Topsy Records

Category: Obscure Colors

  • Obscure Colors “You Have to Swallow the World”

    Obscure Colors “You Have to Swallow the World”

    Obscure Colors presents a “modern mixtape” with an array of musical guests* (see below) for an album that takes you on a journey of sound.

    * On this album, you’ll find:

    Julie D, Jen Fox, Sam Gutterman, Aileen Paron, and Gary Thorstensen – my friends who also happen to be bandmates in my other two bands, These People Here and Guest Directors. If you haven’t heard those bands, you may have heard these fine people play in Chinchilla, Model Shop, Kayo Dot, Scarlet Season, and TAD, respectively. Their various talents are scattered all over these recordings.

    Sheridan Riley – you’ve likely heard them play drums in Alvvays, but I first heard them playing in Zen Mother and, later, solo drum shows around town. I got the best of both worlds from Sheridan on “Infinitesimal Cathedrals of Glass:” great beats and creative processing.

    Kellii Scott – he plays in one of my all-time favorite and inspirational rock bands, Failure. He finds just the right beats to support and propel the band’s stringed wizardry, and he graciously did the same for me on “Another Fourth.”

    Kenneth Schalk – when there’s a YouTube video of someone titled “The Best Metal Drummer Ever,” and the comments section agrees, you know the guy’s good. From the first time I saw Ken play in his band Candiria back in 1995, he’s been my favorite drummer to watch. And I got to duet with him on “Valley.” That fact may go on my tombstone.

    Natalia Czajkiewicz – Without even getting into her excellent visual art creations, I heard Natalia’s voice in Dead Spells and Love & Pain and knew it would fit perfectly on “The Singers Sing the Desiccation Blues,” and she proved me right.

    Kai Koehler – You may have heard Kai taking cello requests while busking at his brother’s soccer games. His age may not yet have been in the double-digits at the time of this recording, but he was already a total pro in the studio. You’ll hear the kid’s compelling drone on “Anthem to the Cascades in Winter.”

    Andrew King and Mike Sparks Jr. – they play together in one of my favorite bands in town, Reader, but I needed to split them up in order to fill two of the biggest voids on the entire record: “Come Sing With Me” and “A Prayer for Rain,” respectively. And fill them, they did.

    Robert Cheek – Robert recorded almost everything on this record and then mixed it all, but he also chimed in with a couple of valuable musical additions in the form of a Moog and glockenspiel on “Another Fourth.”

    Aileen, Andrew, Gary, Ken, Kellii, Natalia, Sheridan recorded their contributions. Robert Cheek recorded everything else and mixed it all at ExEx Audio near the troll in the sunny Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Once again, Brad Boatright of Audioseige mastered the album.

    The mighty Blake Armstrong created the cover art, and Charles Russo helped to turn it into the cover.

    Order now at Ampwall!

  • Obscure Colors “Our Skull Smiles When We’re Gone”

    Obscure Colors “Our Skull Smiles When We’re Gone”

    Wrapping up the series of three ambient/drone/live loops/improvisational albums recorded in the spring and summer of 2020.

    Order now at Bandcamp!

  • Obscure Colors “Inheritance”

    Obscure Colors “Inheritance”

    The second in a series of three ambient/drone/live loops/improvisational albums recorded in the spring and summer of 2020. If you want to hear more traditional rock songs, check out Fifteen Recordings From Twenty​-​First Century Los Angeles

    All tracks by Rian Turner. Artwork by his father.

    Order Now at Bandcamp!

  • Obscure Colors “Total Eclipse of the Sun”

    Obscure Colors “Total Eclipse of the Sun”

    This is the first of three albums that began recording in the spring/summer of 2020. Ambient, drone, loops. A pivot from the first Obscure Colors album, but one that the circumstances required.

    No one to directly blame for any of this except Rian Turner.

    TRACK LISTING

    • Upturned Porcelaine Heads of Detached Children
    • Photographic Evidence of the Future
    • Shots of Wolf
    • Dizzy Down
    • The Impending Threat of Autonomous Arms
    • Twin Keys to Random Doors
    • Things Used to Look Different
    • Symphony Orchestra
    • Non-Immediate Bellic
    • Glassy Memories of the Forgotten
    • Abrupt Soundtrack to a Red Night in the Dark
    • Finding Blurry Ways
    • Reasons to Rejoice

    Order now at Bandcamp!

  • Obscure Colors “Fifteen Recordings From Twenty-First Century Los Angeles”

    Obscure Colors “Fifteen Recordings From Twenty-First Century Los Angeles”

    This 15-track LP was initially recorded in Los Angeles in 2008. The songs lay dormant on hard drives until a special set of circumstances in mid-2020 allowed them to be revisited. Aileen Paron helped fill in some of the tracking gaps, and then Don Farwell took a dozen of these things into Earwig Studio to perform Frankensteinian feats of reassembly and resurrection. Brad Boatright at Audiosiege mastered them to bring this monster to its final form. Listen here:

    These recordings weren’t originally intended to be heard by anyone else: sketches, demonstrations, songwriting exercises, fun ways to spend nights and weekends at a massive practice space a little east of downtown Los Angeles, California sometime around 2008 (if you listen carefully, I swear you can hear our neighbors, Sunn O))) and Isis, blasting through the walls of our rehearsal room on some of these recordings).

    A few people heard a few of these songs performed live. Our first show was at the Lyric Theater with Emma Ruth Rundle’s band at the time (The Nocturnes) and our friends, Cinder Cone. Our final show was at The Smell with maximalist prog champions Upsilon Acrux (whose drummer played very minimally – at our direction – on “Sepulagrace”).

    These songs lay dormant on hard drives until a special set of circumstances in mid-2020 allowed them to be revisited. Aileen Paron helped fill in some of the unsatisfying tracking gaps, and then Don Farwell took a dozen of these things into Earwig Studio to perform Frankensteinian feats of reassembly and resurrection. Brad Boatright at Audiosiege mastered them to bring this monster to its final form. Good luck to this monster. We wish it all the best and apologize for the state of the world into which it was brought back.

    Obscure Colors: Jeny Nicholson and Rian Turner

    With special help from Jean Hsu, Chris Meszler, Aileen Paron, Rigel Ranciato, and Jay Trautman.

    Recorded by Rian Turner (except where noted in track credits)

    Mixed by Don Farwell at Earwig Studio (except where noted in track credits)

    Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege

    TRACK LISTING

    • Set a Course for Wayward Schemes
    • Faster
    • Untitled (A Way)
    • The Year
    • Cowards
    • Intent
    • Losing
    • Fix
    • Instrumental
    • La La La La
    • Sepulagrace
    • Honora
    • Raggles’ Lament
    • Oh, Baby Raggles
    • Code A

    Order now at Bandcamp!