Swarm

Here's some good news for fans of meticulously crafted instrumental music and records with major production efforts behind them: The Mimicry recordings artists formerly known as Orange Tulip Conspiracy have returned with a new lineup, a new sound, a new name, and most exciting of all, a new album called Swarm. The now-LA-based Atomic Ape is still led by Jason Schimmel (Estradasphere), who has been honing this work at studios in Seattle, San Francisco and his formidable commercial space in LA, The Bunker. It took over four years to complete the album-possibly the result of contracting some time-dilating virus when playing bass in Secret Chiefs 3 (rumors of him working on some of these tunes as far back as 2008 have been circulated). Also there's the cast of 25 musicians involved beyond the core live band, among them Mimicry-familiar names like Trey Spruance, Eyvind Kang, Tim Young, Devin Hoff, Jessika Kenney, Dave Abramson, Timb Harris, Steve Moore and other heavy luminaries like Joe Doria, Danny Frankel and Mike Stone. With an eye toward doing things the hard-but-right way, Swarm was mixed to 1/2-inch tape using only analog outboard equipment (this last step manned by the eminently capable Justin Phelps). It's details like this-above and beyond the usual high levels of care and consideration-that make the record's surf-drenched alternate universe of lost TV-land cop show soundtracks with 80 billion styles of music actually work-brilliantly. Mimicry is proud to offer records like this one-self-produced obsessions that go beyond the man hours, the massive track counts, the densely layered sections, meticulous packaging and art, and the dizzying range of musical styles and performances from all those heavy players... beyond all that, into the details!