Music that fuses the obsolete with the emergent, embracing the friction between technological optimism and late-stage capitalist decline.
Salaryman formed in 1996 when Rick Valentin
(RNV), Rose Marshack (RGM), Jim Valentin
(JEV) and Howie Kantoff (HDK) of indie rock
stalwarts Poster Children traded in their guitars
for synthesizers and began crafting a unique
blend of instrumental electronic rock that owes
as much to Booker T. and the M.G.'s as it does to
Kraftwerk. Riding the 90s post-rock wave, Salaryman
released two albums (Salaryman and Karoshi)
on the acclaimed German label City Slang, and
toured extensively throughout Europe with
artists as diverse as Tortoise, Mouse on Mars,
Superchunk, and Les Thugs. After releasing their third album The Electric
Forest in 2006, the band went into extended
cryosleep, only recently re-emerging to once
again provide a soundtrack for our increasingly
artificial reality. Salaryman's new record, A Hard Drive's Gonna
Fail, was conceived as all their music has been,
through extended, recorded improvisations
edited down into cohesive snapshots a la Can,
albeit in a Normal, Illinois basement rather than
a North Rhine-Westphalia castle. The music fuses the obsolete with the
emergent, embracing the friction between
technological optimism and late-stage capitalist
decline. Acknowledging society's worship of
innovation, efficiency and acquisition hurtling
us toward collapse, the band's message
remains defiantly optimistic, a warning and a
celebration: Yes, A Hard Drive's Gonna Fail, yet
somehow, everything's going to be all right.
Track Listing
A Hard Drive's Gonna Fail Jimmie's Buffet Sunday Six I Saw X Night of the Gringo Pitch Wheel I Think I Hit Your Car Party, Let's Big Ambience
