the steoples is a collaborative effort from long time friends and creative partners gabriel reyes-whittaker (gifted & blessed) and yeofi andoh (a race of angeles).

philadelphia-based producer maxine & cleo joins the argot fold with his mad blanc ep. the follow up to his “pendergast ep” for material image sprung from a few weeks of feverish production during the spring of 2014 and represents the duality of the kansas native’s sound. side a is full of gifts for djs in the form of “flynn rhythm”’s relentlessly jacking house grooves and the blurry-eyed deep house pleasures of the title track. flipping the record reveals the more fragile side of maxine & cleo, courting home listeners and after hours crowds on the spirit-conjuring spectral house cut “mind is spinnin” and the dreamy “proto”, gliding on thrumming pads and gilded with vocal slivers.

the a side >feel my tears< is a warehouse burner on many levels. perfect for those summer evenings of drug loneliness.
b1 >courting< is a big room post-post-dustep uk garage-house stomper with a very loud snare drum.
the last track on the record how we do is a strange jazz techno house hybrid, taken from the early years album and now available on vinyl due to popular demand.

badmotorfinger got lost amid the blockbuster success of nevermind and ten (all were released around the same time). but the fact is that, though they re all great records, badmotorfinger is much less accessible by comparison. not that it isnt melodic, but it also sounds twisted and gnarled, full of dissonant riffing, impossible time signatures, howling textural solos, and weird, droning tonalities. its surprisingly cerebral and arty music for a band courting mainstream metal audiences, but it attacks with scientific precision. part of that is due to the presence of new bassist ben shepherd, who gives the band its thickest rhythmic foundation yet and, moreover, immediately shoulders the departed hiro yamamotos share of songwriting duties. but its apparent that the whole band has greatly expanded the scope of its ambitions. and badmotorfinger fulfills them, pulling all the different threads of the bands sound together into a mature, confident, well written record. this is heavy, challenging hard rock full of intellectual sensibility and complex band interplay.