International Anthem announces a new Carlos Niño & Friends album, More Energy Fields, Current (out on digital music platforms May 7th, in stores on LP/CD June 25th), and share the lead single “Pleasewakeupalittlefaster, please…” (featuring Jamael Dean). More Energy Fields, Current is a definitive new peak in the recorded continuum of Niño, a prolific producer, percussionist, and self-identified “Communicator.” Featuring heavy contributions from many of the most exciting instrumentalists in the creative music constellation of Los Angeles (of which Niño has been a central force for over two decades) including Dean, Nate Mercereau, Sam Gendel, and Jamire Williams, the album collects ten pristine gems of collaborative communication helmed by Niño, elegantly presented in his unique “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage” style.
Lead single (and album opener) “Pleasewakeupalittlefaster, please…” articulates an Earth-loving, universalist ethos that imbues the entire 44-minute program, and comes accompanied by liner notes from Niño: “We’re all in this together. I look forward to living in a much higher, much more conscious, harmonious state, here, with You, on this Magical Planet Earth.” The track also features a gorgeously-keyed canonic infinity by pianist Jamael Dean. “I first met Carlos when I was in high school,” says Dean. “I was playing at The Del Monte Speakeasy in Venice around that time. Carlos invited me to play every month with my own band. It gave me an opportunity to try out a lot of new music with my homies. ‘Pleasewakeupalittlefaster, please’ came from an idea Carlos asked me to play, at one of his concerts. I played it again over the track he sent me, when I went back to New York because of College. I remember talking to Carlos about all the misconceptions about the history of music and the importance of proper education.”
Listen to “Pleasewakeupalittlefaster, please…”
More Energy Fields, Current is ripe with ambient passages that function like open portals between moments of consonance and clarity. But even in the occasional absence of drums, there is a powerful pulse implicit in the program’s frequency of consciousness. It’s a testament to Niño’s foundations as a DJ. His distinct ability to craft kinetic, cinematic sonic experiences from dozens of independent, often rhythmically-ambiguous improvisational archive memories is more fluently displayed on More Energy Fields, Current than anything we’ve heard from him to date. It resonates, lucidly, with the way Niño’s mentor Iasos – who is known to the world as an original founder of New Age music – has described his work: “Real Time Interactive Imagination, Flow Texturization.”
Pre-order More Energy Fields, Current
More Energy Fields, Current Tracklist:
01. Pleasewakeupalittlefaster, please… (with Jamael Dean)
02. The World Stage, 4321 Degnan Boulevard, Los Angeles California 90008 (with Sam Gendel, Jamael Dean and Randy Gloss)
03. Nightswimming (with Dntel, Jamael Dean and Jira ><)
04. Now the background is the foreground. (with Adam Rudolph, Aaron Shaw and Jamael Dean)
05. Thanking The Earth (with Sam Gendel and Nate Mercereau)
06. Salon Winds (with Jamire Williams, Nate Mercereau, Jamael Dean and Aaron Shaw)
07. Ripples, Reflection, Loop (with Laraaji, Jamael Dean and Sharada)
08. Togetherness (with Devin Daniels and Jamael Dean)
09. Iasos 79 ‘til Infinity
10. Please, wake up.
Keep your mind open.
[Please subscribe a little faster, please…]
[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]