At the forefront of LA's underground club scene is Astronomar, co-founder of the Main Course label and primary advocate of juke, Jersey club, and ballroom. In the wake of "EDM" and mainstream house music, Mar is pushing the limits of every club from Calgary to Latvia with his staccato beats and portentous sound design. His upcoming release, Mutant Club, a four-track EP and accompanying video shot by LA-resident Sage Caswell, adopts a deep cavernous mantra perfect for the Cumberland Caverns.
Sage's video depicts an early-nineties cinematographic technique with the 3D animation styling of John Chadwick, with skeletons and gargoyles substituted for dancing babies. In fact, the dark non-storyline of the video sums up the aesthetically-heavy-metal album rather well.
"Gargoile" takes a rusty gothic approach to classic Baltimore club, while "Ha Ha Ha" nods its head to Mar's everlasting love of ballroom vogue. The Super Mario carnivalesque melody of "Drama" (produced alongside Bot) inadvertently features somewhat of a Shepard Tone, one of the most fascinating auditory illusions every conceived. The fourth and final track on Mutant Club, "THOT Process", quacks along with its minimal instrumentals and isolated drum samples to round out the EP with just enough weird to make you say, "wait…wat?" in the most loving way possible.
Support musical obscurities and iconoclastic anomalies by pre-ordering Astronomar's Mutant Club EP now, available May 6th, 2014. The album will also be available free for a month, as all Main Course releases are.
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