BLACK MARKET KARMA - Wobble - LP - Bone Coloured Vinyl [JUL 26]

LP - Bone coloured vinyl with Printed Inner-Sleeve and Download Code 

A twelve-track collection of "cassette-ified" lo-fi psych-pop, Wobble is the eleventh studio album from Black Market Karma and their first on Fuzz Club. Hailing from London and now residing on the South Coast, BMK’s prolific output is fueled by band-leader and multi-instrumentalist Stanley Belton, who writes, performs, records, produces, and, up until now, self-released everything from his own live-in "Cocoon" studio. Pooling influences from '60s pop and psychedelia, crunchy hip-hop breakbeats, and lo-fi electronica, Wobble is the first of a two-part album series and is due for release on July 26, 2024.

The album’s title is a reference to tape wobble, wow, and flutter—subtle fluctuations in pitch characteristic of analog recording equipment. Once seen as a limitation by older generations, these fluctuations now evoke a welcome sense of nostalgia, which Belton sought to excavate here: “Sonically, I wanted the album to feel like a collection of discarded and worse-for-wear instruments came to life, refurbished themselves, and started to play. The sound is an attempt to give form to the often formless feeling that is nostalgia, with songs attempting to crystallize a feeling known as ‘fernweh’—a kind of longing for a place and time you’ve never experienced, be it in this world or another.”

Belton continues, “As formats evolved, these characteristics were slowly phased out, but with this album, I aimed to put them back in through different methods of sound degradation,” reaching for a sweet spot where the sound had a lo-fi flavor but with the punch of a higher-quality recording. Drums are recorded live, run back through guitar amps and pedals, and sampled. Vintage guitars are totally warped by effects, with lead bass melodies run through overloaded Vox guitar amps. All topped with heavily saturated vocals, mono synths, electronic flutes, mallet sounds, and a bunch of other instruments and the sort of creative experiments that over a decade spent enjoying total freedom in your own ever-growing DIY studio allows for.

Tracklist: 

1. Mushy Conscience
2. Oozer
3. Lead Laces
4. Waterbaby
5. Sonic Broth Soul Taster
6. Puddle Eyed Sponger
7. Going On Easy
8. Thin Wild Mercury
9. The Din of An Ending
10. Olive
11. The Death Throes of Nuance
12. Stepping Loose