June 25, 2021
Kraak Records
In 2016 Leaves of Brass came two years after the debut, Aural Pleasure, but it is easy to hear the music was already pushing into new sonic territory. "The biggest departure was, I think, away from club music," says producer Greg Vickers, the man behind Afternoons in Stereo. "I was determined to not rely on the repetition of loops and 4/4 beats and to find a way to express myself instrumentally in a way that wasn't repeating what I had done." In fact, there is only one song on the album that employs the dancefloor-friendly house sound that was more prevalent on the debut album -- the dreamy Ibiza club anthem of Andalusia. Across the rest of the album its fat cinematic spaghetti western funk (Django's Revenge) and urban blaxploitation funk (The Puma), glacial ambient (Tidal Passage) and vintage spy thriller beats (Chasing The Lotus). Long out of print and unavailable, Kraak Records is proud to release Leaves of Brass as the second of three re-releases of the first three albums in the Afternoons in Stereo catalog & part of the Archival Remastered Series, with new analog mastering. Featuring two previously unreleased tracks from the original sessions, Abstrakt Jazz and Work My Mind, fans will be pleased. "These are tracks I left off strictly because of time -- I didn't want the album to exceed an hour. I think they are very much in keeping with the flow of the record, and will definitely offer fans of Leaves of Brass something new to add to the proceedings." Audiophile Analog Mastering: Angelos Timewarp Stoumpos @ Timewarp Mastering Cover Design: Greg Vickers Kraak Records / Timewarp Music Ltd. 2021