Man Is Man, Natural Information Society, Glorious Vapors

Man Is Man
This new project stems from Christa Meyer, formerly of Puerto Muerto, and includes Eli Caterer of Smoking Popes on guitar, Jed Robertson on bass, Ben Kulp on Cello and Sheila Scullin on drums.

Natural Information Society
bassist & composer joshua abrams has been in the thick of chicago's vibrant music scene for fifteen years, playing & recording as leader & sideman in projects across the genres. He co-founded the "back porch minimalist" band town & country (thrill jockey/box media) & with matana roberts & chad taylor the trio sticks & stones (thrill jockety/482 music). he has released four records under his own name as well as two under the moniker "reminder" that navigate the realms of jazz & improvisation, electro-acoustic composition, beatmaking, minimalism and field recordings (eremite/delmark/eastern developments/lucky kitchen). he has appeared on over 50 recordings including records by fred anderson, hamid drake & bindu, bonny "prince" billy, nicole mitchell black earth ensemble and black earth strings, sam prekop, mike reed's loose assembly, ernest dawkins chicago 12, savath & savalis, prefuse 73, rhys chatham, rob mazurek, tortoise, the roots, edith frost, mia doi todd, matana roberts, diverse, joan of arc, lorren mazzacane connors, david grubbs, david boykin, chris conelly, & the cairo gang. he has performed with roscoe mitchell, bill dixon, von freeman, fred anderson trio, john tchicai, the exploding star orchestra, henry grimes, axel dorner, fred lonberg-holm, peter evans, damo suzuki, wilbert de joode, jandek, walter wierbos, tony conrad, bobby broom, sean bergin, nate wooley, craig taborn, david stakenas, fred hopkins, rhys chatham, kurt rosenwinkel, neil michael hagerty, lin halliday, raymond strid, douglas ewart, toumani diabate, the chicago underground orchestra, ron dewar, baby d, kevin drumm, terry x, frederick lvunquist, the roots, jim o'rourke, kurt vonnegut, & earle brown. when in chicago he plays weekly with jeff parker and john herndon. natural information, abrams 1st record for eremite is another fascinating entry in a solo discography of recordings that gather aesthetic input from all over the map into vivid personal statements. at the heart of natural information is the guimbri, a three-stringed animal hide bass traditionally used by the gnawa of north africa in healing ceremonies. combining solo, trio & quartet formats with adroit use of sampling techniques abrams creates intricate psychedelic environments that join the hypnotic, trance-like character of gnawa guimbri music to more contemporary musics & methodologies. brown rice era don cherry, sandy bull's "blend" recordings & can's "magic" albums are super-heavy but in this case earned & appropriate historical reference points. mastered by mike king of reel recordings, pressed on premium HQ-180 gram vinyl by RTI & presented in a heavyweight stoughton "laserdisc" sleeve in an edition of 550 copies. vinyl only!

Glorious Vapors
"Chicago’s Glorious Vapors aren’t a band for clear-eyed ruminations. Rather, the group specializes in loose, cloudy folk explorations more interested in opiate mood than melody (though there’s still melody to be found)." - TimeOut Chicago