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  • "Long Playing Lo-Fidelity" CD Jacket
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Long Playing Lo-Fidelity via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Limited Edition to 100 copies. Hawker M. James', "Long-Playing Lo-Fidelity" on cassette. High Bias cassette tape. The cassette has limited edition artwork, and track listing. Orange cassette shell with Gold print. (Tape case may have minor wear marks from shifting and storage wear, these were pressed in 2015.)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Long Playing Lo-Fidelity via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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    edition of 100 
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

An ode to that rush of instant chemistry that we often describe as a "soulmate" connection, the leadoff track from Hawker M. James' new album Long Playing Lo-Fidelity playfully celebrates infatuation while also hinting at the deeper connections (not even necessarily romantic ones) that form when you know you’re understood without even having to say a word. Fittingly, “Fast Friends” is a beautifully crafted, giddy mix of dream pop, glam, and tunesmanship that sees James doing his usual production acrobatics.


Ever since his earliest listening days, James has been as much a fan of production as he is of songs, and it shows in the myriad production styles he's touched on throughout his body of work, which includes collaborations with producers such as Joel Ford, Dave Fridmann, Bill Racine, Henry Hirsch, John Hampton, Howie B, and Jerry Bouthier. As a teennager, James once cold-called Bob Clearmountain and caught the incredulous production legend poolside, of course drawing the wary response "How'd you get my number again?" -- an impressive feat in the days before the internet.

This time, the former Longwave drummer draws from artists and production techniques as disparate as Air, Bill Withers, the Human League, and the calypso music he'd been playing on repeat to the amusement of his 2 year-old daughter. James enjoys the whole recording spectrum, from 4-track bedroom demos to grand big-budget style production and on "Fast Friends" he finds the sweet spot between the two. Al Carlson at Mexican Summer studio Gary’s Electric mixed and added the heady saxophone that lifts the song into euphoric pop bliss. James caps things off with a brief acoustic comedown inspired by the folkier side of Nick Drake’s and slathered with strings a la Burt Bacharach.

lyrics

I’m Waiting For What You Say
I’m Watching The Moves You Make
I'm Taken By An Open Mind
From Golden Days
I Know What You Would Do
I Listen For What To Do
You Know What I’ve Got Up My Sleeve
Keep It Between You And Me

And I Now I Can Understand
How I Can't Resist
Well All Of Your Words Can't Miss
And I Want To Know You
When The Night Young
I'm Having So Much Fun
With You

You Know I’ve Seen Hard Times
But It Lead Me To Goldmines
In The Fields With Red Eyes
Pinch Me, Is This Real?

And Now I Don’t Understand Why I Can’t Resist
And When My Words They Miss
Well I Want To Show You
And When The Night Is Young
I’m Having So Much Fun
With You

In The Tenderness
Where The Words Play
Oh The Carelessness
Where Our Minds Sway
Through An Open Door
Where I Sit With You

credits

from Long Playing Lo​-​Fidelity, track released December 15, 2015
*Produced & Written by Hawker M. James.
Mixed by Al Carlson at Gary’s Electric, Brooklyn.
*Tracks 1, 6, 11, & 14 Mixed by Hawker M. James.
Mastered by Adam Hill, at Ardent Studios, Memphis.
Recorded by Jason Milton, Callan Saunders, & Hawker M. James, at Young Lion of the West Recording, Rochester.
Artwork by Hawker M. James.
Photograph taken by Callan Saunders.
Hawker M. James : Vocals, Drums, Guitars, Synthesizer, Treatments
Jason Milton : Keyboards, Trumpet, Vocals, Additional Production
Callan Saunders : Vocals, Treatments, Additional Production
Ben Stephanus : Electric Bass , Guitar, Additional Production
Al Carlson : Saxophone
*Track 3, Produced by Hawker M. James, Jason Milton, & Callan Saunders.
All songs published by Rocknrollarama Publishing, Calsound, Jaysound (SESAC).
All songs written from March to August, 2015.
Committed to tape from August 6th to September 8th, 2015.
Thanks to all of the friends & lovers who made this possible,
you know who you are.

Dedicated to the memory of John Hampton & John Fry.

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Hawker M. James Rochester, New York

From his 90's beginnings making demos on a 4-track, to his brush with the millennial zeitgeist as the drummer in Longwave, (and solo-driven projects he's released since then), Mikey James quietly emerged as a journeyman songwriter. James' tunes struck a chord with TV producers and the indie music charts, and blazed his own trail with his singular blend of folk and art rock. ... more

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