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The TRANSITORY EP is a collection of short stories, each one a first person narrative from a different speaker. With the stories woven over old school beats and instrumentation, every track features sampled monologues or dialogue with a mixture of live, sampled, and electronic instruments to create a nostalgic feeling that is simultaneously comforting yet unfamiliar. There’s a four-on-the-floor beat and some outside-the-box instrumentation for the dance genre, including saxophone!
With this new release, Dr Chrispy explores the unconventional, but presents it in a familiar and digestible format with mid-tempo dance beats. The three different tracks, each with distinct themes, cycle from morning, to afternoon, to evening, mirroring our own self-reflections as we move through our day. We are different people late at night than we are early in the morning; who we really are is TRANSITORY.
Meet the artists
Haji Mike
Haji Mike is a featured artist who contributed dub poetry vocals to the track “Transitory Evening (Afro Travel).” Haji Mike started DJ’ing music in 1979 and as a musician is known for his hybrid of Jamaican dancehall and Cypriot melodies which he calls “Vraggamuffin,” and he is also a dub poet and DJ playing on various radio stations around the world.
Medd Dred
The “Afro Jungle” remix is the creation of producer, composer, and arranger Med Dred, a roots, reggae, and dub melodica soloist and reggae music specialist.
Sean Kennedy
Sean Kennedy is a writer, storyteller and a collector of intimate secrets. While often an irreverent instigator himself, he finds great meaning in making space for people to share thoughts and feelings that are usually left unshared in polite society.
In “Transitory Morning (Emotional Dynamics)”, Sean’s debut musical release, he describes the concept of Emodynamics, the study of how emotional energy (e.g. happiness & fulfillment) is created and destroyed through the net emotional impact of circumstances and choices. For example, a small sacrifice can bring great benefits while a careless insult can cause intense harm. Identifying opportune Emodynamic moments helps relationships blossom and communities thrive. To learn more about the study of Emodynamics please contact Sean at the link below.
Tombo
Thomas Hurlbut, better known as the musical artist Tombo, is a multi-instrumentalist, born and raised in the Bay Area, and has been in love with music for as long as he can remember. He loved to listen to it, talk about it, think about, learn about it, and of course, to play it. It all started the summer between 5th and 6th grade, when, along with thousands of other young musicians, he chose the saxophone as his primary instrument for middle school band – not unlike Lisa Simpson. His love for music and passion for the saxophone drove him to seek higher education in music, and in 2006, he received a BA in music at UCSC.
Starting in 2007, Tombo joined 5 other musically minded individuals and formed Battlehooch – a 6 piece psychedelic rock band, and they moved together to San Francisco. Along with his brethren, Tombo has toured nationally and internationally, and they have also toured the landscape of music, having spent nearly 14 years letting their collectively eclectic tastes in music influence their diverse soundscape.
Tombo was asked to contribute saxophone to “Transitory Afternoon (Pioneer Material)” during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, having never before worked with Chris or other Transitory artists. Having been layed off as part of the shelter in place orders, Tombo says he was very happy to have an opportunity to contribute to the process, and to help create this track together with artists he has never met in person! It gave him a little bit of hope for our ever-changing future, and a welcome distraction from these dark times.
Bill Simpkins
Bill Simpkins mixed the studio recordings of the TRANSITORY EP at his studio, Alpenglow Sound Studios in Bellingham Washington. His studio contains a massive collection of outboard processing hardware and musical instruments, and he has mixed all of Dr Chrispy’s music to date there, including the debut album VHS. Bill also played the funky electric guitar on the track “Transitory Afternoon (Pioneer Material)”.
Cassandra and Summer Cat
“Transitory Afternoon (Pioneer Material)” takes audio from a YouTube video discovered by Dr Chrispy while searching for musical inspiration. The exchange between mother and daughter team, Cassandra Manuel Fansler and Tiffany Summer featured some very funny and loving moments . While her name is Tiffany Summer Manuel, Cassandra calls her daughter Summer. The reason her family calls her Summer Cat is every cat she has ever encountered loves her, and she seems to connect with them. Says her mother, Cassandra, “Even stray cats will follow her around. She is like a cat whisperer or Goddess Bast, Egyptian Goddess of protection and cats.”
When asked to describe herself in the video used for this track, Summer Cat responds with the delightful phrase “I’m pioneer material!” which became the centerpiece of the song.
In addition to her YouTube channels, Cassandra sells her own line of soaps, including one named for Summer Cat.
Synthapex
Contributing a remix of the track “Transitory Evening,” is the band Synthapex. Based in Vladivostok-based, Synthapex is inspired by synthwave, synthpop and metal. The band was founded in 2018 by Hadfes Oblivion known for his joint projects with musicians from bands signed to Century Media, Inside Out Music, etc. In 2019, Synthapex released a breathtakingly cinematic music video “Gone This Night,” featuring a short cameo appearance by DR CHRISPY. The debut full-length album by Synthapex is set to be released in the early fall of 2020.
Psybolord
Psybolord is a Moscow-based producer who has gone from deathcore to electronic music. Psybolord merges techno with Russian folk motifs, and classical music organically gets along with synthwave and French-electro, as heard on his remix “Transitory Afternoon.” A graduate of the Maskeliade School He performed on the same stage with Perturbator, Com Truise, Waveshaper, Sung, Robert Parker, Daniel Deluxe. In his live shows, Psybolord improvises on synthesizers, and each performance is not like the previous one.
Aeronexus
Closing the EP is a remix of the track “Transitory Morning” from Aeronexus, a UK Based synthwave / spacesynth / soundtrack artist. Inspired heavily by Vangelis, Vince DiCola, Tangerine Dream and experimental he deftly uses a mix of ambient, orchestral and an array of synth genres to produce a mix of styles and sounds, all drawn from these influences.
The Stunt Man
TRANSITORY EP was mastered by The Stunt Man, also known as Greg Mindorff. Greg is a music producer, DJ, space enthusiast and Grammy nominated Mastering Engineer from Vancouver, BC, Canada. Check out his weekly FM radio show and podcast at MixCloud; weekly DJ residencies LIVE in Vancouver; his mastering studio, Suite Sound Labs, where he work on all kinds of music every day; his label, Sunset on Titan, where he releases music – “when I have time,” says Greg, “PEACE!”
TRANSITORY cover art by Drew Mcgaraghan with Photography by Vanessa Zhang.