{"title":"Algorithm Free","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"solar-motel-expanded-20th-anniversary-edition","title":"Solar Motel - Expanded 20th Anniversary Edition","description":"\u003cp\u003eExpanded 2xLP 20th Anniversary Edition includes two studio outtakes from the original sessions, and a side- long live session recorded at WFMU by the then brand- new Solar Motel Band.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver the last two decades Philadelphia-based guitarist Chris Forsyth has released over a dozen critically lauded albums that have established him as one of today's most unique and acclaimed guitar player \/ composers - a forward-thinking classicist synthesizing cinematic expansiveness with a pithy lyricism and rhythmic directness that makes even his 20-minute workouts feel as clear, direct, and memorable as a 4-minute song.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNamed after a run-down lodge in New Jersey near where he grew up, \u003ci\u003eSolar Motel\u003c\/i\u003e was the first full-band project from Chris Forsyth. Originally released in 2013, it was considered his most ambitious and sublime work of Cosmic Americana to date, and the idea of the Motel also figured into a band where vacancies would open and close.   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn his words: \"'Solar Motel' is the first record on which I overtly took rock tropes and twisted them into new shapes, incorporating so many of my interests and influences - the twin-guitar elegance of Television, the sprawl of West Coast psych, the boiled down Rock Minimalism of Rhys Chatham, the abstract tangles of free improv, an undercurrent of ecstatic jazz energy, and the studio textures of Eno\/Cale\/Roxy ‘70s art rock. To the few who’d been paying attention to my musical output to that point, I think the whole package came as a surprise. Certainly there was little in my discography to indicate that anything like this was waiting to bust out. 'Solar Motel' basically set the template for much of what I did for the remainder of that decade. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e  In preparing the reissue, I sat down to listen to it for the first time in several years and was struck by how much of what I did in the wake of 'Solar Motel' was somehow a reaction to or an attempt to tease out various elements of that record. I was also surprised to discover two more songs, 'Long Warm Afternoon' and 'Harmonious Dance,' completed during the 'Solar Motel' sessions that I’d completely forgotten recording, not to mention overdubbing and mixing them. These tracks’ existence reminds me how in flux things were at the time. 'Solar Motel' was conceived very much in the process of its making.\"   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA lot of creative energy was expended in that two-day session between the studio musicians and a lot of creative decisions made in the subsequent post-production sessions when the pieces were stitched together into a whole. Then, just when it was done, a new group took the record’s name and immediately reinvented the music in its own image for the stage. In addition to the two studio outtakes from the original sessions, this reissue includes a side-long live session recorded at WFMU by the then brand-new Solar Motel Band, showcasing the flexibility of the musicians and the material. This kind of dynamic is essentially what Chris is always shooting for - to build on real roots but also keep evolving them, to trust that something new - or at least different - is always possible, to put faith in the music and the players above all other considerations. Ultimately, the kind of in-flux optimism within that process of transformation embodied by “Solar Motel” is really what the music - what everything - in this ongoing project is all about.  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Algorithm Free","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50396225339723,"sku":"2166325","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Solar_Motel_f31674dd_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726479826"},{"product_id":"first-flight","title":"First Flight","description":"\u003cp\u003eRemember live music? \u003ci\u003eFirst Flight\u003c\/i\u003e documents about 40 minutes of jams recorded during the third week of my September residency at Nublu last year, and, for me, this show was just about the most enjoyable hour of music I played all year. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe ideal of the residency was to mix things up with special guests, different band lineups, and varied set lists, keeping things fresh and new week-to-week, and this show was the wild card of the bunch. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat's because although Ryan and I have played together for years, and Dave and Spencer have played together for years, neither half of the band had ever met each other. I was tangentially aware of Dave and his music and was intrigued by what I'd heard, so I thought it was a cool idea when Chris Tart, the residency promoter, suggested a collaboration. