Elijah Wood voices Soundcarriers single

Recording sessions for the decidedly dope new Soundcarriers single for Great Pop Supplement began with a different approach to the band’s two previous albums, “Harmonium” (2009) and “Celeste” (2010).  A vast disused warehouse provided the catalyst for an upfront sound, more akin to the band’s live shows than their studio material. Within these latest sessions, a certain alchemy happened: by using the building as a natural reverb chamber, an expansive and deep sound was produced, and a sound that everyone present knew, could never be recreated.

“Boiling Point” was captured in it’s raw, organic form. A quick-fire burst of motorik groove. Through playing the track live and purposely recording hot to tape The Soundcarriers hit us with their spiralling rhythms and the crack and bubble of organically distorted instrumentation.

“This is Normal” is born out of a locked-in rhythm section telepathically communicating through four strings and a beaten-up kit. Woven into that is the improvised playing of guest musicians Jesse Chandler (of Midlake) and Miles Newbold (of the Natural Yogurt Band) rotating through a menagerie of keyboards, percussion and flutes. An instructional narration by celebrated thespian and noted Brazilian record hound Elijah Wood compliments this abstract groove which, quite rightly, requests the listener to relax.

The SOundcarriers single is being released by Great Pop Supplement as a limited-run 500 copy white vinyl 45 and a download. The vinyl version includes both an extra track “EFF.R”, a sealed Soundcarriers turntable strobe pack and sleeve notes from Shindig! bon vivant Vic Templar.

Have a listen to The Soundcarriers' This Is Normal featuring Elijah Wood:

Spacemen 3 Vs. Wooden Shjips

It takes a special breed of record nut to operate a vinyl-only label at a time when the format is supposed to be obsolete. Rarer still is the sort with exceptionally good taste like Dominic Martin (of Earworm Records notoriety) whose UK-based Great Pop Supplement label has snuck out an impressive series of high quality artifacts presenting superb music by uniquely talented fringe artists in aesthetically dazzling packages – we're talking multi-fold handmade sleeves, embroidered bags, photo mounted envelopes, nut-bolted balsa wood, stickers, packets of seeds, the works.
So when you buy a GPS record, you don't just get to hear a couple of great songs by a Swedish one-man-band or a Japanese psych unit, you've also got a snazzy conversation piece to impress that friend who thinks they've got everything MV + EE and Jack Rose have ever done.

To mark the label's 50th release milestone, Dom has just issued a red wax split pairing an early demo version of Big City by Spacemen 3 with a fabulously fuzzed-up cover of the Playing With Fire album corker I Believe It courtesy of San Francisco's Wooden Shjips, perhaps the only currently active group who could do it justice. As a neat final touch, it comes housed in a sleeve created by Spacemen percussionist Natty Brooker. I'm getting a buzz just looking at it. 
The good news is that instead of the typically miniscule pressings of say 111 or 220 copies which Great Pop Supplement have been known to drop in the past, gps 50 was reportedly issued in an edition of 1000. However, the bad news is that according to Dom, the entire run "literally vanished in an afternoon." But whatever the conventional vinyl vendors didn't stockpile for mailorder purposes was very likely hoovered up speculators hoping to quintuple their investment on eBay. So don't fret, you'll be seeing the single turning up online for months if not years to come.

   

Links
http://www.greatpopsupplement.com/