Stones Throw News: Mild High Club – Skiptracing |  |
- Mild High Club – Skiptracing
- Mndsgn “Cosmic Perspective” Video
- Mndsgn to release BODY WASH, full-length album, on September 16
Photo by Isaac Sterling
In the store | MILD HIGH CLUB - SKIPTRACING
Vinyl and CD now shipping. Worldwide release: August 26th. Mild High Club founder Alexander Brettin grew up playing flute in the school band and majoring in jazz studies in Chicago. In 2012, a visit to Los Angeles allowed him to connect with the Stones Throw crew. Within a year, after passing the early demos of what would become Timeline onto Peanut Butter Wolf, Brettin made the move out west. “The difference between Timeline and Skiptracing is detail,” Brettin said. “I was stubborn with the process for Timeline; it took almost three years to let go of it.” On Timeline, Brettin resorted to vague lyrics so as to highlight the music itself. But for Skiptracing there’s both a heightened thematic aspect as well as more complex musical arrangements encasing it. In Brettin’s estimation, the album’s story arc is that of a “private investigator attempting to trace the steps of the sound and the spirit of American music.” |
Mndsgn – "Cosmic Perspetive" – from the album Body Wash. Here's some photos on the set with Anaka Morris, Alima Jennings, Zeroh, Eagle Nebula, Ras G, Darryl Lopez, Giovanni Marks, Lojii, Pink Siifu, Swarvy, Nita Darling, and Mndsgn. The video was directed by Eric Coleman, created by Alima & Ringgo.             |
Photo by Robb Klassen
In the store | MNDSGN - BODY WASH
“Cosmic Perspective” video created by Ringgo Ancheta & Alima Jennings, directed & edited by Eric Coleman. Mndsgn (born Ringgo Ancheta) grew up in south New Jersey, raised with Gospel music at church, and B-Boy culture at home. Experimenting with beat-making, he befriended fellow producer Knxwledge and the two formed the influential Klipmode collective (along with Devonwho and Suzi Analogue). Mndsgn's music flourished when he moved to Los Angeles, catching the attention of Stones Throw who released Yawn Zen (2014), an LP of introspective and mostly instrumental beat creations, punctuated by vocal cuts. Body Wash is his second album for Stones Throw, a full set of realized songs that were only hinted at on Yawn Zen. Influences here include the likes of early SOLAR records material, Leon Sylvers III, Kashif, and Dave Grusin. These artists, Mndsgn says, "embodied that potent feeling in the early 80s boogie/funk/soul/jazz/fusion wave." He adds, "I was also digging back into some early 90s R&B sounds and started really imagining what it would be like if I had mashed the two eras together." He explains Body Wash as "a soul record that plays with nostalgic elements in a very dynamic & positive way. Think about it as a box of crayons for you to draw emotions with." The album was built around a backstory, a loose narrative thread through which he could filter his unformed ideas. In the narrative, a homeless man encounters a mysterious woman who gives him shelter. She instructs him to bathe with a very peculiar body wash. As he soaks and sinks deeper in a thick lather of this unknown solution, the man finds himself transported to an alternate dimension. Mndsgn describes the story as a vessel "that would allow me to speak on topics that were universally relatable … The story actually became a true outlet for me to address worldly issues with Self." The resulting album also represents a dynamic step forward in songwriting. Without explicitly relating its plot or characters, the album as a whole turns on the story's key theme, the psychedelic, transformative power of love. Pre-order is available for Body Wash 2/LP gatefold.  |
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