The Living River, by Acid Mass

The Living River

by Acid Mass

supported by

PaulTheHat Lovely chilled out vibes with a bit of chaos built in. Very enjoyable. Favorite track: Why Cats Paint.

	/

Cassette + Digital Album
Super limited cassette version of 25 copies. Due to arrive 9th August 2019

Includes unlimited streaming of The Living River via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 5 days

9 remaining

£8 GBP or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

£7 GBP
Full Digital Discography

43

releases

Get all 43 The Audacious Art Experiment releases available on Bandcamp and save 75%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Living River, s/t, Cybals / Toy, Pachinko Plex, Ochate, Thirsty, s/t, Lizard Brain Decision, and 35 more. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

£49.35 GBP or more (75% OFF)

	1.	Industrial Sonder 10:19
	2.	Why Cats Paint 06:03
	3.	Naked Singularity 03:00
	4.	Brown Paintings of Dead Romans 08:14
	5.	The Mountains Fall Into the Heart of the Sea 15:49

about

If you meet anyone from Sheffield, sooner or later you’ll hear them talking about hills. Wherever you walk, wherever you look, you can see distant fragments of the city - lit windows miles away through mist and trees. At night, the city’s a blinking, flickering semi-rural Ridley Scott model landscape. Acid Mass is a band formed from this permanent view. Through a simple combination of improvised saxophone, monophonic synthesizer and drum machine, they create an ambience as evocative as it is propulsive. Thick drones of murky synth underpin a saxophone warped and skewed by a multitude of effects - the latter used so dextrously they almost seem to play alongside the original source. Cock-sure and incised drum machine rhythms emerge and lift the record out of the dark water, only to dissipate and drop it right back in again when tracks take an atmospheric turn. It is no accident that all Acid Mass recording sessions and performances happen in a twilight darkness - why diverge from your origins?

As such, this record was recorded, completely improvised, in a candlelit basement of 21 Joshua Road, Sheffield during the early Autumn months of 2016. The house, which Chris Bollington (Synth, Drum Machine) lived in at the time was a tall, oppressive victorian end of terrace where space, mould and detritus of previous tenants bore down from every corner. Over the course of 3 days, the basement was cleared and Nick Potter (of the same house, Blood Sport and The Audacious Art Experiment) set up a special room to record in. Chris and Tom McCormick (saxophone, effects) went down into the gloom below.. and that was it - 3 days later after pressing record, Acid Mass came back up the steep steps with many hours of recordings that would eventually form this LP.

Sheffield has long held an extremely vibrant and proactive DIY music culture, and one that in recent years paved the way for neighbours in terms of depth, variety and sheer scale of DIY spaces, studios and nights. Acid Mass are deeply ingrained in this scene and it made perfect sense to take the recordings to Ben Hunter, a producer also from Audacious’ extended family, who performs as the modular wizard Saif Mode and includes records like Sievehead’s Into The Blue on his production CV. To master it, they only had to walk 3 minutes up the hill to Dean Honer (The Eccentronic Research Council, All Seeing Eye, The Moonlandingz, International Teachers of Pop).

The result is a truly immersive soundscape that flows with the pace of the night-time, but twisting and turning to touch on influences as diverse as Bohren & Der Club of Gore, Hospital Records, Adrian Sherwood, Vangelis and Terry Riley. This is no exercise in Ableton athletics from a bedroom producer - everything they do is live, fully improvised and completely in the moment. You won’t hear them playing this record performed - but if you do see them live, you’ll hear them taking you on another journey, maybe between the windows faded penthouse suites or through the sputters of rain outside a late night takeaway. In this setting the 4x4 kick and bass synthesizer is always pushed deep to the limit, drawing out more dread and fear - especially at their regular post-midnight sets at Audacious Space, the infamous late night venue run by The Audacious Art Experiment that’s played host to everyone from Helena Hauff to Sun Araw.

This record shows another side of Acid Mass, however. In this journey, there’s a glistening warmth atop the dread - a long deep gaze over the metropolis nestled on the 7 hills.

credits

released July 26, 2019

Acid Mass are Chris Bollington (Synths, electronics) and Tom McCormick (Saxophone, effects)

Recorded by Acid Mass in the candlelit basement of 21 Joshua Road, Sheffield during the early Autumn months of 2016

Mixed by Ben Hunter
Mastered by Dean Honer

license

about

The Audacious Art Experiment Sheffield, UK

The Audacious Art Experiment is more than a record label. We’re a community mindset that yearns for something more than nine to five, consumer lead culture and aim to take back our chosen social freedoms, artistic expressions and community spirit from the companies trying to sell them to us. Music is our voice and the records we make are the product of our beliefs, dreams and desires. ... more

theaudaciousartexperiment.com

Recommendations

contact / help

Contact The Audacious Art Experiment

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

The Audacious Art Experiment recommends:

Toucans - Welcome to lovers house
by loosehair

Loose Hair is a label run by fellow member of Audacious Space Adam Humphrey. Toucans is his band and they fucking rule. The Audacious Art Experiment
go to album
Axe Laid To The Root
by Blood Sport

Sheffield's modern dance pioneers meld guitar and drums into an delirious séance of rhythm and ritual, recorded deep in our own audacious space by Ben Hunter. The Audacious Art Experiment
go to album

If you like The Living River, you may also like:

Authentic Country Music
by Megadead

Contrary to the title, this debut LP from Melbourne producer Megadead leans heavily on instrumental hip-hop fusion and plunderphonics. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 8, 2021
go to album
Am_Par_Sis
by Sentidor

A forward-looking record that imagines the future of Rio de Janeiro, built on intimate textures, ambient, drone, classical, and bossa nova. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 4, 2017
go to album
Melaço
by Colônia

An archival EP from Brazilian group Colônia, whose shoegazey, slowly swirling sound perfectly balanced melody and noise. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 16, 2021
go to album
Under a Cloudy Sky
by Dok-S Project

Japanese composer Syusaku Deguchi builds unexpectedly hooky experimental ambient from glistening electronic samples and field recordings. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 25, 2021
go to album