Half stepping from Chicago Illinois, these boys peddle that live instruments as samples groove in a seriously heavy way. The band is made up of Elliot Ross- guitar/keys/bass, Thomas Faulds- drums, Charles Gorczynski-woodwinds/keys and Chris Merrill- bass.

Inspired by the sounds of Madlib, J Dilla and Yesterdays Quintet their sound is raw and heavy yet very organic thanks to the use of live instruments over a purely digital set up (my speakers have set up a mushroom farm since picking this up!)

The tracks bring to my mind dusty widescreen pictures of back in the day secret agents, hustling against double crossing  super villains with the lens flare cranked up to ten. This is a big city sound.

You can pick up a copy of this must have gem from the bands site here…

www.spinachprince.com

Heres a taster of one of the tracks from the album..’Ghanina’-

Waiting for your connection at an isolated train station in the depths of winter is a wretched place to be. I know.

I do not drive so I have spent many hours and many more miles crisscrossing the country using the rail system. Its a funny state of limbo experienced when traveling by train, your neither here nor there. There is nothing romantic about modern rail travel. The empty platform and slowly dwindling daylight,the forlorn look down the tracks hoping to catch sight of the next inbound engine. Travel on a Sunday with work the next day and a monkey of a hangover hitching a ride on your shoulders is an altogether different kind of beast..a personal hell. I know. So save any whimsical notions of train travel for the stateside phenomenon of freight hopping and its world of folk songs and the footloose hobo.

A year ago my brother Andy happened to play me a tune he had come up with on his guitar…

The tempo and mood of this piece evoked the loneliness and transient nature of rail travel for me. At the time I was having a small ’sojourn’ away from my artwork due to some creative block, and so found myself playing around with music as another creative release. We recorded Andy in one take doing his thang on an electro-acoustic Martin D-15 (for those that are interested in such things.) I then took the raw recording into Logic and laid some very loose (read as sloppy) percussion over it. It has a real chugging feel to it and the snare hits remind me of a loco cracking over the sleepers of a track. Steam engine whistle samples and synth weirdness were thrown in for atmospherics.

You can hear the short track below which we titled ‘Her train never came in’. At some point I will post another track this time featuring my other brother Scott and one of the earliest songs he wrote from way back. For this one I decided to drop the guitar we recorded and just keep his vocals. Some brass and Lesley Organ were added for a nice retro feel….but that’s another day and another post……

Andy Maclaren – ‘Her train never came in’ – press play to listen

Clocking in at just over 30 mins Workshop – 1 is a downtempo rip tide of sound and melody. The more I listen to it the further down I am dragged to its dusty depths. It’s got it all..acoustic workouts..psyche overtones..string sections..swathes of melancholic soundscapes and as for what drops in at 15:06, well I am picturing a ragtime band that thought to hell with it..dropped some acid and got busy with the hipsters on the corner..Marvelous and dirty and all in the space of 2mins.

Ryan tells me he had quite a few snippets of songs and ideas that worked as little phrases and so mixed them together to make an imagined soundtrack of sorts. Hopefully with time permitting he will be making a series of it. Well it has certainly been the soundtrack to my creative output this week and is a real grower on the ears. You can grab a free copy of the album by clicking the download link below……….

WORKSHOP-1 download

In dire need of some fresh new music to aid me in my creative journeys I began trawling the vast universe that is music net labels…one turn here and another one there and before you can say “funkjazzticaltricknology” I am on the Dusted Wax home page, on the threshold of a whole new chapter in my quest for that perfect beat….

I like a lot of contrasting music but I have always had a penchant for that dusty,bass heavy, jazz inspired shizz. Aside from the fat laces a square of lino and the latest StreetSounds Electro combo of my youth, I will put the blame squarely on the shoulders of mid 90’s label MoWax. Abstract ideas,turntablism and beats to freeze your mind to were the order of the day for this now defunct record label (R.I.P.)

Dusted Wax Kingdom for me, hold true to the downtempo heads out there and the spirit of MoWax.

Based in Varna (Bulgaria) this net label boasts an impressive back catalog of albums and e.p’s, 43 and 3 pending at the last count (oh the joy I had that day in July downloading 28 releases straight on to the ipod…I was in a beat coma for a month!) A global roster of talent including Mr Moods, Violent Public Disorderaz, Skipless, Bulimic Orgy and many more ensures the science is tight and the mood…….so right!

All music is released in MP3 format only, everything is free to listen to…free to download..and free to use in a non commercial way under the terms of creative commons.

May the good ship DWK and its label boss Mitko sail the downtempo seas forevermore in search of that perfect beat……..Personally I do not hold much truck in finding it..but hell I am coming along for the ride!

WWW.DUSTEDWAX.ORG