ratskin records news and new releases

new this week - just released yama uba - silhouettes lp

Silhouettes

YAMA UBA

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‘Silhouettes’ is a strong debut album that captures the shifting perspectives of its five-year writing period, and the emergence of Yama Uba’s uniquely crafted sound. With Akiko Sampson's charismatic vocals and rumbling bass combined with Winter Zora's sweeping guitar and saxophone soaring over velvet synthesizers and synthpop beats, Yama Uba

‘Silhouettes’ is a strong debut album that captures the shifting perspectives of its five-year writing period, and the emergence of Yama Uba’s uniquely crafted sound. With Akiko Sampson's charismatic vocals and rumbling bass combined with Winter Zora's sweeping guitar and saxophone soaring over velvet synthesizers and synthpop beats, Yama Uba makes several nods to their post-punk and darkwave predecessors while creating a sound entirely their own. Throughout each track, Yama Uba emerges as a songwriting unit able to capture the complexities of the human spirit, as fragile as it is powerful, as it experiences its own evolution. States Sampson, ‘‘As a whole, 'Silhouettes’ is about personal transformation and self-discovery, and is a reckoning with the power of time.” credits releases January 24, 2024

Akiko Sampson: Vocals, bass, synthesizers, drum programming Winter Zora: Vocals, guitar, saxophone Additional percussion on “Disappear,” “Shapes,” “Facade,” “Isolation,” “Laura,” “Claustrophobia” by Charlie Vela Additional percussion on “Shatter” by Michael Daddona

All songs written by Akiko Sampson and Winter Zora except “I’m in Love With a German Film Star,” by B. Gogan, C. Timperley, D. Aagar, R. Williams

Lyrics for all songs by Akiko Sampson except “Claustrophobia” by Akiko Sampson and Winter Zora, “Isolation” by Winter Zora, and “I'm in Love With a German Film Star” by Barbara Gogan

All songs recorded by Akiko Sampson at Psychic Rat Studios except “I’m in Love With a German Film Star” and “Angel,” recorded by Michael Daddona at Zoo Labs Studios Mixed by Charlie Vera Mastered by Daniel Husayn Produced by Akiko Sampson

Album front and back covers designed by Pearl Thompson Album interior designed by Akiko Sampson Photos by Michael Daddona

©2023 Yama Uba Psychic Eye Records 2023 Ratskin Records 2023

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RATSKIN RECORDS NEWS + NEWEST RELEASES

DAX PIERSON - NERVE BUMPS (A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction)

Dax Pierson

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Dax Pierson’s first full-length studio solo album is coming to LP/ CD / CS / and digital via SanFrancisco’s Electronic powerhouse imprint Dark Entries Records and Oakland’s Ratskin Records collective. Dax Pierson, an Oakland, CA based electronic music underground legend has pushed the boundaries of experimental electronic music once again with his

Dax Pierson’s first full-length studio solo album is coming to LP/ CD / CS / and digital via SanFrancisco’s Electronic powerhouse imprint Dark Entries Records and Oakland’s Ratskin Records collective. Dax Pierson, an Oakland, CA based electronic music underground legend has pushed the boundaries of experimental electronic music once again with his two-plus years in the making soul-moving, full-length experimental electronic opus “Nerve Bumps; A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction’’.

On “Nerve Bumps” Pierson blends hip hop, funk, and jazz sensibilities, with complex, dark, harrowing percussion, John Carpenter-esque arpeggios, 808 trap/anti trap-influenced drum programming, musique concrete conceptual experiments, nodding to later Talk Talk and fellow queer producers Matmos, who’s new album, Pierson contributed to Futuristic synthesizers cut through layers of fog, as Pierson’s heavy, bombastic drum programming bridges new worlds within themselves, pulling rhythmic influences from sources as diverse as Prince and The Revolution to Moor Mother, and Ras G.

For an album that’s mostly instrumental, Pierson tells a complicated, nuanced and inspiring story, which is both a privilege and a gift to experience, but only on Piersons’ terms. Tracks such as “I Slay The Pain” reiterate once again that although Pierson has to live his life as a quadriplegic, often in a motorized chair, this, nor any other singular experience defines him as an artist nor a person, and this is the story, one of the stories told within the near forty minutes of “Nerve Bumps”. Throughout the record, Pierson mainly utilizes the voice as additional instruments, and yet even with very few discernible lyrics, the story’s narrative and timing is never lost. Honesty, empathy, and humanity bleed through the speakers like a dark liquid just underneath the skin’s surface. For Pierson, music is his lifeblood, both as a creator and a listener. The epic, cinematic synth heavy “For The Angels”, plays as a masterclass in heart and body moving rhythms and undulating synthesizers, the only track from “Neve Bumps” to be previously released (albeit in live form), takes on an even bigger life in this studio version. Pierson methodically moves us through unknown landscapes and we discover a path into his world, and we now have the privilege to peer inside. Pierson’s breathtakingly complex and endlessly rewarding sonic worlds created on “Nerve Bumps” utilize self-constructed systems, custom designed and integrated to tell his story with as few creative limitations as possible. “Nerve Bumps” realizes this to his fullest in a spectacular show of force of contemporary electronic prose, a magnum opus within Pierson’s musical lexicon.

