Category: Music

Vapor Vespers: Ghosts Before Breakfast

Vapor Vespers 
Drops Sophomore Album 
Ghosts Before Breakfast

Acclaimed transcontinental duo Vapor Vespers are back with Ghosts Before Breakfast (Bad Egg Records), their second long-playing release. The follow-up to their critically-acclaimed 2020 debut, One Act Sonix, this 10-track collection of music-powered spoken word will be available via Bandcamp (pre-sale April 5) and streaming services including Spotify beginning May 3, 2024.

Vapor Vespers is the brainchild of NYC and Hudson Valley-based multi-instrumentalist/producer Sal Cataldi (aka Spaghetti Eastern Music) and award-winning Alaska playwright, actor, slam poet and sometime standup comic Mark Muro.  The pair’s musical and personal relationship dates back to their teen years in Queens, N.Y., where they bonded over their love of boundary-pushing musicians like Sun Ra and Frank Zappa and the recordings of writers and music-powered spoken word icons like Lord Buckley, William Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, The Last Poets and John Cooper Clarke. 

The duo’s latest collection ups the ante on the cool grooves, intense guitar riffage, synth textures and the verbal hijinks and narrative absurdity showcased on their debut, something underground radio institution WFMU calls “a supremely cool fusion of spoken word and progressive sound.”  Highlights from the 10-track collection include:

  • Sex – Cataldi’s soundtrack is a slow-creep funk/electro modal blues reminiscent of latter-day Jeff Beck, one on which Muro sleepily riffs couplets that illuminate what sex is.  “Sex is a big basket of shiny red apples and a good sharp knife… Sex is a time bomb under your seat and a dog sleeping at your feet… Sex made a monkey out of Darwin and a man outta King Kong… It’s how I got here and how I wanna go.”
  • Valise – The duo’s audio salute to film noir, a thriller-cum-mystery narrative driven by a funky flatted-5 bass groove, buzzing keys and bickering wah-wah guitars. Here, Muro sounds like Raymond Chandler, narrating the tale of a mysterious suitcase with equally mysterious contents and the femme fatale who may or may not have made off with it.
  • Bent Omelet (DADA #1) – A fatback beat-driven jazzy blues/word salad salute to DADA, the early 20th century movement in art and literature based on deliberate irrationality and negation of traditional artistic values. Think William Burroughs’ cut-ups meeting The Meters in a dark alley of the mind.
  • Reverie (Live at Green Kill Gallery) – A looped and intensely layered solo guitar score and a poem about bar-hopping thoughts.  Recorded live at a 2021 performance at Green Kill Art Gallery in Kingston, N.Y.
  • You Changed – High-energy funk-jazz of the Ornette Coleman Prime Time/harmolodic variety. Its galloping beat, snappy clavinet accents and dueling lead guitars propel Muro’s caffeinated rant about an actress friend who’s now too cool for school and their friendship. “You used to be nice, you used to be normal, you used to be my friend, then you suddenly changed… You started wearing vinyl pants and blowing kisses to strangers… You called me a sad sirloin burger…You wanted to be interesting, so you rented a wolf, had your elbows pierced, bought a stuffed owl and went to the opera dressed as a mermaid!”

Underground radio institution WFMU called the Vapor Vespers “a supremely cool fusion of spoken word and progressive sound,” while NYSMusic.com praised their “blend of spacey synths, spicy guitar, ethereal drones and deep lyrics, a mesmerizing blend of hazy electro-funk and searing, lyrical poetry that redefine what music can be.”  NYC’s Good Times Magazine called the debut disc “a wild, indescribable sonic stew that mixes outrageous lyrics and storytelling with expert musicianship that recalls everyone from Steely Dan to Was (Not Was) to Frank Zappa.” Fresh Underground Podcast labeled it “stunning slam poetry and electro music originality in the tradition of Joe Frank.” Anchorage Daily News said “Cataldi’s music gives Muro’s narratives more urgency, veering between funk-jazz acid trip and graphic novel accompaniment, a collaboration that is something to behold.” Musicians for Musicians called it “colorful and inventive, a perfection of onomatopoeic expression.” Psychedelic Baby Magazine noted its “tripstastic slams of storytelling and genre-skipping sounds” while Radio Spiral called it “as imaginative as it is atmospheric.” KMS Reviews might have said it best: “Push that play button and get ready to float in a sea of sound. It’s an album with a mystical glow that will keep listeners enchanted.”

