Self-styled Stoke thrash-jazz quartet, All The Best Tapes, are extremely pleased to announce their highly anticipated return with a brand new double A side single Perfect Hibernation / Calle De La Cruces set for release on limited edition vinyl and digital outlets via newly launched Manchester label Sunbird Records on Friday 14th October.
The band will be playing a short run of UK dates in support of the new single this October, full details can be seen below.
Pre-order the record now!
Across the two tracks, Perfect Hibernation marries the sharpest and most precise elements of fusion jazz with dreamy delay-laden chords, whilst on the flip side Calle De La Cruces has an intimate opening sequence that gives way to a surge of driving prog, slowly mutating into a celestial-entity sized ending invoking the spirit of post-rock with all the force and immediacy of the brashest of punk.
Starting life as a prog-punk trio touring the UK and supporting the likes of Gnarwolves, Delta Sleep and Lemuria, previous releases include This Is Not A Record, This Is All The Best Tapes on Circuit Scene Records and DIY effortThe Gnar EP, leading to a European tour with Florida’s City of Ifa, featuring members of critically-acclaimed American bands Henrietta and Arms.
For their debut self-titled full length release, All The Best Tapes, the band signed to Portsmouth’s FXD Records in 2014 with Bob Cooper heading up production duties, resulting in a record that was met with widespread positive reviews and set the band on course to support TTNG, Nai Harvest, Night Verses, Allusondrugs and Delta Sleep.
2015, however, was to be the musical turning point for the band. Momentum is a magic ingredient which every successful band needs but most are eluded by – with theirs on the up, ATBT vocalist Marcus Barker found himself overcome by Tietze’s Syndrome (a rare, inflammatory disorder characterized by chest pain and swelling) which meant taking a step back from the band. With the rest of the band unwilling to give up on him or the process they’d started, Barker’s absence only proved to fuel the band’s ever-growing lust for pushing their own musical boundaries, as they set to work on a wealth of new material.
Commenting on his illness, Barker explains: ‘After suffering with chronic Tietze’s Syndrome for a number of years my condition had progressed to the point where the amount of pain caused by everyday activities was getting increasingly severe and the sheer amount of endurance and recovery time involved with just singing at rehearsals it became quite evident that continuing to perform as vocalist was not an option I had any longer.’
‘After some time away I had to make the decision that if I was still going to make music, I would be doing it purely instrumentally.
‘I spoke to the other guys in Tapes and we realised it didn’t matter if we were creating purely instrumental music or with vocals, we were still making music together and really that’s the only thing that mattered to us.
‘We saw the potential to do things we had never thought of before, the creative world is our oyster.’
With Barker’s eventual return to the fold, they took the decision to go completely instrumental adding a second guitarist in the form of Luke Medlock and have since developed a leaner and more focused sound that’s astoundingly evident on ‘Perfect Hibernation/Calle De Las Cruces’ produced by Sam Bloor at Lower Lane Studios and mastered by Lewis Johns at The Ranch in Southampton.
Perfect Hibernation / Calle De La Cruces is released 14th October via Sunbird Records
All The Best Tapes 2016 Tour Dates:
09/10/16 – Cardiff – Gwdihw
13/10/16 – Darwen – Sunbird Records Release Show
14/10/16 – Edinburgh – Opium
15/10/16 – Glasgow – Bloc
16/10/16 – Manchester – Venue TBC