|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LP
|
|
MEX 082LP
|
"Slowly drifting over the horizon, into the realms of Mexican Summer, comes Radio People. The return of Cleveland, Ohio man Sam Goldberg's cosmic synthesizer project is cause for fanfare of the most blissful kind -- his music is, after all, a beautiful, hovering behemoth worthy of celebration. Since 2007 Goldberg has become renowned for his slew of highly collectable cassettes, CDRs and VHS on such labels as the Emeralds-curated Wagon and Gneiss Things, Weird Forest, 905 Tapes, Catholic Tapes and Tusco/Embassy, while also finding the time to found his own prolific imprint Pizza Night. Radio People appeared in 2009, producing a similar cascade of material, with Digitalis Records carefully gathering a selection and committing them to vinyl a year later. Mexican Summer is proud to contribute to this legacy with his new album Hazel, a collection of dream-like soundscapes, billowing clouds of synthesizers cut with poignant razor drones, expansive sweeping melodies and suspended harmonies. When brought out of reverie, Radio People pushes ever onward with Italo and Kosmische pulses, concise percussion and sombre vocals, but when left for a while it is always happy to melt back into music for drooping eyelids and swollen hearts. Intergalactic drama at its best and most essential." Limited, numbered edition of 750 copies. Includes download code.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
DIGI 015LP
|
LP release; limited to 500 copies only. Radio People is a project from Ohio-stalwart Sam Goldberg. After a handful of solo releases under his own name on Weird Forest, 905 Tapes and the Emeralds-run Wagon & Gneiss Things labels, he debuted Radio People on an ultra-limited self-titled cassette on his own Pizza Night imprint. At that point, there was no way back and the only move was to push forward with this cosmic beast. Two more short-run tapes followed and it was clear that this new chemically-imbalanced synthesizer project wasn't just a quick hit one-off. Radio People is here to stay. On this, his debut vinyl effort, Goldberg has compiled the best elements of those three, long-gone cassettes. This Dubplates & Mastering-cut slab of wax is the strongest statement Goldberg has made, proving his talent lies far beyond ambient soundscapes and well into the world of pop-infused synthesizer chaos and Kraut-inspired composition. Major hooks sit alongside dense planetary drones. Goldberg pairs rivers of polysynth tracery with deep shards of droning organs, minimal live percussion and a whole host of drum machine backbone. This really is the best of both worlds. Melodies suck you in, beats get your head bobbing and then you're sucked down a complex tonal wormhole of introspective loops and ambient synthscapes. Pop song frameworks nestle themselves neatly beside somber soundscapes, sometimes jumping back and forth in the same track. Barely-there vocals foil the stasis, leaving the listener guessing and wondering if there's a ghost in the mix. Radio People's embracing of simple Kraut rhythms to underscore the catchy, kosmische wanderings give this music an accessibility not present in much of Goldberg's previous work. It crosses boundaries and comes back and shows still-untapped wells of talent and ideas in Goldberg's bag of tricks.
|