About Multicast

Multicast started producing Rural Electronics in 1994 in Boulder Colorado with members Dave Alexander, Nathan Jantz and Jeff Holland often performing outdoor chillout spaces and provided the warm sunrise vibe as the night tuned into day.  The band formed the Obliq Recordings record label in 1996 and produced under Multicast, Freq Modif, Ted Sturgeon, Crix Madine, Replicast and Chillout Enforcement Crew on vinyl and digital formats.  Around mid-2000s Nathan left Multicast to focus on projects Normal Ones, L’Astra Cosmo and nuuun.  Multicast’s music is currently released on Carpe Sonum Records and Obliq Recordings.    

Multicast’s music has always defied genre, fitting somewhere in-between IDM, acid, psychedelic, western, mid-eastern, cinematic and ambient constructed with an arsenal of synthesizers, efx and electric stringed instruments.  Growing up preferring live Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk concerts over studio albums, Multicast shares a similar impromptu vibe in their approach.  Multicast et al has released 9 albums, many EPs, singles and remixes so far with the latest being Travelogue in 2023.  If you’re likeminded, we’d love to hear from you!  

Multicast’s Travelogue

What a journey it has been! Release Date March 9th 2023!

Available on CD and digital. Multicast.bandcamp.com

Multicast is back! Remember the heyday of IDM, circa 1995-2005? Well, here at Carpe Sonum we sure do, and we fairly revel in the kind of busybody squelch and phosphorescent electro Multicast has always dabbled in. Collecting choice tracks from across the pre- and post-millennial tensions dogging the edgy aughts, Travelogue is indeed the real deal, both a nifty summation of where Multicast is, was, and where they’re headed. Sounding contemporary as all get-out, the beatmusik on display here still astonishes after all these years, every bit as viral, vital, and vivacious as primo Anthony Rother, CiM, Bigeneric, or other similarly coiffed patternistas.

“Hall of the Inverted Mushrooms” works its slo-mo, psilocybin rollercoaster to the max, methodically waxing all kaleidoscopic along its thickening, soupy rhythm, synths simply candy-coated fairydust to be liberally sprinkled about the alienscape. The spit and splatter of “Foehn” is an instant reminder of how important Bob Moog was to electronica inventors worldwide, ‘cuz the razzle-dazzle of those sounds never grow old, bugs forever banging around their bassbins. “La Honda” was recorded live, its boots-stomping-in-the-mud beats and undergrowth crunch undoubtedly holding its enraptured audience completely under its spell. And a track such as “Green Sequence” is a reminder that Multicast knows how to get their chill freak flag on, a drunken swagger across verdant fractals where the fronds of 3D palm trees keep perfect time to the beat. You’re left hypnotized, sated, and satisfied. Boffo!

Chillout Enforcement Crew debut

Obliq Recordings proudly announces the second release of 2017, this time right before the deadline.  Chillout Enforcement Crew does exactly what they advertise, ensure you are going nowhere for a while.  CEC hit the Denver scene starting in 2017 with performances at the White Whale Room @ Alameda Station.  CEC then played Lunar Lodge, finally Syndrome @ Thee Haus Ov Where.  During these freestyle sessions was recorded Jazz, Fusion, Electronics, Drone, Noise vibes.  Don’t forget the Acid…

Chillout Enforcement Crew’s debut release Acid LuAu  is an excursion into Polynesian party games with a Devilfish.  For a limited time only, until it sells out, Obliq Recordings OBQ-17 presents an 8″ floppy diskette with a 7″ square plastic picture disk record included.  The track is Acid LuAu.  The digital download bonus is Acid Fusion, which is a faster paced crazy excursion into Jazz, Funk, Techno and Acid; keep your mind occupied as the fusion fission radiates.  The digital album is name your price (free if you choose), the analog record is VERY limited, so check bandcamp now!

Check out the soundtrack that Chillout Enforcement Crew did for Obliq Recordings!

Flyers for the While Whale Room and Syndrome shows.

 

 


 

Multicast’s Multicaster out now!

We finally have Multicast’s 2016 album Multicaster available for sale at our bandcamp site.

There is a limited number of hand stenciled Iron Feather Journal #21 magazines available with our CD.  Don’t delay on this as this is a one-time run and no other magazines will be produced once these are gone.

Here are the videos associated with the new album (some soundtracks to my adventures, some music videos):

Faster and Faster:

Andromeda Strain:

Gurrr:

Interlude:

State:

Multicast’s Rural Sessions Featured…

We got a great review of or first full length album, Rural Sessions, in an Italian webzine specializing in electronic music, Electronique.It.  The timing was great as we are doing the final work in preparation for our new album to be released very soon! Special thanks to Ivo D’Antoni for the wonderful and kind words!  I still listen to this album, a lot, and enjoy it after all these years.  It was a fruitful time for Multicast and for electronic music in general.  That said, our new album is likely my favorite so far…hard to judge, we’ll stand them up side-by-side in another 15 years and see what’s what!Multicast - Rural Sessions Limited Edition LP

We released 3 different versions of Rural Sessions.  The limited run of 500 marbled vinyl as seen above, then 1000 150g 2LPs and finally 500 CDs.  The CD has the extended version of Laura where the LP has a reprise version.  The reprise LP version was played on the late John Peel’s Radio One radio show.

Multicast’s Multicaster OBQ-16 debut in Japan!

