Chautauqua EP and Axxess
Today I entered the marketplace of new, underappreciated, underpromoted, underhyped, (inset under-whatever here) artists with my group Chautauqua, and our release, the Chautauqua EP. Its a collab that I did with Loose Shus, who is very good at making beats and converting his (and my) ideas into reality. I’m proud of it, and I know perhaps that is tough to be trusted since I’m also writing about it, but you can start the “check this out” process for free by downloading the track, “Suspended Animation”, from the cool widget below. As Mitch Hedburg once stated “Go into my head and then come out and tell me I’m wrong”. Feel free to leave all love and/or hate comments in the comments section of this post and be specific (maybe by the end of this process Chautauqua will make big-room house, like the loads of producers who actually made decent music at one point, and then went on their first tour, and concluded that changing their sound to a more obvious format is what they need to do to get people to dance and scream and stuff. Assimilate!). I already foresee this post as being very long, and having a lot of parenthesis. Buy the EP at Amazon, Juno Download, or Itunes.
Now, in some relation to the sentiments proposed by my self-promotion above, it goes without saying that in the last 5-10 years or so there has been an enormous boom in small labels taking hold of the music marketplace. Not necessarily taking hold in terms of actually selling copies or having any sway on music culture en-mass, but taking hold in terms of just being present and capable of putting out a few releases before folding, or simply remaining in obscurity (so maybe not really “taking hold”, but they are there for those that seek that type of stuff out). AND YES!…with a marked “amateur” increase, you as a consumer are gonna sift through and maybe even buy a few releases that look, sound, and are pressed like is absolute shit. Luckily, there are also a bunch of new labels and artists that really have their own identities, with some unique vibes and ideas thrown in, and additionally, some others (and I’m talking labels here) which just dig super deep to find classic, overlooked, rare, or altogether unreleased materials from obscure artists, and actually do them some justice with a quality new release. Which leads me too…
I came across this Axxess record, Novels For The Moons, at a record store, without knowing anything about it and purchased it based solely on the cover and description sticker alone (in case anybody was wondering if anybody reads those, it worked on me)…and what is not to like about a former co-director of Lamborghini Motors, creating crazy tech-y electro (think along the lines of Steve Roach, TD, Kraftwerk, etc…) on a custom-made complex synthesizer (which eventually materialized into a 16 voice analog synthesizer), which was released on his own imprint, Lamborghini Records in 1983. It’s one of those rare records that you can listen to from start to finish. Here is a You-tube taste test, but I highly suggest seeking out a copy, and checking out the rest of Medical Records (out of Seattle) catalogue of amazing reissues in the classic synth, cosmic disco, wave (cold/new), and future music veigns.