| Ben LaMar Gay — 500 Chains (Sept. 28, 2018) |
Ben LaMar Gay — 500 Chains (Sept. 28, 2018)
✹ Nečekejte nic. Očekávejte vše. Na svém debutovém albu „Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun“ (INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM • 2018) stylově nezařaditelný Chicago musician Ben Lamar Gay alias Juba Dance plodí experimentální jazz, funk hravost, brazilské rytmy a smyslnost Prince.
✹ Jeho hudební vlivy pocházejí ze sbírky zkušeností celé Ameriky a shromážděných dat, vedených technologií a jejch zesílením přístupnosti. Skutečnost, že svět je blíže technologiím a že každý má přístup k možnosti prozkoumat různé myšlenky, činí jeho avantgardní verzi Americany velmi globální. Přijetím mezinárodní vize a zároveň setrvávající věrnosti svým kořenům, se tvůrčí výstup Ben LaMar Gaye vyrovnává s poctivým pojetím a s předpokladem, že ví, jak být mužem z jižní strany Chicaga.
✹ Composer, cornetist, vocalist, and producer. Member of The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.
Location: South Side of Chicago
Genre: Electronic, Jazz
Style: Contemporary Jazz, Experimental
Album release: September 28, 2018
Record Label: International Anthem
Duration: 62:42
Tracks:
01. 1st Stanza 2:23
02. The Escape, The Chase 9:38
03. 2nd Stanza 1:12
04. Fireflies 5:31
05. 3rd Stanza 1:06
06. Lamps 11:17
07. 4th Stanza 1:52
08. The River, The Warden, and You 3:14
09. 5th Stanza 1:23
10. From Alter Boy to Villain 5:33
11. 6th Stanza 1:56
12. One Thousand Butterflies 7:27
13. 7th Stanza 0:56
14. Oh no...not again! 4:44
15. 8th Stanza 4:30
Personnel:
✹ Ben LaMar Gay — cornet, synth, voice, narration, flute.
✹ Will Faber — guitar, ngoni, synth, fretless 12~string guitar, flute.
✹ Joshua Sirotiak — tuba, flute.
✹ Tommaso Moretti — drums, flute.
Credits:
✹ Recorded & Mixed by Richard Malstrom.
✹ Mastered by David Allen.
✹ Art by A. Martinez.
✹ Written, Composed & Produced by Ben LaMar Gay.
Description:
✹ Seven pieces of animated, dynamic & melodic, colorful quartet music that sound, to our ears, like Andre 3000 (the balladeer) backed by a Mardi Gras marching band channeling Chicago style post rock & free jazz...
✹ ...buffered by 8 story stanzas narrated by Ben LaMar Gay that illustrate the „audiobook“ experience of „500 Chains“.
✹ „500 Chains“ is 1 of 7 previously~unreleased back catalogue albums included in the source material for Ben LaMar Gay’s „Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun“ compilation (IARC0017).
