Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
“There’s a lot of analogue warmth to this album which will only be emphasized all the more on vinyl” says David J of Omnivore recording artists Night Crickets about the imminent vinyl release of their debut album A Free Society on July 29, 2022. A member of iconic post-punk bands Bauhaus and Love & Rockets, David J embraces the format, especially when it comes to this release. “Vinyl was the format that I initially listened to music on when I was a kid and when it first became so important to me. So there is a degree of nostalgia there but what transcends that is the enveloping warm, rich quality of the sound.”
Together with bandmates Victor DeLorenzo (Violent Femmes) and multi-instrumentalist/artist Darwin Meiners, Night Crickets are excited for the format. “A vinyl record is where it all started for me,” reinforces Victor. “The pressing of our album gives the listener a rich, round and full-bodied sound with wonderful detail along the spectrum! It swings and sings.”
The LP edition will also have different artwork unique to the edition. “The vinyl art utilizes a painting by our friend, the very brilliant Mark Gleason,” explains David. “It features a flaming billboard which is such a loaded and arresting image. To me, it is suggestive of the idea of a free society being one that lives outside of the dictates of commercial manipulation and rampant consumerism. We discovered this image after the artwork for the CD was done but then agreed that it would work to use two different covers to distinguish the different formats.”
The current single “The Unreliable Narrator” which Backseat Mafia calls “dark and motorik and, maybe surprisingly, beautiful,” is a moody, psychedelic track, showcasing David’s unmistakable bass playing and mixing in Eastern and post-punk elements. It features a lead vocal by David (who came up with the mordant lyrics) and the narration of British actor Marc Warren (Band of Brothers, The Vice, Mad Dogs), who is a personal friend of David’s. “When I was working the track, Marc happened to text me about something quite unrelated,” says David. “I had the spontaneous idea of asking him to record himself saying the title of the song as I could imagine his rather compelling voice on the track. (I did not tell him what my request was for.) He immediately recorded three takes on his phone which were then flown in right away. It worked!”
