New single from Steve Spiro (Talk Talk, Pet Shop Boys) out now
FREQUENT TRAVELLE
RELECTRONIC PRODUCER
SHARES NEW SINGLE
‘THE DEVIL’S TRYING TO BREAK US DOWN’
LISTEN HERE
DESIGNED FOR HEADPHONE LISTENING ONLY
RELIGIOUS HATE-SPEAKERS
AND POLICE HELICOPTERS POPULATE
NEW TRACK FROM 360-DEGREE
BINAURAL SOUND PROJECT
‘REAL LIFE’ ALBUM OUT NOV 6
VIA MUSIC FOR HEADPHONES
Frequent Traveller is today sharing ‘The Devil’s Trying To Break Us Down’, the latest single from the forthcoming ‘Real Life’ album which is due out November 6th and transports the listener around the world in 360-degree binaural sound (similar to the increasingly popular 8D audio, only more responsive to depth and height positioning).
Utilising technology which enabled him to record sounds just as the human ear would have heard them at the time, electronic producer Steve Spiro (Pet Shop Boys, Talk Talk) spent the last couple of years travelling around the world capturing surround-sound field recordings of his encounters and began incorporating them into music. Indebted to laid-back West Coast hip-hop, ‘The Devil’s Trying To Break Us Down’, out today, is set in Los Angeles and offers a glimpse into the bizarre and tumultuous socio-political division that’s rife in America. Designed for headphone listening only, you can stream the track here: https://presave.to/pBLURREDB4.
After taking us on a lively late-night NYC subway train (‘In My Head’) and transporting us through the villages, towns and cities of Jamaica (‘Liquid Sunshine’), ‘The Devil’s Trying To Break Us Down’ was recorded in LA and charts a stroll on the Venice Beach boardwalk up to Santa Monica. Rather than the sun-soaked carefree environment which you might expect, Steve, instead, came across a group of hate-preaching religious fundamentalists (pictured in the track artwork). Recalling his encounters – which are reproduced on the track in 360-degree binaural sound – Steve says: “Working our way down the boardwalk, we meet a crazy collective of militant hate clerics, preaching their Sunday sermon claiming that ‘The lord created the gay to be destroyed.’ There’s a constant presence of police surveillance helicopters from above as they circle the perimeter of the beach.”
The end-result of Steve’s time spent traversing the globe is the Frequent Traveller ‘Real Life’ LP, a 13-track collection that allows the listener to soak up the roar of crowds at a football stadium in Brazil, snake-charmers and drums on the cobbled alleys of Marrakesh, militant hate clerics preaching a Sunday sermon on the boardwalk of Venice Beach, LA and old-time buskers and rival gang banter on a subway train through New York City late on a Friday night. The songs themselves deal in eclectic sounds that, given the global nature of the time, span a far-reaching tapestry of everything from hip-hop, house, dub and experimental electro to hypnotic drones and minimalist, ambient soundscapes
About Frequent Traveller/Steve Spiro
Steve Spiro has had an eclectic career and spent decades earning his stripes in the music industry. In the mid-80s he was an acclaimed record producer and remixer who worked with artists such as Pet Shop Boys, Talk Talk, Imagination and The Farm. He also had several club hits between 1988-93 under the name Four To The Floor and in 1996 scored the chart-hitting BBC theme tune for the Atlanta Olympics. Now, he’s also the founder and creative director of award-winning music supervision house, Felt Music. The Frequent Traveller project sees Steve fuse his knowledge and skills in the world of music with his deep love of travelling. Where Steve’s self-titled 2011 release under the Frequent Traveller moniker was a real-time soundtrack of his commute from London to Sussex, the new project debuted with ‘Real Life – using Sennheiser’s ground-breaking AMBEO binaural sound technology – sees him take us on a journey around the globe in game-changing, 360-degree sound.
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