Once again we are welcomed to the magical world of Jared Blum's Blanketship. Pleated Shorts is a compilation style, 20 track, 29 min kaleidoscope collage of AM classics and easy listening box sets, broken psychedelia, quasi- prog orchestral library rock, French soundtrack funk, odd worldy wonders, sweaty electronics and other dirty thrift store bin magic.
Like a compilation or mix tape, each song in turn is recognizably different but all with a hazy focus of catchy warped melodies and slender grooves. A record where out of tune strings, clunky click bass, mishandled harpsichords, fragmented vocals, melted Mellotrons, crumpled Krautrock, fumbling flutes are all laid together to create a clamoring melange of abstract pop rock. The line between which sounds were sampled and which were played by Blum is mysteriously woven into a sonic concoction of total bizarre.
The Sound of Fun Surrounds You / Klangwunder
[ GIGA016 2009 ]
1. viva butterfly
2. who's tellin' you
3. ALDA
4. Hemorrhoid is more
5. jai's friend's drum suite
6. so i confess
7.taggingalong
8. mmmm
9. double feature
11. Fun folk
12. enter the click
13. pet my gentle giant
14. the breeze and i
15. goofball
16. stop your complaining
17. ball rhythms
Jared Blum’s aka Blanketship is back with a special 2 Ep set showcasing his unique “thrift store rock” sound collage style. The first EP The Sound of Fun Surrounds You, was composed and produced between 2004-2008. These songs run through a mutlitude of genres with the playful but mysterious little grooves that only Blanketship can provide.
For the Klangwunder ep In May of 2008: Blanketship was asked by Vicki Bennett aka People Like Us to construct a special composition for DO OR DIY, her radio show on WFMU. In keeping with the style and sense of humor of PLU’s music and broadcast, he constructed a 35 minute piece that collated groovy nuggets and strange aural artifacts. Scratched vinyl, prog grooves, instructional records, library music, special education rock, world folk, easy listening, electronic bleeps, some yelling and some plain old weird humor.
"By using rough sampling and processing techniques the cut-up itself becomes the artform, humour, strangeness and charm emerging from the mudane through the cracks...
But San Franciscan Jared Blum aka Blanketship , is altogether slicker,. His thickly layered and distinctly musical pieces, though completely sample based, all feature high-bitrate sound quality and smooth timestretching algorithms, so much so that it no longer feels like a cut-up at all but more like an uncannily CGI chimera." -The Wire
Teen Sounds
[ GIGA014 2008 ]
1. teen sounds
2. the northern grapes
3. yestone
4. royal ear
5. ramsey denver
6. dirty, dirty carol
7. swirl jam
8. a paid advertisement
9. the serge
10. helpless child
11. the electric grapes
12. smile, see my veins
13. happy birthday
From chunky nuggets of classic rock to not so gorgeous easy listening, blaring drum solos, obnoxious screechy horns, electronic bits of bleeps and blips, some really SLOW grooves and some fucked up children’s funk, this record has it all. Oh yeah did I mention a paid advertisement from Fairfield Glade?
Music With a Message: featuring the Dollson Family Singers
[ GIGA006 2007 ]
1. The dollsons welcome you
2. let him into your heart
3. come with me
4. listen to him
5. st. peter's hymn
6. heaven's a place on earth
7. american beauty
8. reach up in the sky
9. to be a missionary
10. it's a beautiful day
11. his musky fingers (live version)
12. the dollsons say goodnight
Get down, lay back, or rock out with these spirtual AM radio classics! This new anthology gathers the best songs and instrumentals from the Dollson Family Singers unforgettable career and inspiring tradition: part entertainment, part worship, all straight from the heart.
Their powerful style combined folk and prog rock music, gospel hymns, manipulated electronic devices, microtonal melodies and loosely stoned jam sessions that have helped you overcome your greatest challenges and brought His light into your life as never before!
Follow along as you listen to the powerful, moving lyrics of these songs that could change your outlook for the future.
"The one dozen hymns on Music With A Message chug along like a feel good wagon with a slightly wonky wheel rolling over hills and through towns with heads in the clouds, toes tapping and hugs aplenty. Sorta like Danielson Family taking Polyphonic Spree to Sunday School but not without a secret intoxicating visit to Bruce Haack and Perrey & Kingsley's exotica tiki lounge beforehand! "
-Aquarius Records
Summer Set
[ GIGA001 2005 ]
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1. county fare
2. baja jones
3. lucky 45
4. d.j. am
5. clapartroach
6. fuzzy
7. the endagain
8. i wish i wish
9. kalam
10. crossing the beau bridge
11. independence gay
Summer Set is a wild and unexpected ride. The music can only be described as structured experimental sampled sound collage, but abstract pop isn't too far off either. Touches of 70's psych rock, musique concrete, wild jazz drums, big ass brass, Indonesian rhythm sections, microtonal synthesis, acoustic folk guitars and easy listening make up only a few shades of SummerSet's palate of colors.
"The soundtrack to Karen Ann Quinlan’s 1975 Quaalude overdose, cut up and glued together by an epileptic funk band. Great stuff!
" -Your Imaginary Friend - KZSU 90.1FM
"What bothers me about [this] is why anyone would want to create that sound that comes from willful rejection of pretty much every trend in electronic dance music. The production is intentionally amateurish, the sounds simple, the melodies random and reminiscent of bad 80's instructional film music. I mean there are no hard set rules in music but the results in this case are so annoying. "
-Stuart McSpadden -
The Antidote Station Stuff
Like a great chef going to the farmer's market in the early morning to find the freshest, tastiest ingreidents for that evening's menu; so Jared Blüm aka Blanketship, picks his way through the dusty vinyl at his local Goodwill outlet. He chops them up and whips them into a heady brew he has dubbed "Thrift Store Rock."
Unlike more typical sound collage outfits, Blanketship's tunes work as songs. By keeping true to a melodic sensibility and composition, Blanketship keeps your ears on their toes, creating a work that is both amusing and erie.
Think of Blankethsip as a band rather than a single artist. A group made up of dozens of trained and untrained musicians tied together by an eccentric composer/arranger challenging your aural standards.
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video
'Trancefer' An unreleased B side
from Pleated Shorts!