Bandcamp: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/500-chains
✹ https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/grapes-2
GrapesAlbum release: November 1, 2018
Record Label: International Anthem
Duration: 33:30
Tracks:
01. Concord 1:10
02. Please Stay. Keep Breathing. 3:53
03. U say it! 0:06
04. Tears 3:35
05. Vitis Labrusca 0:31
06. Muhal 3:43
07. Music for 18 Hairdressers: Braids & Fractals 2:25
08. Mr. Zuzu Boils em Cabbage 0:25
09. Springtime for Poplockers 2:49
10. Me, JayVe & The Big Bee 1:45
11. The Glorification Of Small Victories 4:07
12. Nina Peels a Grape 0:28
13. Uvas 4:18
14. 7am Sunday Morning 4:15
Credits:
✹ Composed & Recorded by Ben LaMar Gay
✹ Voices by Gira Dahnee & Hanna Brock on “Muhal,” “The Glorification of Small Victories,” and “Tears”
✹ Woodwinds by Rob Frye on “Muhal”
✹ Sax by JayVe Montgomery on “Me, JayVe & The Big Bee”
✹ Vocals by Zuzu Fe on “Mr Zuzu”
✹ Voice by Nina Adams on “Nina”
✹ Strings by Hanna Brock on “Uvas”
✹ All other instruments & vocals by Ben LaMar Gay
✹ Mixed by Stephen Ptacek & Ben LaMar Gay
✹ Mastered by David Allen
✹ Album Artwork by Maren Celest
About:
✹ Grapes is a brilliantly eclectic collection of beats, soundscapes, home recordings & field recordings composed & produced by Gay across 2013 & 2014 in Chicago. Of all Gay’s back catalogue nuggets, Grapes may be the best overall showcase for his ability to crank out alluring & artful bangers (a la Shabazz Palaces, or Organized Noise outtakes that were too avant~garde to make Outkast albums in the mid~90s). But it’s not strictly a low~end exercise.. Among his lyrical endeavors, Grapes is most unique in its vivid sensory depictions of Gay’s home zone. Folded inside the context of iPhone voice memos, short snippets from everyday music~making and everyday life with family & friends, are gorgeous cinematic sonic portraits of Bronzeville (the historic Black cultural & intellectual hub of Chicago’s Southside). With this in mind it’s no surprise to learn that he was highly inspired by the narrative paintings of Kerry James Marshall (the album’s last track is a direct homage to his “7am Sunday Morning” canvas). And that Gay’s intention was to make music that “sounds like the murals of Bronzeville coming to life.”
More on intentions, in Gay’s own words:
✹ “Grapes is a love letter to creative movements, works, artists (past, present, future) in Chicago such as the Black Arts Movement of 60’s and 70’s, Africobra, the AACM, the Southside Community Art Center, Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Burroughs, Charles White, Kerry James Marshall... It’s an accumulation of emotions and reflections... created by observing the local happenings through a global lens that was developed as a self~defense mechanism... a global lens dispersing light on the many connections between different folks of different locales thus creating cultural clusters that may resemble a bunch of grapes hanging from a vine pointed towards the earth. If there were a color to describe the music, it would be a deep rich purple like the color of Concord grapes.”
✹ Grapes is 1 of 7 previously unreleased back catalogue albums included in the source material for Ben LaMar Gay’s “Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun” compilation (IARC0017).
_____________________________________________________________
| Ben LaMar Gay — 500 Chains (Sept. 28, 2018) |
✹ Jeho hudební vlivy pocházejí ze sbírky zkušeností celé Ameriky a shromážděných dat, vedených technologií a jejch zesílením přístupnosti. Skutečnost, že svět je blíže technologiím a že každý má přístup k možnosti prozkoumat různé myšlenky, činí jeho avantgardní verzi Americany velmi globální. Přijetím mezinárodní vize a zároveň setrvávající věrnosti svým kořenům, se tvůrčí výstup Ben LaMar Gaye vyrovnává s poctivým pojetím a s předpokladem, že ví, jak být mužem z jižní strany Chicaga.
✹ Composer, cornetist, vocalist, and producer. Member of The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.
Location: South Side of Chicago
Genre: Electronic, Jazz
Style: Contemporary Jazz, Experimental
Album release: September 28, 2018
Record Label: International Anthem
Duration: 62:42
Tracks:
01. 1st Stanza 2:23
02. The Escape, The Chase 9:38
03. 2nd Stanza 1:12
04. Fireflies 5:31
05. 3rd Stanza 1:06
06. Lamps 11:17
07. 4th Stanza 1:52
08. The River, The Warden, and You 3:14
09. 5th Stanza 1:23
10. From Alter Boy to Villain 5:33
11. 6th Stanza 1:56
12. One Thousand Butterflies 7:27
13. 7th Stanza 0:56
14. Oh no...not again! 4:44
15. 8th Stanza 4:30
Personnel:
✹ Ben LaMar Gay — cornet, synth, voice, narration, flute.
✹ Will Faber — guitar, ngoni, synth, fretless 12~string guitar, flute.
✹ Joshua Sirotiak — tuba, flute.
✹ Tommaso Moretti — drums, flute.