The album’s title, “Nerve Bumps: A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction” which references a quote from American dancer and choreographer Mathra Graham, who once stated, “No artist is pleased... There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.” This quote, which addresses a universal conundrum amongst artists of all disciplines, also served as Pierson’s personal manta throughout the two year writing and recording process of “Nerve Bumps”. Pierson used this mantra as a mental and psychological weapon against the pain, and physical limitations of living as a music producer who also happens to be quadriplegic, as well as the abnormal and often violent peaks and troughs of producing as a Queer, Black Disabled artist in America, as a member of the human race in a crumbling world being torn apart at the seems by capitalism, ableism white supremacy. The album’s cover displays a painting of the same name, titled simply “A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction” by Pierson’s partner, renowned multidisciplinary visual artist Chuck Nanney. The title serves as a conceptual throughway through Pierson’s idiosyncratic processes in the creation of both “Nerve Bumps” as well as validation of his own experience as both a musical inspiration to many as well as a survivor.

“It’s the thing that I can’t not do, it’s the thing that keeps me going. Without this I don’t really know what I would have”

  • Dax Pierson

The near-impossible and often horrifying experience of completing “Nerve Bumps” under the painful and exhausting realities of an almost constant schedule of dialysis, hospitalizations, surgeries, and recovery periods where he cannot produce, Pierson has been forced to constantly re-adopt and reinvent his relationship to making music. Pierson directly confronts the listener with an act of solidarity to the disabled community at large with the track “Snap” “Snap”, the album’s shortest, and darkest and perhaps most abstract track, begins with sputtering orchestral swells which slowly become encapsulated by splintering shards of Pierson’s voice - cracking, layered and transposed across multiple spaces sonic and mental spaces, shifting between demonic growls and hymn-like chants, each with their own architecture holding the contents of pain, change, recovery, resilience, and triumph.

”Snap” , a continuation/remix of Pierson’s 2019’s, “A Snap of The Neck” which Pierson iterates the phrase, “Don't take your physical abilities for granted, for you lose them with a snap of the neck” - a sort of mantra referring to a 2005 accident which partially paralyzed Pierson. Although the album’s shortest track, clocking at just over a minute, “Snap” serves as a lesson about Pierson’s relentless determination to relearn new music production methods, as well as share his experience with losing certain physical abilities.

““I had to wait for certain technologies to exist” -Dax Pierson

Pierson’s music mimics his personality in many ways; it’s generous, robust, warm, nuanced, and detail oriented, and with “Nerve Bumps” we get the full scope of Pierson’s deep-seated investigations into his musical and philosophical practice and the existential and very real frustration of a world that was designed for him.

The albums’ epic, near twelve-minute closer serves as a beautiful distillation of the complex web of experiences and emotions that unfold throughout a careful listen of “Nerve Bumps” . The album’s closing, and longest track, “NTHNG FKS U HRDR THN TM” is a perfect distillation of the complexities of human emotion displayed across the near forty-minute sonic journey of “Nerve Bumps” The warm, heavy, punching synthesizer programming bends us down a psychedelic spiraling slope with a masters hand. For a largely instrumental album, Piersons’ uncanny ability to turn musical spaces into their own worlds, packed with information and rich with discovery and reward, allow us the privilege into the psychological realm of Pierson’s own personal electrified Afro-Futurism. “Nerve Bumps” is Pierson’s magnum opus to date. The seminal work from one of the bravest artists we know. We hope it transports you sonically, conceptually, and spiritually across as many spaces and rhizomes of beauty as much as it has us. credits releases February 26, 2021

Nerve Bumps was mastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The front cover features a painting of pink and green horizontal stripes by Pierson’s partner, artist Chuck Nanney. A photograph of Pierson’s wheelchair by Lenny Gonzalez graces the back sleeve. Dax’s guiding mantra throughout this journey has been a quote from choreographer Martha Graham: “No artist is pleased… There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

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"Nightmare In Paradise" -

TYLER HOLMES

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“Nightmare In Paradise” by Tyler Holmes was written in the wake of a violent trauma that Holmes and tour mates experienced on their last night in Puerto Rico at the end of an otherwise blissful tour. Holmes stayed behind with longtime collaborator and friend San Cha to care for their injured bandmate, taking shifts sleeping on a hospital floor and

