fRaNkly FrAnKIe - dropping - 12 September 21

SLEMBRE! sample 

Everybody knows the story of Frankenstein’s monster, how Frankenstein wracked with guilt at what he created commits suicide, leaving our monster alone, but not many know the true and weird things that happened following the death of Frankenstein. 

As the monster sat comprehending life without its master, he never felt more alone. A world without meaning or reason. Without rules and learning. What was left. He was at a crossroads. There were two choices. Kill himself and join his master or, OR… 

Rebuild Frankenstein. I mean how difficult could it be? Its just a question of getting all the bits and bobs and squelchy bits and put them altogether and insert lightening. I mean how difficult could it be? 

He carefully, well as carefully as a monster with dodgy joints can be, chopped up the doctor and put all the bits in a barrel. He went and found the string  and extremely large needle, to stitch him back together. 

When he came to look at all the bits he realised he had forgotten the order and placement of parts. Which bit connected to which bit? This science malarky was a very difficult job indeed. He gathered all the parts in various assemblages but nothing looked right, he kept moving things around and at last felt he had the correct order of things. From what he could remember, his memory wasn’t great, its not something very reliable in monsters. Which explains their bad mood and gravitation towards murder smashing up stuff and general mayhem. 

Time was not the Monsters friend. He knew deep down he was born in the darkness and big sky lights blasted the life into him. He picked up the needle and thread and began to sew! He worked as carefully as a big floppy handed monster could do, putting all the parts back together in what he thought was the correct order.  Once done he realised he had spare bits. Which he put carefully back in the barrel.  Then he sat and waited for the big light show. Hand on the big handle that made him live. No more information is available about that night. It is lost to time. Nobody knows if the monster was successful or not. 

This part of the story was lost to time. Until now. 

Thanks to the research team of Rafter and Skin Vehicles. From the notes they found littered across the universe of car boot sales and thrift stores. They decided to make an album to celebrate the finding of this story. Together they took the bones of songs, stripped to 4 and 8 bars of sounds to create these strange and wonderful songs curated here. 

Rafter & Skin Vehicles each chose 5 time and key signatures and then decided on who would do Intro, Chorus, Outtro and who would do Verse and Bridge. Swapping for each piece of music, so each had done 5 of each part of the songs

Of course there will be naysayers who think that Rafter and Skin Vehicles manufactured this whole story in a blatant and nefarious attempt to make an album. 

But there will always be those doubters!

Something about Rafter

One of San Diego's music fixture Rafter Roberts' many projects -- which include the indie pop duo Bunky, running one of the city's most popular indie recording studios, and producing and engineering albums for Castanets, the Fiery Furnaces, Arab on Radar, and more -- Rafter's kaleidoscopic noise pop features Roberts and a revolving cast of friends. Growing up in a California commune, Roberts wasn't exposed to much pop culture or music except for what his new wave- and punk-loving older brother played for him on weekend visits. Inspired by XTC, Devo, Talking Heads, and the Beatles, Roberts formed the band Faucet while still in his teens. He moved to New York after graduating from high school and worked on his music via four-track recorder.

After returning to the West Coast, Roberts settled in San Diego and soon became an indispensable part of the city's music scene, recording friends' bands and putting on house shows at night while helping to record music for commercials with Glen Galloway (of Trumans Water and Soul-Junk). Galloway and Roberts built a full-fledged studio and began recording and engineering music by artists ranging from Sufjan Stevens and Rogue Wave to Gogogo Airheart. Roberts continued to work on his own music, forming Bunky with Emily Joyce; Asthmatic Kitty released the duo's debut, Born to Be a Motorcycle, and also signed Roberts as Rafter. The label released 10 Songs, a collection of his four-track recordings from 1998 and 1999, in 2006; it was quickly followed by 2007's Songs for Total Chickens and 2008's Sex Death Cassette. The Sweaty Magic EP, which dove deeper into Rafter's funk and Afro-pop fascinations, arrived in summer 2008.

Rafter drew inspiration from modern R&B and classic video game music for 2010's Animal Feelings. After releasing two albums in 2011, Quiet Storm, which Roberts described as "Darkthrone meets the Kinks meets Lee Perry," and Eponymous, a highly danceable collaboration with Simian Mobile Disco's Simon Lord under the name Roberts & Lord, Roberts took a break to delve deeply into some new projects. The first result of his woodshedding was 2014's It's Reggae, an authentic and weird love letter to dub and roots reggae. He then spent some time working on his next record, which was a return to his earlier pop style, but a more grown-up and sophisticated version. XYZ was released by Joyful Noise in late 2016. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi

Something about Skin Vehicles 

The Skin Vehicles is, an experimental, electronic, psychedelic twister that is mostly instrumental. The sound is cinematic, ideas twist and turn, this is the music for the film you haven't seen yet. 'Fine Art' in sound. Skin Vehicles is the Musical output of Fine artist Dex Hannon and Writer Dexuality Valentino. Working solo or in collaboration, nothing is the same, because life doesn't work like that. Based in Northern England. He has released 13 albums under Skin Vehicles and also 2 albums under the guise of DVEC with Mexican American collaborator Eunice Cazarez. His music has featured on BBC Radio 3 Late Junction as well as stations internationally. Working in different creative spaces, he allows the music, art and writing to weave through everything he does. Sometimes the art will influence the writing or the music or the music will influence the painting. A lot of the paintings and music bear the same names, feeding each other.