Browse by Artist: DOWNPILOT

Artist:	DOWNPILOT
Title:	They Kind Of Shine
Label:	TAPETE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	TR 166CD

This is the third full-length album by multi-instrumentalist Paul Hiraga aka Downpilot. Downpilot has given the music world two albums of lush and atmospheric pop in collaboration with producer Tucker Martine (R.E.M., The Decemberists, Laura Veirs), with influences as diverse as Americana rock, ambient electronica and jazz. Their first full-length album, Leaving Not Arriving, garnered shining reviews from Rolling Stone, Harp, No Depression, amongst others, and their 2006 follow-up, Like You Believe It, was named "Best Local Album of the Year" by Seattle's influential arts weekly The Stranger. Always curious and looking for new ways to express his musical vision, Hiraga delved into the technical world of classic studio electronics in order to actually construct wire-by-wire most of the vintage-based analog recording gear that would soon capture the sounds on the album he subsequently produced for The Wedding Present bassist Terry de Castro (A Casa Verde). Hiraga's multi-instrumental musicianship and engineering artistry (as well as contributing two songs) have since earned praise in the UK (8/10 stars in NME). This new audio laboratory was then put to work in the creation and recording of They Kind Of Shine. Drawing some individualistic inspiration from the first Paul McCartney solo albums (on which the former Beatle played nearly every instrument himself), Hiraga embarked on a private studio exploration that has many songs performed entirely by himself on acoustic/electric/lap steel guitars, drums and percussion, acoustic and electric piano, humming old Farfisas and Hammonds and creaky old pump organs, with an occasional banjo and ukulele thrown in for flavor. Long-time band mate Jeff Brown contributes rich background vocal support, and cameos by former Posies drummer Mike Musburger, pedal steel master Maggie Bjorklund and Tucker Martine contribute to the remarkably cohesive band sound. The result is a rich acoustic-electric-chamber-pop-roots-Americana-rock-country album that doesn't really hold on to any of those simplistic labels, but is completely timeless. Soaring, accomplished singer/songwritership imbued with rich harmonies and alt. country swagger.

Artist:	DOWNPILOT
Title:	New Great Lakes
Label:	TAPETE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	TR 221CD

For the follow-up to the acclaimed They Kind Of Shine (TR 166CD/LP) (including songs featured on television series One Tree Hill), Hiraga sequestered himself on Seattle's nearby Vashon Island in a spacious woodland studio and set to writing and recording, far from the distractions of the city. Although several Downpilot alumni would later make cameos, the feeling from the start was that this would be a more intimate, solo-style album. With his arsenal of self-made recording equipment and surrounded by an extensive collection of vintage keyboards and other instruments, the multi-instrumentalist recorded ideas in a spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness fashion. After a solitary week, the foundation was laid for the fourth Downpilot LP: New Great Lakes. Time and distance function like a filter, obscuring some details while bringing others into sharp relief. Time might heal all, but we always, inevitably, find ourselves back where we started. Why isn't an issue. Whether you can go home again or not is actually an issue, because there's an inherent need to revisit the past at some point in our lives. The landscape itself may have altered -- the landmarks eradicated or erased or at least redecorated -- but there's a part of ourselves that will always see the skeleton of what was there back when; a part of our soul that needs to process the journey; a longing that we might never find the words to identify but persists nonetheless. Home. Whatever that means. It's here, and yet it's inescapably there -- and it creeps up on you in the strangest ways. It certainly does on Downpilot's latest offering. Singer/songwriter Paul Hiraga may not have set out to revisit his Midwestern roots, but if you listen closely you can hear the wind whipping off the great plains, or the desperation of the industrial rust belt. The disorienting sights and sounds and sentiments of displacement, made all the more profound because you never expected to be displaced (or distanced) from the place that you disowned. And yet hopefulness somehow inexplicably prevails. Forward progress is a human impulse -- we just forget that sometimes we need to stop and consider what got us to our current vantage point. You can run, as they say, but you can never, ever hide.

Artist:	DOWNPILOT
Title:	New Great Lakes
Label:	TAPETE (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	TR 221LP

LP version. For the follow-up to the acclaimed They Kind Of Shine (TR 166CD/LP) (including songs featured on television series One Tree Hill), Hiraga sequestered himself on Seattle's nearby Vashon Island in a spacious woodland studio and set to writing and recording, far from the distractions of the city. Although several Downpilot alumni would later make cameos, the feeling from the start was that this would be a more intimate, solo-style album. With his arsenal of self-made recording equipment and surrounded by an extensive collection of vintage keyboards and other instruments, the multi-instrumentalist recorded ideas in a spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness fashion. After a solitary week, the foundation was laid for the fourth Downpilot LP: New Great Lakes. Time and distance function like a filter, obscuring some details while bringing others into sharp relief. Time might heal all, but we always, inevitably, find ourselves back where we started. Why isn't an issue. Whether you can go home again or not is actually an issue, because there's an inherent need to revisit the past at some point in our lives. The landscape itself may have altered -- the landmarks eradicated or erased or at least redecorated -- but there's a part of ourselves that will always see the skeleton of what was there back when; a part of our soul that needs to process the journey; a longing that we might never find the words to identify but persists nonetheless. Home. Whatever that means. It's here, and yet it's inescapably there -- and it creeps up on you in the strangest ways. It certainly does on Downpilot's latest offering. Singer/songwriter Paul Hiraga may not have set out to revisit his Midwestern roots, but if you listen closely you can hear the wind whipping off the great plains, or the desperation of the industrial rust belt. The disorienting sights and sounds and sentiments of displacement, made all the more profound because you never expected to be displaced (or distanced) from the place that you disowned. And yet hopefulness somehow inexplicably prevails. Forward progress is a human impulse -- we just forget that sometimes we need to stop and consider what got us to our current vantage point. You can run, as they say, but you can never, ever hide. Includes free download code.

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