Marsaskala, by Grady Steele

Marsaskala

by Grady Steele

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Marsaskala, Ancestral Ground, Continuing A Worn Out Tradition III, шлейф, Accept Pain, First Passage / Excommunicated, Continuing A Worn Out Tradition II, Teyas, and 4 more. , and , .

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1.	Sybille 05:15	buy track
2.	192 ft 03:16	buy track
3.	Jolimont 04:24	buy track
4.	Saint-Lazare 03:50	buy track
5.	Bahrija 02:22	buy track
6.	Larghetto 04:26	buy track

about

Pieces of debris washed up on a coastline shrouded in mist. Gratification comes from an eternal search for solace. Locked away at the top of a lighthouse somewhere on an unnamed isle, Grady Steele broadcasts to those within the beacon’s reach. A soundsystem built of driftwood and salvaged car stereos is pieced together with precision and laboriously dragged to the top of the obelisk. A timeless fugue state spent playing arpeggios on a Spanish guitar, the PA system ebbing out phasing loops across benevolent waters. Layering, occasionally faulting, stopping, recording, starting again. The phosphorescent glow atop the obelisk ever-present.

Perhaps the first release on Archaic Vaults to feature (at least prominent) use of the guitar, these six compositions feel sketch-like and yet burned into the retina, like that of a passing car’s headlights leaving an impressionistic imprint of the source material. To mention this is Grady Steele’s debut release is not to imply he is new to working with sound, having been the proprietor of one of London’s most important soundsystems for the last decade. An obsession with fidelity can be heard and and at times deliberately perverted amongst the body of work. The warm and melancholic tones of the Spanish guitar evident in almost all songs are juxtaposed with various collaged material, including what sounds like hastily captured iPhone recordings and drum machines neglected at the back of the studio, dragged out for one or two stubborn, lurching takes and then once more committed to storage. The 90s voice-imitator pads glowing with undulance are reminiscent of John T. Gast’s early studio takes, and the synergy and precision in guitar layering could lend a clue as to what Fuck Buttons would have sounded like had they sold off their studio equipment for a couple of wooden 12-stringers. Stare long enough at those Windows screensaver-esque rolling hills, and one might witness some miniscule movement in the growth.

credits

released April 22, 2024

Music composed and arranged by Grady Steele
Painting by Antoine Larrera
Mastered by Owen Pratt
Design by Severin Black

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Archaic Vaults Berlin, Germany

Experimental electronic label founded by Severin Black in 2020.

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