Well, it is official, our new album is released!  July 18th, 2016!  The initial release is limited to Japan as an insert to the Iron Feather Journal magazine for the opening of the Sapporo Zine Festival in Hokkaido.  We will be receiving a limited amount of magazines and will have a USA/World release in early September, the exact date is still to be determined.

As you wait for the next 6 weeks, you can preview the entire album here…

IFJ stenciled artwork
Front covers, both multi-color stenciled artwork!

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IFJ Multicaster back covers
IFJ / Multicaster back covers!

As the typical Multicast / Obliq Recordings way, we created each of the covers by hand.  They are hand stenciled with recycled spray paint in multicolor!  The Iron Feather Journal inserts are limited edition to 200, all hand-numbered.  100 will be released in Japan, 100 outside of Japan.

Multicaster sleeves
Multicaster album sleeves drying on the manufacturing line, by the river!

Here is what a spindle of 170 looks like!

Multicaster CDs
Stack of Multicaster CDs.

Luckily my partner in crime, Cryptographics, is well versed at silk-screening and has the mass production process down!  He first created a registration piece that was offset for the thickness of the cover.  Then he created multiple stencils out of plastic to handle the ink.  This project requires many stencils, one for each image on the cover that will have its own separate color.  Thus, multiple iterations of paint and wait are required for the final cover to be complete!

Stencil Registered
Stencil registered with the first cover ready to go, as you can see all we do is move the left registration to the right side and we’re ready for the next image and colors.

The final product revealed
Tasty ultra limited black cover gettings its second image sprayed

Stay tuned to our Facebook and Instagram pages, or stay tuned to this site or Obliq Recordings for release date information. Don’t sit on getting the limited IFJ magazine or it will be gone!

Multicast’s Bahian Coastal Highway available now

REVIEW:  The Big Takeover

Carpe Sonum is proud to unveil the CD reissue of the 2005 limited LP-only recording from Multicast, mastered by Lupo (formerly of Dubplates & Mastering) at Calyx Mastering in Berlin, with additional new tracks. First gaining notoriety via their own Obliq Recordings imprint back in the early oughts, Colorado-based rural electronic musicians Dave Alexander, Jeff Holland, and Nathan Jantz haven’t exactly vanished from the scene, releasing a slew of digital-only work in the interim.

Bahian Coastal Highway is still ahead of its time, with rich harmonic texture and memorable melodies.  The trio maintain that, “the feel we were shooting for was about arrival and departure, on a journey to Another Green World. There are Brasilian rhythms & chords, exotica and jungle references” with soundscapes conjuring “a new place, with new experiences met with open eyes…”

At times, the Balearic, sunny environments suggested by most of these tracks seems at odds with the group’s former modus operandi, but then again, that’s precisely the point. Sidestepping pat categorical references, Multicast feel that this recording is their “most refined and resolved effort, featuring crystalline beauty amid soap opera melodies, meeting on the veranda in a sunny place. There is collaboration and interplay in the songwriting and structure that could only come from years of playing together, and through a telepathic musical connection.”

Tracks:

*1. Bahian Coastal Highway (4:36) *2. El Sid (5:15) 3. Underdub (5:17) 4. Departure (7:01)

*5. The Only Thing I Adore (5:26) *6. Hawaii (4:50) 7.Pucuna (5:31) *8. Ansico (6:40)

9. Arrival (5:12) 10. Rotation (4:39)

*recommended for airplay – all FCC compliant

R.I.Y.L: Boards of Canada, Tycho, Aphex Twin, Panabrite

Release Date: February 12, 2016

Follow us:
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Multicast’s BCH Videos

From the album Bahian Coastal Highway available now!

Multicast – Hawaii

Multicast – Bahian Coastal Hwy

Multicast – Arrival

Multicast

Multicast Albums Available

If you haven’t used Bandcamp yet, it is a great site full of wonderful artists.  Great radio too, neat way to find new music and to support the artists that make it.  Check it out!

Here is the Multicast bandcamp profile.  It is full of great tunes, some available for free (or a name-your-price if you feel so inclined).

Here is a project with did with local electronic legends Equulei, we call the project Equuicast.  Serious dub, serious ambient bliss!

Rural Sessions was a classic Multicast album.  We still have CDs and Albums available if you are interested in physical releases with all the artwork.

On the Backs of Soldiers was a fun project with did in conjunction with Regis University’s Department of War History and the Aurora (Colorado) History Museum.  Pretty intense stories from these war veterans all soundtracked up by Multicast!

Here is our first vinyl release, EP1, which originally had only 4 tracks.  We’ve spiced this digital version up with a total of 12 tracks now; for your listening enjoyment!

Our original demo was limited to 50 copies and sent out to friends, promoters and record labels.  Stripped out are the Freq Modif tracks which will be featured on the upcoming release on the Freq Modif Bandcamp page.  Bonus Multicast tracks were added so there wasn’t a void!

Our infamous 8″ floppy disk release sold out immediately, but we did sent out promo CDs with the EP and a bunch of bonus tracks.  Seemed right to include that promo CD content with you, so here that is, plus just a few more tracks because that’s how we roll!

And finally, from the 4213 7″ Box set Series, here is the Multicast single.

 

For those that have been following us on this 20 year journey, we thank you for your lasting support! For those new to the Multicast sound, we thank you too, and hope you all enjoy our releases. We have several new releases in the hopper, so continue to check back!