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California Vapours EP

Authors
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    Name
    Johanness Nilsson
    Mastodon

'California Vapours' California Vapours EP

It has been a long time since the Spring of 2012 when the last official DØS.pütin EP "Synthesize Ur Life" was published on iTunes & Spotify

Considering how long it's been, 2018 seemed like a good time to release some new songs that had been kicking around, collecting dust. I found four tracks that seemed to flow together well. All of these tracks were composed during a 6 month winter sabbatical I took a while back. I lived back and fourth between a shack in the mountains and a 1960's highway bus turned make shift recording studio situated on the beach front. The vibes were inspired by Southern California's beaches, cities, women, and high coastal mountains.

The EP kicks off with "66 •75 •6e •6b •0a" This track is a recomposed version of a much older song. It perfectly captured the SoCal vibe, so was a natural fit for this conceptual EP.

'Private Cruiser' The 'Private Cruiser', A 1964 MCI Challenger Highway Coach aka Bassmobile Records HQ

Since that track rolled so nicely into the second, "EMAXimum Funk" it was a natural fit. Recording in a converted tour-bus that also serves as your kitchen, bedroom and bath, isn't super easy. The biggest challenge is that you're really limited space wise. I needed to bring gear with me that packed the most punch for it's square-footage. A primary peice of gear that made this possible was the E-mu Systems EMAX II, from which the track takes it's name. 'EMAXimum Funk' is composed entirely on the EMAX II, and was recorded with the maximum amount of sonic abuse possible to a Tascam 238 multi-track mini-cassette recorder.

'EMAXimum Funk' This was my DAW set-up for most of the recordings on this EP

The third track 'Heavy D'' was inspired by warm Los Angeles winter nights, women, and Dwight Errington Myers, aka "Heavy D" & The Boyz first record Living Large (1987). That album was on repeat for days in the Benz. I became obsesed with the punchy drums throughout that album, and those hard swung 'New Jack' style beats. With that for inspiration and those Los Angeles experiences fresh I set out to compose an album of tracks on gear from that same year 1987, primarily the ENSONIQ SQ-80, and the Roland S-550. This track is one pulled from those sessions. More on the 1987 album later...

'Pauma Valley, California' Pit-stop at the sub-tropical oasis

Living like a recluse high on a mountain in Southern California was a nice departure from the dark and wet Pacific Northwest. But eventually I'd had enough isolation and solar saturation. Just before my departure back north I recorded one last song, Sunday Vapours again using the ENSONIQ SQ-80, and the Roland S-550. It's a cover / adaptation of Eric Persing's (1987) 'Sunday Paper'.