Formed in 2009 as a bedroom recording project, Small Black first made waves with their eponymous debut EP. Recorded in the attic of singer Josh Kolenik's uncle's remote Long Island beach house/surfboard workshop, the EP served as an introduction to the group, with its pulsing patchwork of vintage synths and casio beats culminating in the breakthrough single "Despicable Dogs." This track cemented them as pioneers of Chillwave, the sound of which seemed to get its hooks into so much music across the 2010s.
The project evolved into a fully-fledged touring act, consisting of Kolenik (vox/keyboards), Ryan Heyner (guitar/keyboards), Juan Pieczanski (bass/guitar), and Jeff Curtin (drums), and this live influence showed up in their debut LP on Jagjaguwar, 2010's New Chain. The loopy, weeded-out album found the band messing around with hip hop drums & samples, which they further explored on 2011's Moon Killer mixtape, collaborating with rapper Heems & remixing their own material through this kaleidoscopic lens.
Years of hitting the road hard sent the band after a brand new sound & aesthetic with 2013's beloved Limits of Desire. Chasing the 80s pastiche of The Blue Nile & Talk Talk, SB upped their production chops, writing, recording & mixing the record from scratch, with the anthemic "No Stranger" & "Breathless" leading the way. Punctuated by the incredible visuals of directors Nick Bentgen and Yoonha Park, it was a huge step forward for the project. 2015's Best Blues, led by "Boys Life," followed further down this sophisti-pop path, adding more organic flourishes, choral samples & a little goth energy into the mix.
2020 finds Small Black back in the game with a brand new label, the vaporwave upstart 100% Electronica. New single "Tampa" harks back to monster pop of Tears for Fears, through the lens of a vacation gone wrong on the coast of Florida. Working again with mixer Nicolas Vernhes, the band's new record, Cheap Dreams is due on April 9th.
~~~~~~~~~
"The cover art for Small Black's forthcoming sophomore album is a pretty clever indicator of what kind of subject matter the record has in store. The photo, created by Dutch artist Scarlett Hooft Graafland, features a naked man and woman attempting to embrace while perched on top of a ladder. Lurking in the void beneath them is an alligator, presumably waiting to eat them. It's a fitting visual metaphor for a record that seems primarily concerned with examining the myriad ways that the modern world strives to keep us from properly connecting with each other (or something like that). The record is a bold step forward for the band, not only in subject matter but in style as well. While previous releases (2010´s New Chain and 2009´s self-titled EP) came swathed in the kind of dramatically layered electronics that would pretty much epitomize the gauzy aesthetics of bedroom production -- Limits Of Desire seeks to shake off a little of the chill-haze and come out into the light. The band also added live drums and electric guitar to the mix this time around, opting to pare down the arrangements and let the songs breathe a little bit." --STEREOGUM
~~~~~~~~
Gracing the cover of Brooklyn band Small Black's new record, a mysterious woman walks alone on the dunes at dusk, amid pockmarked sand. She's the subject of a found photo, one of many rescued with the warmth of a blow dryer and a fireplace, by singer Josh Hayden Kolenik after Hurricane Sandy flooded his family's Long Island home. The faded image offers clues and invites viewers to construct their own narrative, one that escapes even the picture's taker, Kolenik's father.
To put it simply, Best Blues is an album about loss. The specific loss of precious people in our lives, but also the loss of memories and the difficult fight to preserve them. "I spent months trying to scan all these images & letters, most covered with ocean dirt, and in doing so discovered what people often find in their family's past: that they are a hell of a lot like those who'd come before," says Kolenik. The chorus of standout "Boys Life" echoes this sentiment with the refrain "pictures of youth/picturing you," over a track that itself was an old demo re-discovered by accident by the band, during a late night jam session at a cabin in Upstate NY. The compassion of the record collects itself in the soft repeating mantra-esque hook in "No One Wants It To Happen To You".
