Song Premiere: Summer vibes with new single from Royal Forest
You know that great feeling you get meeting kindred spirits, folks who share the same love of music as you do? We get that feeling consistently with Nine Mile Records and Touring artists. The Austin-based boutique artist management company’s roster reads like a top 50 list of local bands as far as we’re concerned. Today’s premiere gives us the opportunity to share a new track from yet another Nine Mile artist, Royal Forest.
Experimental art collective Royal Forest take a decidedly unique approach to recording. Today we’re premiering their new single “Memories Thinning” in advance of their forthcoming full length, Waiting Drum. The new record hits stores and streaming services August 28 via King Electric Recording Company.
Royal Forest recorded the album to analog tape over two days in an 80 year-old Arkansas Farmhouse, weaving Americana imagery with hand-played 808s. West African and Brazilian baselines provide an appealing contrast between the electronic elements, melodies and the warmth of tape all tied into a bow with a minimalist production approach. If that all sounds Greek to you, just know this act makes the thoughtful type of experimental fusion music that keeps the listener engaged.
The dreamy electro-Brazilian beat on “Memories Thinning” feels like taking a summer drive up the California coast with the top down or wandering along Ipanema Beach gazing at South American waves. There’s an idyllic, nostalgic element to the track as well. Like the acid jazz movement in the 90s, Royal Forest’s music feels expansive without pretension as though the artists would rather not insult your intelligence. We can appreciate the kind of effort it takes to make music with this level of integrity.
We recommend heading over the group’s Bandcamp page to check out more of their catalog. There are albums recorded on a WW II submarine, aboard an in-flight prop plane and in a lightning storm. Make no mistake, Royal Forrest are sound geeks committed to capturing unusual sounds to integrate into their recordings to connect to the listener. They’ve even built an analog tape loop sampling rig that can be used in studio or live to sample sounds in the performance space like audience reaction. That inquisitive, inventive quality is what fuels the Royal Forest engine to make music that both sounds familiar yet unlike anything you’ve heard before.
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