‘Total Folklore’ is Dan Friel’s debut album for Thrill Jockey, following the limited 12” EP ‘Valedictorian’ / ‘Exoskeleton’.

‘Total Folklore’ is an urban album, the jagged, overblown electronics mimicking the grit and chaos of Brooklyn. As a fan of the epic walk, Friel channelled the commuter while writing and recording these songs. In fact, many songs are paced specifically with walking in mind. The album is peppered with recordings Friel made on his phone while walking around cities, from the sound of kids playing basketball in Brooklyn to the sound of a Con Edison strike in Manhattan, to the sound of the inside of a pachinko parlor in Tokyo.

Throughout, Friel includes short intermissions, improvisations and field recordings, as if the listener is waiting on the corner for the walk signal. ‘Total Folklore’ captures the energy and irreverence of punk, while keeping a foot firmly planted on the streets of electronic pop.

Dan Friel was a founding member of the New York group Parts & Labor, who released five albums and several singles and EPs over their ten year run.

Friel has had recent knockout performances at Thrill Jockey 20th Anniversary shows in Baltimore and New York as well as a sold out London show with Black Dice.

LP version includes artworked inner sleeve and free download coupon. The first 500 LPs are pressed on orange vinyl, remaining copies on black.

“Ecstatic, noisy keyboard-based stuff that, as on ‘Valedictorian’, is full of technicolor chirp, sugar-rush whoosh, and a bucket of adrenaline” – Stereogum

“It’s pretty much bottled raw power” – Tom Ravenscroft, 6Music