Sad Eyed Beatniks - Ten Brocades

€10.00 - €18.00

Sad Eyed Beatniks - Ten Brocades

€10.00 - €18.00

Limited edition 12" Red Vinyl LP. Includes insert.

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When I was a kid, I would spend the summers with my father and step-mother at their apartment in a suburb just north of Stockholm. Most mornings, I would wake up to the smell of burning incense, the sounds of recorded shamisen & koto ensembles, and the sounds of my dad tending to his extensive orchid collection. One summer my dad gifted me a number of graphic novels that were translated and heavily adapted versions of classic Chinese novels for young readers; Journey To The West and Outlaws Of The Marsh were my favorites. The vast casts of characters, mythical adventures, and humorous situations that take place in these historical settings allowed me to connect to a culture of mine I always had a hard time accessing. “Ten Brocades” is like those comic books - but maybe these characters, adventures, and settings are a little more local.

Ten Brocades pulls from songs written and recorded over the last two years. Mike Ramos (Tony Jay, Flowertown) and Karina Gill (Cindy, Flowertown) played on and helped record the backing tracks for “Barong Mask,” “Nail In The Coffin,” “The Broken Playwright Waits,” and “Barefoot On The Burning Marble.” All of the recordings were started on cassette 8-track or cassette 4-track, then expanded upon digitally.

The title “Ten Brocades” is the literal translation of a Cantonese chop suey-like dish, subgum, which means “numerous and varied.” The merging of multiple identities and the image of many silken adorned fabrics helped guide which tracks ended up on the album. The songs on Ten Brocades explore encounters in short moments in time, fading memories, friendships, and relationships; all from personalities whose stories seem to interweave with one another.

The front cover is a wonderful painting by Karina Gill and the other imagery was taken from a print my father had gifted my grandmother, who then re-gifted it to me. -Kevin Linn
credits
releases July 12, 2024

Recorded at home in San Francisco 2022 and 2023
Mastered by Álvaro Lissón
Front painting by Karina Gill

Karina Gill: guitar, keys
K Linn: vox, guitars, bass, drums, melodica, keys, cassette sounds, rain stick, gamelan chimes
Mike Ramos: drums, percussion, keys

Thank you to Mike Ramos, Karina Gill, Katiana Mashikian, and Álvaro Lissón.

Meritorio Records, 2024

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