For more, visit www.vaporvespers.bandcamp.com, Spotify and www.soundcloud.com/vapor-vespers.

Pat & Mac – Flesheater

Pat & Mac consists of multi instrumentalist Pat Durkin and his Mac computer. Pat produces all of the music completely DIY, with an influence from horror movie and video game soundtracks as well as classic rock, synth pop, and heavy metal.

Pat just dropped a new video and single, Flesheater, from his upcoming album Impost3r Syndrom3. This is the second collaboration Pat has done with Sean Bayles of BaylesDSGN who directed the video and filmed all of the stop motion.

Flesheater is available on all streaming platforms as a single and will be available on Bandcamp in the spring when Impost3r Syndrom3 drops at www.patandmacmusic.bandcamp.com. Fans can also sign up for the mailing list at www.patandmacmusic.com.

Pat & Mac post daily on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, all @patandmacmusic.

Enjoy!

Vapor Vespers: Valise

Film Noir and DADA Art Get an Audacious Audiophonic Spin…
Transcontinental music & spoken word duo Vapor Vespers drop another two-sided single,  Valise and Bent Omelette (DADA #1)

New York/Anchorage, January 14, 2022 – Acclaimed experimental music duo Vapor Vespers is kicking off 2022 with the release of another duo of quirky, noir- and funk-tinged singles, Valise and Bent Omelette (DADA #1). These music-powered spoken word offerings are a preview to what’s in store with the Spring release of their sophomore album, Giallo!, the follow-up to their critically-acclaimed 2020 debut, One Act Sonix.

The Vapor Vespers is the transcontinental brainchild of NYC and Hudson Valley based multi-instrumentalist/producer Sal Cataldi (also known as Spaghetti Eastern Music) and award-winning Alaska playwright, actor and slam poet Mark Muro. The pair, whose musical and personal relationship dates back to their teen years in Queens, NY, first bonded over their love of boundary-pushing musicians like Miles Davis, Sun Ra and Frank Zappa and the audio recordings of writers/poets/music-powered spoken word performers like William Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, The Last Poets and John Cooper Clarke.

The duo’s newest singles up the ante on the cool grooves, guitar riffage, synth textures and the verbal hijinks/ narrative absurdity showcased on their debut disc, and with Sex and You Changed, another double-sided preview of their forthcoming album that was released in Fall 2021. Valise and Bent Omelette (DADA #1) will be available for download on Bandcamp and on streaming services including Spotify on January 14 and February 7 respectively.

Valise is the duo’s audio salute to film noir, a thriller-cum-mystery narrative driven by a funky flatted-5 bass groove, buzzing keys and bickering wah wah guitars. Here, Muro sounds like Raymond Chandler, narrating the tale of a mysterious suitcase with equally mysterious contents and the femme fatale who may or may not have made off with it. The tune is being released with a film noir textured video that can be viewed/shared here: https://youtu.be/QajzD76c5fY

For more, visit www.vaporvespers.bandcamp.com, Spotify

Media Contact: vaporvespers@gmail tel/text 516.236.3817

Vapor Vespers: Sex

Vapor Vespers Return with Double-Sided Single of Audacious Sonics and Spoken Word, You Changed and Sex

New York Multi-Instrumentalist Sal Cataldi (aka Spaghetti Eastern Music) Continues Partnership with Alaskan Playwright Mark Muro on More Triptastic Slams of Storytelling and Genre-Skipping Sounds

New York/Anchorage, August 18, 2021 –  It’s a sonic funhouse that draws upon everything from Fripp & Eno ambient and Krautrock to Miles Davis acid-funk-jazz and baroque classicalism. These varied sounds are conjured as soundtracks to spoken word ruminations that are part Eric Bogosian hyper-monologue, Bukowski poetry slam and, occasionally, politically incorrect Rudy Ray Moore party record bawdy. 

