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LP
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MORR 192LP
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Fourth album by Stockholm based multi-instrumentalist Mikko Singh, aka Haleiwa. Hallway Waverider is Mikko Singh's second album for Morr Music under his Haleiwa moniker. Blending the washed-out aesthetics of dream pop with a lo-fi take on modern psychedelia, it is a fuzzy record in more than one sense. The ten songs see the multi-instrumentalist explore the sonic idiosyncrasies of analog recording equipment while also expressing a self-assured statement by a musician who has carved out a niche for himself and feels perfectly at home in it. After exploring the affordances of vintage equipment for 2019's Cloud Formations album (MORR 167CD/LP), Singh worked with a Tascam 244 4-track cassette recorder and Tascam 388 8-track reel-to-reel recorder to transform the sounds of his vintage synthesizers, bass, the occasional guitar part, and drums supplied by Svante Karlsson for Hallway Waverider. By experimenting extensively with the machines' unique sonic qualities and constantly reworking the pieces in regards to their sound signature over the course of two years, Singh has found the perfect equilibrium of electronic music and lo-fi aesthetics while navigating with ease through styles like driving surf rock, gritty garage punk and ethereal dream pop. On his new record, he seamlessly integrates these influences into anthemic yet soothing songs. The title of the album refers to Singh's halcyon days as a teenager spent listening to punk music and -- in wintertime -- skateboarding in his own bedroom. The lyrics refer to surfing as a nod to both his own experiences with riding the waves and the music genre that has provided him with inspiration throughout his career as a prolific recording artist with three solo albums under his belt. However, surfing primarily serves as a metaphor for something bigger. Hallway Waverider dedicated to Singh's mother who passed away in 2015. "She made it possible for me to have a good childhood and to be able to do what I love," says the artist. This sense of closure and being at peace with himself is also expressed in lyrics like "A sea stroll. Going slower. Feeling featherlight," expressing a calm that perfectly mirrors the music's steady grooves and welcoming overall feeling. Starting with the upbeat "River Park/Sleeping Pill"; to the almost ambient, synthesizer-heavy "A Bottomless Pit"; or short, punk-inspired and bassline-driven outbursts like "Watered Down" or "Halulu Lake"; to the blissful title track that closes the album, Singh opens up a whole panorama of different moods across a broad variety of musical styles. Includes download code; edition of 300.
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MORR 167CD
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Mikko Singh has been living different musical lives from the start. With Cloud Formations, his third album under the Haleiwa moniker, Singh eschews the guitar-dominated sound of his first two LPs for lush but grainy textures. Inspired by bands and songwriters like Animal Collective, Real Estate, and the late Jay Reatard, Cloud Formations is a hopeful record whose experimental approach to rock music calls to mind the experimental pop of Morr Music label mates like Sequoyah Tiger or even Stereolab's motorik-driven post-rock. It's a fusion of fuzzed-out sounds, washed-out sentiments and far-out songwriting -- perhaps the only shoegaze record you can actually take along to the beach. Ever since he first picked up the classical guitar at age nine, Singh has pursued many different ambitions. Having moved on from skate punk and hardcore bands to instrumental indie rock, Singh even released an album of subtle piano compositions on the 1631 label alongside artists like Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka. As an album dedicated to new beginnings, Cloud Formations proves to be the perfect synthesis for all of these ambitions. 0After the release 2015's Palm Trees of the Subarctic, Singh began experimenting with his collection of vintage and analog synthesizers, exploring different ways of using the guitar and putting an emphasis on his bass playing when composing. While some of the songs on Cloud Formations were initially conceived in 2015, he recorded and produced the album between 2017 and 2018 in what he calls a "long and continuous process". Apart from some drum recordings (provided by his long-time friend Johan Nordlund of the Swedish hardcore band This Gift Is A Curse), Singh maintained full creative control of the album, tweaking the nine songs in his own Stockholm studio. He paid more attention than before to the subtleties of sound design and their emotive qualities; the result is a dense, at times psychedelic and intimate album, abundant with passion and optimism, despite its name, which may at first indicate the opposite. Singh wants to express hope on Cloud Formations, an approach that becomes tangible from the very first seconds of the anthemic opener "HKI -97". Between the fuzzy ambience of "Ka'a'awa Surfin'", the title track's hypnagogic mid-tempo grooves, to the relentless drive of "Swell" or "Crossroads", and the eerie final track "Cold Concrete", this album is to be understood as a celebration of different musical lives becoming one.
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LP
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MORR 167LP
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LP version. Includes download code. Mikko Singh has been living different musical lives from the start. With Cloud Formations, his third album under the Haleiwa moniker, Singh eschews the guitar-dominated sound of his first two LPs for lush but grainy textures. Inspired by bands and songwriters like Animal Collective, Real Estate, and the late Jay Reatard, Cloud Formations is a hopeful record whose experimental approach to rock music calls to mind the experimental pop of Morr Music label mates like Sequoyah Tiger or even Stereolab's motorik-driven post-rock. It's a fusion of fuzzed-out sounds, washed-out sentiments and far-out songwriting -- perhaps the only shoegaze record you can actually take along to the beach. Ever since he first picked up the classical guitar at age nine, Singh has pursued many different ambitions. Having moved on from skate punk and hardcore bands to instrumental indie rock, Singh even released an album of subtle piano compositions on the 1631 label alongside artists like Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka. As an album dedicated to new beginnings, Cloud Formations proves to be the perfect synthesis for all of these ambitions. 0After the release 2015's Palm Trees of the Subarctic, Singh began experimenting with his collection of vintage and analog synthesizers, exploring different ways of using the guitar and putting an emphasis on his bass playing when composing. While some of the songs on Cloud Formations were initially conceived in 2015, he recorded and produced the album between 2017 and 2018 in what he calls a "long and continuous process". Apart from some drum recordings (provided by his long-time friend Johan Nordlund of the Swedish hardcore band This Gift Is A Curse), Singh maintained full creative control of the album, tweaking the nine songs in his own Stockholm studio. He paid more attention than before to the subtleties of sound design and their emotive qualities; the result is a dense, at times psychedelic and intimate album, abundant with passion and optimism, despite its name, which may at first indicate the opposite. Singh wants to express hope on Cloud Formations, an approach that becomes tangible from the very first seconds of the anthemic opener "HKI -97". Between the fuzzy ambience of "Ka'a'awa Surfin'", the title track's hypnagogic mid-tempo grooves, to the relentless drive of "Swell" or "Crossroads", and the eerie final track "Cold Concrete", this album is to be understood as a celebration of different musical lives becoming one.
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