New Album From Prefuse 73's Scott Herren In January
"Yo, check the way I cut up these castanets in Pro Tools."

[Posted Friday, November 14th, 2003 03:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

The jagged overlap between glitch and pastiche-hop that Atlanta writer-producer Scott Herren often calls home has been receiving a fair bit of attention over the past few months. His 2003 glitch-hop automaton, One Word Extinguisher, and the subsequent b-side/outtake collection, Extinguished-- both recorded under the pseudonym Prefuse 73-- struck a mighty chord with electronic and indie audiences alike. We here at the 'Fork were damn fond of both.

Herren, however, has no intentions of following up his patched-out, big-booty beat clinic with an imitator. In fact, he's going so far as to record under another alias: the subdued and politely earthy Savath & Savalas. So if you want blenderized bass 'n' snare, move along. Hell, the word from Warp is, even if you want Savath & Savalas' characteristic pastoral post-rock with that tasteful garnish of electronic ambience, you need to keep walkin'. Damn skippy, Herren is cooking up something entirely new: an album full of "almost straight-up, Catalan/Castellano vocal-based folk."

Set for release on January 26th, the fourteen-track Apropát was conceived and recorded over the past 18 months in Barcelona, Spain (Herren's new homebase) and is a collaboration between Scott and unknown Catalan singer/songwriter Eva Puyuelo Muns. "From Milton Nascimento and Maricio Lo Borges passing through Paco Ibañez and Música Dispersa," Warp Records says, "the story of two people finding themselves and each other in music is Apropát."

Recorded at home on the outskirts of Barcelona, the album is practically tripping over its Tropicalia influences, with instrumentation that includes classical guitar, harmonium, concertina, bajo sexto, guitarron, and harps (and if you listen pretty hard you can even hear the sound of Os Mutantes lead singer Rita Lee's late '80s solo career sputtering to a halt).

In early 2003, Scott took the skeletal compositions to Tortoise's SOMA Studio in Chicago and mixed the tracks there with the indubitable John McEntire. Additional help was enlisted in the form of Johnny Herndon on percussion, Town & Country's Josh Abrams on bass, Azita Youssefi on vocals, and Paul Mertens (who once worked with Brian "Fetch Me A Zanzithophone, Three Grams And A Cheeseburger" Wilson) and Dave Max Crawford of The Sea and Cake on horns. Tracklist:

01 Introducción
02 Te Quiero Pero Por Otro Lado
03 Colores Sin Nombre
04 Balcón Sin Flores
05 A La Nit
06 Último Tren
07 Sol De Media Tarde
08 Um Girasol Da Car De Seu Cabalo
09 Ràdio Llocs Espacials
10 Déjame
11 Why Shéd Come?
12 Victima Belleza
13 Interludio 44
14 Sigue Tu Camino (No Sabes Amar...)

.: Pitchfork Review: Savath & Savalas: Folk Songs For Trains, Trees and Honey

Warp: http://www.warprecords.com