Brooklyn Experimental Quartet ALTOPALO Releases “mud (Active Child Remix)
January 21, 2022 BY Jason Currell
altopalo today share a collection of creative reworks, as well as one previously unreleased B-side, from their 2020 critically praised album, farawayfromeveryoneyouknow. Featuring contributions from some of the band’s closets friends and heroes, including Kiah Victoria, Active Child, Ian Chang, and Beshken – listen to farawayfromeveryoneyouknow (but wait—there’s more!) via Nettwerk HERE and watch the new visualizer for “what (we) are” HERE:
About the new collection, altopalo shares, “When we were not able to take the music of ‘farawayfromeveryoneyouknow’ around the world on tour during the summer of 2020, we were pretty bummed out that we could not have the opportunity to creatively reimagine this material, by breathing some new energy and new life into it all on stage. Lucky for us, we settled for an alternative even more exciting and stimulating that we could’ve imagined, in turning the material over to our friends Ian Chang, Kiah Victoria, Beshken, and Active Child. These four remarkable friends and collaborators took their favorite material from ‘farawayfromeveryoneyouknow’ and metamorphosed their own exciting and surprising new worlds for the music to inhabit and evoke.”
Veterans of the New York underground scene, the four members of altopalo – lead singer Rahm Silverglade, guitarist Mike Haldeman, bassist Jesse Bielenberg, and drummer Dillon Treacy – disintegrate the boundaries of genre, folding in elements of R&B, electronica, ambient, and jazz through their deconstructionist approach to guitar-driven music reminiscent of artists such as Bon Iver, Moses Sumney, and Black Midi.
The new collection out today includes Active Child’s rework of fan-favorite, “mud,” which stretches altopalo‘s original track into a cinematic anthem. Kiah Victoria, an ongoing inspiration for the band, offers an emotive, trippy take on “nocturne.” farawayfromeveryoneyouknow (but wait—there’s more!) also offers reimaginations of beloved tracks by Ian Chang and Beshken, as well as a previously unheard B-side, the layered “what (we) are.”
farawayfromeveryoneyouknow opened up new avenues for their music, from the languid indie rock of lead single “honey” to the deep, danceable grooves of “nocturne”, the chopped-up soul of “lub” and the gleaming, evocative intimacy of instrumental closer “now that you’re here…”. The band’s idiosyncratic recording process, made up of long improvisations, recorded in full before being whittled down into different loops, progressions, and fragments, is likened by Treacy as altopalo creating, pulling apart, and then trying to piece a jigsaw puzzle back together again.
farawayfromeveryoneyouknow (but wait—there’s more!) by altopalo is out now via Nettwerk, buy/stream it here.
PRAISE FOR ALTOPALO
“…a blend of ambient, indie rock, and R&B that recalls the work of genre-less auteurs like Justin Vernon or James Blake.”
Pitchfork
“…pretty synths collide with abrasive elements suggesting they’ve been listening to SOPHIE while Rahm Silvergade’s vocals shift in pitch and tone throughout, adding to the alien vibe of the music.” FADER
“…with the tinges of R&B, soul and pop filling out the meticulously constructed, cavernous rock soundscapes.”
Billboard
“the junk drawer in your house if it was music: bewildering and wondrous”
NYLON
“…an auditory experience that’s both enjoyable and studied, equally erudite and playful.”
Vinyl Me Please
DOWNLOAD ALBUM ARTWORK HERE