New Max Tundra - "Which Song"
Ben Jacobs, aka Max Tundra, is about ready to release album three Parallax Error Beheads You, the first since 2002's Mastered By Guy At The Exchange. It took a long time because the man's meticulous. A fact that should be well illustrated by first available track "Which Song," which I was going to describe, but think this bit from Owen Pallett more than does the trick:
Max and I met in Barcelona in 2005 at Primavera Sound. His slot was at 4am. He put on a mask, wrapped himself up in tape, and played forty minutes of music made mostly using Amiga sample tracker software from the late 1980s. There was virtuosic melodica playing, Pointer Sisters-style singing, and an eight-minute version of "So Long, Farewell" from The Sound Of Music. I was wasted and ended up passing out on a beach in my underwear. When the sun rose, I woke up with dried merengue and sand glued to my hair, and in a daze, I realized that I had just witnessed nothing less than the best music performance of my life ... It is dance music, it is discourse, it is teen sex comedy, it is a video game, it is a dance troupe, it is a thirteen course meal with Amontillado.
And that was promotional material, but promotional material that got it right. You might also be reminded of an amphetamine Kelley Polar love song. Listen:
Max Tundra - "Which Song" (MP3)
For the tech nerds, Jacobs notes:
There are no modern-day computers on this record. My PC is strictly for emails and Photoshopping the words Max Tundra into Coldplay line-ups. The main technology behind this and all of my albums has been the Commodore Amiga 500 - bestselling home computer at the time - running a $1 public domain software tracker program. The sounds don't emerge from the Amiga itself however; the machine is used to control various synths, samplers and the like. I look at colums of numbers all day on the screen of a black and white television; these digits relate to pitches, durations and tones. A lot of the noises on my record are real; the cello, bass guitar, drums, piano, trumpet and others are all rehearsed and played by me, but sometimes I will use realistic fake versions of these noises. Each song is recorded in a different way; drumkits are recorded on mono cassette recorders twice, then stuck together on the left and right of a mix; string arrangements are planned and then layered up; each note of an electric guitar is sampled so that it can be sequenced in ways too complicated for my fat fingers to play at full speed. And then I have a cup of tea and sing my heart out.Again, promotional/helpful.
Parallax Error Beheads You is out 11/18 via Domino. There are also some live dates, where you can witness some of the above in action:
10/05 - London, UK @ LSO St Luke's %
10/23 - Southampton, UK @ Guildhall #
10/24 - Cardiff, UK @ Cardiff University #
10/25 - Liverpool, UK @ Liverpool Academy #
10/26 - Leeds, UK @ Academy #
10/28 - Sheffield, UK @ Sheffield Academy #
10/29 - Birmingham, UK @ Birmingham Academy #
10/30 - Cambridge, UK @ Corn Exchange #
11/01 - Manchester, UK @ Apollo #
11/02 - Glasgow, UK @ Academy #
11/03 - Leicester, UK De Montford University #
11/05 - Brighton, UK @ Dome #
11/06 - London, UK @ Brixton Academy $
11/07 - London, UK @ Brixton Academy $
% w/ Juana Molina
# w/ Hot Chip
$ w/ Hot Chip and Wiley
Posted at 2:05 PM by brandon in MP3
Tags: Max Tundra
I dig it :) I've pretty much slept on Max for the last... decade or so, but maybe that'll change with this release. Time to do some back-catalog downloading.
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He's Heeeree!
I wish with it would come a collection of remixes. He's done some great remixes from Von Sudenfed to The Futureheads. Plus, all of Max Tundra's albums, including Mastered By Guy at the Exchange (by the way, you spelled "exchange" wrong) is out of print at the stores I've been in.
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There is going to be a Max Tundra remix compilation of some sort in 2009. And yeah, some of them are really amazing.
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YES!!!
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Awesome.
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not sure about the post above, but I have been looking forward to Max Tundra's new one...this is ace!
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This album is freaking brilliant. Totally picking this up when it hits the shelves.
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A fantastic site, and brilliant effort. A great piece of work.,
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I love you so much! Great place to visit!,
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