Spacebomb House Band
Library Music 1: No Space High Enough
2018
A debut cassette brimming with snippets of wordless vocals, bouncy keyboards, and a thrift shop ethic. All of the best elements of library music are packed into 17 tracks - it's like David Axelrod fell through a timewarp and ended up alive & well & recording in 2018. I am fascinated to hear where this band goes next.
Here's their bandcamp promo in full.
Library Music is an anthology of new recordings from the world of Spacebomb, a growing archive of instrumentals, interstitial music and spiritual sound effects collected in Richmond, Va. Each release is intended for practical use and distributed as supplementary material for the good times, the bad times, and the no times.
The surface of the muddy James River, twisting, glistening and opaque, acts like a textural twin of magnetic tape, a parallel ribbon of inspiration, burnt brown river spooling on and on. The skill of the producer is to wade in these waters and lay a net for a track, to catch one before it is gone.
Straight from the Spacebomb House Band, No Space High Enough is the first installment of a serialized sonic venture. Unlike other Spacebomb productions, lyrics and melody are not central here, so mood and texture come to the fore on these largely instrumental set pieces. Four constant collaborators–Matthew E. White the visionary pragmatist, Trey Pollard the pragmatic visionary, Cameron Ralston the navigator of spirits & Pinson Chanselle the spirited navigator–focus their output in a flowing mix of styles and scenes, discrete soundtracks saturated with the soul of an imaginary cinema. Operating through the blurred roles of producer, composer, player, arranger, and dub engineer, these four interlocking personalities combine to form a remarkably singular voice.
A sketchbook of sorts, functioning as mixtape, beat tape, library music, demonstration reel, but with a baseline of quality and thoughtfulness throughout, No Space High Enough reflects Spacebomb’s full life in the city of Richmond. This knotty tapestry of musical energy is the fruit of longstanding relationships with members of the symphony, the jazz scene and the gospel community. The project contemporizes that time when studios could call in strings, horns and choirs with scarcely a second thought, intrinsic tools in the musical process, as everyday as every day. The natural ease of these collaborations lends power and depth to the sound of Library Music.
The tape moves on, through gray archways, rain on a lead roof, a monastic quartet pouring over stacks of illuminated scores. Now red dust clouds swirl through a hot stereo sky, and four horsemen down below ride for home out of range. Voices in the tank, snares rattling and bells towering, analog luster and digital depth. It’s 80s Morricone, 90s hip hop beats, 60s peace chants, 70s AM radio, a party in the apartment next door, memories contained inside an empty bottle, whispers of forgotten dub sessions, smoke in the morning from the embers of last night’s fire. An organ solo wanders off into silence, then click and the tape is cut off.
The surface of the muddy James River, twisting, glistening and opaque, acts like a textural twin of magnetic tape, a parallel ribbon of inspiration, burnt brown river spooling on and on. The skill of the producer is to wade in these waters and lay a net for a track, to catch one before it is gone.
Straight from the Spacebomb House Band, No Space High Enough is the first installment of a serialized sonic venture. Unlike other Spacebomb productions, lyrics and melody are not central here, so mood and texture come to the fore on these largely instrumental set pieces. Four constant collaborators–Matthew E. White the visionary pragmatist, Trey Pollard the pragmatic visionary, Cameron Ralston the navigator of spirits & Pinson Chanselle the spirited navigator–focus their output in a flowing mix of styles and scenes, discrete soundtracks saturated with the soul of an imaginary cinema. Operating through the blurred roles of producer, composer, player, arranger, and dub engineer, these four interlocking personalities combine to form a remarkably singular voice.
A sketchbook of sorts, functioning as mixtape, beat tape, library music, demonstration reel, but with a baseline of quality and thoughtfulness throughout, No Space High Enough reflects Spacebomb’s full life in the city of Richmond. This knotty tapestry of musical energy is the fruit of longstanding relationships with members of the symphony, the jazz scene and the gospel community. The project contemporizes that time when studios could call in strings, horns and choirs with scarcely a second thought, intrinsic tools in the musical process, as everyday as every day. The natural ease of these collaborations lends power and depth to the sound of Library Music.
The tape moves on, through gray archways, rain on a lead roof, a monastic quartet pouring over stacks of illuminated scores. Now red dust clouds swirl through a hot stereo sky, and four horsemen down below ride for home out of range. Voices in the tank, snares rattling and bells towering, analog luster and digital depth. It’s 80s Morricone, 90s hip hop beats, 60s peace chants, 70s AM radio, a party in the apartment next door, memories contained inside an empty bottle, whispers of forgotten dub sessions, smoke in the morning from the embers of last night’s fire. An organ solo wanders off into silence, then click and the tape is cut off.
credits
Pinson Chanselle – Drum set, drum machine, drum machine programming, choir arrangements, string arrangements, horn arrangements
Cameron Ralston – Electric bass guitar, synth bass, choir arrangements, string arrangements, horn arrangements, drum machine programming
Trey Pollard – Piano, synthesizer, string arrangements, horn arrangements, choir arrangements
Matthew E. White – Guitar, synthesizer, string arrangements, choir arrangements, drum machine programming
Additional keyboards played by Daniel Clarke
Additional guitars played by Alan Parker
Violins:
Adrian Pintea
Treesa Gold
Anna Bishop
Stacy Matthew
Violas:
HyoJoo Uh
Kimberly Ryan
Cello:
Schuyler Slack
Strings contracted by Treesa Gold
Trumpets:
Taylor Barnett
Craig Taylor
Marcus Tenney
Trombones:
Bryan Hooten
Nathaniel Lee
Benjamin Weisiger
French Horns:
Rachel Velvikis
Stephen Slater
Tuba:
Stephanie Ycaza
Strings and Horns conducted by Trey Pollard
Choir:
Briana Vaughn
Raven Worlds
Princess Warlington
Brandi Wellman
Jada Evans
Charnise Archie
Choir conducted by Joseph Clarke
Engineered by Pinson Chanselle, Trey Pollard, Cameron Ralston, Matthew E. White and Adrian Olsen
Recorded at Spacebomb Studios and Montrose Recording
Mixed at Spacebomb Studio
Produced by Pinson Chanselle, Trey Pollard, Cameron Ralston, Matthew E. White
All songs written by Pinson Chanselle, Trey Pollard, Cameron Ralston, Matthew E. White
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