Creamery Mixtape 2.0 artwork

BROOKLYN STUDIO THE CREAMERY OFFERS MIXTAPE 2.0 INCLUDING NEW RECORDINGS FROM ANTIBALAS, INNOV GNAWA, M.A.K.U. SOUNDSYSTEM, AND MORE BANDS TO WATCH FOR 2019 ON JAN 19 RELEASE

Fuck you, playlists of sound-alike bands.  Live from the world’s tastiest melting pot, The Creamery Mixtape 2.O delivers a fresh installment to their second annual mixtape series on January 19, 2018. This 12- song compilation was crafted during a 4-day sprint at the Creamery Studio in Brooklyn and, like a subway car at rush hour, it crams together an eclectic group of New Yorkers into harmony. The groups all share one thing in common: the ability to create great music in front of a tape machine--and fast. Producers Quinn McCarthy and Jeff Fettig run the studio year-round but set time aside for the mixtape as a celebration of the city’s varied music scene and as homage to the live analogue recording art form.

“My personal library of music comes from all different genres and from all over the world. One of my favorite ways to listen to music these days is on shuffle,” says McCarthy.  “I enjoy living in the most mixed up place on earth and the mixtape is our way of capturing that variety with a common lens, since it’s all been recorded in our space and mixed with our ears and our vibe.”  This year’s acts include: Antibalas, the Daptone Records Afrobeat band that has cultivated New York’s Afropop scene for over a decade; Innov Gnawa, a collective that performed Coachella this year, singing a traditional form of Jewish spiritual music that originates from Morocco and Breastfist, a flamboyant funk supergroup composed of some of the Rockwood Music Hall’s greatest backing players.

While taste-makers keep trying to PUSH bands like brands, the Creamery Mixtape broadens the scope of what’s possible to fit under one umbrella.  Available exclusively on digital release through SoundCloud and Spotify. Private link: Password

BANDS ON THE MIXTAPE:

Antibalas – Daptone Records band and kings of Afrobeat in NYC.

M.A.K.U Soundsystem embodies an active quest for identity through sound and bodies in motion, and puts on a party for everyday people. It has played Lincoln Center, Music Hall of Williamsburg, GlobalFest, and more. Although not inherently discernible there are hints of Colombian Folklore, Psychedelic-rock and Caribbean grooves.

Innov Gnawa has played Red Rocks Amphitheatre as well as NYC’s Lincoln Center and Coachella. They play North African music known as Gnaoua and are based in NYC.

OxenFree have earned praise from KCRW, The Wild Honey Pie, and Consequence of Sound, which praised its “poppy melodies and precise, hefty guitar work.”

Lauren Balthrop – Alabama-born, New York-dwelling “absolutely lovely” (Stereogum) songwriter who has also sung with Bob Weird, Kevin Morby, Bejamin Booker, and Lucius.

Nikhil P. Yerawadekar & Low Mentality - The group merges elements of Afrobeat, reggae, dancehall, hip-hop, Afrobeat, and rock music to create deeply funky compositions that balance a compelling new style of songwriting with propulsive, danceable grooves. They have earned over 700,000 Spotify plays as well as praise from Relix, WFMU, KEXP, WNYC, Paste Magazine, NPR, and the NY Times.

The Boobies – It’s garage pop with teeth. Picture the color periwinkle blue, spray-painted by a Ramone, add blistering vocals with traces of southern soul, and a David Byrne sense of showmanship and you get The Boobies.

Queens songwriter Matt Sucich has appeared at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Electric Lady's Heartbreaker Banquet on Willie Nelson's Luck, TX ranch, Firefly Music Festival Newport Folk in Newport, RI, and has supported Levon Helm, Counting Crows, Lucius, Rachael Yamagata, and The Lone Bellow.

Breastfist is Michael League of Snarky Puppy’s favorite live band. It’s a bass-and-drum groove-based duo made up on Alan Hampton (bass) and Bill Campbell (drums).

Magana is haunted alternative-pop influenced by Sharon Van Etten and St. Vincent and based in Brooklyn.

THE CREAMERY STUDIO RELEASES MIXTAPE OF LIVE-TO-TAPE RECORDING SESSIONS W/ NOTABLE BROOKLYN ARTISTS

On June 3, Brooklyn-based recording studio, The Creamery, will release volume one of its series, The Creamery Mixtape, featuring ten cherry-picked artists rising to the top of the Brooklyn music scene. Los Hacheros, Alpenglow, Live Footage and Uni Ika Ai are a few of the groups to appear. The release showcases a wide variety of the city’s musical genres, putting them in concert under one sonic umbrella.

Producer/engineers Quinn McCarthy and Jeff Fettig, who operate the studio, took the project on almost as a dare. Over a short three-day period during this year’s CMJ music festival in New York, each of the ten groups came through the studio in three hour slots to record a few songs, live to tape.
“It was about finding the right groups who could play and have a sound,” Fettig recalls. McCarthy followed, “We made up our minds before we even started that this wasn’t going to be about producing each band and each song to sound its ‘best.’ Studios are always trying to market their mixes as ear candy. Of course, pushing a band to its stylistic apex is a skill and it’s a logical goal, but so many of the records we love aren’t about technical perfection, it’s about capturing a creative performance and an artistic vision.” The songs were recorded in this way to capture the spontaneous and organic feel of live recording, with the goal of creating a listening experience that blends modern artists with old-school recording styles.

To help create a sonic palette that united each artist, McCarthy and Fettig encouraged them to share instruments and gear with each other, utilizing the same drum set and amplifiers used on a salsa number and for an electronic duo. For the most part, the bands played to the vibe of the room without headphones. Though often an uncommon philosophy, for this session they felt that bleed between instruments is not only ok, but a basis for the sound, with every mic in the room also doubled as a ‘room mic.’ The sounds went straight into their 1985 Tascam MS-16 Tape Machine with minimal mixing in post, leaving nearly everything as it sounded in the room.

The Creamery Mixtape trancends genre and trend, it carries the energy of the studio and the honesty of the moment. It’s as fun to listen to as it was to record.

Featuring: Wolf!, Alpenglow, Los Hacheros, Miay Folick, Uni Ika Ai, Tim Porbaix, Toebow, Vassals, Live Footage, and Whitney Lockert.