Category: Blog

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P.E. – my group of electronic-pop weirdos – have announced our new album The Leather Lemon and released its first single “Blue Nude (Reclined)”. The Fader premiered the new song, calling it “soft and a little sleazy”, and the track also appeared on Stereogum (“pushing further ahead into the mutated pop side of their sound”), Brooklyn Vegan (“exploring dance music by way of post-punk and no wave”), and Treble’s “Essential Tracks” (“P.E. have some honest-to-god dancefloor bangers in them”). As I wrote in the press release, “This was one of the first songs we wrote for the new record, shortly after settling ourselves mentally and physically around the country. With all of our tour plans scrapped in the initial wave of the pandemic, the five of us decided to put our energies into writing new material for the next record, trading files back and forth in order to shape our new sound. ‘Blue Nude’ quickly became an inspiration for the rest of The Leather Lemon, something that foregrounded both the song and the sound, as fun as it was abstract.” The Leather Lemon is out March 25 on Wharf Cat Records.

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NYC synth punks Operator Music Band are back with the 3-song EP Deep Break. I mixed two new songs (Is This Reason and Invertigo), the third song was tracked with the band that toured behind their excellent album Duo Duo, and I mastered all three tracks at Studio Windows. This is a group that has always shined in the EP format (Coordination is still a personal fave), and this is yet another collection of fun/weird synth groovers. Check out Deep Break (and Duo Duo and Coordination) on their Bandcamp, and also check out L0-Rez, Operator Jared’s FX + Synth company (the Mona Lisa Overdrive pedal and Operator Modular Synth both get regular use at Studio Windows).

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Jeff Tobias – the NYC multi-instrumentalist whom you may have heard play sax/clarinet/bass/keys/etc in Sunwatchers, Modern Nature, and with countless others – has released his debut solo LP Recurring Dream. With the help of drummer Nick Podgurski and a variety of guests (covering vibraphone, flute, backing vocals and more), Jeff constructed an epic art pop album that’s both heady and playful throughout. I mixed the record with Jeff last year at Studio Windows, and am thrilled to be able to share this one with the world. You can pre-order the vinyl through Bandcamp, and stream the whole thing below – Recurring Dream is out now Strategy of Tension.

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The Reason For My Love EP – the latest release from my group P.E. – was featured on Pitchfork’s “27 Great Records You May Have Missed: Autumn 2021” list! You can read the lovely review in full below, and head over to Bandcamp to pick up the EP. The Reason For My Love EP is out now on Wharf Cat Records.

Brooklyn-based P.E. don’t merely play the notes on The Reason for My Love as much as they barrel right through them. The quintet refines their post-punk impulses on their 2020 debut Person and transforms them into a body-moving EP. The jittery electronics are still there, but the drum cuts feel sharper and lighter, bringing a sense of structure to what could easily be shapeless. Vocalist Veronica Torres abandons spoken-word and leans fully into singing about poetry, beauty, and the contours of the body. Her lovely vocal stretches fill up the space once occupied by industrial bass drops. Sensuality suits them well. –Kelly Liu

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Austin/NYC indie-rock quintet Why Bonnie are back with their new single “Galveston”. The song was picked up by The Fader, Stereogum, and Brooklyn Vegan (among others), and features a video by lead singer/songwriter Blair Howerton and Grace Pendleton. As a fellow native-Houstonian, I immediately gravitated to this song, having spent countless weekends on Galveston Island. “Galveston” is the fuzzy/twangy first taste of a batch of songs we worked on together earlier this year – mixing, additional production & recording, and mastering at Studio Windows – and it’s out now on Fat Possum Records.

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Namesake – the Brooklyn-based jangle punk band formerly known as Honduras – are back with their new album Redeeming Features. Following a string of EPs, singles, and the LP Rituals under their previous moniker, Redeeming Features is both a refinement of their previous work and a bold step forward. Stereogum called “I’m Sick” “a revved-up power-pop banger with the reckless energy of a brand-new band”, with Under The Radar and New Noise featuring the group as well. I produced the record with the band, recording pre-pandemic at Outlier Inn (where we had recorded Rituals five years earlier) and mixing/mastering at Studio Windows last year. I’m so proud of the work we did together at each step of the way, and I feel like the joy & excitement of creation really shines through on this one – check it out! Redeeming Features is out now on Get Better Records.

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Museum On The Horizon – the latest LP from NYC noise-rock-turned-industrial trio Pop. 1280 – is out now on Profound Lore. Preceded by three wildly different singles and a rush of press on Stereogum and Brooklyn Vegan, the new album finds the group fully embracing their EBM/industrial-dance selves. I co-produced, recorded, and mixed the record with the group at Studio Windows over the winter…. it was one of my first in-person sessions after having to work remotely last year, and we fully dug into the studio process. Every drum machine and synth were synced – resulting in happy accidents and completely bizarre sounds – and we experimented heavily with processing (guitars through synths, synths through amps, everything through something else), resulting in something that feels very LIVE while leaning into the beats & grooves. Josh Bonati mastered Museum On The Horizon, and it’s available digitally and on CD on Bandcamp, and on vinyl direct from the label.

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The Reason For My Love is the new EP from my group P.E. (along with Bob Jones of Eaters and former members of Pill Veronica Torres, Ben Jaffe, and Jon Campolo). Featuring three new songs (including the lead single title track) and two remixes (one by Xiu Xiu, the other by us), this collection is inspired by classic 12″ EPs and is designed for the dancefloor. Bill Pearis from Brooklyn Vegan reviewed the EP in this week’s Indie Basement column, saying “the three new songs here are the band’s most song-like creations yet. And best. While still experimental, there is a pop backbone to all three, not to mention an overt danceability.” The Reason For My Love is out now via Wharf Cat Records.

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Washington DC-based quirky punk trio BRNDA have released their newest LP Do You Like Salt? Bandcamp heralded it as Album Of The Day, calling it “killer D.C. art punk with a nervy sense of humor, skittering rhythms, and wiry guitars [that] hits all the right notes and the right wrong ones”, and the record found similar fans in Ears To Feed, Flood, Post-Trash, and Alt Citizen. The album was recorded by Justin Moyer at White Oak Studio in D.C., and I mixed & mastered it last year at Studio Windows (Brooklyn, NY). Do You Like Salt? is out now on Crafted Sounds – check it out!