“Towning demonstrates a knack for unconventional looping,
sonic accumulation, and a good joke.” – All Music Guide
Following up previous releases for the Illegal Art (Girl
Talk) and Seeland Records (Negativland) labels
among others, Brooklyn-based electronic music collage artist James
Towningreleased his latest album as Realistic on February
29th.
The latest single from the album is its lead-off track “Math
Is Hard” now available for streaming and download. Towning describes
the song, saying, “The track’s core music box melody is derived from a 1991 Fact
TwentyTwo song named ‘Collapse’. Excerpts from Dean
Martin’s ‘That’s Amore’ and beats from XTC’s ‘Making
Plans For Nigel’ carry the track along.”
Other tracks sampled on “Math Is Hard” include Sonny
James’ “Young Love” and “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy
James & the Shondells.
Realistic’s Drowned In Meaning (the
album title is intentionally sarcastic) features 16 tracks comprised of
hundreds of samples -- some obvious, some obviously obscure -- stitched and
layered with Towning’s own synthesizers, drum machines, digital
effects, and keen sense of humor.
The album’s previous single “Token Gestures” featured
the Hall & Oates hit “Kiss On My List”,
vintage tape of the Mars rover lift off sequence, and the sound of a fireworks
display that Towning recorded in Brooklyn Heights.
The video for the song is now streaming. Towning says
that the clip “is an exploration of multi-layered compositing techniques
similar to how the music is created. Snippets of video fromDavid Bowie, The
Mighty Boosh, and ‘The Big Blue Marble’ are synchronized
with the original samples and combined with stock footage of people pretending
to feel emotion.”
Realistic
Drowned In Meaning
(Blackmail Electronics – Out Now)
Request: FULL LP
Track Listing:
01. Math Is Hard
02. Cuddle Party Headrush
03. Notes to Self
04. Token Gestures
05. Drama Distortion
06. Dot Pattern
07. Glitter and Glue
08. Moment of Realisation
09. One Hundred Years
10. Woozy Familiarity
11. Pointless Creative Endeavor
12. The Sea of Showers
13. Good Luck With All That
14. Mining for Content
15. Pursuit of Happiness
16. Late Nights and Weekends
No comments:
Post a Comment