Album Notes

Boxes and boundaries. Somehow, as the twentieth century winds down and the twenty-first gets started, everyone seems to be obsessed with categorizing, with calling something by a name and then letting it languish on a shelf. Spontaneity, authenticity, genuine communication - these are just treated as novelties in an increasingly packaged world, brought out and paraded as "important" relics of another time to be celebrated in word but not in deed.

Then every once in a while something is created that doesn't come ready-made with a convenient tag line. The boxes don't seem to fit, and none of the categories make sense. Comparisons are made, but never suffice, This is the music of Scarlet Fields.

In New York, a town known for its rampant desire to endlessly replicate the Next Big Thing, Scarlet Fields are different. They don't play music as a fashion statement, and they don't do it to be the most popular kids on the block. Something deeper drives their music something at times sinister and other times sublime. Their sound is a constant study in contrasts: power and tenderness, bitterness and warmth, chaos and grace - what some might call a very human grasp at depth in a world gone two dimensional.

All of which has brought them to the attention of a trend-weary public. Explosive live shows have drawn crowds, and early recordings have brought them into the studio with producer Nigel Godrich and engineers Andy Wallace and Steve Orchard, three men best known for capturing the collective subconscious on tape for the past twenty years.

Watch and listen. Scarlet Fields will kick you to the curb and then try to save your soul. They'll make you think uncomfortable thoughts. They'll make you feel when you least expect it. But they'll never be commonplace.

This is no ordinary Band This is extraordinary music.