Lag Air is the debut album by Alluvial Fans. This collection of songs were written back in 2014-2015 by Drew and tabled until the project was revived in the winter of 2019 with Gilad Granot on bass guitar and Ollie Elkus on drums and backup vocals. Drew started recording the songs by himself in 2018 before linking up with Ollie in the fall of 2018. Ollie re-recorded all the drums and Gilad hopped in on bass for live shows and recorded Nostalgia Ct.

The record integrates a few genres within the realms of rock and indie music, exploring high-energy distorted rock/punk tunes such as Jagged Earth, Settle, No Evidence and That Knot, slower tempo alternative music in songs Historic Preservation, Landscape #1 and Nostalgia Ct and pop music as found in Head of Jets and Relaxatives.

Being tunes that have been simmering over the years, Lag Air as an album title represents the time it took for these songs to come to fruition. The band intends to close the lag time between releases and is working on a 2nd record of newer material to be released early in 2020.

Track Credits:

Drew Bartosik - Lead Vox, Electric Guitar, Bass, Piano, FX, Samples
Gilad Granot - Bass
Ollie Elkus - Drums, Backup Vox

Recorded, Engineered and Mixed by Drew Bartosik
@ Reverse Release Studios in Detroit, MI
Mastered by Erik Maluchnik

Album Artwork by Drew, Gilad, Ollie and ceiling leaks

CD and Tape Design Direction by Irish Jurvis

Head Of Jets

Settle

No Evidence

Historic Preservation

That Knot (That I Know)

Jagged Earth

“Cult of Paradise” is the first single off of the second album “Earth to Astronaut” by Alluvial Fans. The song captures the indie, pop and rock elements of the band inside the frame of an atypical song structure, a compositional theme found throughout the album. An in-your-face intro ends with the vocals claiming “Parted lips can summon the latent air” and is followed by a quick tempo change to a catchy verse and chorus section. Weighing natural beauty and perfection with the human role of interpretation and cultivation, the chorus observes, “Everytime the feeling hits words can’t describe / Patterns so geometric, a perfect design.” The song then transitions from a jangly bridge into a rock breakdown before abruptly ending, unresolved. The original ideas for the songs go back a couple years, but the composition was finalized when the band started rehearsing it together. “Cult of Paradise”, like the whole album, was recorded by the band with 2nd guitar overdubs and mixed by Drew in their practice and studio space over the summer of 2019 in Detroit, MI. It is set to be released on Thursday April 16th, 2020.

Cult Of Paradise

“Droves” is the second single off of the second album “Earth to Astronaut” by Alluvial Fans. A quiet acoustic guitar intro that’s interspersed with glitchy-reverse electric guitars gathers momentum until it builds to the point of no return. A small crescendo and the flood-gates open; a crushing distorted guitar is accompanied with crashing cymbals to the peak freak-out moment of the song. The vocals enter, “The antique spine unfurls from spiral slumbers / Props up the modern head” amidst the sonic cascade. After the hype dies down, the intro returns as the verse and a moment of reflection. “Although it’s coming back to me in droves, I know / The roots have always been there”. A meditation on the relationship between the manipulation of nature into technology and how to cope with it’s exponential pace, the verse becomes a moment of solace and acceptance amidst the chaos of the natural world. By the time this verse ends, a sharp tempo change launches the group down a bridge of syncopated and synchronized rhythms. Blossoming through repetition and layers, this bridge reaches its end and returns the listener to the mosh-worthy chorus. Acknowledgement of ancestral undercurrents come full circle as the vocals continue, “Postmodern mind recedes in coiled future / Into its antique cave” Layered vocals emerge after the rubble as the verse picks up and neutrally recognizes, “This high won’t last forever” and resolves with the conviction that “Tonight I make a point to speak my mind, in time / So we can share a culture”. Among the most dynamic songs of the album such as “Test the Waters” and “Something Happened To You”, it is one of the first to be written by Drew and Ollie while rehearsing and jamming in early 2019. This makes it more organic, collaborative and inventive than other songs which were written by Drew and then brought to the band in the “Lag Air” era, setting precedent for the rest of the songs on “Earth to Astronaut”. It is set to be released on Thursday April 30th, 2020.

