MARMALADE KNIVES announce their debut LP, Amnesia, to be issued by Italian label Electric Valley Records. The album will be digitally available on April 24th, but the vinyl will be available from May/Early June. The vinyl producing factory is temporarily closed due to the outbreak of COVID-19, and thus the label had no other option but to postpone the vinyl release.
Marmalade Knives was formed in the mountains of Santa Cruz, CA, as a collaboration between guitarists Clinton Wilkins and Justin Spivey, exploring the depths of outer-limits psychedelia. Wilkins spent several years studying with David First (acclaimed minimalist/microtonal composer and member of cult 70s/80s NYC no-wave legends The Notekillers) and Spivey is a well-regarded collector/historian of original period psychedelic/progressive music, writer at UK psych rag Moof Magazine, and recent songwriting contributor to the underground cult film The Yucca Sisters by Samuel Casebolt.
The lineup of the band eventually grew to a full-on 5 member troupe of local freak–rock ‘n’ rollers, including bassist Mark Robinson, drummer Kyle Herrenkohl (of SF acid-folkers TABERNACLE), and keyboardist Nathan Warrick (of APACHE DROPOUT). In the summer of 2018, they tracked their debut album at Loud House Studio in Santa Cruz, CA, and over the following year, the production and mixing of the album was helmed by Adam Kriney (of THE GOLDEN GRASS/LA OTRACINA).
Kriney says of the process:
“I used a very ‘Teo Macero’ style approach to the arranging, editing, and mixing of the material the band first tracked at their basic album sessions. And much in the same way that Macero [Miles Davis’ long-time producer] approached the editing of material from In A Silent Way up through Get Up With It, I generated new and refined song forms out of those initial recording sessions, reimagining the music to crystallize its vision. We then built further upon those ideas with remote recording/mixing sessions across Santa Cruz, New York City, and Asheville, NC, for over a year until the musical narrative from those sessions was complete and the album was finished.”
Amnesia is a sprawling tapestry of classically inspired progressive psychedelia. A voyage through a mythical cosmic rock universe, layered with dense squalls of abstract sound collage and fields of freeform freakouts, all coloured with old-world folk melodies/modalities and pulsing with a funky rhythm section!
Track list:
1. Amnesia
2. Rivuleting
3. Best-Laid Plans
4. Rebel Coryell
5. Xayante
6. Ez-Ra
7. Astrology Domine
Lineup:
Clinton Wilkins – Electric & Acoustic Guitar/Synth/Voice
Justin Spivey – Electric Guitar
Mark Robinson – Electric Bass.
Kyle Herrenkohl – Drums/Percussion
Nathan Warrick – Organ
with:
Adam Kriney – Percussion
Available Formats will be Transparent Orange Vinyl, 50x Random Marbled Vinyl, 25x ultra LTD “Psych Edition,” and Digital. Pre-orders starts from April 16th at https://electricvalleyrecords.com and https://evrecords.bandcamp.com
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/MarmaladeKnives
https://electricvalleyrecords.com
https://www.facebook.com/electricvalleyrecords
https://www.instagram.com/electricvalleyrecord