This is the world of Vapor Vespers, the edge- and button-pushing transcontinental collaboration between acclaimed NYC & Hudson Valley-based multi-instrumentalist Sal Cataldi (aka Spaghetti Eastern Music) and Alaskan playwright, actor and slam poet Mark Muro.   Drawing inspiration from music-powered spoken word icons like John Cooper Clarke, The Last Poets and Lord Buckley, Vapor Vespers unwrapped their saucy stew with One Act Sonix, their critically buzzed-about 2020 debut album on Bad Egg Records. 

Now the duo is returning with a double-sided single that ups the ante on the cool grooves, guitar riffage and narrative absurdity, You Changed and Sex.  The two tracks, available today on streaming services including Spotify and Bandcamp, are a sneak preview to their sophomore album, slated for winter 2021.

You Changed is high-energy funk-jazz of the Ornette Coleman Prime Time/harmolodic variety. Its galloping funky beat, snappy clavinet accents and dueling snaky lead guitars propel Muro’s caffeinated rant about an actress friend who’s now too cool for school and their friendship. “You used to be nice, you used to be normal, you used to be my friend, then you suddenly changed… You started wearing vinyl pants and blowing kisses to strangers… You called me a sad sirloin burger…You wanted to be interesting, so you rented a wolf, had your elbows pierced, bought a stuffed owl and went to the opera dressed as a mermaid!”

On Sex, Cataldi’s soundtrack is a slow-creep electro modal blues reminiscent of latter-day Jeff Beck, one on which Muro sleepily riffs couplets that illuminate what sex is.  “Sex is a big basket of shiny red apples and a good sharp knife… Sex is a time bomb under your seat and a dog sleeping at your feet… Sex made a monkey out of Darwin and a man outta King Kong… It’s how I got here and how I wanna go.”   

For more visit www.vaporvespers.bandcamp.com, www.soundcloud.com/vapor-vespers, and Vapor Vespers’ Spotify page.

OMG: The Five Books of Inundations

AIRSTRIP OMG cover final

Outrunning God-on-a-motorcycle, flood apocalypse, nightmares pulled from a Christmas cracker, assembly at the Institute of Mockery. Get ready for the Flying Dutchman’s bus, the River and the Abyss, and the BIG wave. AIRSTRIP is weaponised Techno. English performance poet, John Gartland, known as the Poet Noir in Bangkok, plus composer / film maker, Nico Mesterharm and musician / producer, Jan Mueller, two Germans based in Phnom Penh, together are AIRSTRIP.

Phnom Penh to Bangkok: 17 Planekillaz was their first album in 2017.

OMG: The Five Books of Inundations was launched February of 2020, at Heart of Darkness in Phnom Penh. A recording from that event below:

HST readers can claim an exclusive promotional download of the entire album from slingsnarrowz@gmail.com. Just quote “AIRSTRIP@Horror SleazeTrash”, and help spread the word!

 

Vapor Vespers: One Act Sonix

VV

New York multi-instrumentalist Sal Cataldi (aka Spaghetti Eastern Music) partners with Alaskan playwright/poet Mark Muro for a triptastic slam of storytelling and genre-skipping sounds

New York/Anchorage, January 7, 2020 – It’s a sonic funhouse that draws upon everything from Fripp & Eno ambience and Krautrock space explorations to 70s Miles Davis funk-jazz-noise bromides, acoustic folk and baroque classicalism, all to season a world of surreal spoken word ruminations. These narratives explore scenes that are as varied as their musical backings – dramas, large and small, that take on “big think” spiritualism, romance, lust, obsession, death and the petty splendors of daily existence – with recitations that are part Eric Bogosian hyper-monologue, Bukowski/Henry Rollins poetry slam and, occasionally, a little un-PC Rudy Ray Moore party record bawdy.

