(⁠ʘ⁠ᴗ⁠ʘ⁠✿⁠)(⁠✯⁠ᴗ⁠✯⁠)(⁠✿⁠^⁠‿⁠^⁠)

Now in our twelfth year, the LUCKYME® advent calendar showcases the whole family as we continue to change how things sound.

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LuckyMe Advent 21

Artist: Giant Claw
Album: Mirror Guide
Format: Digital / Vinyl
Release: May 7 or 14, 2021

Music by Keith Rankin
Visual art by Ellen Thomas and Keith Rankin
Mastered by Starkey

Artist Statement:

I have been recording Mirror Guide off and on since my previous album Soft Channel came out in 2017, working on pieces in my spare time while co-running Orange Milk Records and trying to make a living as a freelance visual artist. 

I wanted Mirror Guide to feel less frenzied than some of my previous music, and decided to use a hyperreal string sound as a lead instrument the rest of the sounds could orbit around. I improvised long stretches with the digital instrument and picked moments that elicited some emotional response in me as the foundation for each piece. It helped to imagine a small synthetic ensemble playing every additional part, considering the choices an individual might make if they were focused primarily on their instruments’ role within the group. 

In my improvised sessions I also gravitated towards what I called a ‘bouncing ball’ rhythm - later described to me as an exponential rhythmic sequence. After thinking about how genres often center around a core rhythmic pattern I adopted the sequence as another consistent feature for the album. 

In the past I’ve cut up pop acapellas as vocal elements, but on Mirror Guide decided to work with several artists I had come to know from three very different music scenes. I traveled to Pittsburgh for a few days and recorded with vocalist Tamar Kamin (from the band the Van Allen Belt) generating hours of improvised and lightly prepared melodic material that I later edited into several songs. I also incorporated more poetic almost spoken word vocals from Japanese musician and photographer NTsKi and a small segment of screeching moans from fellow Ohioan Diana Gruber. 

More generally I found inspiration from artists like Paul Lansky, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and the range of emotion in the music of Geinoh Yamashirogumi Orchestra, best known for scoring the Akira soundtrack which is a longtime favorite. I was also encouraged to complete Mirror Guide through conversations with the late composer, tape collage pioneer, and friend Noah Creshevsky, who gave me several boosts of confidence after hearing early versions of the music.

Giant Claw - Mir-Cam Online

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm0McIYsEFQ&t=0s

https://www.alexanderwang.com/us-en/projects-sisters

GRRL - Warrior

GRRL - In Pursuit

Download Lunice - Partout (Moonbase Remix): https://moonbasebeats.bandcamp.com/track/lunice-partout-moonbase-remix

Lunice - Partout (Moonbase Remix)

Loyal Focus

2021 and another year done… omicron surging through my veins as i write this. Man, every year we ask the team to send us their tracks at Halloween and every year we’re chopping and changing moments before launch. But that’s how it’s gotta be and that’s what’s so vital about this series, now in its 12th year. This never gets more relaxed. We should probably be spending this time of year chilling out and reflecting on what’s coming over the horizon but vinyl lead times already got us making records for July. It’s like the digital and the physical world are pulling further and further apart. 

We hope you love this compilation as much as we do. Thanks to the artists and everyone involved in getting this together. Special shout out to Scott Pilgrim, Leo Martin, Issac Larose and Emmanuel Mauriès-Rinfret  for their images and code. Cameron Morse, Abdullah Al Wali, Albert Carter Philips and Jennifer Metcalf. We don’t shout out the team at the label enough. 

So, come back daily to hear this 14 track compilation from across the roster build out and give a hint of where things are going in 2022. 

Love from LUCKYME®.

Jacques Greene - Leave Here

2021 and another year done… omicron surging through my veins as i write this. Man, every year we ask the team to send us their tracks at Halloween and every year we’re chopping and changing moments before launch. But that’s how it’s gotta be and that’s what’s so vital about this series, now in its 12th year. This never gets more relaxed. We should probably be spending this time of year chilling out and reflecting on what’s coming over the horizon but vinyl lead times already got us making records for July. It’s like the digital and the physical world are pulling further and further apart.

We hope you love this compilation as much as we do. Thanks to the artists and everyone involved in getting this together. Special shout out to Scott Pilgrim, Leo Martin, Issac Larose and Emmanuel Mauriès-Rinfret for their images and code. Cameron Morse, Abdullah Al Wali, Albert Carter Philips and Jennifer Metcalf. We don’t shout out the team at the label enough.

So, come back daily to hear this 14 track compilation from across the roster build out and give a hint of where things are going in 2022.

Love from LUCKYME®.

Brick Figures

TNGHT - Brick Figures

Feedback Loop

CID RIM - Feedback Loop

Need 2 '19

HIRA - Need 2 '19

LuckyMe Advent

Mother

Seiho - Mother

Chloe x Halle - Do It (sauna6 re6)

misogi - gossip remix
freebieeee
4 the club!!

free dl
@misogi

misogi - gossip [nora korra remix] FREE DL

C.ARLING & RUDDYP - SPLIT

TAR160
@herisse

More from TAR at:
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facebook.com/wearetar
@wearetar

HIRA - Need 2 '19

LUCKYME®

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