Sunday, February 05, 2012
Non Projects® is a record label dedicated to the support and discovery of Los Angeles' most innovative artists and composers. Mislaid within an ever-changing and confused recording landscape, Non Projects offers imaginative works of art and sound.
With the aim to showcase each artist's devotion to their love of music and the joy of uncovering hidden and undiscovered sounds and resonances, each release is available with supplemental materials providing a commonly forgotten tangible experience no longer associated with acquiring music.
Check back here or sign up for the newsletter for notifications of upcoming events and releases.
Daizo is the debut full-length release from Justin Hopkins aka RareBit.
With the release of The Destroyer EP in 2011, musician / composer and visual artist Justin Hopkins, aka RareBit, quickly established himself as an artist who knows his craft. Whereas The Destroyer, a collection of Justin’s earlier work, dealt in dizzying cut and paste compositional techniques and songs with short run-times, Daizo, his full-length debut, takes us on an excursion of much greater distance. The same acute attention to sonic detail remains, however Daizo tracks take advantage of the long player format with songs stretching to upwards of eight minutes. Also, ‘Daizo’ ups the live performance quotient as well with vividly and wildly arranged instrumentation – most notably drums and percussion that carry a strong undercurrent throughout the album.
Daizo is named after Justin’s grandfather and is an exploration in Music as genetics. It is a dedication to his ancestors that lived during the Great Depression era, yet maintains a celebratory and reflective vibe throughout. As Justin puts it, the idea is “of families of songs that share similar traits. Certain elements are directly sampled from other places on the album or share themes even if they are manipulated or mutated to different extents.” Right off the bat, Sister songs “Running Tangles” and “Mt Weather” are obvious examples of this, entirely different tracks that are culled from the same drum tracking sessions.
As with The Destroyer and most of RareBit’s work, Justin plays more of a conductor and composer role with several different musicians playing on the album and sounds being recorded on many different devices, in different places. As both a visual artist and a sonic illustrator, Justin is able to display a huge array of colors and feels in his music, all while keeping everything completely coherent. Ranging from the free jazz meets elegant electronics of “Convergence”, the subtle yet devastating poly-rhythms of “Mt Weather”, the loud and budding, yet impossible to ignore cries of “Phantom Wall” and exceedingly swift lines and contours of “Emergence”, ‘Daizo’ portrays a sculptor thinking deeply about his art, yet always moving forward with instinct.
1. No New Wave
2. Running Tangles
3. Mt. Weather
4. Phantom Wall
5. Me and You
6. Emergence
7. Convergence
8. I'll Be Hard On You
9. You and Me
Cover painting by Justin Hopkins. Photos by Andy J. Scott
Press: 92bpm, The Fox Is Black, Resident Advisor, trndmusik, XLR8R, Visitation Rites
15:33 live and fully improvised performance at the Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, CA, 12.12.11. HD quality footage.
Download .zip here.
Filmed by Charlie Visnic.
Goblin Guts is a new web project from RareBit and graphic designer Nate James.
A new song and image to match every day.
In addition to participating in this year's Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid, Spain, and in advance of his upcoming full length (due 2012), Anenon will be playing dates in Europe this fall.
11/18 - Madrid, Spain - RBMA Presents From Silver to the Sky w/ Morton Subotnick & Lillevan at Museo Reina Sofia
11/26 - London, UK - Streets of Beige at The Old Blue Last w/ Yosi Horikawa, Infinite Potentials + Residents
12/1 - Modena, Italy - NODE Presenta Anenon at Mattatoio Culture Club
12/4 - Budapest, Hungary - Gödör Klub
12/7 - Vienna, Austria - Morrison Club
ROM-DOS is a new project from Nicholas Morera, AKA a.d.l.r.
Not much is known about this project except that digital and analog synthesis is a major focus. "Kief Scrapes" is a prime example of the sound. Listen below and head to ROM-DOS' Soundcloud page for more sounds.
Fresh off of his release If I Am This Forest, Ryan York aka Asura, contributes an exclusive podcast for XLR8R, including a slew of his own material and edits along with a new and unheard track from Gold and Soil, his upcoming collaborative project with Ana Caravelle.
Download for free from XLR8R.
If I Am This Forest marks the welcome return of Ryan York to Non Projects in the form of a surprise EP.
Purchase unique, hand-pressed 12" here.
Purchase Digital at Boomkat | iTunes
While currently at work on both a proper follow-up to 2010’s Asura full-length and an album of experimental electronic pop with Ana Caravelle under the Gold and Soil moniker, Ryan has also been keeping busy with a one off cassette release for Matthewdavid’s Leaving Records and playing strings on Zola Jesus’ new record. With If I Am This Forest, Non Projects documents York diving much deeper into the pop inklings that have been hinted at in his previous work, combined with his unparalleled sense of immersive arrangement and texture.
An ode to Ryan’s current home deep in Topanga Canyon, California, the title track swiftly gets things started as Ryan croons “If I Am This Forest” on top of a vaguely familiar repeating pop chorale. Vocals and tones swell as the song blissfully and hypnotically drives forward, melding dynamic video game arpeggios with lushly organic vocal and instrumental textures. “Sea Water” is a meditative rhythmic journey turned searing percussion jam while “As The Darkness (After the Crash)” finds York in his most upfront pop scenario yet, complete with rich harmonic vocal arrangements, bouncy guitar punches and exuberant skittering percussion. “Me and You” closes out the set with tinkling synths, lurching drums and playfully pitched vocal manipulations. A resident (along with Teebs) at the Alpha Pup presented monthly Futura, Ryan has used the regular concert as grounds for his constantly evolving forays into both electronic and acoustic experimentation. If I Am This Forest provides a strong pop-tinged chronicle of these solo experiments and hints at what we can expect in chapters to come.
Non Projects Presents
RAREBIT (w/ full band)
GOLD AND SOIL (Ana Caravelle and Ryan York)
ANENON (w/ Jon-Kyle on drums)
ROM-DOS (Nicholas Morera)
Saturday, August 13
930 PM, Doors at 830
Bootleg Theater
2220 Beverly Blvd.
Thanks to everybody who came out, amazing vibes all night! Pictures by Andy J. Scott can be viewed here.
