The Letdown, by William Ryan Fritch

The Letdown

by William Ryan Fritch

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padredre Like you walked into the club just after taking some really strong psychoactives. Settled into a plush velvet couch, at first you're just digging the swinging band, and before you know it you've been staring at your hand for 20 minutes and trying to remember where you are.

Jeremy / HI54LOFI “Kicks off differently than previous WRF releases, more upbeat & jazzy, and really caught my headphones off guard (in a good way). Amazing front-to-back listen as always, but really dug the unexpected smokey jazz club vibes which *spoiler alert* eventually transform into something dark & haunted. A 'letdown' this record most definitely is not.” Favorite track: Free Radical.

Sailcloth I've been revisiting this album a lot since it's come out. William found a good vibe, and leaned into it hard. Sonically the instruments all seem to hit this perfect saturation point that feels like a pre-amp is about to melt out of it's channel strip. Well done! Favorite track: Free Radical.

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Subscribe to the Lost Tribe Sound album series "Built Upon A Fearful Void" and receive 'The Letdown' on CD or digitally at a discounted price here: https://losttribesound.bandcamp.com/album/fearful-void-series

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
LAST REMAINING COPIES
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• Glass Mastered CD
• Gatefold heavy stock, reverse printed case
• Artwork by Dorota Jedrusik
• Limited to 100 Editions
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IMPORTANT: Subscribe to the Lost Tribe Sound album series "Built Upon A Fearful Void" and receive 'The Letdown' digitally at a discounted price: losttribesound.bandcamp.com/album/fearful-void-series

Includes unlimited streaming of The Letdown via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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edition of 100 1 remaining

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1.	Unhinged 02:18	buy track
2.	Free Radical 02:01	buy track
3.	Compulsion / Going Through the Motions 04:17	buy track
4.	Initiative 01:42	buy track
5.	Dream Differently 01:52	buy track
6.	Experiment 00:57	buy track
7.	Curls of Smoke / False Confidence 03:45	buy track
8.	Unraveling 01:47	buy track
9.	Progress Traps 03:17	buy track
10.	Ashen Relics 01:20	buy track
11.	The Letdown 02:00	buy track
12.	Hesitation / Recurring 03:11	buy track
13.	Shuttered 04:57	buy track
14.	Dream Glitch / Fugue State / Broken Barriers 05:28	buy track
15.	What's Left Unfilched 02:24	buy track

about

‘The Letdown’ is a record better identified by the vibe it creates rather than a particular genre or style. It’s dirty, unapologetically loud and charmingly haphazard. It’s the sort of self-educated, non-jazz record that critics of Moondog would have written off as impure. Frankly, we’re good with that. The strength of the record lies not with any collegiate-level classification, but in its ability conjure moods that just feel good, are instantly familiar and invite a certain nostalgia. The gritty, noir side of it, brings to mind the old black and white detective stories. The jovial, 1920’s romanticism, lends a bit of class and gives the sense that even though everything is falling to shit, we are going to power through it with a bit of song and dance.

Whatever one happens to take away from this album, ‘The Letdown’ is meant to be fun, help the whisky burn just a bit less, and keep the blood flowing. Read into it too much and you might spoil it. Guaranteed it is unlike any Fritch record to date.

credits

released June 12, 2020

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Originally released on Lost Tribe Sound. See Catalog: losttribesound.bandcamp.com
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BEST AMBIENT ALBUMS OF 2020 - LOW LIGHT MIXES

BEST AMBIENT OF 2020 - POST AMBIENT LUX

BEST ALBUMS OF 2020 - "Unusually jazzy record for Fritch (at least in its first half), but nevertheless marked with the seal of a heady strangeness, with its atmospheres of retro cine-club and nocturnal wandering to the sound of an opiate jam between Lynchian jazzmen in full descent from euphoria to bad trip." (translated from French) (Rabbit) INDIE ROCK MAG

TOP ALBUMS OF 2020 - THE SILENT BALLET

BEST COVER ART OF 2020 - SON OF MARKETING

"As the first album in Lost Tribe Sound’s new series Built Upon a Fearful Void, The Letdown is anything but. It’s also the first William Ryan Fritch album that doesn’t sound like William Ryan Fritch" - (Richard Allen) A CLOSER LISTEN

"This is music for mood. We’re talking Henry Mancini’s Experiment in Terror, Tom Waits Black Rider, Bohren and Der Club of Gore, jazzy cinematic darkness with hints of noir. Amazing." - (Bob Baker Fish) CYCLIC DEFROST

"Highly atmospheric, slightly eerie, experimental electroacoustics, modern classical and noir jazz gems. Unique, fun and varied listen to this album at night while sipping on your favourite tipple of choice." - (CF Smith) TWISTED SOUL

"Fun, laid-back and steeped in a classic film noir atmosphere, it's upright and respectable music from a bygone era, nicely dressed in a suitably old-fashioned outfit while bringing something fresh and daring to the table." - (translated from French) ROCK DECIBELS

"The sepia shades of the cover of The Letdown mingle with the images of (post-) modernism suggested by a sequence of concise chamber-jazz miniatures. Their rapid succession, like black and white frames, also appears to come from a distant time and a surreal present." (translated from Italian) - (Raffaello) MUSIC WON'T SAVE YOU

"It is unpolished, compelling, sepia-colored, old-sounding but also new and of an exceptional splendor. Sometimes very dark and at other times more cheerful." - (translated from Dutch)(JW Broek) - SUBJECTIVISTEN

"Retrospection and nostalgia, moments of clarity, mindfulness and silence. All that is represented in these fifteen compositions with the touching narrative and abrupt endings. Each episode let you know and feel more, while the time is playing its game." - SELECTED GOOSEBUMPS

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Total run time: 42 minutes

All music written and recorded by William Ryan Fritch
Artwork by Dorota Jedrusik
Layout and Design by R. Keane
© Lost Tribe Sound LLC / William Ryan Fritch
℗ Settled Scores LLC (ASCAP)

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William Ryan Fritch California

William Ryan Fritch is a composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer currently based in Oakland, California. His compositions are characterized by his unique range as a multi-instrumentalist and audio engineer, allowing him to realize large ensemble arrangements found in folk, Indie-rock, electronica,
Hip-hop, World and orchestral music as a solo endeavor. ... more

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