Two songs from electro-acoustic duo Latitude/Longitude (Michael Garofalo and Patrick McCarthy) released as part of free103point9’s Audio Dispatch Series.

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On the A-Side, Solar Filters, banjo and tenor guitar introduce the melody, which is picked up and echoed throughout by melodica. McCarthy’s mystic-cowboy vocals are sung through a contactmic’d banjo head, the strings, tuned to the notes of the song’s minimalist melody, resonating with each syllable. A stomping drum loop drives the song towards its climax of analog synthesizers and shortwave radio static (not sampled, but recorded as a performance, by tuning a radio while wandering around the studio).
The more textural B-side, Mother Evening, features “found” lyrics taken from various random-text, spam emails. Pedal steel guitar creates a swarmof- insects anxiety while prepared electric guitar weaves in and out of the vocal line and thumping floor tom.
Michael Garofalo and Patrick McCarthy began performing as Latitude/Longitude in 2004. They work with diverse sonic materials: test oscillators, homemade cassette tape and field recordings, radio transmissions (FM/AM/SW/CB), and toy electronics (broken and functional), as well as more traditional instruments, such as pedal steel guitar, banjo, mbira, and voice. In 2005 Latitude/Longitude released their self-titled debut album on their own imprint, Early Thieves. Absolute Locations, a full-length collection of improvisations from live recordings, will be released in a limited edition in 2008.
Press:
“Atmospheric, sound-dense… haunting, maze-like treks” –– Justin Stewart, The Wire
“Cool as that proverbial mountain stream, and just as sweet…” –– Ptolemaic Terrascope
“Tranquil, beautifully meandering tunes” –– D. Shawn Bosler, The Village Voice
“A music of gentle hypnosis, not a brutal attack…prefers to whisper not holler” –– Tokafi