Art Decade by Shingles (feat. Kevin Jackson)

Presented here on what would be his 71st birthday.

Two years ago, he passed away and the world lost some magic. That night I started working on this recording. Art Decade had long been one of my favorite moments on Low, and it had always been a back-burner idea to eventually record a version, given the similarity of tones to my EVI. Listening to Low, "Heroes" and Iggy's "The Idiot" (more so than Lodger) were very definitive lines in the sand in my growth as a musician, a synth jammer, and a human being; and it felt important to myself to acknowledge that, while we saw the world grieving in unison.

It was almost entirely sketched out by the next morning. Kevin came by with his trombone sometime over the next week (I think he had a show in the area) and laid down some blasts and bellows through some intense signal processing to emulate Eduard Meyer's cello from the original. Adding some additional percussion, I haphazardly mixed it and promptly left it on a harddrive since.

It was never my intent to release this publicly, as this was recorded in mourning and acted as a cathartic session between two friends who deeply needed to jam some Bowie. But given the way the world has changed since, it feels appropriate to spread some of that awe and wonder in his memory.

Let all the children boogie.

Shingles is the solo moniker of Jesse DeRosa, member of Grasshopper and Hexbreaker Quintet/Quartet.