From: Angela Sawyer "On The Pedestrian Side"
WER-006
(Due Fall 2014)
Angela Sawyer is the owner of Weirdo Records in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We first heard her music at the Weirdstock 3 festival (“We Are Guest Talk Free”), held in the Cambridge YMCA theatre in August of 2011; She took a seat in a corner of the room and announced that, since this is Weirdstock, and she always plays “Weird” music (see: Preggy Peggy and the Lazy Babymakers, Duck That, and Exusamwa), she would grace us with some relatively straightforward songs, which would then, be weird of her. She proceeded to play a baritone ukelele and sing six squeaky small songs for the next 15 minutes, to everyone’s utter delight and surprise. We later found out that these songs were slightly less unusual than had thought, when we learned of her early 2000’s group, The Phenemonological Boys, but even knowing that now, these ditties have a charisma and maturity that distances them from that group. We recorded her set on our iPhone, and had only a few additional listens before deciding to ask for studio recordings of this set; at the time, thinking an afternoon in a cozy space with her uke and a couple mics would get us recordings that would be release-worthy, little did we expect that 3 years would pass before we had a full release together!
The album has been realized far more thoroughly than had hoped, replete with all sorts of odd instrumentation and arrangement, including sampled buss bass, bottle cap/vitamin bottle percussion, sleeping bag something, a good amount of midi instrumentation, and one presumes a good bit of sampled records from her vast and most likely overwhelming collection of vinyl from around the world. Additionally, she made the executive decision to leave a few of the original iPhone recordings sprinkled throughout the album, which I’m glad of, as the YMCA theatre has a great sound, the audience was appropriately attentive yet enthusiastic, and the album flows beautifully despite the shift in tone here and there.
Large group extended-technique/prepared instrument improvisation that puts itself under the microscope and shares what they find through their music and detailed and extensive essays. Weird Ear Records
Angst Hase's best sounding record, Seashard spits slivers of jigsawed pulse and digital detritus all over swollen swells of backwards rolling bass hunks, a listen to end all listens! Weird Ear Records
Varied sonic collages, colorful as the eye-grabbing album art, twist and turn throughout Rossetto's "Fashion Tape." It's a delightful release that combines the artist's intimate drones with an almost playful plundering of samples and sounds. jckmd