The group's third full length release, written & recorded at their Brooklyn home studio, nicknamed 222, showcases a mature band still evolving, and embracing the unpredictable. Kolenik (keys, vocals), Ryan Heyner (guitar, keys, vocals), Juan Pieczanski (bass, guitar) and Jeff Curtin (drums) have been recording, writing, and often living together, throughout the life of the band, establishing a closeness that has allowed them to achieve easy creativity and unspoken chemistry, After a year of recording, that band enlisted mixer Nicholas Vernhes (War on Drugs, Deerhunter) of Rare Book Room Studio to help complete the record.
Best Blues finds the band in their sweet spot: the smoky intersection of considered & vulnerable songwriting and loose, almost nonchalant ambience. The addition of piano flourishes, trumpet (Darby Cicci of The Antlers), hidden acoustic guitars and Kaede Ford's ethereal vocals provide new dimensions to the band's already expansive sonic palette. Cut-to-the-chase rippers "Back at Belle's" & "Checkpoints" embody & build on the group's signature gritty yet focused electronic sound. While the more pastoral tracks, such as "Between Leos," & "XX Century," skeletally based on recorded improvisations, find the band painting a more nuanced, assured aural portrait. The repeating of the line "twentieth century" on closer, XX Century, serves as a coda for the album, offering a simple summation of what Best Blues intent has been from the opening Casio stab :: an attempt to re-examine the past, but also one to let it go.
show less
The project evolved into a fully-fledged touring act, consisting of Kolenik (vox/keyboards), Ryan Heyner (guitar/keyboards), Juan Pieczanski (bass/guitar), and Jeff Curtin (drums), and this live influence showed up in their debut LP on Jagjaguwar, 2010's New Chain. The loopy, weeded-out album found the band messing around with hip hop drums & samples, which they further explored on 2011's Moon Killer mixtape, collaborating with rapper Heems & remixing their own material through this kaleidoscopic lens.
Years of hitting the road hard sent the band after a brand new sound & aesthetic with 2013's beloved Limits of Desire. Chasing the 80s pastiche of The Blue Nile & Talk Talk, SB upped their production chops, writing, recording & mixing the record from scratch, with the anthemic "No Stranger" & "Breathless" leading the way. Punctuated by the incredible visuals of directors Nick Bentgen and Yoonha Park, it was a huge step forward for the project. 2015's Best Blues, led by "Boys Life," followed further down this sophisti-pop path, adding more organic flourishes, choral samples & a little goth energy into the mix.
2020 finds Small Black back in the game with a brand new label, the vaporwave upstart 100% Electronica. New single "Tampa" harks back to monster pop of Tears for Fears, through the lens of a vacation gone wrong on the coast of Florida. Working again with mixer Nicolas Vernhes, the band's new record, Cheap Dreams is due on April 9th.
~~~~~~~~~
"The cover art for Small Black's forthcoming sophomore album is a pretty clever indicator of what kind of subject matter the record has in store. The photo, created by Dutch artist Scarlett Hooft Graafland, features a naked man and woman attempting to embrace while perched on top of a ladder. Lurking in the void beneath them is an alligator, presumably waiting to eat them. It's a fitting visual metaphor for a record that seems primarily concerned with examining the myriad ways that the modern world strives to keep us from properly connecting with each other (or something like that). The record is a bold step forward for the band, not only in subject matter but in style as well. While previous releases (2010´s New Chain and 2009´s self-titled EP) came swathed in the kind of dramatically layered electronics that would pretty much epitomize the gauzy aesthetics of bedroom production -- Limits Of Desire seeks to shake off a little of the chill-haze and come out into the light. The band also added live drums and electric guitar to the mix this time around, opting to pare down the arrangements and let the songs breathe a little bit." --STEREOGUM
~~~~~~~~
Gracing the cover of Brooklyn band Small Black's new record, a mysterious woman walks alone on the dunes at dusk, amid pockmarked sand. She's the subject of a found photo, one of many rescued with the warmth of a blow dryer and a fireplace, by singer Josh Hayden Kolenik after Hurricane Sandy flooded his family's Long Island home. The faded image offers clues and invites viewers to construct their own narrative, one that escapes even the picture's taker, Kolenik's father.
