FAITH AND INDUSTRY
An independent label from Capitol K.
NEXT RELEASE:
CAPITOL K - notes from life on the wire with a wrecking ball
Format: CD & Download
Release Date: 08th Sept 2008
Cat No: fai007
Kristian Craig Robinson AKA Capitol K is on a quest to find a utopia with-in sound and with “Notes from Life on the Wire with a Wrecking Ball”, his 5th album, he may just of found it. There are few other artists who can make the experimental sound quite so engaging.
“Notes from Life on the Wire with a Wrecking Ball”, is a record born out of creative London, but Capitol K is by no means your usual citizen. Recent years he has spent much of his time living in squats and places soon to be demolished with other artisans. Ideas around the act of detournement (deviation of course), psycho geographic wandering, Utopian fantasy and outsider writings strongly influence this album. As Capitol K says, “seeing how artisans have reacted to social economic alienation, and managed existence along side and in-spite off rapid consumerist, homogenization, which is particular rampant in London. i became increasingly aware of the maximization of culture going on, maximum house, maximum color, maximum impact, so in-turn I wanted to create a subvert maximum music for a maximum world.”
Recordings were performed in a lo-fi studio set up in a squat on Drum St, alongside highly skilled Italian Jazz Drummer Vladimiro Carboni and Brazilian guitarist Felipe Pagani, whom he met while playing “electronics” for Tropicalist act ‘Cibelle’ touring the world in 2006, they had little previous knowledge of the Capitol K unique sound, or electronica in general. This sums up his vision of combining cultures of the world, as K puts, “I wanted their influence of real skill and strictness within the shaping of this album, to act as a balance to my lo-fi London Flaneur approach.” It is also true that this album is a “love” story, unless you’re autistic in which case it’s about mechanics.
The first track on “Notes from Life on the Wire with a Wrecking Ball”, unfolds gradually in classic Capitol K style with the Beat poet driven, nostalgic rave of “Diamond Skys”, the energy rises with the deconstructed bosa-nova of “Go Go Go’, again influenced by the early days of the Beat period where people shouted Go Go Go at poetry readings to show their appreciation. Things slow down a little for the single (and Steve Lamacq’s single of the week) “Libertania”, and shows Capitol K’s talent for classic songwriting, in the lineage of Capitol K classic “Pillow”, about a voyage to Utopia. Next up, “Acid Favela” takes the gigantic Favela Funk “Rambo” anthem (popularized in the west by Diplo + M.I.A) and mixes in Acid 303’s and shoe-gazing riffage like only Capitol K can. “Drum St” is a protest song as Drum St was a big artist community that much of this album was written in that is now demolished by big buck property developers. “Freak” is a progressive hyperfunk about a love life freaking out over a cut up 2-step beat. “Impression”, is part 2 of “Freak”, reflecting on a love with a sense of stillness and calm, musically revisiting K’s penchant for revealing serene melodies from dictaphone tape cut ups, for the train-spotters there is a sample of old K track ”Love in Slow Motion”. “Bomb Bomb” is a sister to “Go Go Go, and is part influenced by bombs on the underground, Bombs to the Heart. guitar solos growing into ever more rapid synth arpeggios “Rocked/Shocked” is a cathartic track born of life challenging events and the subsequent fall out, the vocal spat out and trapped in spiraling delay “The Fly”, lyrically inspired by Kafkas Metamorphosis, an uncomfortable funk formed from mutation of a synthetic digital Cuica rhythm and guitars inspired by North-East Brazilian Forro/Xote styles. The album finishes off with “Congo” and is the third co-write with Felipe Pagani (along with Libertania & Drum St), and is an attempt to replicate Congolese imberia (thumb piano) music with electric guitar played through ring Modulators. The balance between digital techniques and live instrumentation has found its fruition, all masterminded by Capitol K.
For those that need a biography, Maltese born, Brunei raised Capitol K has released 5 full length albums in his 9 year music career, no mean feat. Discovered by Mike Paradnias of Planet Mu after a friendly girl handed him a demo (K was too scared). Planet Mu released two groundbreaking electronic albums in his debut, “Sounds Of The Empire” in 1999 and “Island Row” in 2000 which placed Capitol K at the forefront of the burgeoning electronic scene. XL records saw an even further reaching potential and were impressed enough to pick up his re-edited “Island Row” album in 2002, experienced a period of semi-fame, even bagging Jo Whiley’s single of the week on daytime Radio 1 for the track “Pillow” (a track first released in 1999, which pioneered the folktronica sound that subsequent producers took many plaudits for 2 years later). After leaving XL Capitol K increased his artistic vision yet further by setting up his own “Faith And Industry” label in 2003. He released the first album by Patrick Wolf, “who used to hang around my studio”, who has since gone on to a considerable amount of fame. Faith and Industry released Capitol K’s next two albums, dropping the electronica and forming a band for the third album 'Happy Happy' in 2003 which actually received hate mail from hardcore fans. The sonic tourism of 2005’s “Nomad Junk”, went someway to winning over the critics once again, with the Independent giving it 4 stars and Mojo a dance album of the issue. “Notes from Life on the Wire with a Wrecking Ball” shows us once again that the visionary that is Capitol K has cemented his right for the limelight.
Capitol K Press Quotes Overview
Libertania - Single of The Week - Steve Lamacq
"Beautiful sprawling electronic psychedelia is what Capitol K does, and he does it better than anybody else in the country." NME
"The most exciting electronica. Demands investigation" Sunday Times
"Capitol K is a talent without a compass, and all the freer for it." Uncut
"An illuminating journey, well worth taking." Mojo, Dance Album of Month
“Capitol K has one of the keenest senses of place in music, and deftly uses it to create new worlds” Plan B Magazine
“Capitol K has turned all the junk, samples, influences and ephemera into musical pearls, and cemented his own reputation in doing so - this is one of the finest albums of 2005.” Drowned in Sound
"Difficult to assess on any existing scale." Independent
"You wouldn't be miles off if you imagined Aphex Twin collaborating with the Go! Team, in the best possible way." Q
"More ideas here than most have in their careers." DJ
"Amazingly engaging on all levels, which never fail to amaze." The Fly
"Brimming with inspiration." Clash
“Such precision and innovation, leaves even the seasoned listener slackjawed and struggling for comparisons. These songs deserve to be heard.” Pitchfork
“A talented artists who is very much in a league of his own." Notion
"Funky, unusual, fresh songs of which he should be proud." Vice
"Playful and glitchy folktronica. Thank you for his fight against dull noise." The List
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