"when the kids set the shit on fire"
Collapsing Scenery's art punk pummel on "Bush Mama Blues" as remixed by Money Mark is a precisely crafted and soundscaped bit of "feral" punk tones with (to me) late 70's proto punk affections throughout. Maybe this sounds weird but the vocal aesthetic has me flashing on Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy), it is that cool. The track is so exquisitely dense and this remix is a remarkable post follow up to the band's debut album "Stress Positions" that, itself, is a futuristic amalgam of synth punk, post punk, chillwave, techno, goth pop all stirred up with samplers, step sequencers, synths and drum machines.
Quote from Collapsing Scenery's Reggie Debris about the remix is here:
‘Money Mark is a living legend and we are very grateful to call him a supporter and friend. We reached out to him for a remix but he had a bigger vision for the song; essentially a ground-up rework of the track with us playing the new arrangement in studio. He eschewed the freak-out free jazz of the original version for a twitchy, elastic post-punk version. We love it.’
In the end "Bush Mama Blues" as remixed by Money Mark stands alone as this surreal art punk time stamped time machine circa 78' proto punk pushed forward 50 years in the future. It is a heavy slice of genre agnostic acidity that will feel subversive at any given point in any time.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
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Collapsing Scenery straddles the gap between music, art, film and politics, seamlessly moving between each with the same ease at which they traverse the globe, soaking up experiences and immersing themselves in different cultures.
Since they formed in 2013 “under a pall of paranoia and disgust” they haven’t stopped moving. Recent collaborations include Jamaican dancehall legend Ninjaman, Beastie Boys producer/collaborator Money Mark, and no-wave pioneer James Chance. The band also has remixes out or on the way from Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle), Jennifer Herrema (Royal Trux), Uniform, Youth Code, Brian DeGraw (Gang Gang Dance), and more.
A conversation with them recalls stories of recently recording a ‘goth-dancehall’ track in Jamaica, sailing their sound system into Britain for a series of shows, visiting occupied territories in Palestine on fact-finding missions, recording their debut album on a remote ranch in Texas and soaking up rays in Corsica – and that’s in the first five minutes.
The band's debut album Stress Positions is a glorious collision of futurist electro, glacial goth tones, techno, post-punk and chillwave recorded using analogue electronics: samplers, step sequencers, synths and drum machines. Aesthetically it initially recalls the early pioneering synth-punk of bands such as Human League, Screamers and The Normal, when the most forwarding thinking punks looked to the twenty-first century. Dig deeper however and it reveals an articulate and highly politicised collection that’s far from mired being in nostalgia for the recent past. Quite the opposite: Stress Positions is a forward-looking album with strong state-of-the-world lyrical content. In the tradition of so many defining electro duos – whether Suicide, Pet Shop Boys or Underworld – Collapsing Scenery’s architecture is entirely of their own creation. They’ve built their own world and live in it. The album also features contributions from UK grime artist Jammz, award wining Palestinian hip hop group DAM, LA shoegazer Tamaryn and several other likeminded collaborators.
Collapsing Scenery offer a new vision for how a modern band can be. They’re not even a band – they’re curators of a series of planet-planning events, expressions, exhibitions, albums, installations, journeys, adventures and parties, all operating outside of the confines of the tired traditional industry.
Quote from Collapsing Scenery's Reggie Debris about the remix is here:
‘Money Mark is a living legend and we are very grateful to call him a supporter and friend. We reached out to him for a remix but he had a bigger vision for the song; essentially a ground-up rework of the track with us playing the new arrangement in studio. He eschewed the freak-out free jazz of the original version for a twitchy, elastic post-punk version. We love it.’
In the end "Bush Mama Blues" as remixed by Money Mark stands alone as this surreal art punk time stamped time machine circa 78' proto punk pushed forward 50 years in the future. It is a heavy slice of genre agnostic acidity that will feel subversive at any given point in any time.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
spotify
bandcamp
Collapsing Scenery straddles the gap between music, art, film and politics, seamlessly moving between each with the same ease at which they traverse the globe, soaking up experiences and immersing themselves in different cultures.
Since they formed in 2013 “under a pall of paranoia and disgust” they haven’t stopped moving. Recent collaborations include Jamaican dancehall legend Ninjaman, Beastie Boys producer/collaborator Money Mark, and no-wave pioneer James Chance. The band also has remixes out or on the way from Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle), Jennifer Herrema (Royal Trux), Uniform, Youth Code, Brian DeGraw (Gang Gang Dance), and more.
A conversation with them recalls stories of recently recording a ‘goth-dancehall’ track in Jamaica, sailing their sound system into Britain for a series of shows, visiting occupied territories in Palestine on fact-finding missions, recording their debut album on a remote ranch in Texas and soaking up rays in Corsica – and that’s in the first five minutes.
The band's debut album Stress Positions is a glorious collision of futurist electro, glacial goth tones, techno, post-punk and chillwave recorded using analogue electronics: samplers, step sequencers, synths and drum machines. Aesthetically it initially recalls the early pioneering synth-punk of bands such as Human League, Screamers and The Normal, when the most forwarding thinking punks looked to the twenty-first century. Dig deeper however and it reveals an articulate and highly politicised collection that’s far from mired being in nostalgia for the recent past. Quite the opposite: Stress Positions is a forward-looking album with strong state-of-the-world lyrical content. In the tradition of so many defining electro duos – whether Suicide, Pet Shop Boys or Underworld – Collapsing Scenery’s architecture is entirely of their own creation. They’ve built their own world and live in it. The album also features contributions from UK grime artist Jammz, award wining Palestinian hip hop group DAM, LA shoegazer Tamaryn and several other likeminded collaborators.
Collapsing Scenery offer a new vision for how a modern band can be. They’re not even a band – they’re curators of a series of planet-planning events, expressions, exhibitions, albums, installations, journeys, adventures and parties, all operating outside of the confines of the tired traditional industry.
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