For Night Beats’ Levitation Session, Danny Lee Blackwell and his band ventured out into the Mojave Desert and recorded a discography spanning 13 track set on reel-to-reel tape, featuring classic Night Beats tracks + our first chance to hear some jams off their new LP “Outlaw R&B” in the live setting. Recording with all analog equipment in the blazing Mojave heat was a test of both the band and their vintage gear (they even had to put ice on their guitar pedals to keep them operational), but well worth the trouble because they emerged from the desert with a dusty, warm-hued rock n roll artifact ready to share with the world. More than just a cool location, the desert provided Night Beats an opportunity to tap into something deeper in the Mojave: “For our Levitation Session we recorded on reel-to-reel 1/2 inch tape in the middle of the Mojave Desert in Antelope Valley. Due to my natural tendencies to explore the layers of my ancestry and being forever inspired by the beautiful sounds coming out of the Saharan desert, I wanted to challenge myself to produce a recording that doesn’t filter but fully embraces a similar environment. A search for symbiosis between the music and the ground it’s made on. Thanks to a place I love and respect, a welcomed challenge, and some of my closest friends, what you are hearing is Night Beats in one of its truest and rarest forms. Thank you for listening and thank you to those who lived on and cherished this land before us.” – Danny Lee Blackwell // Night Beats