CHORD PROGRESSIONS I ADORE.

The Yellow Jacket (Shaun Martin)

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Remastered 2014)

Still Life (Talking)

Last Train Home

Speaking Of Now

As It Is

Minuano (Six Eight)

PRE-ORDER 12" VINYL EP http://hopest.re/HS028VINYL

The best way to speed up a chemical reaction is to invite change and introduce an outside force: light, heat, movement. As The Cactus Channel know full well, the same goes with sound — introducing change compels a composition forward, as it rises, falls, peaks and boils. On their first release of 2017, vocalist Sam Cromack (Ball Park Music, My Own Pet Radio) is this catalyst for change, as the band collaborate with him on a full EP, introduced by lead single “Sorry Hills”.

As frenetic rhythms build only to fall away, and melodies loop, dive, and stutter, The Cactus Channel make music that both functions on and demands reaction. This collaborative EP treads a thin line between alt-soul and the best of indie pop, swimming in compelling atmospherics and deftly weaving Cromack’s rich, drawling vocal and disarming, meditative lyrics through the band’s typically intuitive arrangements. 

The Cactus Channel formed in high school, united by shared interests and a shared sense of humour — a love of soul music and the kind of hip hop, jazz, and alternative releases that spring from it, meant that from the beginning The Cactus Channel have prided themselves not just on eclecticism, but on the constant sharing of influences among their members. On this EP, the band venture into their second recorded project with a vocalist, exploring new influences and sonic territories.

Lyrically, “Sorry Hills” is heavy with a kind of guilty melancholy that belies the wordplay in its title — Cromack’s dark, introspective lyrics are accompanied by an instrumental that buzzes with a slight sense of paranoia: in the song’s instrumental bridge, the rhythm section simmers as horns let forth quiet squeals.

The band takes equal cues from hip hop instrumentals and golden era Soul — counting the sounds of  frequent hip hop collaborators BADBADNOTGOOD and the tight arrangement and production style of Stax Records as influences — as they build tracks that leave room for words to grow, breathe, and take focus, but never underestimate the power of beat and rhythm to build tension and release. 

Cromack’s voice is afforded a new palette in this project, as his vocals climb through horn arrangements and rhythm with unprecedented light and shade. 

“Sorry Hills” is out February 10th on all streaming services through HopeStreet Recordings, with the full 6-track EP out in April.

Sorry Hills

PRE-ORDER 12" VINYL EP

The Cactus Channel & Sam Cromack - Sorry Hills

Miss Understanding

The core quartet of Chris, Ben, Antonio, and me played more than 100 concerts over the year that followed the release of our Unity Band record. Over the course of that period, the band became one of those rare combinations of players where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; it gelled in every way, and that just seemed to beg for expansion and further research.” He continues, “Simultaneously, I had been itching to write using more of a lush and orchestrated kind of concept that went beyond the sonic limits of what a straight-ahead quartet might invoke. But I really didn’t want to lose the energy, focus, and intensity of what this band had developed. I wanted to take it further. If the first Unity Band record was a thoughtful, black and white documentary of four musicians in a recording studio playing, this record is more like the Technicolor, IMAX version of what a band like this could be—but with that hardcore thing still sitting right in the middle of it all.

As It Is

Pat Metheny Group

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