BRAD WEBER, the Toronto-based electronica artist and otherwise member of Dan Snaith’s acclaimed Caribou project, has returned to his personal breaks project, Pick A Piper, with an EP entitled Sea Steps due on the first Friday in December through the good offices of Tin Angel.
Pick A Piper have three albums to their name, the most recent being 2019’s Sight, and besides his work with Caribou Brad has also been busy with other irons in the fire; he co-founded the Stereo Ferment label last year, at the height of it all, a label that runs on the fine principle “Tasty tunes for curious ears”; there was also an EP earlier this year under his Coy Haste alias.
But to return to the matter immediately in hand; Sea Steps comprises of four tracks in which Pick A Piper examines themes of sentimentality and nostalgia in propulsive electronica; as you can hear for yourself with the excellently widescreen single drop, “Parakram”, which is just down there. Think the trippy, exotic wooziness of Future Sound of London meets the beats excellence of Four Tet and you’re in the ballpark.
Brad says: “This track was conceived during a trip to India in 2019. I was inspired by the rhythms and music around me while simultaneously wanting to try my hand at some bass-music/drum and bass style beats.
“I started writing the beat in a hotel room after purposely not listening to any of those genres and trying to re-imagine them through my own lens. The end result was something that had the speed and intensity of drum and bass, while sounding almost nothing like it.
“The track is based on propelling, skippy rhythms sprinkled with sparse ethereal melodies and frantic chopped-up Turkish percussion. ‘Parakram’ is Hindi for courage and aims to inspire purpose and spirit.”
Pick A Piper’s Sea Steps EP will be released digitally by Tin Angel on December 3rd and can be pre-ordered here.
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