Moonlight

Description

CD Packaging is a 4-Panel Digipack.

LP Packaging is a Tip-On Jacket w/ Digital Download Card & Poster Insert.

On his 2011 debutWill The Guns Come Out,Hanni El Khatibtried something hed never tried beforemaking a bedroom-style recording of his then stripped-to-the-skeleton guitar-and-drums rock n roll mostly for the sheer joy of making it. For his ferocious 2013 follow-upHead In The Dirt, he tried something new again, showing up at producerDan Auerbachsanalog-dreamland Nashville studio with nothing but the clothes on his back and an open mind.

But after Head In The Dirts release and almost a year of relentless touring, Hanni knew he needed to go past unpredictable all the way to unprecedented. He needed isolation, time and the chance to experiment. So after 30 days locked in hand-picked L.A. studio the Lair, the result is the albumMoonlight (Jan 20, 2015 Release Date)the rarest and most welcome kind of album, made at that perfect point in life where confidence, experience, and technique unite to help an artist do anything they want.

Thats why it starts with a song that sounds like aMobb Deepbeat under aSuicide-style synth drone and ends with anESG-meets-LCD Soundsystemgone italo-disco song about life and death. Thats why it collides crushing crate-digger drumbeats thatd be right at home on aCanLP or anEddie Bo45 with bleeding distorto guitar, bent and broken barroom piano and hallucinatory analog flourishes. (In fact, some smart producer is going to sample the drums from this album and complete the circle of life.) And thats also why Moonlight feels like the album hes always wanted to make: What would it sound like if RZA got in the studio with Iggy Pop and Tom Waits? he asks. I dont know! That was my approach on everything.

To make Moonlight, he needed the right engineer and the right place to record, the kind of place where theyd understand when hed ask for 62 Slingerland drumkit and obsolete fuzz pedals. And he found it in the Lair and engineerSonny DiPerri, whose pinpoint instincts and unassuming personality camouflaged an all-star resume including stints withTrent ReznortoAvey Tare (Animal Collective)toGiorgio Moroder.

So on April 1st of 2014, Hanni sat down with his live drummerRon Marinelliand a selection of heavy friends to translate his best ideas to tape. As the album developed, Hanni found himself playing almost everything, switching from guitar to bass to synth to Mellotronsometimes several times during the course of a songand even sampling and re-editing Marinellis beats.

Its a personal album in the most primal sense, put together in any way that worked.Iggy PopandDavid Bowiedid this kind of thing onThe Idiot, theWu-Tang Clandid it on36 ChambersandThe Clashdid it three times over onSandinista. And now its Hannis turn, across 11 new lightning-struck songs, each written and recorded in its own flash of inspiration. It sounds like an album made by an endless list of collaborators, but really Moonlight was more like the first do-it-almost-all-yourself music Hanni ever made, except after six years recording and touring, hed learned to do so much more.

My approach is still the same, he explains. Do things youve never done before. Challenge yourself. Be free and be creative. The same thing holds true for everything Ive ever done, whether painting or design or skateboarding or whatever. Do it for the right reasonsexploring yourself. Thats what its about.