Fronds 20191208 by Lambeth & Hallucinogenic Bulb
Limited run of tapes available at KiloHURTZ Records: https://kilohurtz.bandcamp.com
We met at an open mic at Drexel University in 2017, us being the two of the night making weird noises through our laptops and some unlikely external controllers, with now separated and missed math jazz band Shy as the headliners. Many shows together and a few years on we decided an album together was long overdue, so picked a Sunday in December to improvise together, recording the entire time except a break for tacos. This album is that day, distilled over the next month, after which we met to finalise the track order, levels, and pick titles mostly out of dated and poorly OCR’d newspapers.
We both deal in digital mess - hand-built software running at capacity until it cracks and fails, source sounds redefined and sliced beyond recognition, cheap pedals where the byproduct noise is the feature. The cover reflects this: a failure by Paul and a finicky scanner to digitize a nineteenth century book about beekeeping resulted in a pleasing distortion that Dave amplified and brightened. Recognising the chaos inherent in both our styles, we took care to record consonant, slowly evolving pieces, breaking this trend most notably in a last few minutes of pedal and button smashing that became the pair Ewald Witt, Wall Walker/Emald Mitt, Mall Malker. Because of this special attention to consonance we produced something more melodic and upbeat than either of us had at that stage, which came as a surprise.
Fronds is a series of improvised albums recorded in one day. This is Fronds #3 and the first to be a collaboration.
Tracklist
| 1. | Floopy Disk Drive | 4:39 |
| 2. | Travel Donut Man | 1:05 |
| 3. | Previous Copy Machine Experience | 1:52 |
| 4. | Pulse Walk | 6:14 |
| 5. | Sure We've Got Home Computer Cartridges! | 6:50 |
| 6. | Ewald Witt, Wall Walker | 1:22 |
| 7. | Emald Mitt, Mall Malker | 1:37 |
| 8. | Topologically, a Dog is a Sphere | 6:46 |
| 9. | Thetherball | 0:47 |
| 10. | You're Winner! | 6:49 |
Credits
Hallucinogenic Bulb is Dave Petersen (laptop, pedals, synth, 8-bit noise). Lambeth is Paul Sutherland (hastily coded and not yet ready sequencer, guitar, pedals, function generator). Music and artwork by us both (hand Paul's). Special thanks to Maeve, Chaiwala, and Getty.
