
TONSTARTSSBANDHT
Overseas
“Overseas” is a live double-LP featuring Tonstartssbandht in their element: a collection of electrifying self-recorded shows in cities across Europe during an extensive Spring 2013 tour. This tour in particular had them traveling through Russia and Ukraine for a third time before turning west to make stops in places like Belarus, the Baltic States, Central Europe, and the UK. Their legendary live shows of heavy boogie-rock, psychedelic sludge, and harmonic vocal massing have long deserved a proper honoring on wax. The White brothers have always respected the immediacy of the “live take” when recording: the natural fullness of a single progression of moments captured without overdubs or extra tracking. It was only a matter of time before they set their sights on making a proper live album. They brought along a few extra microphones, cables, their lucky old laptop (RIP) and an 8-track interface to capture their sets, recording almost every show of the tour in its entirety. Every show was a new venue with new difficulties, boons, and possibilities. Seeking the right set-up for multi-track recording became a welcome nightly challenge. In addition, the brothers traveled primarily on trains and buses, relying graciously on unfamiliar loaned gear each night. The album is a testament to being and flowing constantly, with never a moment to worry about the circumstances we find ourselves in this life. At the end of the tour, they had 12 hours of material to carefully sift through, the end-result of which is “Overseas” – 80 minutes of visceral living, mixed up to a higher purpose and flowing downward to the greater space of lost time, cities, and the beautiful heaviness of music in the human heart.