To put it simply, Best Blues is an album about loss. The specific loss of precious people in our lives, but also the loss of memories and the difficult fight to preserve them. "I spent months trying to scan all these images & letters, most covered with ocean dirt, and in doing so discovered what people often find in their family's past: that they are a hell of a lot like those who'd come before," says Kolenik. The chorus of standout "Boys Life" echoes this sentiment with the refrain "pictures of youth/picturing you," over a track that itself was an old demo re-discovered by accident by the band, during a late night jam session at a cabin in Upstate NY. The compassion of the record collects itself in the soft repeating mantra-esque hook in "No One Wants It To Happen To You".
The group's third full length release, written & recorded at their Brooklyn home studio, nicknamed 222, showcases a mature band still evolving, and embracing the unpredictable. Kolenik (keys, vocals), Ryan Heyner (guitar, keys, vocals), Juan Pieczanski (bass, guitar) and Jeff Curtin (drums) have been recording, writing, and often living together, throughout the life of the band, establishing a closeness that has allowed them to achieve easy creativity and unspoken chemistry, After a year of recording, that band enlisted mixer Nicholas Vernhes (War on Drugs, Deerhunter) of Rare Book Room Studio to help complete the record.
Best Blues finds the band in their sweet spot: the smoky intersection of considered & vulnerable songwriting and loose, almost nonchalant ambience. The addition of piano flourishes, trumpet (Darby Cicci of The Antlers), hidden acoustic guitars and Kaede Ford's ethereal vocals provide new dimensions to the band's already expansive sonic palette. Cut-to-the-chase rippers "Back at Belle's" & "Checkpoints" embody & build on the group's signature gritty yet focused electronic sound. While the more pastoral tracks, such as "Between Leos," & "XX Century," skeletally based on recorded improvisations, find the band painting a more nuanced, assured aural portrait. The repeating of the line "twentieth century" on closer, XX Century, serves as a coda for the album, offering a simple summation of what Best Blues intent has been from the opening Casio stab :: an attempt to re-examine the past, but also one to let it go.
Formed in 2009 as a bedroom recording project, Small Black first made waves with their eponymous debut EP. Recorded in the attic of singer Josh Kolenik's uncle's remote Long Island beach house/surfboard workshop, the EP served as an introduction to the group, with its pulsing patchwork of vintage synths and casio beats culminating in the breakthrough single "Despicable Dogs." This track cemented them as pioneers of Chillwave, the sound of which seemed to get its hooks into so much music across the 2010s.
The project evolved into a fully-fledged touring act, consisting of Kolenik (vox/keyboards), Ryan Heyner (guitar/keyboards), Juan Pieczanski (bass/guitar), and Jeff Curtin (drums), and this live influence showed up in their debut LP on Jagjaguwar, 2010's New Chain. The loopy, weeded-out album found the band messing around with hip hop drums & samples, which they further explored on 2011's Moon Killer mixtape, collaborating with rapper Heems & remixing their own material through this kaleidoscopic lens.
Years of hitting the road hard sent the band after a brand new sound & aesthetic with 2013's beloved Limits of Desire. Chasing the 80s pastiche of The Blue Nile & Talk Talk, SB upped their production chops, writing, recording & mixing the record from scratch, with the anthemic "No Stranger" & "Breathless" leading the way. Punctuated by the incredible visuals of directors Nick Bentgen and Yoonha Park, it was a huge step forward for the project. 2015's Best Blues, led by "Boys Life," followed further down this sophisti-pop path, adding more organic flourishes, choral samples & a little goth energy into the mix.
2020 finds Small Black back in the game with a brand new label, the vaporwave upstart 100% Electronica. New single "Tampa" harks back to monster pop of Tears for Fears, through the lens of a vacation gone wrong on the coast of Florida. Working again with mixer Nicolas Vernhes, the band's new record, Cheap Dreams is due on April 9th.
