It’s a long way from English stoner rock to African-inspired jams with titles like “witchdoctor” and “lord hyena, 3am,” but The Heads’ Simon Price don’t care, baby; he’s ready to take you there. Price is steppin’ out to do the solo thang, and with the moniker kandodo and a little help from his friends at Thrill Jockey Records, the singer/guitarist has got a debut self-titled album, kandodo, on the way. Inspired by Price’s youth in Zambia and Malawi, the nine tracks on his solo debut have more to do with Spacemen 3, Neu!, and Brian Eno than tribal rhythms, although the inspiration behind all the tracks is, according to Thrill Jockey, “animist religions, hyenas, sharks and dusty drives.” And grocery stores, apparently: Kandodo is the name of a Malawian grocery store where Price and his family shopped in the 80s. If only Tesco or Rainbow Foods or my local Food 4 Less could inspire such dreamy tunes.
The project gathers some of Price’s first-ever solo recordings, which he made at home with a secondhand MacBook, a guitar, a tambourine, some keyboards, a drum pedal, and a Walkman, which he used for field recordings. (Look it up, kids.) This summer, kandodo’s eponymous debut is slated to be released as both a CD and everybody’s favorite, a gatefold LP. Curious parties can meet Lord Hyena on June 12, when Thrill Jockey releases the album into the wild.
kandodo tracklisting:
01. dawn harmonix
02. laud the hyena
03. ceramy
04. yamadharma
05. dagga
06. witchdoctor
07. shangri last
08. kandodo
09. lord hyena, 3am
• kandodo: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kandodo/168305819900725
• Thrill Jockey: http://www.thrilljockey.com
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