “Punching Clocks,” the debut single by Portland-based duo CLIFFWALKER. “‘Punching Clocks’ is the sort of thing that the word post-rock was made for. It’s rock put in the service of other moods. The interplay of the leads produces the experience of a spy-movie chase scene.”
 
The Portland, Oregon-based instrumental duo of Cliff Hayes (Bass, Keys) and A. Walker Spring (Vibes, Drums, Keys, Guitar) took inspiration from DEVO’s “Beautiful World” for its “Punching Clocks” video.
 
 “‘Punching Clocks’ draws inspiration from the daily dread of going to a job you dislike and the conditioning of human existence to the dictates of time,” says Hayes of the song. “Depicting these themes in the video, we see birth, followed by the ticking of the clock as the child is expected to jump through the hoops of schooling.”
 
He continues, “Then adolescence hits, followed by a quick progression to adulthood where the reality of the working world hits hard. As the pace of the clip picks up, there are huge crowds of workers, industrial workplaces and assembly lines. Scenes of arguments, fighting, drinking, and laughter are all precursors to the conflicts that emerge between nations. Only humans can wreak havoc on the world in such a unique way.”
 
While the song and its video address dark themes, Hayes points out, “I'm not always doom and gloom. Honestly, I do have a decent sense of humor!”
 
Stream “Punching Clocks” by CLIFFWALKER at the links above or here.
 
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CLIFFWALKER | About
 

 
CLIFFWALKER is not just a cool name for a band.
 
The Portland, Oregon-based instrumental duo of Cliff Hayes (Bass, Keys) and A. Walker Spring (Vibes, Drums, Keys, Guitar) are just lucky to be named that way. To take the serendipity a step (sorry, had to) further, the sound of the pair’s upcoming “Painted Gray Sky” EP (out June 24, 2022) is also edgy.
 
We can dispense with the puns now, let’s talk about the music:
 
It’s like if a sexy Kraftwerk had joined in on the sessions with jazz legend Don Cherry and composer Ron Frangipane scoring Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “The Holy Mountain.”
 
Or maybe they picked up John Carpenter on the way to Tangerine Dream’s studio to make the music for Michael Mann’s neo-noir heist action thriller “Thief.”
 
The repeating riffs of minimalist composers such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and Terry Riley are also touchstones, and for those born more recently, Hayes and Spring suggest that the instrumentation on “Painted Gray Sky” is in the vein of Tortoise, but driven by bass lines a la Death From Above 1979.
 
Either way, the 1970s are coming in hot, no matter what!
 
Skipping forward a half-century, CLIFFWALKER came to fruition under the gray skies of the Pacific Northwest as Hayes was constructing a “library of bass riffs” (“Cliff’s Riffs!”)
 
“My toying with riffs started to morph into learning cover songs and then trying to cover these songs entirely on bass,” Hayes explains.
 
As it turns out, the “library of bass riffs” further morphed into “Painted Gray Sky,” as the melodic bass work of Hayes laid the foundation for Spring’s hypnotic vibraphone, guitar, and synth lines.
 
As well as playing in Portland’s beloved indie rock outfit Point Juncture, WA since 2004, Spring has co-hosted a weekly songwriting podcast since 2020 called “Honest Jams,” where she’s honed a diverse set of arranging skills, which are given free rein on “Painted Gray Sky.”
 
From Classical, through to Jazz and post-Rock, instrumental music is not novel. It’s not Pop either, but here, CLIFFWALKER manages hooks without the aid of vocals. This quality lets the natural rhythms of CLIFFWALKER’s songs shine without distraction.
 
And all of these references to musical genres count as influences in the CLIFFWALKER sound.
 
While Hayes was working to become a top-notch Jazz bassist in his early college years by “practicing a lot of scales and arpeggios and reading a lot of charts,” he was also immersed in all kinds of music as a record store employee, the guilty party in so many musicians’ burgeoning career paths.
 
“Nearly all my waking moments were spent playing, listening, or learning about music,” he remembers.
 
Hayes relocated to Portland in 2005 and some years later, via fleeting meetings at the gigs of mutual friends, found himself in a conversation about artificial intelligence (in 2014!) with a producer friend of Spring’s.
 