Welcome to the world of Vapor Vespers, an edge- and button-pushing transcontinental collaboration between acclaimed NYC & Hudson Valley-based multi-instrumentalist Sal Cataldi (aka Spaghetti Eastern Music) and Alaskan playwright, actor and slam poet Mark Muro.

Drawing inspiration from music-powered spoken word icons like John Cooper Clarke, The Last Poets, Lord Buckley, Joe Frank, Henry Rollins and beat god Jack Kerouac, and the O.G. of monologues, Ruth Draper, the Vapor Vespers are unwrapping their ambient, industrial, funk, fuzz and jazz noise-flavored brew with One Act Sonix, a 13-track collection now available for digital download, streaming and in CD via CD Baby, Spotify, and other services. Sample via tracks below:

Cataldi and Muro’s partnership goes back to when they met in their teens in Queens, New York. Here, in the heart of blue-collar New York City, they formed a lifetime friendship and creative bond over a steady diet of Carvel Flying Saucers ice cream sandwiches, Sundew Jungle Juice, Sun Ra, Henry Miller, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and the original spoken word recordings of the 50s and 60s from Caedmon Records.

A longtime denizen of the New York City and now Hudson Valley/Woodstock music scenes, guitarist/keyboardist Cataldi is most recently known for his solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music. Here Cataldi fuses Eastern beats, Spaghetti Western film soundtrack ambience, Krautrock spaciness and psychedelic and funk/fusion flavored electric guitar instrumentals with gentle acoustic vocal songcraft, straight out of the John Martyn/Nick Drake songbook. Time Out New York writes: “Cataldi’s largely instrumental, Eastern-influenced jams are infused with some delicate guitar work and hauntingly moody atmosphere,” while The New York Times proclaims he has “a beat unmistakably his own.” Called “truly excellent” by The Village Voice, “a jazz virtuoso without the need to prove it” by Aquarian Weekly, “beautiful and unique” by WFUV’s Mixed Bag, “wonderfully melodic and off-center” by WFMU and “part Sergio Leone fever dream, part Ravi Shankar raga, a whirling dervish of musical creation” by Hudson Valley One, Cataldi keeps up a steady schedule of performances at leading venues in the Big Apple and the Hudson Valley.

Bronx-born Mark Muro has been a cultural force in Anchorage, Alaska since relocating in the mid-1980s. His short stories and poetry have been published in anthologies including North of Eden and The Anchorage Daily News and he has produced and performed in a series of one-man shows including The Bipolar Express, Indistinct Chatter and Not Marketable at theaters including Cyrano’s and Out North, and also at the annual Alaska One-Minute Play Festival. Muro has acted in numerous independent films and commercials, performed standup comedy, represented the state of Alaska in The National Poetry Slam. He also served as host of the PBS radio show, Stage Talk.  His newest one-man show, Bug Boy: Curse of the Ant Queen, premiered in November 2019 at Anchorage’s Cyrano’s Theater.

One Act Sonix was recorded and engineered by Sal Cataldi about the studio aboard his houseboat in Port Washington, Long Island, Houseboat Garlic Knot Studios, and Sonic Garden Studios in West Saugerties, New York (1/4 mile from the legendary Big Pink house made famous by The Band). All tracks were mastered, and several remixed, by Grammy-winning engineer Bob Stander at Parcheesi Studios.

For more information, please visit www.reverbnation.com/vaporvespers

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5HB9Yig2DS0G0ykw99OvMB

Contact: spaghettieasternmusic@cataldipr.com; tel/text 516.236.3817