Power Failures

First ever, remastered vinyl version! The core duo plus guest collaborators expand its sonic palette of RICK BROWN's elemental percussive patterns and CHE CHEN's ecstatic modal guitar style to a new musical richness.

With some tape releases and their first album "Wooden Bag", 75 DOLLAR BILL quickly introduced themselves as one of the hottest, most unique and essential groups at the heart of NYC's underground – the following "Wood/Metal/Plastic Pattern/Rhythm/Rock" (2016) made the duo known internationally, and the 2019 double vinyl "I Was Real" turned out a major success at the critics and audience alike with the #1 spot in The Wire's albums of the year list! Then came the pandemic, and in lack of opportunities to actually perform in public, the core duo of RICK BROWN and CHE CHEN released several bandcamp only albums in digital format, one of these being "Power Failures". BROWN's elemental percussive patterns (often simply played on a wooden box) and CHE CHEN's ecstatic modal guitar style (often under the influence of his studies with Mauritanian guitarist JEICH OULD CHIGALY) are at the core of the tracks with guest collaborators like YO LA TENGO's IRA KAPLAN (guitar), SUE GARNER (violin) or STEVE MAING (saxophone, guitar) expanding the sonic palette to a new musical richness. Trance-inducing psychedelia, "placeless, gripping grooves" (The Guardian), collaged rehearsal and field recordings, mantric percussion, microtonal guitar sounds – 75 DOLLAR BILL sound as deeply rooted in traditions as they sound fresh-of-today, a kind of future music from the past. Hard to grasp by words, and impossible to resist!

credits:

Rick Brown: plywood crate, maracas, cowbell, funnel horns, computer
Che Chen: guitars, cowbells, temple block, tamborim, maraca, conga, flute, bass recorder, soprano saxophone, casio sk-1, digital delay, radio, microcassette, samples
Sue Garner: violin and shaker on Power Failure #2
Ira Kaplan: guitar on 15 (IRA)
Steve Maing: alto saxophone, guitar on Power Failure #2
Yasi Perera: Buchla/presence on 15 (YASI)
Barry Weisblat: snare drum on Gcona

Recorded and mixed by Rick Brown and Che Chen
Editing and cover design by Che Chen
Mastered by Steve Silverstein / Remastered for vinyl and lacquer cut by Anne Taegert at D&M, Berlin