+/- (Plus/Minus) have announced Further Afield, their first album in 10 years, which will be out May 31 via Ernest Jenning Record Co. The band produced the album themselves at their Brooklyn Studio and a friend’s house in Saratoga Springs, while the cover art is by Unrest/Teenbeat founder Mark Robinson.
The first single, “Borrowed Time,” is the kind of hyper-jangle indie rock that could’ve been out on Teenbeat Records in 1995. The band’s Patrick Ramos says it’s “an uplifting song about how resentment builds throughout the life of a relationship (the usual light +/- {Plus/Minus} subject matter), began as an exercise using a feature on the Moog Matriarch synthesizer that randomizes octaves so you don’t know where any single note will land. James recorded the first sound it generated and built the structure of the song around it. Chris, after recording his drum part, decided to double it in an attempt to mimic his first performance. With only slight variations in his play, each take is hard-panned to the left and right resulting in the effect of an expanded and dizzying stereo picture. An 808 was used in lieu of bass guitar and I added a frenetic electric guitar before James recorded vocals.”
The video for “Borrowed Time” plays off the title and uses time-lapse photography and current smartphone technology. Says Ramos: “the video, conceived at 3:00 am on the beach on Chris’ birthday, was shot with a smartphone in almost complete darkness using Astrophotography mode. Each 4-minute take results in one second of footage which were then looped and edited together. Throughout the process, we learned that the act of keeping our heads as still as possible for four silent minutes in the dark while very slowly and deliberately moving our limbs is more unnerving than meditative. Interestingly, the red light you see in the background of one take is Chris shining a flashlight through the fleshy part of his hand between the thumb and forefinger. It’s bloody good fun.” Watch the video below.
Further Afield:
1. Intentionally Left Blank
2. Borrowed Time
3. Gondolier
4. Driving Aimlessly (Redux)
5. Where I Hope We Get Lost
6. The Pull from Both Sides
7. Calling Off the Rescue
8. Contempt
9. Redrawn
10. Is It Over Now