released July 2, 2022

3. "shrimp delight"

Hopefully some of you are already familiar with Simon Martinez, aka flanafi (flanafi.bandcamp.com). If not, I hope that this funky little gem – which is entirely his work built around a set of unreasonably modulated guitar samples I sent to him during the pandemic – can serve as an introduction to his unfailing brilliance. Simon and I met on my first go with college back in 2013 and have had many wondrous and hilarious musical encounters ever since, many of which still (and may always) remain in ye ol' digital stacks as warm memories. Aside from being a monstrous player/musical thinker, Simon was one of the few people I met who was not only willing but happy to experiment in unfamiliar/unorthodox territories in order to shake free from some of the strange constraints poisoning our young brains at the time as a result of trying to "do music for real." I think we slowly helped each other move closer to playing whatever felt enriching for us. Nowadays his work seamlessly combines every part of his musical background, to the point that just about anything goes within it. I love and admire him deeply and carry his influence with me everywhere I go.

4. "hey, jorge!"

This is a shitty phone recording of a loop I made back around 2013-2014 while visiting my hometown. I was crashing with a close friend from high school named Jorge, who was/is a fantastic guitar player himself. He had this beautiful stratocaster laying around at his place, along with a small amp and a loop pedal, and I think I was just messing around and killing time. I maniacally recorded all kinds of little tidbits on my phone back then because I had no idea how to record music (and still only know the basics nowadays). I was traveling and crashing on couches a lot in this particular period, and at the end of the recording you can hear that I just turn the amp off and walk right out the front door. Something about that feels very true to my life at that time. Jorge and I definitely had a particular musical bond as kids, but we never quite explored it enough. But I remember he used to send me these little acoustic riffs via video on facebook, and I always found them inspiring. So this one's for Jorge.

5. "BLOOD MURAL"

Another quarantine-era collaboration with Simon – only this time its a twisted take on boneheaded death metal. People tend to know that I'm a metal person, but perhaps it's less known that Simon is a deep lover of the stuff himself. In the midst of lockdown mania we joked about what a metal collab between us might sound like which inevitably ended in making it a reality. I took this hairy and terrible ableton guitar tone and recorded a bunch of riffs off the top of my head, sent them to Simon's lab where he added drums, bass, and extra guitar wildness, and then I recorded vocals by whispering into a mic with a ton of distortion slapped on it so as to not disturb my mutually housebound roommates at the time. & voila! A hysterical track. There are a couple of others that never got completely finished – perhaps one day we'll do a whole record of the stuff.

6. "1 scrap (for M.C.)"

This little fragment was originally part of a collaborative gift from one of my closest friends, Madison Carroll, to another one of my closest friends, Michael Cavuto. All three of us have known each other since high school, and all three of us have kept a close eye on each other's doings ever since. They are both like family to me, and they are both some of my favorite makers of things in the world. Madison is an inexhaustibly sharp photographer whose sense of form and life have always been a source of inspiration for me. Michael, a troubadour poet of deep attention whose knowledge and support have been a constant in my life. You can find the original gift here (3 photos, 3 tracks): madjsoncarroll.com/scrap – & I encourage everyone to flip through Madison's website to see all of the images lingering there. Madison also took the photograph which is the cover for this little project!

7. "slightly ill"

This is one of the most "stolen" moments on this whole mix. It's a chopped up phone recording I took of a trio from Philly called "ill Delta" playing at a place called Time right around 2014/15. I was then (or soon after) working as a food runner there and heard the band a few times – they had this sort of dreamy drum&bass approach that I liked and that felt a little different from the other units often playing at the same spot. I remember that somehow I ended up sitting in on DRUMS with them for a moment that night, which is hysterical considering I had only been playing drums for a year or two at that point. Though I imagine it was somewhat embarrassing, I acutely recall having a blast. Tim Brey, who is their keys player, was always one of the kindest in that scene and often offered encouraging words. Anyhow, I just happened to use this clip to learn how to cut up audio when I first started using software on my own. I stumbled upon it when flipping through files for this thing and thought it was pretty enough to fit in. ill Delta released an EP many years back which you can hear here: soundcloud.com/ill-delta-music-gmail-com/sets/ill-delta-ep

8. "BOSS FIGHT"

The drum samples on this track come from a batch sent to me by the honorable Trevor Rogers during lockdown times. Trevor and I also met during my first short stint in college, where we connected over being lovers of both improvised and heavy musics. Years later we got to play together, but never enough! He's got this relaxed, constantly rolling and focused flow that I love hearing. I think he also helps makes cymbals for a company called Mongiello. Check him out: www.instagram.com/_trevor_rogers_/

10. "haus ov _____"

This is another sort of stolen bit, but a little closer to my heart. The piano is a phone recording of Simon playing in the UArts studio one day when he, Zane Shields (aka wayne bields: waynebields.bandcamp.com) and I were all there. I believe this was in the formative days of a group we used to play in together called Pulgas (pulgas.bandcamp.com/pulgas), which to this day is one of my all time favorite musical experiences. All three of us spent a lot of time together back then, making wild sounds and laughing a lot. Simon was playing this piano progression that he had in his head from a Knxwledge track, and it was so nice I had to save a snippet of it.

Years after the piano moment – and not long before I left Philly last year – my angelic and mythical friend Hugo de la Lune came over to visit from the West coast and we dug through things that we could put his voice on. Hugo is a remarkable person and singer who I originally met because he was the upstairs neighbor of one of my bandmates in Horrendous! At the time he was very humble about sharing his musical work, but as we got closer I learned he had this huge, sultry voice and had big plans to use it. We've collaborated a few times over the years, including some tracks for his solo project, and I imagine more will come. You can hear two of his albums right here: www.hugodelalune.com/music

12. "stippled"

The most important part of this track is the fact that I was sitting in apartment k in a complex off of broad and brown st. across from one of the greatest visual artists I know – Shannon Ryan – while they worked tirelessly on one of their pieces. This must have been right around 2016/17. I was really into thinking about music kinesthetically at the time, responding to people's movements as a base for improvising, and that's exactly what I was doing here. You can hear Shannon literally stippling textures in the background, and then feverishly moving through the apartment a little later on – all of which I was trying to interact with. You can even hear some of the tiredness in Shannon's breaths from working so hard on whatever project she was hammering away at. & the guitar was this gorgeous, dark-stained Martin she owned that I was absolutely in love with playing. I think it might be my favorite acoustic I've ever sat with.

Shannon's work and artistic senses have been blowing me away for years and I think everyone should check her out. Endlessly textured, surrealistic, and earthy – even down to the CAKES she makes, which you must see. Do your eyes a favor and gaze upon an endless treasure trove of her stuff: www.instagram.com/sundaysours/