Jack O’ The Clock - Repetitions Of The Old City I CD
SKU
JOTC 05
"One of the most original and compelling groups I know playing some amazing compositions that seem to tread effortlessly between Van Dyke Parks and folk music from an as yet unidentified culture, while making all the things you've always thought of as difficult sound as effortless and natural as breathing.”-Fred Frith
“[JOTC] conjure up stirring visions of a hybrid American history, part fact, part poetry, part visionary hallucination...compressed and multi-dimensional layerings, superimposing stories, memories, and fleeting dialogue on top of each other in each compacted song...elaborate chord changes, swoon-worthy layers of vocal harmonies....creaky and clunky percussion that recalls the “bone machine” of Tom Waits...and melodies [that] weave their way around your head like creepers in a tree...”-The Sound Projector
“REPETITIONS OF THE OLD CITY (I) is the fifth full-length album by Bay Area avant-folk band Jack O' The Clock. It includes over an hour of music recorded over the course of the past two years by the original quintet, with guest appearances by:
FRED FRITH - electric guitar
DARREN JOHNSTON - trumpet
JONATHAN RUSSELL - clarinet
ANDREW STRAIN - trombone
SARAH WHITLEY - electronics
REPETITIONS OF THE OLD CITY is not a double album but two
separate, interrelated listening experiences representing a discrete period of time in the band’s history which has now come to a close. In October of 2014, we went into the studio with The Norman Conquest to record the basic tracks for over an hour and a half of music. These are the songs that have formed the backbone of our live sets over the past six years or so. Since then, we’ve been refining the mixes, doing overdubs, and bringing in some wonderful guest musicians.
REPETITIONS will be our first release of original material in nearly three years. We are making a deliberate effort this time around to capture the intensity and immediacy of the live Jack O’ The Clock. This doesn’t mean there is absolutely no production, but there is a crisp, concise core and a unity to the sound that is true to all five of us and sounds more like the band than ever before. It took a few years and a lot of experimentation to find this sound, but we’ve learned how to put all the funny pieces together, how to make this unruly beast sing. This is our main sequence, our bright, rich, fully-cooked state.”