Extra Life / Made Flesh

Loaf

formats available

CD
$13.00
LOAF 37
730003463723
Street Date:
March 16th, 2010
Ship Date:
March 8th, 2010

Extra Life is the primary musical vehicle for singer, guitarist and composer Charlie Looker, an intense and respected voice in the New York experimental underground. For years, Looker was a core member of legendary brutal chamber ensemble Zs, and has also worked with Dirty Projectors, Glenn Branca, William Parker and the S.E.M. Ensemble. Formed in 2007, Extra Life combines elements of Medieval chant, metallic hardcore, dark neo-folk, abstract modernism and lush pop. The music is cosmic in scope, a sacred alchemical marriage of the earth's crude, blackened weight and the ethereal light of the divine. Extra Life's all-star cast also includes the following New York experimentalists: violinist Caley Monahon-Ward (Snowblink), bassist Anthony Gedrich (Stats, Ocrilim), drummer Nicholas Podgurski (Yukon) and saxophonist/keyboardist Travis Laplante (Little Women). The band's debut full-length CD Secular Works was released in 2008 on Planaria Recordings to wide critical acclaim, and was quickly followed by a split vinyl EP with Nat Baldwin on the Shatter Your Leaves label. Extra Life's sophomore album Made Flesh is both more accessible and more severe than their previous work, ranging from fragile acoustic ballads to industrial symphonic assaults. This dramatic spectrum sets the stage for an epic lyrical meditation on themes of masculinity, power, eroticism, the body, death and mysticism. Recorded by art-metal guru Colin Marston (Krallice, Behold the Arctopus) in collaboration with Monahon-Ward, the sound of Made Flesh deepens the band's signature heaviness while also exploring more psychedelic studio treatments, electronic textures and synths. The album's first single "Head Shrinker" is accompanied by both a music video by the Peking Team (Glass Ghost, Here We Go Magic) and a remix by Tyondai Braxton (Battles) for Sockets Records. Other eclectic activities surrounding the release include an R Kelly cover on a split 7-inch with Larkin Grimm for Planaria Recordings, a split 7-inch of mutual covers with Parenthetical Girls, and a remix by industrial legend J.G. Thirlwell (Foetus). Extra Life tours the US in March and Europe in May.