Drop City was an artists' community formed in southern Colorado in 1965. It was the first real commune, pre-summer of love and inspired by the happenings of Allan Kaprow, the Fluxos movement and John Cage. The commune's most celebrated collaboration was an improvised piece they called 'The Ultimate Painting'. It's from this esoteric world that James Hoare andJack Cooper named their new project 'Ultimate Painting' and it's history and meaning feels strangely fitting as you traverse your way through their debut self-titled LP (out October 28th on Trouble In Mind). Today, Ultimate Painting shares the excellent "Winter in Your Heart" via Noisey.
The duo met and the seeds of their creative partnership were sewn whilst Jack's band Mazeswere supporting James' band Veronica Falls on a European tour. Having both been brought up on a heady stream of 60s bands and with a mutual appreciation of classic recording techniques, they set out to collaborate the old fashioned way, not allowing their music to be touched by anything digital.
The entirety of the record was recorded straight to tape in James' flat over a few months. "We wanted to make something, that above all else, sounded really beautiful and easy." And it does. It unravels and explodes outwards, at times meandering through a sparse dim lit cave and at others soaring up above the trees led by the perfect melody.
The whole record feels like the rural romanticism of Ray Davies crossed with the cosmopolitan chic of early-Seventies NYC. The languid drive of Stereolab with a wyrd melancholy.
Just as Drop City's collaboration 'The Ultimate Painting' spun a web of colours, shades and perfectly balanced shapes, James Hoare and Jack Cooper have crafted a record of understated home-recorded perfection.
LISTEN TO ULTIMATE PAINTING'S "WINTER IN YOUR HEART":
ULTIMATE PAINTING TRACKLIST:
1. Ultimate Painting
2. Can't You See
3. Talking Central Park Blues
4. Riverside
5. Ten Street
6. Rolling in the Deep End
7. Three Piers
8. Jane
9. She's A Boom
10. Winter in Your Heart
ULTIMATE PAINTING TOUR DATES:
Thu. Aug. 14 - Manchester, UK @ The Castle
Sat. Aug. 16 - London, UK @ Garden Show
Sun. Aug. 17 - London, UK @ Brixton Windmill
Sat. Sept. 20 - Southsea, UK @ Southsea Fest
Pre-order Ultimate Painting: http://bit.ly/1r5AhXn
Ultimate Painting online:
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