"we had a feeling like we were heading home..."
"Dustin" by Los Angeles based duo Purple Witch of Culver featuring saxophonist/vocalist Sarah Safaie and producer/multi instrumentalist Evan Taylor is a mind bending, heart expanding midnight movie of a song that crushes expectations (in a delicious way) and feels almost hallucinogenic in it's art rock, glam smeared psychedelia. I generally don't gravitate to songs with spoken word passages but feel glued to "Dustin" and I quickly added it to the growing list of songs that I will have played at my funeral which is incredibly appropriate since the band says:
"This song is especially dear to us, as it deals with the feeling of loss and its universality while doubling as a sort of guided meditation into the afterlife (as we imagine that transitional process to occur)."
What is so stunning about Sarah Safaie's earthy resonant spoken word is the crashing guitar psych down beats that act as exquisite space rock periods to her sentences. The sung harmonies are fantastic too as is Evan Taylor's dirty Farfisa-esque toned keys and overall production featuring Sarah on her saxophone, with synths and feral sort of Ringo meets Keith Moon drums. The whimsical fully instrumental outro feels quirky and gleefully goofy, "daah dah dah daah" in repeat, that feels as catchy as a Mentos commercial and I mean that as an utter compliment.
I absolutely love this oddly, wonderfully beautiful aesthetic. Sarah informed by jazz bubbles out of the New School for Jazz, floating throughout the traditional jazz world as well as the experimental noise and warehouse art scene and Evan whose collaboration tentacles include Jimmy Destri (Blondie), Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads, Modern Lovers), in addition to running the LA-based label Loantaka Records (Sofia Bolt, Jess Cornelius) and as part of the extended Parliament family, having worked as production partner with Bernie Worrell, the keyboard wizard of Parliament-Funkadelic, and collaborator with Talking Heads.
What a wonderful song to ceremonially float forever into the ether.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.facebook.com/purplewitchofculver
https://www.instagram.com/purplewitchofculver/
https://twitter.com/sarahbellummm
Purple Witch of Culver is a Los Angeles-based duo featuring saxophonist/vocalist Sarah Safaie and producer/multi instrumentalist Evan Taylor.
Born out of an informal recording session meant merely to commit some of Safaie’s recent ideas to tape, the pair found an immediate, improvisational chemistry and the results sound like little else populating the current musical landscape.
Raised on bebop and straight ahead jazz, before an obsession with Parliament Funkadelic illuminated other musical avenues, Safaie moved to New York City out of high school to attend the New School for Jazz. While there, she once again ventured out of the traditional jazz world, discovering the city’s experimental noise and warehouse art scene.
Shortly after her arrival in L.A., she met and felt an immediate musical connection with Taylor, whose credits and list of collaborators include Jimmy Destri (Blondie), Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads, Modern Lovers), in addition to running the LA-based label Loantaka Records (Sofia Bolt, Jess Cornelius).
Most notably for Safaie, Taylor was part of the extended Parliament family, having worked as production partner with Bernie Worrell, the keyboard wizard of Parliament-Funkadelic, and collaborator with Talking Heads.
Fittingly for a group inspired by improvisation and experimentation, the duo’s first two sonic offerings were each recorded in a single day at Loantaka Sound studios in Downtown Los Angeles, in their preferred all-analog recording medium.
Purple Witch of Culver, psych rock, art rock, spoken word, art pop, psychedelic, "Dustin", meditation into the afterlife, sax, vocalist Sarah Safaie, producer/multi instrumentalist, Evan Taylor,
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