“Nightmare In Paradise” ​by​ ​Tyler Holmes ​was written in the wake of a violent trauma that Holmes and tour mates experienced on their last night in Puerto Rico at the end of an otherwise blissful tour. Holmes stayed behind with longtime collaborator and friend San Cha to care for their injured bandmate, taking shifts sleeping on a hospital floor and staying with friends in downtown San Juan. Upon returning stateside, Holmes experienced intense PTSD, bouts of agoraphobia, and extreme ongoing stomach pain. The symptoms drove them to composition as a survival tool and means to process extreme dark thoughts, anxieties and emotions. Initially the project began as acoustic guitar demos sounding like Hole’s MTV Unplugged performance remixed by Tricky, the songs eventually morphed into the electro-acoustic aquarium that the album contains now​. Despite the album’s violent and chaotic conceptual underpinnings,​ ​“Nightmare In Paradise” i​s the culmination of many years of ​toil, struggle, scrapping and re-editing, crying and singing, ultimately rebirthing ​the most complex and nuanced musical offering yet from Bay Area artist Tyler Holmes. ​“Nightmare In Paradise” is H​olmes’ most refined and deliberate distillation of concept and composition working in a complicated and refined harmony. Through even more delicate and nuanced vocal presentation across the twelve songs, beds of layered acoustic guitar, minimal electronics, cello and woodwinds, Holmes has refined their hybridization of Electronic / Folk / R&B and Modern Black Classical music to a feverish crescendo on ​“Nightmare In Paradise”.​

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EXHAUSTIVE LABEL PROFILE ON RATSKIN IN BANDCAMP DAILY TODAY!

REALLY want to thank all of you all so much for supporting and following Ratskin in a sea of millions of artists, producers and labels we take your support with great humility. Thank you, to celebrate, we're giving 30% off today for Bandcamp Friday! 

 

USE CODE : 30RATS on our bandcamp or website. today only!

We have bundles of really exciting announcements branching some seriously new territory for Ratskin coming up in the next few months that we can't wait to share. In the meantime, please have a listen to our two newest preorders and be sure to check out the lengthy back catalog, as there surely is something for everyone. 

Quick refresher for our four newest releases <3 

HEADBOGGLE "Digital Digital Analog" Out 9/25 (Shipping now!) 
ratskinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/digital-digital-analog 

LEXAGON "Feminine Care" Out 9/10 (Shipping Now) 
ratskinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/feminine-care 

TYLER HOLMES "Nightmare In Paradise" 

DAX PIERSON "NERVE BUMPS ( A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction" 

Thank you so much for reading, If you want a free download code just say hello in this message. Again, the support means so much to us, thank you!

While it is exciting for us to see so many of our friends family peers and cohorts getting back to some semblance of social interactions (live shows, vaccinated hangouts, outdoor meetup’s  etc)  we want to remind everyone that while case numbers have drastically improved in the United States (for now) in many populated cities, there is still a huge disparity towards access to health care and vaccines amongst Black people and especially Black disabled people, so while “on the news” things appear to be improving for many, but for many others the battle and aftermath that covid is leaving in it’s wake are nothing short of horrifying.  In many other places in the world, INDIA for example is currently and has been suffering a humanitarian crisis with the continuing surge of cases and fatalities due to COVID-19.    COVID-19 in INDIA and many other parts of the world is very much far from over and eclipsing even the worst U.S. case numbers on a daily basis. Just two weeks ago INDIA recorded nearly 404,000 cases in a SINGLE DAY. Yes, in a single day. if these numbers themselves don’t send a shockwave through your system because you think you don’t know anyone directly affected by this, well that shouldn’t matter, because being a human and artist and musician should be empathy based. We will also share that Ratskin collective members as well as close personal friends and family members of Ratskin artists have suffered insurmountable familial losses and tragedy just within the last few weeks while we are all planning tours and festival travels including one of the three  core members of Ratskin.  These atrocities are still happening as you read this, as the numbers have begun to decline, but so much damage and trauma and loss has already been endured, and we need to show true solidarity. In India along with other places around the world, COVID is once again surging out of control, without access to proper PPE and vaccine supply / access , there is little end in sight at least in the next few months. As people flock back to shows and community gatherings  in the states and Europe etc , we are forced (out of the safety and well being of our families and friends and extended communities)  how can people both hold space for shows progressing to be more accessible and safer in ways which can acknowledge the rich and vast history of this work often led by Black and Brown women and femme and non binary people,  subvert and push against a white supremacist system often perpetuated by underground communities through anti Blackness, transphobia, AAPI hate, islamophobia, native erasure and ableism. Before March 2020, many/most events and spaces weren't very  accessible for many artists, musicians, and community members to begin with, so to be rushing back with no real plan in sight, seems like it has the potential to be slightly dangerous and reckless.  to talk about “community” we also must talk about the enemy of “community” which is whiteness - an extension of white supremacy- the violent system that allows white people to simply point comment and gaze at the trauma and violence of the rest of the modern world done in the name of whiteness.  it is in this framework that we ask white CIS members of the music art and adjacent communities consider what the resources and privilege  they are using rushing back to go on a tour or fly to europe’s to play a festival. if humanity and empathy are  not embedded into the  art or music  we are sharing than who are we really sharing it for ?  

