HOT ROCKS
Minerals (Versions)
Boomarm2.0001
Digital / Bandcamp / streaming
Sept. 08, 2023
Hot Rocks is the musical partnership of Jesse Munro Johnson (Gulls), and Mike McKinnon (Natural Magic). Since day one, each has followed their own musical path, but for the past 20 years, their journeys as musicians and engineers have been intertwined in various studios across the West. Working in tandem as engineers and producers with the likes of Elite Beat, Mdou Moctar, and many others, a chemistry of distilled musical enthusiasm and kinship solidified. In 2021, they began gathering weekly in the Boomarm Nation studio, experimenting with the intention of building up a new sound.
Minerals (Versions) is the first offering from a harvest sown from those weekly gatherings. The sonic palette is earthy and cosmic, cool to the touch yet emanating a warmth that travels effortlessly. The woody melodic tones of tuned hand and mallet percussion, resampled brass, and bamboo flutes float in the anti-gravity of shimmering chordal clouds and throws of dubby solar flares. Built from live jams, re-spun, resampled, looped, and reassembled in a live all hands on the board mix. Each of the three versions rides an arc of slow-mo, mid-tempo glow and a weighty soundsystem embrace. This is a heartfelt dose of something fresh for your speakers