Limited edition hand-stamped CD-R in card wallet with cover art by Laura Copsey, and a "Sonic Healing Immersion Therapy (S.H.I.T.) - Dream Analysis Vol 1" zine containing drawings, submitted by kind listeners, of images from their dreams. Also, a link to stream/download S.H.I.T. collective sonic improvisations.
Includes unlimited streaming of Pixel Wilderness
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
edition of 50
£10GBPor more
Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
£6GBP or more
Limited Edition Art Collection and CDr
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
We have 25 collections of special artwork editions, created/curated by band member and visual artist Laura Copsey, that expand on the ideas in the songs. She says: "During lockdown, when much of the work for Pixel Wilderness was undertaken, accessing wild places became an even more remote possibility. As a result, this art collection reflects on misremembered landscapes and the power of the imaginary, with physical experience replaced by fantasy". With this super limited edition version, as well as hand-stamped CD-R in card wallet and download, you get:
- a ceramic mountain, made in collaboration with artist Emily Stapleton-Jefferis, referencing our track ‘Greenmount’ (from the Automatic Tendencies EP)
- a "Sonic Healing Immersion Therapy (S.H.I.T.) - Dream Analysis Vol 1" tape / zine combo. The tape features 12 tracks of sonic improvisations undertaken by the S.H.I.T. collective in response to dream drawings. The zine contains the drawings, submitted by kind listeners, of images from their dreams.
- a polaroid, which is a snapshot of a distorted landscape painting titled 'Didn't go to school that day' by artist and outdoor blogger Dan Parnell.
Includes unlimited streaming of Pixel Wilderness
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
...more
Seems like there's enough to worry about
And in a few sorry seconds turn around the traffic
Close off the lanes before they paint them on again
In thick lines, in bright lines, in shadows reconstituted
This is not me it's a version of me
Moving around in the machine country
This is not me it's a version of me
Moving around in the machine country
Near the waterworks at the top of the forest road
Behind the filter beds, a frontier still expanding
Trace desire lines, let it drift uncomplicated
This is not me it's a version of me
Moving around in the machine country
This is not me it's a version of me
You are stronger and tougher than you think
You're not going down any time soon
Sometimes you're gone when you're walking the corridors
And the radio plays out from somewhere
You're not going down
You're not going down any time soon
With the sun in your eyes
Footsteps mark the seconds
You're so sure of the cracks in the floor
Someone's breaking through but not without a fight
You're not going down
You're not going down any time soon
With the sun in your eyes
You're not going down
You're not going down any time soon
With the sun in your eyes
I don't know how to get there
I know it's harder when you try
Don't ask me to be someone I'm not
Like clouds are mountains in the sky
It's unreal
I'm unreal
No private space
So where do we go when we need to hide
Run away
Get away from our past lives
Catch a train
Across a border in the rain
We're so far away it's clear
But still so near
But this house is where we go
When we don't want to be alone
Though the walls are closing in
They won't turn us into stone
Oh no
Behind these walls
They don't notice us at all
Different stories with harsher consequences
You make the right moves
You dance like you've got nothing left to lose
The wilderness will call you out
And quiet is the new loud
But this house is where we go
When we don't want to be alone
Though the walls are closing in
They won't turn us into stone
Oh no
This memory state
This memory shadow
We thought we had escaped
Into a new tipping point
With a humble reservoir
The energy building up for years and years
The circular is here
The wheel spins
Through fragile villages
Waiting for the weather to shift
In a race to the bottom rung
Left out in the summer sun
Bleached out disintegrating
The circular is here
Pixel Wilderness represents the third and final instalment in the Automatic Tendencies EP trilogy. The project comprises three EPs released over a six-month(ish) period – Automatic Tendencies, Melted Medium and now Pixel Wilderness.
Each EP embraces a mixtape aesthetic, by including alternative “sunken” versions by the band as well as covers and remixes of new Firestations tracks by other artists. Band member and artist Laura Copsey has curated collections of limited-edition artworks that expand on the ideas within each release. The lead track from each project has been released as part of Lost Map’s Postmap Club subscription series.