Credits:
✹ Recorded & Mixed by Richard Malstrom.
✹ Mastered by David Allen.
✹ Art by A. Martinez.
✹ Written, Composed & Produced by Ben LaMar Gay.
Description:
✹ Seven pieces of animated, dynamic & melodic, colorful quartet music that sound, to our ears, like Andre 3000 (the balladeer) backed by a Mardi Gras marching band channeling Chicago style post rock & free jazz...
✹ ...buffered by 8 story stanzas narrated by Ben LaMar Gay that illustrate the „audiobook“ experience of „500 Chains“.
✹ „500 Chains“ is 1 of 7 previously~unreleased back catalogue albums included in the source material for Ben LaMar Gay’s „Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun“ compilation (IARC0017).
Bandcamp: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/500-chains
✹ https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/grapes-2
Record Label: International Anthem
Duration: 33:30
Tracks:
01. Concord 1:10
02. Please Stay. Keep Breathing. 3:53
03. U say it! 0:06
04. Tears 3:35
05. Vitis Labrusca 0:31
06. Muhal 3:43
07. Music for 18 Hairdressers: Braids & Fractals 2:25
08. Mr. Zuzu Boils em Cabbage 0:25
09. Springtime for Poplockers 2:49
10. Me, JayVe & The Big Bee 1:45
11. The Glorification Of Small Victories 4:07
12. Nina Peels a Grape 0:28
13. Uvas 4:18
14. 7am Sunday Morning 4:15
Credits:
✹ Composed & Recorded by Ben LaMar Gay
✹ Voices by Gira Dahnee & Hanna Brock on “Muhal,” “The Glorification of Small Victories,” and “Tears”
✹ Woodwinds by Rob Frye on “Muhal”
✹ Sax by JayVe Montgomery on “Me, JayVe & The Big Bee”
✹ Vocals by Zuzu Fe on “Mr Zuzu”
✹ Voice by Nina Adams on “Nina”
✹ Strings by Hanna Brock on “Uvas”
✹ All other instruments & vocals by Ben LaMar Gay
✹ Mixed by Stephen Ptacek & Ben LaMar Gay
✹ Mastered by David Allen
✹ Album Artwork by Maren Celest
About:
✹ Grapes is a brilliantly eclectic collection of beats, soundscapes, home recordings & field recordings composed & produced by Gay across 2013 & 2014 in Chicago. Of all Gay’s back catalogue nuggets, Grapes may be the best overall showcase for his ability to crank out alluring & artful bangers (a la Shabazz Palaces, or Organized Noise outtakes that were too avant~garde to make Outkast albums in the mid~90s). But it’s not strictly a low~end exercise.. Among his lyrical endeavors, Grapes is most unique in its vivid sensory depictions of Gay’s home zone. Folded inside the context of iPhone voice memos, short snippets from everyday music~making and everyday life with family & friends, are gorgeous cinematic sonic portraits of Bronzeville (the historic Black cultural & intellectual hub of Chicago’s Southside). With this in mind it’s no surprise to learn that he was highly inspired by the narrative paintings of Kerry James Marshall (the album’s last track is a direct homage to his “7am Sunday Morning” canvas). And that Gay’s intention was to make music that “sounds like the murals of Bronzeville coming to life.”
More on intentions, in Gay’s own words:
✹ “Grapes is a love letter to creative movements, works, artists (past, present, future) in Chicago such as the Black Arts Movement of 60’s and 70’s, Africobra, the AACM, the Southside Community Art Center, Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Burroughs, Charles White, Kerry James Marshall... It’s an accumulation of emotions and reflections... created by observing the local happenings through a global lens that was developed as a self~defense mechanism... a global lens dispersing light on the many connections between different folks of different locales thus creating cultural clusters that may resemble a bunch of grapes hanging from a vine pointed towards the earth. If there were a color to describe the music, it would be a deep rich purple like the color of Concord grapes.”
✹ Grapes is 1 of 7 previously unreleased back catalogue albums included in the source material for Ben LaMar Gay’s “Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun” compilation (IARC0017).
_____________________________________________________________