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo, about 30 minutes after we'd all heard each others voices for the first time, we got up and played for a little over an hour, uninterrupted. The only thing discussed beforehand was that we shouldn't discuss anything beforehand - not a key or a riff to start with, nothing - so as to preserve maximum spontaneity. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI think this music demonstrates a real connection on stage. In other words, each player was completely present and actively listening on the bandstand. Listening back, there are moments I can hear Ryan saying - musically - \"Hey, let's go over here! Check this out!,\" or Spencer being like \"Wouldn't it be cool to go down this path?\" And we followed. And it was cool. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn my mind, that listening thing is the number one most important factor in any collaboration or cooperative effort, but especially in improvised music. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd I think it's fair to say that a little more listening, a little more presence, would do the whole world some good right about now, don't you think? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e-Chris Forsyth\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Algorithm Free","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50460571664715,"sku":"1096668","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/7d65c0a2-8d3b-4705-97d6-44905c680ec9_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727234614"},{"product_id":"rare-dreams-solar-live-2-27-18","title":"Rare Dreams: Solar Live 2.27.18","description":"\u003cp\u003eOn February 27, 2018, Chris Forsyth and The Solar Motel Band (comprised, in this iteration, of long-time SMB bassist Peter Kerlin and Kerlin’s Sunwatchers battery mate Jason Robira on drums) were close to wrapping up an 18-date tour of the EU and UK with a two-set, one hour and 45 minute show at Cafe OTO, London’s premier venue for adventurous music. Highlights of that show are included in this live release, \u003ci\u003eRare Dreams:Solar Live 2.27.18\u003c\/i\u003e, recorded before a packed house seated mere feet from the band’s amplifiers. These recordings reveal a band that is clearly in high spirits and high gear, operating with an expansive, improvisatory fleetness that allows them to stretch the material to almost ludicrous extremes and then let it to snap back to some semblance of form while somehow seemingly never wasting a note, a beat, a gesture. The four tracks included here comprise material culled from (at the time) the two most recent Solar Motel Band records \u003ci\u003eDreaming of the Non Dream\u003c\/i\u003e (No Quarter, 2017) and \u003ci\u003eThe Rarity of Experience\u003c\/i\u003e (No Quarter, 2016) plus covers of two Neil Young songs - the autobiographical plaint “Don’t Be Denied,” lyrically relocated by Forsyth from Young's Canada and Hollywood to the more personally relevant geography of New Jersey and Philadelphia, and encore “Barstool Blues” (they’d run out of material to play, so another Neil Young tune it was). \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Algorithm Free","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50465211973963,"sku":"1113682","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Red | LP","offer_id":50465211515211,"sku":"1113684","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/47a3b026-d732-4716-8d14-81dcda057261_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727283059"},{"product_id":"first-flight-redux","title":"First Flight Redux","description":"\u003cp\u003eOn \u003ci\u003eFirst Flight Redux\u003c\/i\u003e, Dave Harrington takes a scalpel to the multi-tracks of \u003ci\u003eFirst Flight\u003c\/i\u003e remixing the raw material into something else entirely.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Originally recorded live at Nublu, September 20, 2019, \u003ci\u003eFirst Flight\u003c\/i\u003e documents the first and (thus far) only meeting of Chris Forsyth, Dave Harrington, Ryan Jewell, and Spencer Zahn as part of Forsyth's residency at the club that month.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Harrington's dub, created in his Los Angeles studio uses the original tracks improvised live by the group and incorporates loops and samples plus a variety of additional keys and synths, bass guitar, percussion, congas, pedal steel, bamboo flute, the Turkish stringed instrument cümbüş, and the North African double reed instrument ghaita, all played by Harrington himself.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e While the light of the original performance recognizably shines through the canopy of new sounds in certain places, \u003ci\u003eFirst Flight Redux\u003c\/i\u003e is radically reconstructed into something totally new. It’s very much its own album, related to and derived from \u003ci\u003eFirst Flight\u003c\/i\u003e, yes, but venturing into areas unforeseen in the original document, suggesting some kind of a party with \u003ci\u003eLive\/Evil \u003c\/i\u003eblasting on one set of speakers,“Midnite Vultures” on another, and a Turkish psych band jamming in between. