Garage bands are a thing of the past, now southern soul pop is emerging as a collective collage.
If you look at the video for “Light On”, the opener of White Denim’s album (number) 12, the clip reveals a lot about the premise and the production process of the record: There you can see – in the tiled look familiar from screen conferences – mainly singers , guitarist and mastermind James Petralli work in his new Californian home studio. This not only shows that he moved from Austin to Pasadena, but also how the pandemic has changed the band’s work processes.
In fact, the limited group idea on 12 is considered broken for the first time, and Petralli’s producer premiere is a collaboration album orchestrated by him from afar with a number of guests. These include parts of the band Finom, singers like Tameca Jones and Jessie Payo or Mercury Rev/Midlake flautist Jesse Chandler – but also White Denim bassist Steve Terebecki and original drummer Joshua Block, who are also part of the extended team.
Loosely held together by the sound of pitched tape machine noises, Petralli exudes infectious optimism in his sun-drenched and catchy songs, while his stylistically vintage inspiration draws from southern soul, pure psychedelic pop, funk and folk. Nice.
You can find out which albums will be released in December 2024 via our monthly release list.