Terrorbird

Karl Blau is a recording artist from Anacortes, WA, whose flute, sax, or drums you may have heard on various K records, including his K debut last year, "Beneath Waves". He's recorded with Mirah, Wolf Colonel, the Microphones, Little Wings, and he's one third of the band D+. Plus he backs Laura Veirs on her last 3 albums, including her newest, "Saltbreakers."

Here on Dance Positive, Karl Blau pays deep tribute to Bret Lunsford from cult hit Beat Happening, by restyling Lunsford's D+ lyrics (the band made of Blau, Lunsford and Phil Elvrum of Microphones/Mt. Eerie fame). Blau takes the words to 9 songs released previously on various D+ recordings (and one only Karl and Phil and maybe Bret's family have heard). Blau then runs them with dance beats and echo machines metamorphising the style completely to give Lunsford's words new positions. And though the lyrics are the same, Blau embellishes the vocal melodies, at times changing them completely. Blau says of Lunsford's lyrics, "They are an accomplice to aid our collective spirit through (let's face it) these often dark, troubled times of being people on Earth."

Blau handpicked North West artists to help portray Lunsford's songs. Steve Moore of Sunn, Earth and Laura Veirs' Saltbreakers plays trombone and synths on the first half of the recordings, while drummer James McAlister of Sufjan Stevens and Ester Drang plays the "fattest beat you've ever heard" on "Megadose." Also in the crew: Clyde Petersen (Your Heart Breaks), Nate Ashley (the Graves), Dave Matthies (Gift Machine), Tony Presley (Real Live Tigers), Lily Maring (Yes, Please), Curtis Knapp (Watery Graves), Adam Forkner (Yume Bitsu, ((vvrrsssnn)), White Rainbow), and Karl's brother Eddy Blau plays the catchy trumpet line on "Heatherwood." Harkening to a previous release-- from Blau's obscure Kelp! Monthly label-- Dubble Dooty Booty where Blau samples beats and then layers various tambres to achieve a ghetto-blaster fullness, Dance POSITIVE inspires a Sun City Girls-esque thought + movement.