COLLABORATION
Antelope Tapes X Tivoli
Bryn and I have been watching my brother’s band Antelope Tapes play instrumental magic for the past decade or so. This project was conceptualised one sunny afternoon, between the vines, picking chardonnay by the band’s producer and synth guy Tom Allum.
4 ambient tracks made to accompany the 2024 wines.
Enjoy,
Claire
Track One: Wack! Raven (Syrah) Within the depths of the Antelope Tapes archive we find a peculiar audio file called 'Whack.wav". A guitar spritely plucks away accompanied by obtuse orchestral string chops. The audio file says it was made in 2014 using Ableton Live. However, listening back to it we can only assume it was created by some sort of baby winged creature, sitting in the nest, ready for first flight - 'Wack! Raven'.
Track Two: Starburst PJ’s (Chardonnay) 'Starburst PJs' comes from the world of Sunday mornings. When the thinking slows and bodies flow with instruments. The demo of this song was recorded during a writing weekend in 2022. A little foggy-headed at the time, there's an undeniable simplicity, a dreaming to it. Listening back a year on, guitarist, Matt Slocomb cannot recall playing his parts at all. Perhaps the best dreams are the ones we don't remember having?
Track Three: Banksia Sequence (Bit of Red/Bit of White) 'Banksia Sequence' is a fermentation of two jams made separately and mixed on toast years later. Jams of this kind are recorded using an amp simulator in Protools with Valhalla Reverb at 100% on every track. Those moments of solitude when the kids are in bed. Or the ones you make with a battery-powered synthesiser when bouncing the trampoline. These are the jams we are talking about. And this is actually how the song was put together.
Track Four: Magic Mountain (Pinot) 'Magic Mountain Crosbox' started in 2015 when the band was in need of a rehearsal space. Crosbies new rental in Inglewood had a brick shed out the back, which was thoroughly swept, kitted out with extensions leads, double adaptors and became antelope HQ. Matt Power was trying to make it big on the east coast so our friend Ken Hay was playing bass with us over this time. Magic Mountain Crosbox is one of a number of ideas from the Inglewood sessions, re-recorded as a duet with Matt Power and Crosbie earlier this year, with reverb nerdery by Tom Allum with Matt Slocomb awkwardly following.