28 Nov 2011 — Henning Lahmann
I've always admired, no, adored Noah Klein for his unchallenged sincerity and truthfulness when it comes to making music as
Philip Seymour Hoffman, a rare attitude that enfolds every aspect of his creative output, and I'm sure it also relates to every single aspect of his personal life and him "being" both Noah and PSH. Now, after a terribly long silence (or rather not, but it felt just like that), Noah is about to drop new material.
Your Loving Brother is one side of a marvelous split cassette with
Mutual Benefit, to be released in mid December on our very much beloved little label
Kassette Klub. As Noah has told me, "this cassette is very much a story, so each tune is loaded with plenty of interesting tidbits to share" - below, you may read the endearing snippet for album opener "Leaving Pallet Town", including Pokemons, New York, destiny, and knuckle-cracking:
today, i have lived in new york for four years three months and one day in four apartments and two boroughs. it has taken me a long time to acknowledge the moral decisions i’ve made as part of the decision to leave home, but in the process i’ve found the greatest people, places, ideas, feelings, and inspirations of my life thus far [also some pretty shitty ones, but whatevs]. when i began recording what became your loving brother the intention was to create an aural experience of ash ketchum’s head space throughout his journey of becoming the world’s greatest pokemon master. from day one ash was confident of his own unearthed potential, and that by finding a love for himself and those around him - outside of his single mother, professor oak, pallet town, and everything he has ever known - he could become a positive change in his own universe. throughout the series there is plenty of unfortunate pokemon abuse in his quest to challenge the elite four, but the good deeds that he does along the way were always the true focus of events.
“leaving pallet town” represents this disconnected/reconnected moment in ash ketchum’s life, but what i discovered while recording was that this concept was something parallel to my own situation. i’m no pokemon master or have any interest in following such an empirical path, but the basic principles fall into a similar path: i left my single mother, my friends, and the city where i’ve spent almost the whole of my life to not only pursue this wild idea of an education but to discover and participate in truths greater than myself in a place where i’m more insignificant than i can comprehend… and this weirdo 22yr old kid i’m embodying is damn stoked to have evolved from that tiny tot brave heart of an 18yr old.
there’s a lot of odd sounds that i’ve injected throughout this whole album, and thought i’d share a few from this track. if you visited my old apartment in the lower east side, #13 on the fifth floor walkup, then maybe you’ll recognize the buzzer that comes in at the 13sec mark and repeats throughout the rest of the track. there are light traffic sounds borrowed from los angeles and new york. the rhythmic tapping that is present throughout the entire piece was made by tapping a one hitter against the inside of a water canteen. and throughout the piece you can hear me cracking my knuckles or flicking my tongue into a mic.
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Leaving Pallet Town
Go here to stream all tracks from both sides of the split and to pre-order the tape. Also, grab two more tracks that our mates over at
Stadiums & Shrines and
Impose debuted recently and read Noah's corresponding stories
here and
here:
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Ear Wax Blocked Ear
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Tulips for My Buds
Read more →
I've always admired, no, adored Noah Klein for his unchallenged sincerity and truthfulness when it comes to making music as
Philip Seymour Hoffman, a rare attitude that enfolds every aspect of his creative output, and I'm sure it also relates to every single aspect of his personal life and him "being" both Noah and PSH. Now, after a terribly long silence (or rather not, but it felt just like that), Noah is about to drop new material.
Your Loving Brother is one side of a marvelous split cassette with
Mutual Benefit, to be released in mid December on our very much beloved little label
Kassette Klub. As Noah has told me, "this cassette is very much a story, so each tune is loaded with plenty of interesting tidbits to share" - below, you may read the endearing snippet for album opener "Leaving Pallet Town", including Pokemons, New York, destiny, and knuckle-cracking:
today, i have lived in new york for four years three months and one day in four apartments and two boroughs. it has taken me a long time to acknowledge the moral decisions i’ve made as part of the decision to leave home, but in the process i’ve found the greatest people, places, ideas, feelings, and inspirations of my life thus far [also some pretty shitty ones, but whatevs]. when i began recording what became your loving brother the intention was to create an aural experience of ash ketchum’s head space throughout his journey of becoming the world’s greatest pokemon master. from day one ash was confident of his own unearthed potential, and that by finding a love for himself and those around him - outside of his single mother, professor oak, pallet town, and everything he has ever known - he could become a positive change in his own universe. throughout the series there is plenty of unfortunate pokemon abuse in his quest to challenge the elite four, but the good deeds that he does along the way were always the true focus of events.
“leaving pallet town” represents this disconnected/reconnected moment in ash ketchum’s life, but what i discovered while recording was that this concept was something parallel to my own situation. i’m no pokemon master or have any interest in following such an empirical path, but the basic principles fall into a similar path: i left my single mother, my friends, and the city where i’ve spent almost the whole of my life to not only pursue this wild idea of an education but to discover and participate in truths greater than myself in a place where i’m more insignificant than i can comprehend… and this weirdo 22yr old kid i’m embodying is damn stoked to have evolved from that tiny tot brave heart of an 18yr old.
there’s a lot of odd sounds that i’ve injected throughout this whole album, and thought i’d share a few from this track. if you visited my old apartment in the lower east side, #13 on the fifth floor walkup, then maybe you’ll recognize the buzzer that comes in at the 13sec mark and repeats throughout the rest of the track. there are light traffic sounds borrowed from los angeles and new york. the rhythmic tapping that is present throughout the entire piece was made by tapping a one hitter against the inside of a water canteen. and throughout the piece you can hear me cracking my knuckles or flicking my tongue into a mic.
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Leaving Pallet Town
Go here to stream all tracks from both sides of the split and to pre-order the tape. Also, grab two more tracks that our mates over at
Stadiums & Shrines and
Impose debuted recently and read Noah's corresponding stories
here and
here:
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Ear Wax Blocked Ear
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Tulips for My Buds
Splendid new 80's synth love from the suburbs of Tokyo brought to us by the Japanese experimental label 