all  white CIS People have  resources and privilege even if you have had a difficult life. there is always room for both and it does not negate your own trauma to  admit the system still benefits us .  going forward,  how can  privilege be leveraged and allocated to help friends and fellow artists and musicians whose lives are  still being affected in ways which are made exponentially worse based on colonialism, fascism and white supremacy.  

below is a list of ways you can support financially the covid crisis in india. also we (and me , MD. as a white cis male) often overlook that the most  obvious way you can support your Desi friends is just ask them what they need and stay true to your commitment to offer help assistance or mutual aid.   

If you would like to participate in a benefit show for COVID RELIEF TO INDIA PLEASE EMAIL RATSKINSOUND@GMAIL.COM with INDIA BENEFIT SHOW in the title  

https://mutualaidindia.com/   - A curated list of opportunities to donate for COVID relief.

latest physical releases

JOEL SHANAHAN - Frozen Clock Hovering 2x

Joel Shanahan

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We are beyond excited to be releasing this breathtakingly stunning and heart-felt work of contemporary/future electronic music from Portland-based producer Joel Shanahan (Golden Donna, Auscultation, Puritan Waste, et al.) “Frozen Clock Hovering” takes the form of two sixty-minute cassettes housed in an elaborate box-set / art-edition style

We are beyond excited to be releasing this breathtakingly stunning and heart-felt work of contemporary/future electronic music from Portland-based producer Joel Shanahan (Golden Donna, Auscultation, Puritan Waste, et al.) “Frozen Clock Hovering” takes the form of two sixty-minute cassettes housed in an elaborate box-set / art-edition style packaging, as well as digital download.

For his first release for Ratskin, Shanahan presents a prescient double full length cassette album spanning mixed genre electronics with heavy cinematic overtones. Fresh off his LP as Auscultation for the 100% Silk label, Shanahan's newest release under his own name, "Frozen Clock Hovering" explores complex, esoteric rhythmic zones, sewing dense forests of electronic drones all in crescendo, heavily mixed with lush, otherworldly ambient spaces which, in harmony, act as a guide for the previously uncharted sonic journey that is "Frozen Clock Hovering".

“Frozen Clock Hovering' was simultaneously an attempt to seek comfort through creation, as well as raise the question—"When will this all end?" Musically, this work was inspired by early intersections of jazz and electronic music—like collaborations between jazz superheroes like Joe Henderson and Herbie Hancock and legendary synth explorer Dr. Patrick Gleason. It also draws from other early electronic music and music concrete works, as well as meditative synth work, and the patient passages of folks like Andrew Chalk and Drunjus. I'm sure that to most listeners, this work will likely and rightfully pale in comparison to the aforementioned references, but this is definitely what I was listening to and feeling inspired by when I recorded this work, also Mike at Ratskin asked me to write a blurb, otherwise I would probably say very little, as I'm usually not one for "artist statements." From an emotional standpoint, this collection was created in the shadow of lingering pain, trauma, and general futility in tandem with the heartbreak of a failing and now finished relationship with someone I was very in love with. It sits in a contemplative purgatory, as I try to figure out how to scale its towering walls and pull myself out.” - Joel Shanahan

“Frozen Clock Hovering” is at once both dark and hopeful, disorienting and insightful, melancholy and victorious. Through a meticulously idiosyncratic creative process, Shanahan has created a contemporary electronic music masterwork, bridging ambient and modern dance music. The nuance, care, and intentionality put into these compositions help solidify a psychedelic musical offering worth engaging in completely. The sounds of Frozen Clock Hovering oscillate just underneath our eyelids to sew warm beds as temporary respite. Electronic pulses trigger huge electronic events, shooting us into space and slowly recoiling back through the cold atmosphere. plunging into the cold barren sea, leaving a faint crease in the sky, like brushes painting a sonic map to unknown futures, when you look back up into an unknown space all you can see is one, isolated Frozen Clock Hovering,

“Frozen Clock Hovering” is available for preorder July 3rd, 2020 and released Sep 4, 2020

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less than 20 copies