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After the runaway success of last years Milky Disco cosmic disco compilation, Lo Recordings voyage ever deeper into the cosmic galaxy with the debut album release by Californian producer Hatchback.
Anyone for Californian Cosmic Krautrock Disco?
Spanning Neu like motorik grooves, sunny disco moves, epic ambient journeys that rival Vangelis or Klaus Schulze for sheer electronic deep- ness and downtempo funk head nodders with Kraftwerk keyboards, this is a such a perfect summer album that it can make it seem like summer anytime of the year. If Dennis Wilson was still alive he’d be making music like this.
Hatchback is Samuel Milton Grawe, Californian native and best buddy with Sorcerer aka Dan Judd whose ‘Surfing at Midnight’ was one of THE summer tunes of last year. You’ll also find Sorcerer adding his delicious guitar licks to a couple of tracks on this album .
Hatchback is the sound of cruising through sun-drenched landscapes, along crystalline coastlines from the Autobahn to the California High- way. Inspired by in-dash cassette players playing the perfect song at the perfect time, Hatchback creates soundtracks for the film unfolding through your windshield. Utilizing an array of vintage synthesizers, analog drum machines, and the venerable Fender Rhodes electric piano, these are classic sounds with a modern twist.
Like Roy Ayers meets Can, Hatchback proves that everyone does in- deed love the sunshine.
Includes the seminal ‘White Diamond’ as remixed by Prins Thomas and a big favourite with Ewan Pearson and Lindstrom, described by London's hipster record shop Phonica as ‘a mind-blowing transmission of blissed out, life-affirming cosmic disco’.
Other releases by Hatchback can be found on Sentrall and Thisisnotanexit. Sam is also the other half of Windsurf with Dan Judd (Sorcerer) whose debut album is out soon on Prins Thomas’ Internasjonal label, their remix of LCD Soundsystem is out now on DFA.
Tracklisting:
01. Nesso
02. Jetlag
03. Everything is Neu
04. Closer to Forever
05. Carefree Highway
06. Comets
07. The Lotus and The Robot
08. Open Valley
09. White Diamond
10. Horizon
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Hatchback is Sam Milton Grawe. He makes beautiful Californian Cosmidelic Disco…
Here are a few words he wrote about his formative influences.
Traveling around the world with my family from a young age, my walkman was never too far out of reach. I loved to listen to soundtracks, and my parents collection of tapes which included ABBA, Flashdance, and most of all The Eurythmics. We lived in India, and traveled to places like Egypt, Nepal, Hong Kong, Japan, and Papua New Guinea. By ten, my head was full of pictures, sounds, sights, and smells which I will never forget.
I saw a synthesizer in the third grade and became transfixed by the strange electronic noises it could produce. After our next trip to Hong Kong I soon had my own Casio pocket synth, the VL-Tone (which I use to this day). I started making recordings in high school, playing around with MIDI sequencing and a Casio keyboard. Eventually after some music theory, failed piano lessons, and some upgraded gear, I started crafting epic prog-rock suites not unlike the obscure 1970's bands I had fallen in love with (Premiata Forneria Marconi anyone?). It wasn't long before I ditched the wizard's cape for modern sounds and was listening to the likes of Aphex Twin, Mouse on Mars, Tortoise, and Stereolab. My own music followed suit. Hatchback was born—at least on audio cassette.
I moved to California in 1998, and have been steadily working away on music in my free time, as my professional life led to other things. I met Dan Judd, the guitarist in a band called Call & Response in 2002, and shortly thereafter we starting collaborating on tracks together—just a fun thing to do on saturday mornings and weekend afternoons. After a couple years we'd built up quite a lot of jams and started playing them for our friends. Our pals on Dreamchimney and at Sentrall records in LA saw fit to release some tracks and we dubbed it Windsurf. Soon the labels in england were calling and upstarts THISISNOTANEXIT released a 12" of 'White Diamond' b/w an epic remix from Prins Thomas.
Colors of The Sun, my first proper album, is the culmination of more than a decade of dabbling. Each track presents the listener with its own sonic universe and a new set of rules by which to play. They are miniature (sometimes not quite so miniature) soundtracks to imaginary films—films which I hope someone will someday make. They are songs for the sunrise, and for the sunset, and every color in between.
