Stern - Bone Turquoise vinyl lp + download card (due to size and weight, this price for the USA only. Outside of the USA, the price will be adjusted as needed)
SKU
NA-LP-010
Chuck Stern was the keyboardist and co-vocalist in the great and lamented Time Of Orchids.
Stern is his new band project, featuring Toby Driver (Kayo Dot), Keith Abrams (Kayo Dot, Time Of Orchids) and Tim Byrnes. While it doesn't sound like Time Of Orchids, you can definitely hear a lot of ToO in Stern.
"Bone Turquoise is the brainchild of Brooklyn musician Chuck Stern who has been recording music under the Stern name since the end of his previous band, Time of Orchids (immortalized with releases on John Zorn's Tzadik label and Cuneiform Records). Conceived as a solo project, Stern has expanded now into a band that includes Toby Driver (Kayo Dot, Vaura, Secret Chiefs 3), Keith Abrams (Kayo Dot), and Tim Byrnes (longtime collaborator of Kayo Dot, Candiria, and more).
Chuck describes the sound aptly as "alien pop." Bone Turquoise is an album of almost-normal songs whose normalcy is consistently soured by unexpected notes and rhythmic derailments. It is a brilliant push and pull: the gentle and lush turns icy and dissonant, without warning, then returns. There are no satisfying ends nor total collapses, just a slow dance on the line between the two. Chuck's rich, soaring voice leads the way � Shudder To Think's Craig Wedren is one reference point, as is Mike Patton in his best crooner mode.
Wedren's greatness is reflected in the lyrics as well, some of which have all the startling abstract beauty of lines off Pony Express Record. From the title track: "A deviant streak / Bone turquoise, the meek / Return of the crew / A staunch vessel / For, you come about and open floodgates wide / How you stand beside me with your hand in mine / Bone turquoise." Ultimately, "cinematic" is a good word for Stern. Chuck names the scores of Ennio Morricone as an influence and claims Bone Turquoise to be based on a sci-fi screenplay yet to be made into a film. The songs are fully immersive in their unpredictability, their winding paths holding the listener captive as if in a movie theater seat, transfixed in the throes of ineffable thoughts and feelings.
Stern is an exciting, strange force in the Brooklyn scene, in the same orbit as bands like Psalm Zero, Mick Barr and his many projects, and of course, Kayo Dot."
- LabelNew Atlantis
- UPC616892229421