shapes & colors abracadabra SKU: MELO135LP Barcode: 5060168043658 19.00 £19.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Melodic Released Date: 20th January 2023 Buying Format: 1LP Out of stock Back Order Add to your Wishlist Description Product Info ‘shapes & colors’ shimmies with the charismatic energy of ESG, Tom Tom Club, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, and the dub hits of King Tubby, the melodic sensibilities of Prince, Stereolab, and idiosyncratic Deerhoof offering an ornate alternative to traditional guitar pop chord progressions as they layer wrecking ball-sized danceable motifs to rumble the dust off the cars on the street from the nearby concrete factory. If you find the time, please come and stay a while in abracadabra’s beautiful neighbourhood; a magically wonky wonderland where strangers leave as friends to a block party soundtrack as eclectic as it is infectious. The California duo’s album shapes & colors is a dazzling collage of psych-fuelled synthscapes and contemporary Baroque-pop of anti-capitalist movements and escapism, precisely pieced around their own working lives in a blue-collar town. In the heart of Oakland’s industrial Jingletown above a former auto-repair shop in what was once a mechanics’ break room where poker rounds ensued, Hannah Skelton (Vocals, Synthesizers) and Chris Niles, (Bass, Synthesizers) constructed the angular 80s-tinged anthems (think John Hughes montages to Talking Heads) of their new album, to positively offset the pandemic’s amplification of dysfunctional society. “It reflects our current reality: a huge mess that is systematically broken but isn’t entirely lost,” Hannah tells. “We’re inviting listeners to conjure up every drop of hope and willpower left inside them, pour that into the giant vat of anger and frustration bubbling inside us all, and with this potion collectively enact the necessary change to bring love and light into this dark space.” When Covid forced Hannah from her salon in San Francisco to become a backyard mobile hairdresser, what she saw inspired them both and the lyrical foundations for their new record. “I’d drive to mansions and people would complain about how hard the pandemic had been next to their swimming pool and tennis courts.” First meeting after the album’s co-producer Jason Kick (Mild High Club, Sonny and the Sunsets) recruited the pair for a Halloween band covering Eurythmics’ art-rock debut ‘In The Garden,’ the pair hit it off and shapes & colors is a product of the years that followed. It combines Chris’ own rhythmic demos following years on the road touring and opening for Amon Tobin, Matthew Dear and Generationals in Maus Haus with Hannah’s lyrical musings honed from project Cassiopeia, so even when topics are as heavy as the beats, they’re met with luminously positive arrangements of hope and warmth. The by-product of a psychedelic New Year’s Eve escaping a monotonous 2020 reality, the title track itself captures fireworks over East Oakland as viewed from the pair’s couch whilst listening to Mort Garson’s Plantasia for 6 hours straight. The daydream collage of ‘inyo county’ is “a little souvenir taking me back into the bottled-up essence of a slow lazy morning, waking up in bed far from home,” Hannah tells recalling those enforced stay-at-home days. “It fell out of me because I was craving that blissful flavour.” Meanwhile ‘dawn of the age of aquarius’s new parallel reality evolved from a happy accident when their demos had reset to a drone which Jason reworked into a Laurie Anderson-esque breathy vocoder effect. Even bloops and beeps from a forgotten recording session at the Vintage Synthesizer Museum in Emeryville can be heard, where the pair used Mini Moog, Fairlight EMI and ARP 2600 to arrange their sound into shapes whilst distortion and dirt from mixing on 1979 Neve 5313 Console added to the recordings’ color. Casting a brighter rainbow still, in all its pastel-hued glory, Hannah, also illustrated a self-portrait of the band for the album artwork. “It reflects our makeshift recording studio to encapsulate all aspects of that time and space,” she shares of their abode where, over an intense two-week period and fuelled by the aroma of fermenting vino from the winery below, their single chord, bass and drum-heavy, groove-first momentum took them on an unexpected journey whilst the next-door couple would fire pizzas in their yard and a grandfather across the road would sweep the street clean. “We’d drink coffee and start the day, consistently working, without interruption,” Chris tells of finding their flow. “The loft is a cool space with skylights, tall ceilings and no shared walls so we could be as loud as we wanted to be.” Just as well. Diving into decades of electronica and crunchy sound effects, field recordings and animal sounds, blended with an infectious Latin influence, shapes & colors is bolstered by live percussionists Greg Poneris (drums), K. Dylan Edrich (Vocals, Percussion: congas, bongos, chimes, cow bells and wood blocks, tone drum and tri-tone whistle) and Tom Smith (Guitar, Synthesizers, Vocals). NIMBY crews grab those earplugs now. abracadabra is your new noisy neighbour, and there’s no turning this party down. Artist abracadabra Genre Electronica Label Melodic Buying Options 1LP Format 1LP Condition New Country UK Track Listings talk talk in a photo telling time swim inyo county don't like u impactor at the zoo shapes & colors dawn of the age of aquarius Share this On Facebook On Twitter Via Email More from Electronica View Product Quick View Tycho Awake (anniversary) Electronica | Ghostly | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 15th September 2023 £24.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Tycho Awake (anniversary) £24.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Ghostly SKU: GI208LPC3 Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 15th September 2023 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Com Truise In Decay, Too Electronica | Ghostly | 2LP Released 4th December 2020 £25.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Com Truise In Decay, Too £25.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Ghostly Released Date: 4th December 2020 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Leon Vynehall DJ-Kicks Electronica | !K7 Recordings | 2LP, Includes Download Code Released 1st February 2019 £25.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Leon Vynehall DJ-Kicks £25.00 Genre: Electronica Label: !K7 Recordings SKU: K7377LP Formats: 2LP, Includes Download Code Released Date: 1st February 2019 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Vanishing Twin Ookii Gekkou Electronica | Fire Records | 1LP Released 8th April 2022 £21.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Vanishing Twin Ookii Gekkou £21.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Fire Records SKU: FIRELP583S Formats: 1LP Released Date: 8th April 2022 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Yazoo Four Pieces A Yazoo Compendium Electronica | BMG Records | 4LP, Box Set Released 22nd October 2018 £75.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Yazoo Four Pieces A Yazoo Compendium £75.00 Genre: Electronica Label: BMG Records SKU: 4050538379761 Formats: 4LP, Box Set Released Date: 22nd October 2018 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Ed Dowie The Obvious I Electronica | Needle Mythology | 1LP Released 26th February 2021 £19.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Ed Dowie The Obvious I £19.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Needle Mythology SKU: NEMYLP008 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 26th February 2021 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Sedibus Seti Electronica | Cooking Vinyl | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 23rd February 2024 £23.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Sedibus Seti £23.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Cooking Vinyl SKU: ORBSLP005 Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 23rd February 2024 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Pye Corner Audio The Endless Echo Electronica | Ghost Box | 1LP Released 5th April 2024 £20.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations Pye Corner Audio The Endless Echo £20.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Ghost Box SKU: GBX045LP Formats: 1LP Released Date: 5th April 2024 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket Nearly New View Product Quick View Spooky Tooth / Pierre Henry Ceremony: An Electronic Mass Electronica | Island | 1LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released 24th June 2021 £30.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations Spooky Tooth / Pierre Henry Ceremony: An Electronic Mass £30.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Island SKU: nn225707 Formats: 1LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released Date: 24th June 2021 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket Nearly New View Product Quick View George Clinton The Cinderella Story Electronica | Paisley Park | 1LP Released 15th February 2024 £14.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations George Clinton The Cinderella Story £14.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Paisley Park SKU: nn280998 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 15th February 2024 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket See more in Electronica Start again
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