DEBASER's been practically dead for awhile now. I wish I could say it's 'cause I've been off in a cave like Johnny Cash or something, but really it's because Kyle and I have been sweating over our first full-length album. Read on:
Seven months of jamming, experimenting, recording, and fine-tuning have paid off:
Ocean Sunbirds is now for sale via Brooklyn’s own
Little Fury Things (CD-R) and Denton, TX label
Animal Image Search (cassette).
Ocean Sunbirds is our first dip into the incandescent waters of album-hood, and as you might expect from a couple of hardcore music nerds, we put a lot into it. The EP was really just a collection of songs we had made—we were very stoked about how well it was received but definitely wanted to make a statement with whatever we did next. Our biggest concerns had to do with the same qualities we felt were present in all of the albums we thought were “good” or “great”. Regardless of whether or not we would actually achieve those same qualities, we were interesting in trying, anyway.
Great albums are consistent, from song-to-song, while still displaying range and providing unexpected surprises. They create a particular vibe, or conjure a specific set of images, and let your mind explore imagined spaces in a single listen.
We wanted to make an album like that—one which kept delivering an IV drip of uplifting tropical IDM, with some of the tribal elements from the EP dialed up, and with a wider amount of instruments and sounds present. Bands like Our Sleepless Forest were a huge influence, and we wanted to work with density; layering elements until the music reached transcendent capacity…In the first two tracks, we tried to push the limits of this sonic density, and hopefully set the stage for an album that tries to really “go there”.
We have to thank so many people for helping with this record, and playing on this record, or waiting so long for it. In particular, our guest vocalists really out-performed themselves. Alaskas took “Frozen Bayou” and “Startled by Sparkling Water” to the next level, and “Old Spooky and Moss Hut” would have been a weird disaster without the haunting vox and additional guitars from Big Spider’s Back. Blind Man’s Colour, in the middle of going blog-hype supernova, kindly sang on “Moon Bungalow”, expertly matching our vibe with syrupy melody.
We’re (obviously) pretty proud of this record, but what really matters to us at the end of the day is that we can share our music with friends and strangers alike, and that people seem to really be responding to it. In short, we’re stoked. We hope you will be too.
Click here to buy
Ocean Sunbirds on disc.
Click here to buy
Ocean Sunbirds on cassette.
Here’s what some other people are saying about the album:
“So, so tropical” – Alex Ruder, KEXP
“like being wrapped up in a huge blanket under really warm rain trickling off of palm trees”-Kyle from Blind Man’s Colour
“Upon first listening to this album, I had a vivid picture of all the nocturnal creatures arising from their hiding spots and livin' it up” –Aerophones and Aeroplanes
“Not that this scenery isn’t devoid of a haunted beauty, conspicuous beeping & tooting replaced by the screeching of exuberant birds, the brush of leaves dancing their sedate little dance, and a sun larger than you remember shining at an exotic angle through a tattered atmosphere” -20JazzFunkGreats
"A vast array of sounds cascade upward, building a wall of sound, drifting the audience off into a sun-soaked outer space... perfect for summer evenings" – Shock Mountain
“The album begins and ends in the middle of the urban rainforest and makes frequent stops at public pools and sno-cone stands along the way”-Animal Image Search
“Imagine you are sixteen, skinny dipping in a remote lagoon of clear water surrounded by cgi jungle animals with golden boom boxes...” –Little Fury Things
“Have liked much, take I all the morning with the disc, go to by ep” - Babelfish translation of someone on the Primavera Sound Message Board
