DOCKING REQUEST GRANTED: Music for Supercruisin' ELITE: Dangerous

World Music

Det som aldrig förändras / Diarabi

San Francisco-based producer Al Lover has spent the last several years evolving an approach to psychedelic reworks of rock ‘n roll in its various inflections. Though they share some common structures, his solo LP debut Sacred Drugs is a thick distillation compared to older remixes or the heady mixtapes he’s curated for Austin Psych Fest, each its own primer on garage and psych in the corresponding year. Sacred Drugs stands out in Al’s discography, though some of its character and more transcendant qualities are hinted at in his collaborations, with GOAT, and particularly on the single “Snake Hands” recorded with White Fence. The elaborate treatments on his 2011 digital album Distorted Reverberations (of Reverberating Distortion): Psychedelic Reinterpretations of Contemporary Rock ‘n Roll offer the most obvious antecedant for Sacred Drugs, but clearly as a collection it lacks the same scope. 

Listening to Sacred Drugs is as transformative an experience as Al’s own style of composition. Songs are a deliberate associative enterprise, paralleling both the contextualization that takes place as part of any conscious “hearing” and the abstract notion of self-development. Texture and tone combine to lead the listener inward, with hypnogogic beats that evoke the sense of ritual awakening when it was still a communal undertaking. In that way Sacred Drugs offers a measured take on reality, a tool for perceiving the outlines of your own interconnectedness… like the eponymous entheogens, Sacred Drugs is intended as a companion for self-discovery.

Al Lover - A Shaman's Hand Is Infinite

Self Titled

Zephyr

Mondo Drag - Zephyr

UNCHAPERONED

Dying Surfer Meets His Maker

Call Me Star

Singles 1965-1967

2000 Light Years From Home ((Original Single Mono Version))

Another Green World

In Dark Trees (2004 Remaster)

Nature

Haikara

Forsvinne

Exploding Head

Keep Slipping Away

Trees

Deep Politics

Future Primitive

The mysterious collective known as Man or Astro-Man? hail from the lowdown depths of Alabama, though their sound is hardly Southern, or American, or even terrestrial. Having released music throughout the ’90s and ’00s on garage punk stronghold Estrus Records as well as the legendary Touch and Go Records, they have wasted no time earning their places as mainstays in the American rock underground. Although they’ve released 10 full-lengths to date, chronicling quasar-hoppingquests and intergalactic misadventure in every direction, the centerpiece of their tenure will always be the band as they are on stage, frenetic, focused and swaddled in literal lightning from a homemade Tesla tower. Naturally, when the fine folks at Third Man Records began planning festivities for Record Store Day 2016, they could not help but indulge in the surf madness of Man or Astro Man? No doubt a signal of things to come—namely the first vinyl record played in space. The result is a retro-futurist surf riff bombast. The career-spanning set (which did include a Tesla tower and, ultimately, a charred drum set— yikes!) was a thermonuclear drag race and a welcome addition to a world-class live series.

Although there’s never a perfect substitute for being in the room when an artist owns the stage, Third Man Records continues to bottle the iridescent magic of the Blue Room with Man…Or Astro-Man? Live.

Man or Astroman Live at Third Man Records

Man... or Astro-Man? - Antimatter Man

Half-Tongue

While on a recent tour of the Western United States, London-based The KVB moved heaven and earth to make this wonderfully meditative 3-part episode possible. Working with award-winning documentary filmmaker Alix Lambert (The Mark of Cain), cinematographer Conor Simpson, engineer Griffin Rodriguez and editor Forrest Borie, the episode employs a simple set of colored gels, soft shadows, playful synth melodies, one cranky drum machine, one enormously loud Jazzmaster, and two unflinching performers. Welcome to the bracingly Zen-like inner-world of The KVB.  

BIO
The KVB is the prolific A/V outlet of artists Nicholas Wood and Kat Day. Combining goth-tinged, abstract imagery with a love of shoegaze guitars, minimal synths, reverb-drenched vocals and rigid beats, Nicholas initially started The KVB as a solo project. After frequent collaborations throughout 2011, Kat Day joined permanently on synths and visuals. Fast on the heels of several EPs and limited-edition cassettes, 2012 saw the release of the band's acclaimed first LP, Always Then, soon followed by tours of the UK, EU, and Western US. In early 2013, The KVB released Immaterial Visions via NYC's Cititrax imprint. If your musical tastes veer toward hypnotic minimal wave and snarling post-punk, The KVB will definitely satisfy your darkest Psychocandy-esque cravings.  


COMPONENTS

Video 
• YouTube: http://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC4EEUwd7e4lP9GLCz-Zo-EQGmsPberDm
• Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/album/2365481

Photos
• Flickr: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEPXt9k

Music
• SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/goincase/sets/the-kvb-at-room-205


CREDITS

Executive Producer
• Incase: http://goincase.com

Producer
• Arlie Carstens: http://disastercasual.typepad.com

Director
• Alix Lambert: http://pinkghettoproductions.com

Cinematography
• Conor Simpson: http://vimeo.com/likeamaniac

Set Designer
• Tamarra Younis: http://union-of-art.net

Set Assistant
• Katie Risinger: http://facebook.com/katieferne

Editor
• Forrest Borie: http://vimeo.com/forrestborie  

Audio Engineer
• Griffin Rodriguez: http://linkedin.com/pub/griffin-rodriguez/1b/599/2a

Camera
• Alix Lambert: http://pinkghettoproductions.com
• Conor Simpson: http://vimeo.com/likeamaniac

Photos
• Arlie Carstens: http://disastercasual.typepad.com

Performing Artist
• The KVB: http://facebook.com/thekvb1

Label
• Cititrax Records: http://cititrax.com

Room 205 Theme Song
• Cora Foxx: http://corafoxx.com

The KVB - Shadows (at Room 205)

Future Primitive

Grails

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