After meeting in college in 2005, Oakland based duo James & Evander
began making music together in the bedrooms of their apartments. There
they discovered a shared love of Moog synthesizers and analog delays
and began writing the twee electronica that would make up their first
EP. In the time that’s passed, James & Evander have constantly
been making music, releasing a full length, beginning an ongoing remix
series, and now presenting a new EP: Sunlight and Circuitry.
Sunlight and Circuitry finds James & Evander wrapped inside their
synthesizers and drum machines, exploring new territory while
continuing to reference their long standing influences (Dntel, The
Album Leaf, and Kompakt Records). Much of the EP was written and
recorded in their West Oakland basement (dubbed “The Turtle Shell”) where the one corner window let in the sunlight that covered their scattered mess of keyboards, cables, and pedals. The six songs that make up the EP are moody pieces of electronica that can best be described as weed-wave, the stonier more introspective cousin of chill-wave. Processed and glitched drums drive the songs while melodies bleep and bloop through thick layers of delay. James & Evander attempt to make music that doesn’t say “Hey! Look at me!” but more “Hey, we make music in our basement. Want to check it out?
TC006 // James and Evander – Songs We Wish We Wrote You Vol. 2
TC007 // James and Evander – Sunlight and Circuitry
