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CD
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TR 518CD
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Downpilot is ostensibly the solo project of singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and recording/mix engineer Paul Hiraga. For the last four albums, Hiraga has recorded and mixed single-handedly, which has given his work a seasoned clarity, and his seventh album, The Forecast, is the boldest, most exquisitely crafted Downpilot album to date. A trip across multiple decades with influences subtly ranging from the melodic Laurel Canyon-esque ballads ("Balancer"), to Baroque and sunshine pop of the late '60s and '70s ("Strangers Hotel"), to '90s Britpop ("Red Desert"), all with a 21st-Century spin, it's nothing less than an achievement that The Forecast hangs together so wonderfully as a cohesive body of work. The crystalline intro to "Black Eye", the album's opener, showcases Hiraga's voice, which has a richness and raspy expressiveness that has never sounded better than it does on this album. Hiraga has long been exploring a range of themes in his songwriting: the inevitability of change, the mystery and beauty of nature, the varied histories of places and people, the complexity of human relationships, and the uncertainty of the future. He is a Seattle-based artist, and the Pacific Northwest is a palpable presence -- it has gotten into his blood, and it seeps into the songs. With the sparse and delightfully rhythmic "Totems," he evokes the distant past of the region, interweaving it with individual and personal narratives. The intoxicated twang of "Night Shade" underpins a lament on things lost, while shimmery guitar and three-part vocals on "Balancer" take a bow to CSN, making a layered bed for a poetic love song. The melodic chorus of "Strangers Hotel," a symphony of strings, piano, and obscure oddball keyboards underpins a philosophical exploration of memory and the nature of reality. One of the albums most exciting moments appears with "Red Desert," a desolate urban vision with a transcendent violin from virtuoso Melinda Rice, who contributes string parts on several songs. Hiraga has also included longtime Downpilot members Jeff Brown and Anne Marie Ruljancich (Walkabouts) along with Terry de Castro (The Wedding Present) to add a few vocal nuances throughout the album, with Brown's harmonies adding a soaring quality to "Favorite Neighborhood." Ending with the title track, this may not be the sunniest of forecasts but it is not without hope. Ultimately this is a life-affirming album that dips effortlessly into different styles while maintaining Downpilot's unmistakable musical identity. Loyal fans will not be disappointed, as The Forecast contains plenty of signature sounds, themes, and motifs. But this new collection of superbly crafted pop songs could also open the field to new listeners.
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LP
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TR 518LP
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LP version. Downpilot is ostensibly the solo project of singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and recording/mix engineer Paul Hiraga. For the last four albums, Hiraga has recorded and mixed single-handedly, which has given his work a seasoned clarity, and his seventh album, The Forecast, is the boldest, most exquisitely crafted Downpilot album to date. A trip across multiple decades with influences subtly ranging from the melodic Laurel Canyon-esque ballads ("Balancer"), to Baroque and sunshine pop of the late '60s and '70s ("Strangers Hotel"), to '90s Britpop ("Red Desert"), all with a 21st-Century spin, it's nothing less than an achievement that The Forecast hangs together so wonderfully as a cohesive body of work. The crystalline intro to "Black Eye", the album's opener, showcases Hiraga's voice, which has a richness and raspy expressiveness that has never sounded better than it does on this album. Hiraga has long been exploring a range of themes in his songwriting: the inevitability of change, the mystery and beauty of nature, the varied histories of places and people, the complexity of human relationships, and the uncertainty of the future. He is a Seattle-based artist, and the Pacific Northwest is a palpable presence -- it has gotten into his blood, and it seeps into the songs. With the sparse and delightfully rhythmic "Totems," he evokes the distant past of the region, interweaving it with individual and personal narratives. The intoxicated twang of "Night Shade" underpins a lament on things lost, while shimmery guitar and three-part vocals on "Balancer" take a bow to CSN, making a layered bed for a poetic love song. The melodic chorus of "Strangers Hotel," a symphony of strings, piano, and obscure oddball keyboards underpins a philosophical exploration of memory and the nature of reality. One of the albums most exciting moments appears with "Red Desert," a desolate urban vision with a transcendent violin from virtuoso Melinda Rice, who contributes string parts on several songs. Hiraga has also included longtime Downpilot members Jeff Brown and Anne Marie Ruljancich (Walkabouts) along with Terry de Castro (The Wedding Present) to add a few vocal nuances throughout the album, with Brown's harmonies adding a soaring quality to "Favorite Neighborhood." Ending with the title track, this may not be the sunniest of forecasts but it is not without hope. Ultimately this is a life-affirming album that dips effortlessly into different styles while maintaining Downpilot's unmistakable musical identity. Loyal fans will not be disappointed, as The Forecast contains plenty of signature sounds, themes, and motifs. But this new collection of superbly crafted pop songs could also open the field to new listeners.
