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SHASTA CULTS - Shasta Cults

Format: LP Label & Cat.Number: Important Records IMPREC480 Release Year: 2019 Note: second proper album for this Canadian technician and BUCHLA specialist, who recorded the entire (pure ambient wave sounding) album using a "Buchla Touche" (developed in the early 80's, programmed by DAVID ROSENBOOM, only four of this machine were made!)... "Within each track, he's able to cover a surprising amount of ground. If you didn't know the music was created all on one machine, you'd be forgiven for assuming these tracks were realized using a much more diverse arsenal." [Resident Advisor] Price (incl. 19% VAT): €26.50 More Info "Shasta Cults is the musical project of Canadian electronics technician Richard Smith. For almost two decades, Smith was the official Buchla & Associates go-to repair person for studios, collectors, and musicians around the world, having worked with artists like Aphex Twin, Suzanne Ciani, Mort Subotnick and institutions like NYU, The Library of Congress and Mills College in Oakland, Ca. Recording demonstrations of the rare equipment that found its way on to his workbench is how Smith describes the origins of Shasta Cults. Although sounds have been trickling out for decades via Soundcloud and other outlets, it wasn’t until 2017 that Smith recorded his first album using one of these rare instruments – the Buchla 700. Configurations, released this past September by Important Records, features eight tracks of heavily-modulated, wave-shaped explorations drenched in effects, and was the catalyst for his latest releases. Recorded over the span of 3 months in the fall of 2018, this album was programmed solely on the only fully-functional Buchla Touché. Developed in the early 1980s with hardware by Don Buchla and software programmed by musician David Rosenboom, the Touché features waveforms generated internally by twenty-four digital oscillators using frequency modulation and sophisticated digital and analog signal processing for timbre and output assignment, all of this controlled via a six-octave black and white keyboard, unusual for a Buchla instrument. This LP is a continuation on themes first heard on Configurations, with more consideration given to the generation and capturing of the pieces. This album is less dark than previous releases, showcasing the incredible fidelity of the hardware used and Smiths evolution as an audio engineer. Put on some headphones, find a comfortable chair, and let this LP transport you to the mystifying southern cascades of Siskiyou County." [label info] "To the uninitiated, the complexities of electronic synthesis can seem daunting and foreign. Even for those well versed, complete mastery over those systems seems like a lifelong task given the seemingly infinite nature of their design. Richard Smith, the synthesist behind Shasta Cults, has worked as an official technician for Buchla gear for nearly 20 years, and has an intimate mechanical knowledge of the company's many machines, which have achieved near-fetishistic status over the past decade. On Shasta Cults' self-titled album, Smith demonstrates a rare virtuosity of the Buchla Touché (of which there were only four made) that illustrates not only the power of the machine to sculpt uncanny textures but also Smith's singular compositional style. Smith's work is compact and economical, a contrast to the protracted compositions that define the remaining core of Important Records' contemporary synth roster, including Eleh, Caterina Barbieri, Alessandro Cortini and Jessica Ekomane. Drones and arhythmic swells comprise the basis of most of the six pieces on Shasta Cults, but rather than letting them marinate he focuses on dynamic layering and timbral juxtapositions. Shasta Cults originated from Smith's desire to demonstrate the range and abilities of the various Buchla models he was repairing and restoring, and this approach seems directly derived from those roots. Within each track, he's able to cover a surprising amount of ground. If you didn't know the music was created all on one machine, you'd be forgiven for assuming these tracks were realized using a much more diverse arsenal. The album begins peacefully, and with restraint. "Prologue" hovers with a sense of placid melancholy, bass tones cycling in and out of the mix. Its clean tones sound glass-like, smooth and nearly transparent as they fade in and out of the audible field. Other moments have more bite. "DA3" features coarse waves of sound that resemble aural quicksand, gulping the listener up in successive, oozing surges. This buzzing intensity is overlaid with dramatic, organ-like stabs that appear triumphant in the face of the pulsing chaos below. On the drone track "Incline," Terry Riley-esque tones swirl back and forth over an increasingly resonant bass hum. The closer, "Chinook," with its apprehensive melodic fragments that open up into a yawning, fuzzed-out climax, leaves the album feeling unresolved in a way that feels entirely purposeful. Gear worship for its own sake can be tiring, but the music on Shasta Cults is too expressive to be pigeonholed simply as exercises in technological know-how. The recent Buchla boom has led to many different approaches over the past few years, but Smith's Shasta Cults project stands apart not just because he has access to the rarest models or has such an intimate knowledge of their notoriously unpredictable, generative circuitry. He uses this knowledge to create music that is richly textured without becoming dense, and like all masters of their instrument he knows how to dance elegantly between complexity and simplicity. It is that dance that makes Shasta Cults feel special." [Resident Advisor]