“I was discussing how AI could be created to produce music by feeding it a library of riffs to train itself,” Hayes says.
 
Soon after, Hayes started recording his riffs at home with this idea in mind, and eventually wondered if Spring might be interested in playing drums with him on some material.
 
“Before I left that first session, we had already started recording the basic bass, drums and vibes that are on the final EP.”
 
“Painted Gray Sky” by CLIFFWALKER is out now. Members of CLIFFWALKER are available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
 
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CLIFFWALKER | Links
 
ASSETS : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

Alex Lilly’s upcoming ‘Repetition Is A Sin’ comes on heels of tours in bands w/ Beck, Lorde, plus co-writing an L.A. Times Top 10 album of the year.

Artist’s follow-up to 2% Milk debut out Oct. 21; Lilly’s friends (Inara George, John Vanderslice, her dead cat Hank) are also her lyrics on “Frank.”

 

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Alex Lilly as photographed by Daiana Feuer

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Alex Lilly – In The Press

“Alex Lilly’s songs keep their cool.” — The New York Times

“Alex Lilly is the genuine article.” — FLOOD

“Pretty freaking awesome.” —  FADER

“Alex Lilly is spellbinding. Album of The Week” — LA Weekly

“Alex Lilly steps into the spotlight.” — Flaunt

“Three-minute modern art pieces.” — Buzz Bands

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PLAY, POST & SHARE

 

 

[YOUTUBE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI4Tb-ZnDGg
 
[SOUNDCLOUD]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/alex-lilly-frank

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“Lilly introduces the album on a decidedly whimsical note — and she’s exceptional at that.” — Buzz Bands on “Frank” by Alex Lilly

Listen to “Frank,” taken from the upcoming sophomore album Repetition Is A Sin by Alex Lilly arriving Oct. 21 on Release Me Records. Hear it now via Buzz Bands, Riff, or MXDWN,  or at the links above!
 
“The people mentioned in ‘Frank’ are all real people, except for Frank,” says Alex Lilly. “These include Barbara (Gruska), my best friend, drummer and musician who I’ve played with since the early days. Also, John (Vanderslice), a songwriter and cat lover whose studio I recorded much of the new record at.
 
“Vikram Devasthali is a trombonist who plays on this very song! Inara (George) is a songstress and one-half of The Bird and The Bee whose music I heard when I first moved to Los Angeles and fell in love with. Daiana (Feuer) is a ukulele shredder and photographer. ‘Frank,’ the man sitting in a burning chair at the bar... I don’t know who he is. Maybe I will someday.”

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Alex Lilly

Repetition Is A Sin

(Release Me Records)

Oct. 21, 2022 

 

Track Listing:

01. Pure Drivel

02. Frank (STREAM)

03. I’m Getting Better At Falling In Love

04. Spirit

05. Rosalind

06. Delight Me

07. Human

08. Melinda

09. Afternoon In Bloom

10. Bugs Bunny

11. Built For Chaos

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Alex Lilly | About

Repetition is a sin — is it a mantra? A judgment? A fact?
 
Repetition Is A Sin is the title of the upcoming second album by Alex Lilly.
 
Repetition Is A Sin is also a cliffhanger! Will Lilly live up to the challenge she’s issued to herself following the hearty praise for her 2019 debut 2% Milk?
 
“Everything about this debut album by Alex Lilly is spellbinding,” said L.A. Weekly. “Pretty freaking awesome” and “the genuine article” wrote The FADER and FLOOD. NPR’s Los Angeles affiliate KCRW called 2% Milk “a pleasure” and Jon Pareles wrote in The New York Times that Lilly’s songs deliver “structural and emotional complexity with deceptive nonchalance.”
 
Lilly’s talents are on point for other artists, as well. Her co-write of “I Like Girls” for jazz vocalist Samantha Sidley (“Now she’s gluing garden gnomes to geodesic domes, people call it junk, I call it art”) spring boarded that record to a “Top 10 Album of The Year” nod from the Los Angeles Times.
 
Spoiler alert!
 
Lilly’s latest fulfills the promises she made with her first album and much more.
 