Droves

“Blowout / Future Games” is the fourth single off of the second album “Earth to Astronaut” by Alluvial Fans. A muted clean guitar and samba groove introduce the harmonic content of the verse before blasting off into the overdriven pit-opening verse. The vocals in the verses are an invitation to the angsty, confused and burned-out peoples of the world to entertain the reality that “what you consume is consuming you” and “what you produce is producing you”. The chorus reverts to clean guitar over a descending sequential bar chord progression that would resonate with admirers of classic Detroit style garage-rock. “Two for my friends / one for myself”, is repeated as the chorus’ selfless mantra, or perhaps a person ordering drinks at the bar for friends. The first half of this song was written as an homage to the general vibe and influence the Detroit and Hamtramck rock scene has had in shaping the band’s sound. The chorus transitions on a Who-esque bridge with barely perceivable impromptu screaming about revolting with the people on the streets to the second half of the song. Whilst slowing the tempo, the “Future Games” part of the track retains the same energy as the “Blowout” portion. Quiet guitars yet again explode into an overdriven mosh-inciting refrain, “It’s just the future playing games with me”. The vocals unfold with a twisted brow questioning, “Who is charging miscellaneous fees” and a resolution that, “I won’t suffer unnecessarily”. The track climaxes with layered distorted feedback and driving drums before giving out on an open E chord. While maybe not as thrash-y and riff-y as tracks such as “Catharsis Now!” and “Falafel”, “Blowout / Future Games” showcases the no-chaser rock ‘n’ roll side of Alluvial Fans, especially in the context of a live performance. It is set to be released on Thursday May 28th, 2020.

Blowout / Future Games

Alluvial Fans is an indie-rock band based out of Detroit, MI. It is the brainchild of Drew Bartosik (guitar, vocals), who began writing music for the first album, “Lag Air,” in 2015. After taking a few years to work on other projects, Drew began recording the album sans bandmates in 2018. The group's forming happened as an appendage of that process. In fact, those religious among us consider the band's meeting to be proof of divine providence. Reduced to three clues the band's forming was a matter of, firstly, a broken down tour van, secondly, a salvaged show, and thirdly, a most indecorous doorman, which happen to be three distinct runes found on the walls of the famed Carlsbad Caverns of Eddy County, New Mexico. Ollie (drums, vocals) — at the time moonlighting for a punk band out of Maine — booked a tour date at Donovan's Pub in Detroit. On the bill was no other than Gil A.D. — the DJ moniker of Gilad Granot (bass) — and Drew Bartosik, playing solo with a drum machine, casio keyboard and pedalboard.  

In not but a few months following that fateful show, Alluvial Fans was reborn from the ashes. Ollie moved to Detroit and was laying down drum tracks on “Lag Air,” and Gilad joined shortly after for local shows and tour dates around the Midwest. Following this string of shows, the band collaborated on the material that would become the band's second album, “Earth to Astronaut,” and the sound that would define a new generation. For that reason, “Earth to Astronaut” can be viewed as a debut album for the band as a unit. To celebrate that new found unity, the band recorded the instrumentals for the album live, in stark contrast to the first album, which was done piecemeal. The title, “Earth to Astronaut,” came about in one of Drew's famous dreams en route to a show in Cleveland. The most significant themes of the title were uncovered during a band meditation retreat in the Finger Lakes, namely: the juxtaposition of technology and nature, reorientation from independence to interdependence, and the consummation of reflection, solidarity, and devotion.

Alluvial Fans merges high-energy rock ‘n’ roll and punk with indie, pop and jazz sensibilities. The intent is to explore the space between the extremes of distorted, mosh-worthy cathartic freak outs and quiet, sentimental and reflective moments. The aesthetic ends up being one of balance, resonating in the spectrum of human emotions from fear, anger and sadness to joy, peace and comedy. Exemplified in the use of typical and atypical song structures throughout the album’s ten songs, “Earth to Astronaut” is important as a transition into dynamic growth for Alluvial Fans; a simultaneous nod to the past and handshake with the future.  There is also a larger intentional and metaphorical arc for Alluvial Fans: the music will become softer and more dynamic as time passes on, much in the way that water erodes hard rock into sediments. Alluvial Fans, being a geological phenomenon, resonated as the band name alongside Drew’s reverence for the natural world and interest in fractal patterns. Beyond the meta-aspects of the name, it doubles well as a name for a “rock” band, perhaps a symbol of the band’s dry humor. Other self-described genres include smock rock, art punk, and garage jazz.

Inspired by the prolific output of their predecessors and contemporaries, social influences, and their commitment to their art, Alluvial Fans has a third album in the works, targeting an early-mid 2021 release. Until then, “Earth to Astronaut” is set to come out Friday, June 5th, 2020. Four singles will be released  — “Cult of Paradise” out Thursday April 16th, 2020, “Droves” out Thursday April 30th, 2020, “Say It’s So” out Thursday May 14th, 2020, and “Blowout / Future Games” out Thursday May 28th, 2020. They will be available on Bandcamp, SoundCloud and all major streaming platforms.

Say It's So

Indie rock trio combining high-energy punk with jazz sensibilities. Detroit, MI.