~~~~~~~~~
"The cover art for Small Black's forthcoming sophomore album is a pretty clever indicator of what kind of subject matter the record has in store. The photo, created by Dutch artist Scarlett Hooft Graafland, features a naked man and woman attempting to embrace while perched on top of a ladder. Lurking in the void beneath them is an alligator, presumably waiting to eat them. It's a fitting visual metaphor for a record that seems primarily concerned with examining the myriad ways that the modern world strives to keep us from properly connecting with each other (or something like that). The record is a bold step forward for the band, not only in subject matter but in style as well. While previous releases (2010´s New Chain and 2009´s self-titled EP) came swathed in the kind of dramatically layered electronics that would pretty much epitomize the gauzy aesthetics of bedroom production -- Limits Of Desire seeks to shake off a little of the chill-haze and come out into the light. The band also added live drums and electric guitar to the mix this time around, opting to pare down the arrangements and let the songs breathe a little bit." --STEREOGUM
~~~~~~~~
Gracing the cover of Brooklyn band Small Black's new record, a mysterious woman walks alone on the dunes at dusk, amid pockmarked sand. She's the subject of a found photo, one of many rescued with the warmth of a blow dryer and a fireplace, by singer Josh Hayden Kolenik after Hurricane Sandy flooded his family's Long Island home. The faded image offers clues and invites viewers to construct their own narrative, one that escapes even the picture's taker, Kolenik's father.
To put it simply, Best Blues is an album about loss. The specific loss of precious people in our lives, but also the loss of memories and the difficult fight to preserve them. "I spent months trying to scan all these images & letters, most covered with ocean dirt, and in doing so discovered what people often find in their family's past: that they are a hell of a lot like those who'd come before," says Kolenik. The chorus of standout "Boys Life" echoes this sentiment with the refrain "pictures of youth/picturing you," over a track that itself was an old demo re-discovered by accident by the band, during a late night jam session at a cabin in Upstate NY. The compassion of the record collects itself in the soft repeating mantra-esque hook in "No One Wants It To Happen To You".
The group's third full length release, written & recorded at their Brooklyn home studio, nicknamed 222, showcases a mature band still evolving, and embracing the unpredictable. Kolenik (keys, vocals), Ryan Heyner (guitar, keys, vocals), Juan Pieczanski (bass, guitar) and Jeff Curtin (drums) have been recording, writing, and often living together, throughout the life of the band, establishing a closeness that has allowed them to achieve easy creativity and unspoken chemistry, After a year of recording, that band enlisted mixer Nicholas Vernhes (War on Drugs, Deerhunter) of Rare Book Room Studio to help complete the record.
Best Blues finds the band in their sweet spot: the smoky intersection of considered & vulnerable songwriting and loose, almost nonchalant ambience. The addition of piano flourishes, trumpet (Darby Cicci of The Antlers), hidden acoustic guitars and Kaede Ford's ethereal vocals provide new dimensions to the band's already expansive sonic palette. Cut-to-the-chase rippers "Back at Belle's" & "Checkpoints" embody & build on the group's signature gritty yet focused electronic sound. While the more pastoral tracks, such as "Between Leos," & "XX Century," skeletally based on recorded improvisations, find the band painting a more nuanced, assured aural portrait. The repeating of the line "twentieth century" on closer, XX Century, serves as a coda for the album, offering a simple summation of what Best Blues intent has been from the opening Casio stab :: an attempt to re-examine the past, but also one to let it go.
read more
The project evolved into a fully-fledged touring act, consisting of Kolenik (vox/keyboards), Ryan Heyner (guitar/keyboards), Juan Pieczanski (bass/guitar), and Jeff Curtin (drums), and this live influence showed up in their debut LP on Jagjaguwar, 2010's New Chain. The loopy, weeded-out album found the band messing around with hip hop drums & samples, which they further explored on 2011's Moon Killer mixtape, collaborating with rapper Heems & remixing their own material through this kaleidoscopic lens.
Years of hitting the road hard sent the band after a brand new sound & aesthetic with 2013's beloved Limits of Desire. Chasing the 80s pastiche of The Blue Nile & Talk Talk, SB upped their production chops, writing, recording & mixing the record from scratch, with the anthemic "No Stranger" & "Breathless" leading the way. Punctuated by the incredible visuals of directors Nick Bentgen and Yoonha Park, it was a huge step forward for the project. 2015's Best Blues, led by "Boys Life," followed further down this sophisti-pop path, adding more organic flourishes, choral samples & a little goth energy into the mix.
