Conveyor on Gold Robot Records

Hunter at Gold Robot Records sent me a copy of a new single from Brookyln's Conveyor who also happen to have a full length coming out on Paper Garden Records...with both of these labels behind these guys it's about time I checked out a couple of tracks from the unclassifiable quartet.

A-Side's "Mane" features an acoustic with a breathy layered doubled vocal. An odd bassline juts in sounding an awful like early Talking Heads, or that's just because I got done talking about Jonathan Letham's book at the Word Music book club group, but there's that same kind of primitive polyrhythmic sound this acoustic keeps riding over. The sound is impeccably clear, these weirdo eclectic sounds are trapped in amber, shining in a sort of bizarre Flaming Lips aesthetic. The whole thing slowly moving glitchy and bleepy, the vocal melody taking a Graceland world music direction. That joyous chorus sound based on all kinds of classic trained voices going way back to the earliest form of harmony. There's an awful lot of seemingly random elements, all delivered polished and shining, in an operatic, narrative way. Insanely dense with pop pieces, this carnival of cheapo drum machines wind the track down with a whispered choir chorus, playful, changing direction at the drop of a hat and insanely worked over, each tiny detail examined under a microscope.

B-Side's "Maine" then starts with a warm up orchestral toy xylophone parade and a choir of far off ooooooo's from a male choir, disconnected from the plinks....slowly turning into some kind of childrens Animal Collective, the new psyche of vocal sounds, the odder the rhythms the better with baffling snaps and chorus effects. The vocal, like with the Collective is almost the most important sound, exploring that most basic of instrumnets is the most important thing here. Very Sung Tongs, the vocalizations scaling insane highs that twist back to create a chorus that winds back in on itself. That unnatural sounding acoustic is going the way of Rabbit without the YELLING attack Animal Collective always tries to surprise you with. The same devotion to extreme experimentation but with an overall more melodic focus...paying attention to those unusual hooks with a severe unique slant.

On thick white vinyl, glossy inner sleeve and matte watercolor painting from Benji. This one can be found on the great Gold Robot Records who says:

"Mane" is the second single from Conveyor's upcoming debut album. The song is a would've/could've/should've embrace of lost love over a sub-Saharan carousel of acoustic rounds. The B-side, "Maine," is the sound of an Acadian lover's hymn as retold by four somnambulists. The songs were recorded in Brooklyn, NY during winter, 2012, two prayers for a summer salvation. Conveyor is Timothy John Masters, Evan Michael Garfield, Gary Alan Busch, Jr., and Michael Ryan Pedron. Recorded at 60 s 2nd st. (Brooklyn, NY, USA). Mastered by TW Walsh.

60 East 2nd Street? It warms my heart that this was was sent across the country to Hunter who pressed it and mailed it to me, not more that 10 blocks from that very spot. Oh seven inches....