pierre-noire
This album is so on point ! A precious one, that keeps on growing and is becoming one of my favourites. I'm searching for more music like this but it's obviously hard to find.
Favorite track: Outerludes.
TheSlowMusicMovement
Landing in Japan Matthew Rivera trawled Tokyo's thrift stores for discarded instruments & studio gear, enlisted some top Japanese jazzers to augment his multi-instrumental prowess in rent by the hour studios, & has cobbled together a seductively "lo-fi//hi-class" LP where all the right 20th century jazz influences melt into into the warm embrace of hip hop beat culture.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
$6USD or more
STC LP-002 Limited Black Vinyl LP with Hand-Painted Cover
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Very limited first run of STC-LP002 on black vinyl with mega-dega super-amateur DIY hand-painted & hand-assembled covers, album notes typed on a typewriter (or maybe hand-written), and super-minimal hand-drawn & stamped) labels. Each copy is utterly unique. We cannot guarantee that every (or perhaps any) copy will be conventionally attractive or worthy of display, but all records will nonetheless be made and packaged with maximum love, care, and attention to detail by the "artist".
Records begin shipping from Japan mid-April.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Producer's Workshop Ensemble in Japan
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
STCLP-002 Black Vinyl with Printed Reproduction Cover
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Second run of STCLP-002 on black wax with high-quality wrap-around reproduction prints of two of the earliest amateur paintings created for this project. This version Includes the original liner notes by Sandalio De Díaz on the back. Hand-pasted covers. Hand-stamped labels.
At checkout, please select a cover art design: "SWlRL" (blue) or "NATURE" (green).
Ships from Chicago, United States beginning in August 2023.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Producer's Workshop Ensemble in Japan
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Recorded guerrilla-style in Chiba and Tokyo, Japan during the first wave of the pandemic with gear purchased largely from thrift shops, The Producer’s Workshop Ensemble in Japan is the quintessential DIY joint – grimy, haphazard, and flawed with a soft sincerity.
Bless The Mad’s Matthew Rivera arrived in Japan only days before the first wave of of the pandemic in March of 2020. Too restless to stay put for very long, he had moved from Chicago to work a short-term contract at a University near Tokyo. To be close to his new job, Rivera found himself living in Chiba prefecture among a sea of white public housing danchis from the 1960s, one exactly like the next.
It wasn't long before the isolation, stress, and loneliness of pandemic life in a new country, compounded by the death of his father only weeks later, began eating away at his sanity. Rivera decided to put his energy into what he thought of as a sort of musical self-study project, reconstructing beloved tunes on piano, bass, and drums in an effort to improve his musicianship and distract himself as best he could.
After dozens of trips to junk shops for cheap instruments and recording gear (a favorite pastime), he filled cassettes with covers of tunes by Weldon Irvine, Stevie Wonder, and Curtis Mayfield. Before long he was lugging bags filled with his thrift shop hauls (4-track tape machines, compressors, faulty cables, mics) to several of Tokyo’s pay-by-the-hour music rehearsal studios where he would have access to real instruments like grand pianos and drum sets. He spent full days there working on what is now The Producer's Workshop Ensemble in Japan.
Musical contributions and collaborations soon trickled in, and what had started as a series of simple private experiments for Rivera alone, developed over the course of the pandemic into what is now a full-fledged album (or at least partially-fledged) with a rare appearance from sometimes STC collaborator, Lito Brown on wah-wah flute and alto sax, as well as additional contributions from several talented Japanese musicians: Tetsuta Otachi (guitar); Yuki Nakada (koto); Takehide Hashimoto (tenor sax); Kyotaro Hori (flugelhorn); and Yuima Enya (lyrics/vocals).
-Sandalio De Díaz
(June, 2022)
credits
released July 29, 2022
All tunes composed, produced, arranged, & mixed by Matthew Rivera
Japanese lyrics written by Yuima Enya
Recorded on location at STC Mobile Studios, Japan
Mastered by Steven Berson at Total Sonic Media
Original DIY cover paintings by Matthew Rivera
UNTRO
Matthew Rivera- drums, grand piano, electric piano, electric bass
ANYTHING 4 LOVE
Yuima Enya- lead & background vocals
Tetsuta Otachi- acoustic guitar
Matthew Rivera- flute, drums, percussion, grand piano, synthesizers, electric bass, hand claps
Kyotaro Hori- flugelhorn
Takehide Hashimoto- tenor saxophone
MEANT 2B TOGETHER
Lito Brown- wah wah flute
Tetsuta Otachi- acoustic guitar
Kyotaro Hori- flugelhorn
Takehide Hashimoto- tenor saxophone
Matthew Rivera- grand piano, drums, percussion, electric piano, electric bass, hand claps
UNTERLUDE
Yuima Enya- backwards vocals
Matthew Rivera- drums, grand piano, electric piano, electric bass
GOT 2 LIVE
Yuima Enya- lead & background vocals
Yuki Nakada- koto
Matthew Rivera- drums, percussion, grand piano, electric piano, synthesizer, electric bass, finger snaps, background vocals
Kyotaro Hori- flugelhorn
Takehide Hashimoto- tenor saxophone
ANATA to WATASHI
Yuima Enya- lead & background vocals
Matthew Rivera- drums, tambourine, string synthesizer, electric piano, synth bass, finger snaps
DIGGERLUDE
Matthew Rivera- drums, digital piano, synthesizer, electric bass
YASASHI (PART 1)
Yuima Enya- lead vocals
Tetsuta Otachi- electric guitar
Matthew Rivera- drums, drum synth, synthesizer, electric bass
Kyotaro Hori- flugelhorn
Takehide Hashimoto- tenor saxophone
Lito Brown- alto saxophone
YASASHI (PART 2)
Yuima Enya- lead and background vocals
Matthew Rivera- drums, percussion, electric piano, synthesizers, electric bass, background vocals
OUTERLUDES
Matthew Rivera- drums, percussion, grand piano, electric piano, electric bass
Tetsuta Otachi- acoustic guitar
Kyotaro Hori- flugelhorn
Takehide Hashimoto- tenor saxophone
NATSUKASHI HITO
Yuima Enya- lead vocals
Matthew Rivera- fender rhodes bass, drums, drum synthesizer, percussion, grand piano, synthesizer
Kyotaro Hori- flugelhorn
Takehide Hashimoto- tenor saxophone
supported by 24 fans who also own “The Producer's Workshop Ensemble in Japan”
Like so many others, this came like a bolt out of the blue and, even though it's well before payday, I had to have this astonishing album on vinyl to prove it exists. The feel of the tunes makes me feel like the Impressions do, Curtis Mayfield, the big spaces and instinctive horns and stuff drifting in and out. Great grooves and I can see lots of ghosts nodding along to this with big smiles on their faces. At last! Anthony Cottrell
supported by 19 fans who also own “The Producer's Workshop Ensemble in Japan”
My god, what an absolutely incredible Suite. I'll admit, I've struggled to get into Pharoah Sanders due to diving headfirst into some of his most challenging catalogue and that never worked. This is the perfect place to restart. Floating Points is new for me and I can honestly say I've never heard synthesizer music this lush and organic before. the LSO is just perfect. This is one of those albums that any serious music fan needs in their life. The perfect swan song for the great Pharaoh! 5/5 ClassyMusicSnob