2020 finds Small Black back in the game with a brand new label, the vaporwave upstart 100% Electronica. New single "Tampa" harks back to monster pop of Tears for Fears, through the lens of a vacation gone wrong on the coast of Florida. Working again with mixer Nicolas Vernhes, the band's new record, Cheap Dreams is due on April 9th.
~~~~~~~~~
"The cover art for Small Black's forthcoming sophomore album is a pretty clever indicator of what kind of subject matter the record has in store. The photo, created by Dutch artist Scarlett Hooft Graafland, features a naked man and woman attempting to embrace while perched on top of a ladder. Lurking in the void beneath them is an alligator, presumably waiting to eat them. It's a fitting visual metaphor for a record that seems primarily concerned with examining the myriad ways that the modern world strives to keep us from properly connecting with each other (or something like that). The record is a bold step forward for the band, not only in subject matter but in style as well. While previous releases (2010´s New Chain and 2009´s self-titled EP) came swathed in the kind of dramatically layered electronics that would pretty much epitomize the gauzy aesthetics of bedroom production -- Limits Of Desire seeks to shake off a little of the chill-haze and come out into the light. The band also added live drums and electric guitar to the mix this time around, opting to pare down the arrangements and let the songs breathe a little bit." --STEREOGUM
~~~~~~~~
Gracing the cover of Brooklyn band Small Black's new record, a mysterious woman walks alone on the dunes at dusk, amid pockmarked sand. She's the subject of a found photo, one of many rescued with the warmth of a blow dryer and a fireplace, by singer Josh Hayden Kolenik after Hurricane Sandy flooded his family's Long Island home. The faded image offers clues and invites viewers to construct their own narrative, one that escapes even the picture's taker, Kolenik's father.
To put it simply, Best Blues is an album about loss. The specific loss of precious people in our lives, but also the loss of memories and the difficult fight to preserve them. "I spent months trying to scan all these images & letters, most covered with ocean dirt, and in doing so discovered what people often find in their family's past: that they are a hell of a lot like those who'd come before," says Kolenik. The chorus of standout "Boys Life" echoes this sentiment with the refrain "pictures of youth/picturing you," over a track that itself was an old demo re-discovered by accident by the band, during a late night jam session at a cabin in Upstate NY. The compassion of the record collects itself in the soft repeating mantra-esque hook in "No One Wants It To Happen To You".
The group's third full length release, written & recorded at their Brooklyn home studio, nicknamed 222, showcases a mature band still evolving, and embracing the unpredictable. Kolenik (keys, vocals), Ryan Heyner (guitar, keys, vocals), Juan Pieczanski (bass, guitar) and Jeff Curtin (drums) have been recording, writing, and often living together, throughout the life of the band, establishing a closeness that has allowed them to achieve easy creativity and unspoken chemistry, After a year of recording, that band enlisted mixer Nicholas Vernhes (War on Drugs, Deerhunter) of Rare Book Room Studio to help complete the record.
Best Blues finds the band in their sweet spot: the smoky intersection of considered & vulnerable songwriting and loose, almost nonchalant ambience. The addition of piano flourishes, trumpet (Darby Cicci of The Antlers), hidden acoustic guitars and Kaede Ford's ethereal vocals provide new dimensions to the band's already expansive sonic palette. Cut-to-the-chase rippers "Back at Belle's" & "Checkpoints" embody & build on the group's signature gritty yet focused electronic sound. While the more pastoral tracks, such as "Between Leos," & "XX Century," skeletally based on recorded improvisations, find the band painting a more nuanced, assured aural portrait. The repeating of the line "twentieth century" on closer, XX Century, serves as a coda for the album, offering a simple summation of what Best Blues intent has been from the opening Casio stab :: an attempt to re-examine the past, but also one to let it go.
show less
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