Posted on: December 12, 2008 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

Portland based singer-songwriter re-issues solo debut and enlists Meanest Man Contest, Factor, Radical Face and more…

Rusty String Deluxe reintroduces Portland, Oregon based multi-instrumentalist cars & trains’ 2007 album with new songs and a slew of remixes and covers, available digitally on December 2nd. Folks will be able to choose their packaging (CD, t-shirt, digital only) through the Circle Into Square store on release.

With Rusty String, twenty-seven year old Tom Filepp weaves electronic drumming together with woodwinds, banjo, trumpets, strings and glockenspiel, creating an album that sits somewhere between stations on the analog dial, where an old country broadcast breaches into absent-minded waves of static.

The original album consists of handfuls of microscopic crafted worlds, shaped with tiny precision. Songs paint imagery of overgrown grass reaching through cracked sidewalks, hazy suburban childhoods playing not-so-benign games, and self hypnosis. Banjo driven four to the floor stompers yield to spacious instrumentals laden with sampled americana. Bursts of orchestral cacophony and found sound then break through to reposition the listener.

Several guest spots add to the character of the album, including Boy In Static from Mush Records on viola, and a vocal collaboration with Sole from anticon. records.

Rusty String evokes early Morr Music releases by bands like Tarwater, intersecting with folk-oriented electronic groups like Tunng. Found sound and distorted tape samples create urban lullaby landscapes. Undaunted, meloncholic drums and timid textures are reminicent of cloudDEAD or Tujiko Noriko.

LITTLE SONG
The deluxe edition also includes new and more personal material from the new EP Little Song. Simple guitar based compositions pare back from the more densely orchestrated approach of the Rusty String LP, while layers of decaying feedback, sparse glockenspiel and tape samples weave a dark and dense tapestry of sound. Deep brooding vocals sit atop songs with deceptive timing, subtle electronic stutters, and thunderous and organic drumming. Songs jump from the paired down folk-electronic mix of previous albums, mixed with an eclectic songwriting sensibility that brings The Microphones to mind.

REMIXES/COVERS
Rusty String Deluxe includes a synth heavy remix of “…And all of us, as well” by Boy In Static (Mush/Alien Transistor), a remix by Factor (Fake Four), Meanest Man Contest, and Radical Face, and covers by Ceschi and Portland, Oregon locals The Harvey Girls. Filepp also remixes The Sky is Clear, a song off of Rusty String written with Sole (anticon).

Tracklist:
01 – Some Sort of Overture
02 – The Wires from my Broken Record Player
03 – Fake Plastic Guns
04 – Oh, Sweet Consequence
05 – Beatitudes
06 – and all of us, as well…
07 – Painting Over It Did No Good / Solitary Bird
08 – Further From Home
09 – The Sky is Clear
10 – The Singing Will Never Cease
11 – Nursing 500 Broken Fingers
12 – Sometimes Falter, Sometimes Sway
13 – What Comes After
14 – The Needle’s Spinning
15 – And All of Us, as Well (boy in static remix)
16 – Sometimes Falter, Sometimes Sway (Meanest Man Contest Remix)
17 – The Names of Things and Other Such Thoughts (Cover by Ceschi)
18 – Sometimes Falter, Sometimes S.way (cover by the harvey girls)
19 – The Wires From My Broken Record Player (Remix by Radical Face)
20 – Fake Plastic Guns (Factor Remix)
21 – The Sky is Clear (Cars & Trains Remix)

http://www.circleintosquare.com
http://www.myspace.com/carsandtrainsmusic

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