First, Repetition Is A Sin is funny! Conversational and free, it is the sound of self-actualization. Lilly’s thoughtful and intelligent wordplay, unexpected and exhilarating production touches, and emotional vulnerability are pure joy.
 
Contrasting this with Lilly’s awesome sense of humor, it is also pure power!
 
And so, with the album opener and first single “Pure Drivel,” Lilly issues an anthem and rebel yell for...  librarians! Because, of course.
 
“I know you canceled all your plans
So come over let’s read some books that got banned mama”
 
“I wanted to write a stay-in date night about reading — a nerdy booty call,” she says. “I was in a book club over the pandemic, which was interesting as we mostly just drank and smoked and never finished a single book.” Lilly then quickly adds, “I’m not proud of this!”
 
Lilly spent part of her pre-solo career touring as part of Beck’s band and he attended Lilly’s book club to read the first chapter of “Moby Dick.”
 
“Because we never finished it, I can only confirm that the first half of ‘Moby Dick’ is great,” she jokes.
 
What Lilly can confirm absolutely is that Repetition Is A Sin “feels emotionally brighter and more jewel-toned than 2% Milk.”
 
The trifecta of tunes that open Repetition Is A Sin include “Frank,” in which Lilly mentions her closest friends by name while questioning if she will get to party with them in the afterlife.
 
“I don’t wanna go to heaven
Cuz none of my friends will be there
No one will be
Getting plastered with me
In the air”
 
“These are all real people mentioned in the song except for Frank,” Lilly explains. “I don’t know who he is. Maybe I will someday.”
 
The many character-driven songs on the album were partially inspired by the pandemic.
 
“Being isolated from people for a bit spurred me on,” Lilly says. “I had a hobby for a while where I was commissioned to write theme songs for humans, including this spectacularly talented and cute tap dancer living in Los Angeles.”
 
That project inspired the album’s “Melinda.” “Well if I ever turn gay, let’s go, If you ever stop being straight, Well let me know,” Lilly sings.
 
“It was a lot of fun and I continued the idea of song portraits for several other tracks on this record, almost like creating my own company that includes friends (“Frank”), movie stars (“Rosalind”), a cartoon character’s alter ego (“Bugs Bunny”), my grandma (“Spirit”), and Frank, the made-up drunk.”
 
The album’s most moving tune is next, a love song like no other. It is an all or nothing moment for Lilly. “I’m Getting Better At Falling In Love” is confessional, vulnerable, optimistic, and hopeful.
 
And of course, hilarious:
 
“I’m getting better at falling in love
I’m getting so good, gotta mind to do it full-time
Love muscles getting buff
Now it’s all that I can do”
 
“I’m Getting Better at Falling in Love” is a happy love song,” Lilly says. “It’s an anomaly for me.”
 
It’s a tune destined to become some couple’s “our song.” So lovey-dovey, but the humor of it all is still just within arm’s reach.
 
Lilly invokes “Seinfeld” character George Costanza to make a point about where she’s coming from on this record, asking, “Do you know the episode where George decides to do the opposite of everything he usually does just to see what difference it makes in his life? I could keep making mistakes, but they had to be new ones. Musically and personally. Repetition is a sin.”
 
On the musical tip, Lilly says, “My recording mindset was very different than it had been in the past. This time, the sounds are dialed in so well, but the feeling is loose.”
 
To make this happen, on the recommendation of friend and fellow musical risk-taker, John Vanderslice, Lilly worked extensively with engineer James Riotto to create Repetition Is A Sin.
 
“We went deep into harnessing the sounds of old oscillators and drum machines, and then syncing them up using an interface. This was the kind of wizardry I was after!
 
“It sounded so good off the bat that it didn’t need to be perfect, which is a pretty swift departure from my normal process. Previously, I felt like I had been an actor in a movie, where I could rely more on editing. Now, I was actor in a play, and had to commit to the emotional arc of an entire take.”
 
Lilly’s movie vs. play analogy is about the best description of this record yet. Unlike a film that you’ve already seen, each listen to Repetition Is A Sin contains the tension of a unique performance. It’s a cliffhanger!
 
Repetition Is A Sin, the second solo album by Alex Lilly, arrives October 21, 2022 via Release Me Records, preceded by the single “Pure Drivel” on September 2.
 
Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
 
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