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CD
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TR 423CD
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This Is The Sound starts with no fuss, frills, or preamble. The first line of the opening track, "Your Supply", drops in right in on the first downbeat and ends with a sentiment about as resigned and unapologetic as can be: "This is the sound of everywhere." It dissolves on a wave of swirling feedback and gorgeous kerrangs, and what comes into focus is a kind of manifesto against the smugness that has led to our current state of affairs. This sets the tone for a bold piece of work by a seasoned and accomplished artist. While Paul Hiraga's latest (and sixth) Downpilot album at times may nod to the understated psychedelia of 2015's Radio Ghost (TR 319CD/LP) or the intimate melancholia of 2011's New Great Lakes (TR 221CD/LP), this latest collection is edgier and much more immediate. The second track slams straight into "Historian", a wry commentary on western civilization that harks back to the 19th century through a '70s rocker lens. Probably Downpilot's most varied collection of songs to date, this album reaches one of its peaks with "High And Guided", an unequivocal kiss-off diatribe with forlorn, spaghetti western guitar motifs, restrained vocal wails, and aggravated violin textures, hinting at a barely (but beautifully) concealed rage. There's a lot of raw emotion on this record, but it's presented with such craft and expertise that the effect is quietly transcendent. The intimacy of "Thievers" is signature Downpilot, with understated keyboard lines and eloquent evocations of nature, but it's only on closer inspection that the song reveals itself as a ghostly prayer to Hiraga's mother. Where the album starts on a strident note, it ends on a philosophical one with "Finistère", providing the hope of redemption by leaving everything behind in search of a greater meaning. Over the years, Hiraga has become a highly skilled engineer and has recorded and mixed this album single-handedly, with early support from long time collaborators Terry de Castro (Wedding Present), Mike Musburger (Posies), and original member Jeff Brown. There's just so much to listen to on this record, and whether it's the expertly-woven and unconventional violin contributions of Melinda Rice or Anne Marie Ruljancich's (Walkabouts) duet-style vocals on "At The Window" and "St. Clair", everything has its own, exquisite place.
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LP+CD
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TR 423LP
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LP version. Includes CD. This Is The Sound starts with no fuss, frills, or preamble. The first line of the opening track, "Your Supply", drops in right in on the first downbeat and ends with a sentiment about as resigned and unapologetic as can be: "This is the sound of everywhere." It dissolves on a wave of swirling feedback and gorgeous kerrangs, and what comes into focus is a kind of manifesto against the smugness that has led to our current state of affairs. This sets the tone for a bold piece of work by a seasoned and accomplished artist. While Paul Hiraga's latest (and sixth) Downpilot album at times may nod to the understated psychedelia of 2015's Radio Ghost (TR 319CD/LP) or the intimate melancholia of 2011's New Great Lakes (TR 221CD/LP), this latest collection is edgier and much more immediate. The second track slams straight into "Historian", a wry commentary on western civilization that harks back to the 19th century through a '70s rocker lens. Probably Downpilot's most varied collection of songs to date, this album reaches one of its peaks with "High And Guided", an unequivocal kiss-off diatribe with forlorn, spaghetti western guitar motifs, restrained vocal wails, and aggravated violin textures, hinting at a barely (but beautifully) concealed rage. There's a lot of raw emotion on this record, but it's presented with such craft and expertise that the effect is quietly transcendent. The intimacy of "Thievers" is signature Downpilot, with understated keyboard lines and eloquent evocations of nature, but it's only on closer inspection that the song reveals itself as a ghostly prayer to Hiraga's mother. Where the album starts on a strident note, it ends on a philosophical one with "Finistère", providing the hope of redemption by leaving everything behind in search of a greater meaning. Over the years, Hiraga has become a highly skilled engineer and has recorded and mixed this album single-handedly, with early support from long time collaborators Terry de Castro (Wedding Present), Mike Musburger (Posies), and original member Jeff Brown. There's just so much to listen to on this record, and whether it's the expertly-woven and unconventional violin contributions of Melinda Rice or Anne Marie Ruljancich's (Walkabouts) duet-style vocals on "At The Window" and "St. Clair", everything has its own, exquisite place.
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CD
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TR 319CD
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Seattle-based artist Paul Hiraga on his first album since 2011's New Great Lakes (TR 221CD/LP): "I was not sure if I would release another album, but these things cannot be buried. Time heals, experience colors the narrative, desire swells and wanes and resurges. There is always movement, away from the past with a heavy-heartedness, and towards something hopeful." When recording for this album began, Downpilot's Paul Hiraga found himself inspired by a drawing his father had made for him from memory of the same mountain that he had drawn many times as a child while living in an internment camp for Japanese Americans in one of the deserts of California and Nevada during World War II. The result was the song "Day of the Long Sun," which became a touchstone for the album. This mood inspired Hiraga to go back in time to the small town in California where his father was born and imagine life on the West Coast in another era. As in the songs "Rosaline" and "My Paper Sons" (which takes its title from a term for Chinese immigrants who forged documents to become citizens after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and resultant fires), a tone for the album was set, creating a swirling, hot, and dusty backdrop. With tinges of psychedelia and Hiraga's dominant melodic sense guiding the trip, the album travels through shadowy and haunting places, and emerges with hopeful vision and a hard-won freedom. Recorded on vintage analog gear and divided into two sides in the tradition of the best classic vinyl, Radio Ghost leads off with the title-track, with its lively syncopated beat and Farfisa organ lending a mysterious and somewhat Middle Eastern tonality, moving through the slightly sinister "Reno" to the soulful and cathartic "Hallowed Ground." The second half of the album ventures into more trippy and cinematic landscapes, culminating in the slow burn and build of epic album-closer "Suzanne (The Silence)." Much like such artists as Tame Impala's Kevin Parker and Kurt Vile, Hiraga records nearly all the instruments himself, from real vintage drums and slide guitars to analog keys, and delivers an album in the tradition of Jeff Buckley, Big Star's Alex Chilton, and Gene Clark.
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LP
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TR 319LP
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CD
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TR 221CD
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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.
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LP
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TR 221LP
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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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CD
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TR 166CD
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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.
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LP
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TR 166LP
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