Since their last album The Year Dot, released on Lost Map in 2018, Firestations have refined their brand of conceptual alt-pop, and new songs take a closer look at themes of identity, belonging, progress and escapism. ‘Sun In Your Eyes’ is a song from the early days the band that has existed in various unreleased forms since then, and now shimmers into focus through the lens of the band’s more recent sonic experiments. The message of resilience in the verse “you are stronger and tougher than you think, you’re not going down any time soon”, is questioned by an uneasy backdrop of shifting drones and washes of noise, before being resoundingly affirmed by a strident harmonic chorus “you’re not going down with the sun in your eyes”. The band sound like they are moving as one, possessed and intoxicated by the mantra-like refrain and rolling chord progression.
The EP’s opening track, ‘Machine Country’, is a driving retro-futurist lament looking at the highs and lows of losing your sense of self in the wild hinterland of the internet. ‘It’s Unreal’ continues in this vein, woozy guitar loops and washed-out synth drones framing lyrics about dissociation and the pressures of keeping it together “don’t ask me to be someone I’m not, like clouds are mountains in the sky”. ‘Outpost Index (Sunken Version)’ sees the band continuing their project of taking their own songs and presenting them in an alternative way; this synth-pop track from the last EP is reimagined as an intimate fingerpicked guitar ballad with Mike and Laura’s vocals upfront and affecting.
For the cover version the band have recruited friends and fellow drone-pop travellers The Leaf Library, who have completely transformed Melted Medium track The Circular. Their version takes the cyclical, hypnotic elements of the original and expands them into a cathartic six-minute wave of distorted guitar, saxophone interjections and blissed-out vocals.
The last track on Pixel Wilderness is a remix of Firestations’ 77-minute sonic experiment ‘Dream Home’, by Ocean Moon (aka Jon Tye). As well as being one half of the brain behind independent label Lo Recordings, Jon is also a musician/producer who specialises in spacious, deep and meditative sounds. With his ‘Long Ago and Far Away’ mix of ‘Dream Home’ – a B-side to the ‘Sun In Your Eyes’ single – he has created a shimmering sonic landscape utilising fragments of vocals and basslines from the original.
ABOUT THE ART COLLECTIONS:
For each Automatic Tendencies release, band-member and artist Laura Copsey has been curating collections of limited-edition artworks that expand on ideas and themes within the songs. Each EP in the series is linked to a classical element: Automatic Tendencies water, Melted Medium fire and Pixel Wilderness earth.
During lockdown, when much of the work for Pixel Wilderness was undertaken, accessing wild places became an even more remote possibility. As a result, this art collection reflects on misremembered landscapes and the power of the imaginary, with physical experience replaced by fantasy. The Sonic Healing Immersion Therapy zine contains drawings, submitted by listeners, of images from their dreams; and an accompanying 12 track playlist of sonic improvisations undertaken by the S.H.I.T. collective in response to each drawing.
The ceramic mountain, made with the help of artist Emily Stapleton-Jefferis, references the Firestations track ‘Greenmount’ (from the Automatic Tendencies EP), inspired by a place in Lancashire song-writer Michael Cranny knew as a child. The polaroid, which is a snapshot of a distorted landscape painting titled 'Didn't Go to School that Day' by artist and outdoor blogger Dan Parnell.
credits
released August 6, 2021
Music by firestations
Recorded at home and Otterhead Studios
Mixed by Mike Cranny
Mastered by Antony Ryan at RedRedPaw
Kate Gibson - vocals
Matt Ashton - guitar
Gareth Jones - bass
Lewis Young - drums, synth
Simon Nelson - baritone guitar, synth
Daniel Fordham - saxophone
supported by 11 fans who also own “Pixel Wilderness”
This is gorgeous and 100% setting the tone for my autumn...
Reminds me of albums I loved in the early aughts like His Name is Alive's Stars on E.S.P. and Black Box Recorder's England Made Me, both of which remind me of long autumnal road trips in Wisconsin as a teenager. Definitely a beautiful and reflective space to be encompassed by while watching the world shift.
IT'S...
WHERE...
THE PAIN GOES...
comeawaywithemd.com EMD