Sole (founder of anticon. records) and the Skyrider Band will be hitting the road this October, playing out the new record “Plastique.” Click on the image above to pre-order your copy now. Honestly, we didn’t think the preview clips do the record the justice it truly deserves over at circleintosquare.com, but you can at least get the compressed audio gist of the songs. Still though, the audio compression really ruins how great the songs actually sound! So, you need more than previews when it comes to these songs, because the transitions are really awesome and are part of what keeps the listener locked-in. You know how tracks can have build-ups then suddenly drop into quieter, more minimal sounds, only to then build back up again and explode? Well, if you like getting hyped-up when listening to your music, this release is for you.

Some notable tracks for us include “Battlefields,” and, by the way, it’s spectacular that Markus Acher of The Notwist collaborated with the group on the track. No wonder we were getting a slight Postal Service vibe on that one. Acher has a really beautiful voice.

Other enjoyable joints include “Longshots,” “More,” “Pissing in the Wind,” definitely “Bait,” and “Mr. Insurgent.” When you’re immediately feeling six tracks out of nine on a release, chances are it’s going to be a part of your playlist rotation the next good while.

Drawing clear influence from hip hop, rock, electronic music, and even classical music, this record is not to be missed. Again: it’s not to be missed.

SEPTEMBER 9. Fakefour Records proudly presents Sole and the Skyrider Band’s new album Plastique. The follow-up LP to Sole & the Skyrider Band’s debut of the same name, is Sole’s most cohesive, dynamic, listenable and interesting record to date. In contrast to the apocalyptic imagery of the first record, this album adopts the Jean Beaudrillard idea that “when the spectacle took over, man ceased to be man.”

Skyrider’s music finds itself more sparse and deliberate on this record. The idea behind this album is less about politics and more about reflections on the postmodern mess that is the “me” generation. Sole bounces from the ironic to the iconoclastic, from the worldly to the deeply personal. Unlike many previous recordings, sole’s rapping is at the forefront and his lyrics are clearer than ever. This is partly thanks to more immaculately composed music, and partly to Son Lux collaborator Doc Harril on the mixing boards.

Sole has spent the last two years living in a cabin in the midst of the Coconino National Forest in Arizona with no mayor, no phone lines, broken cell phone reception, just books and environmental canyon sprawl. This return to analog life inspired much of the reflection found herein. Everywhere man goes he is in conflict, and such conflicts are found throughout the album: the interpersonal, the political, the anti-social, the city, the desert, the industries and the anti-ideologies wherever they are found. Sole touches on everything from touring in a recession, media and war, race, rap, wildlife, space, identity politics and the insane tightrope one must walk to talk about such issues without sounding like a book report.

While Sole was communing with his inner Walt Whitman, the Skyrider Band relocated to Los Angeles. While there, multi-instrumentalist William Ryan Fritch began working on film soundtracks and as a session musician while working on his solo projects. John Wagner(drummer) and Bud Berning(producer) formed a new group with Telephone Jim Jesus called Furious Stylz. The trio have brought their dubbed out electro outfit up and down the west coast and have joined the rotation at the world renowned Low End Theory in LA.

Now, they hit the road and will be in Seattle on Oct 19~

For press inquiries, please contact Nicole Balin.

ITINERARY:
10-15 – LA Knitting Factory
10-16 – San Diego – Kava Lounge
10-17 – Oakland – The Uptown
10-18 – Portland – Rotture
10-19 – Seattle – The Nectar
10-20 – Missoula – The Palace
10-21 – Boise, ID – Neurolux
10-23 – SLC – Urban Lounge
10-24 – Ft. Collins
10-25 – Denver, Co – Hi-Dive
10-26 – ABQ – The Launchpad
10-27 – LV, NV – The Bunk House