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Algorithm Free","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50466217525579,"sku":"1132555","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/1f11f526-4ea6-4414-93ee-5cf790ae20a6_thumbnail_4096.png?v=1727308853"},{"product_id":"peoples-motel-band","title":"Peoples Motel Band","description":"\u003cp\u003eOver the past decade or so, Chris Forsyth has produced a series of perennially year-end list haunting studio albums of expansive art-rock, from 2013’s \u003ci\u003eSolar Motel \u003c\/i\u003eto 2019’s \u003ci\u003eAll Time \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003ePresent \u003c\/i\u003e, in the process becoming one of the leading lights of the so-called “indie jam” scene, musicians combining omnivorous influences with post-Dead sprawl.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese critically lauded albums have established Forsyth as one of today’s most unique and acclaimed guitar player \/ composers - a forward thinking classicist synthesizing cinematic expansiveness with a pithy lyricism and rhythmic directness that makes even his 20-minute workouts feel as clear, direct, and memorable as a 4-minute song.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut the studio records are just the tip of the iceberg. You see, in a live setting Forsyth’s music is never really finished. He hasn’t had a fixed band in years and plays with a rotating cast of characters. Regulars in Forsyth’s bands have included bassists Doug McCombs (Tortoise) and Peter Kerlin (Sunwatchers), and drummer Ryan Jewell (Ryley Walker, too many others to mention), among others - basically, whoever is available for the given gig or tour.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese are not groups that rehearse, exactly. Operating more like a jazz band, Forsyth and his players treat the songs as frameworks that remain identifieable but morph based on who’s playing them, like weather to a landscape. Embracing this flux has become a cornerstone of Forsyth’s live sets, rendering every performance special and thereby catching the attention of tapers from his home base in Philly to New York City, Chicago, and Minneapolis. In fact, most of his live performances over the last few years are recorded and posted on the Live Music Archive site.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut the taper recordings, though many are high quality and full of character, are not professionally recorded and mixed multi-tracks. Which brings us to \u003ci\u003ePeoples Motel Band \u003c\/i\u003e, the new live LP culled from a set that Forsyth played with NY-based group Garcia Peoples as his band, and is self-releasing on his own Algorithm Free label in a limited pressing of 500 copies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRecorded September 14, 2019 before a packed and enthusiastic hometown crowd at Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia, \u003ci\u003ePeoples Motel Band \u003c\/i\u003ecatches Forsyth and Garcia Peoples (plus ubiquitous drummer Ryan Jewell) re-imagining songs from Forsyth’s last couple studio albums with improvisatory flair.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eForsyth and Garcia Peoples played a number of 2019 shows together, beginning with a semi-legendary jam set at Nublu in NYC in March, through a couple dates on Forsyth’s month-long weekly residency at Nublu in September and concluding with a five-date tour of the Northeast in December. The chemistry between the players is tangible. As is often the case with Forsyth shows, the gloves come off quickly and the players attack the material - much of it so well-manicured and cleanly produced in the studio - like a bunch of racoons let loose in a Philadelphia pretzel factory.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRecorded and mixed with clarity by Forsyth’s longtime studio collaborator, engineer\/producer Jeff Zeigler, the record puts the listener right in the sweaty club, highlighted by an incredible side-long take of the chooglin’ title track from 2017’s \u003ci\u003eDreaming in The Non-Dream \u003c\/i\u003eLP (note multiple climaxes eliciting wild shouts and ecstatic screams from the assembled).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is not the new Chris Forsyth album, exactly, but then again, it kinda is because whenever he sits down to play, something new comes out.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Algorithm Free","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50470421037387,"sku":"1087945","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/9474346c-ffb3-4929-9494-95036253ca11_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727376721"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/algorithm-free.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}