A lot has changed for Ecstatic Sunshine over these past few years. Most significantly, founding member Dustin Wong (Ponytail) left the band, forcing other founding member Matthew Papich to shift their sound from guitar-duo battle to something more expansive. On the band's last record WAY -- just before Wong left the group -- the duo added third member Kieran Gillen on electronics. And now, on the the brand new Yesterday's Work, Ecstatic Sunshine are evolving yet again, with Papich having recruited Joe "White" Williams on drum machines and synthesizers.
According to a press release, Yesterday's Work's "sonic palette is much broader than previous guitar-centric releases; soft bouncy bass and crisp synthesizers balance and serve as counterpoint to Papich's loop-based guitar work. Think Berlin School and Penguin Cafe Orchestra, or a Harmonia record produced by Coxsone." Matthew Papich speaks about the record's influence:
Outside the record there are many sounds. Some of those sounds were moved, through memory, into the record. We would hear soft bass through the windows of a car, or listen to birds waking up before dawn, and learn to remember those sounds and later draw them out of synthesizers or guitars. In this way we could hear the record before it was made. It is like John Cage's ideas about incidental sound, except instead of composing with those sounds, we composed for them. The record is an homage to the Everyday. It is music that happens, and is heard, and then said.
Yesterday's Work will be released on HOSS, who also issued their "Turned On" 7-inch. It's due December 8 (just got pushed back from its original release date of November 24).
Yesterday's Work tracklisting:
1. Conch
2. Faceplant
3. Dunk
4. Over Easy
5. Sweet Spot
6. Because
7. Space Sick
8. Space Sicker
9. Soft Opening
10. Topless
[Photo: Sally Glass]
