“High Pulp blend old-school bebop with contemporary soul and electronica vibes, as though someone convinced the ghost of Duke Ellington to reinterpret a Chemical Brothers album.” – AV Club
“They play with a textured, deeply analog groove aesthetic that draws from a wide array of influences, including the space jazz of Sun Ra, the edgy electronic dance music of Aphex Twin, and the acid-soaked jazz fusion of Miles Davis’ early-’70s work.” – All Music Guide
“A gleaming, synth-laced set of avant-garde jazz with echoes of the LA beat scene.” – The Seattle Times
High Pulp’s upcoming album ‘Days in the Desert’ reveals the band realizing their strengths, deepening their own bonds, and pushing all these skills into a thrilling new sonic vista all but unimaginable just a few years before. Today they are sharing the album track ‘Dirtmouth’ featuring tenor saxophonist and label mate James Brandon Lewis. “The way that we think of jazz, James is that,” drummer Bobby Granfelt says. “He told us he liked our non-traditional approach to jazz, which is cool coming from someone having all this credibility within the traditional jazz scene.” Listen to the track below.
“This song was mostly written between Antoine and our former guitarist Gehrig,” Granfelt continues. “The two instruments bob and weave in such a way that they feel like they’re dancing with and around each other. We were listening to a lot of ‘Con Todo El Mundo’ by Khruangbin at the time and were inspired to make a groove-oriented, guitar-based song. Once we laid the foundation, we invited James Brandon Lewis to bless the track with his Sonny Rollins meets Fugazi approach and it was game over!”
“I am thankful High pulp invited me to explore my version of crazy on such a great grooving track,” James Brandon Lewis added. “It gives me jazz, world music and otherworldly sonics all at the same time. The best music is the kind that never sits still, at least for me!”
This album has an array of all-star guests that push the sounds even further out into the ether. They range from Lewis and Chicago guitar legend Jeff Parker to Impulse! harpist Brandee Younger and Madlib collaborator/ Brainfeeder OG Daedelus. Working with the likes of Younger, Parker and Lewis also draw High Pulp closer to the genre-pushing jazz of Chicago’s International Anthem, a label the band openly admires. And it encapsulates their own approach, knowing their musical chops while also favoring the immediacy of a great indie-rock song. But despite the disparate genres represented, it all sounds precisely like High Pulp in the end.
‘Days In The Desert’
1. Slaw
2. Dirtmouth (ft. James Brandon Lewis)
3. Solanin (ft. Brandee Younger)
4. Never In My Short Sweet Life (ft. Mononeon)
5. Robert Pollard
6. Unified Dakotas (ft. Jeff Parker)
7. Fast Asleep
8. (If You Don’t Leave) The City Will Kill You (ft. Daedelus)
9. Fatigue (ft. Kurt Rosenwinkel & Telemakus)
10. Bad Infinity
