In Tall Buildings

The Akinetic (Altered) EP is comprised of six new renditions of songs from the 2018 In Tall Buildings album Akinetic which have been reworked by a few of Erik Hall’s closest friends, collaborators, and revered contemporaries.
Akron, Ohio’s Mike Tolan— aka Talons’— sends the dystopian ballad “Cascadia” through his signature dusty analog, tape-warbled signal path. Kranky artist Justin Walter brings “Akinetic” into his world of ambient electronics via his Electronic Valve Instrument and processed trumpet. Elliot Bergman (Wild Belle, NOMO) crams the original album’s leading track “Beginning To Fade” through his filter of rough-edged, downtown psychedelia. And Western Vinyl label-mate Botany reconstructs the ominous “Wake Up” as a radiant cosmos of sampled bells, beats, and manipulated vocals.
The collection is bookended by Hall’s own In Tall Buildings reworks of “Siren Song,” and “Days In Clover,” which manifest as something akin to a proper dance floor remix and a fortified demo, respectively. Dusting off his original Pro Tools sessions from the day each track was born— in which a Moog synthesizer drones endlessly and an acoustic guitar is accompanied by a Roland CR-68 drum machine and a scratch vocal— Hall then completed each song anew, eschewing his typical decisions and letting familiar material explore new, more impulsive grounds.