Epstein

All Tiny Creatures

Pop Addict: All Tiny Creatures’ Harbors

Every Thursday, Pop Addict presents infectious tunes from contemporary musicians across indie rock, pop, folk, electronica, and more.

All Tiny Creatures: HarborsAll Tiny Creatures: Harbors (Hometapes, 3/29/11)

All Tiny Creatures: “An Iris”

[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/AllTinyCreatures-AnIris.mp3|titles=All Tiny Creatures: “An Iris”]

If you’re in a band from Wisconsin, and you’re friends with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, people are going to hear about your record. And if you happen to enlist his help, if only for one track, most of those people will venture a listen or two. Make that song your single and you’ve pretty much guaranteed a modicum of favorable attention from fans and critics alike.

But if, like Madison’s All Tiny Creatures, you also happen to seamlessly weave synthesizers, guitars, and percussion into loop-heavy, pop-friendly melodies, then you’ve probably earned a great deal of that notoriety on your own; in fact, that attention might be long overdue. With or without Justin Vernon, your band is on the verge of something exciting. And you should congratulate yourself with a nice Wisconsin cheese tray.

Epstein

Guest Spots: Epstein on Rhythmic Trash Sculptures

Epstein is Roberto Carlos Lange, a.k.a. sample-based collage maestro Helado Negro. Known for dense pastiches of drum-machine beats and piled MPC-filtered ephemera, as well as flashes of pop and psychedelia, Lange just released a new LP on Asthmatic Kitty entitled Sealess See. Leave it to a man with a wildly inventive, ever-changing sound to make something out of nothing. In this piece he penned for ALARM, Lange tells the story behind his collaboration with artist David Ellis and their trash-based music machines.

Rhythmic Trash Sculptures
by Roberto Carlos Lange (Epstein)

Video 1 (Quicktime)
Video 2 (Quicktime)

When I started working on the Rhythmic Trash pieces with David Ellis, it happened at a time when I felt defeated in NY and wasn’t trying to hang around for too long. The first time I came over, everything was all theory, and we didn’t have a good direction on how to get everything to work. We took so many things apart and saw sparks and smokes many times. The idea was to make an acoustic instrument out of trash that looked like a pile of trash. No wires showing or any electric plumbing out for the eye to see, just simply a pile of trash that came to life and sounded like nothing you had heard before.

Epstein

The Groove Seeker: Epstein’s Prefuse 73 / Jaytram / Epstein

On a weekly basis, The Groove Seeker goes in search of killer grooves across rock, funk, hip hop, soul, electronic music, jazz, fusion, and more.

Epstein: Prefuse 73 / Jaytram / Epstein (Asthmatic Kitty, 12/14/10)

Jaytram: “You Know They Out”

[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/04.-You-Know-They-Out-Jaytram.mp3|titles=Jaytram: ‘You Know They Out”]

Though Roberto Lange’s year has been busier than usual, the multitasking musician (also known as Helado Negro) has found the time to pack in another release before the year is over. Well, kind of. The back catalog of Epstein, Lange’s longtime electronic project, has received a complete cut-and-paste overhaul by beat conductor Prefuse 73 and drummer Jaytram (of Yeasayer), making for a record aptly titled Prefuse 73 / Jaytram / Epstein.

It is a fitting year-end release for the NYC-based artist and producer, who, in 2010 alone, released a new Epstein full-length, a new Helado Negro EP, worked on a number of remixes, and saw Asthmatic Kitty reissue four Epstein records that were never released outside of Japan until now.  The re-releases spawned not so much a remix album but an absolute dismantling and revision of his obscure recordings. The albums, recorded with Miami-based Beta Bodega label, serve as a wealthy groove print for Prefuse and Jaytram, who respectively split the duties.