STORY:


INFO:
a. instructions to those who forget
b. trials

connor bell: vocals, guitar, rhodes, synthesizer
tim furnish: bass
joey yates: percussion
recorded and mixed at sellanraa, summer 2009 by connor bell
mastered by carl saff at saff mastering
photo by beth moser, layout by tim furnish

ocio 007 / macarthur park 002

OCIO 006 / hometapes 006 lp/mp3 (tbd) shedding
"tear in the sun"

OCIO 005 cdr (2008) espalda "thistense"

STORY:


INFO:
1. lento
2. justice buildings
3. gcn
4. y que
5. opportunity
6. plan b
7. this tense
8. blank
9. drunk cops
10. your view
11. unknown
12. crime watch

written and produced by the espalda brothers, roberto and michael. recorded between 2005-2007.

ocio 005

OCIO 004 cdr (2008) epstein y el cunjunto "juego de mano"

STORY:


INFO:
1. santero
2. somente
3. awe o we
4. baile en rojo
5. mirar al vacio (remix for jahbitat)
6. tu piel
7. end

recorded at romsound ny 2007. music by roberto lange. track 3 features jon philpot, jason trammell, matt crum, adrian michna. track 5 is a remix for jahbitat's "shutterspeed". design and art by kiku/babyalpaca.org

gracias a kristi, mi familia, kiku and david, lmf, rrosas, mcrum, jtram, egg foo, jphilpot, simonjahbitat, tokaloca, amor a mmascotte y bcrum.

ocio 004

OCIO 003 / placetapes 003 cdr-ep (2007) shedding
"dead in the water"

OCIO 002 cdr (2007) epstein / shedding / sunless / quarantine
"braincrust"

STORY:
ocio002 was begun with two ideas. first, roberto and i had all these fun little tracks that were never gonna be finished. the kind of shit that is crusted onto the interior of your brain...little random things. the second aspect was the thought that little snippets of 'songs' that might be of interest to some weird person in advertising/marketing. with those ideas in conjunction we invited a couple of friends to join us for a four way split called braincrust.

INFO:
1. intro
2. wandering bear
3. early adoption
4. m drift
5. kancel
6. killing
7. times
8. next
9. estrellas
10. mighty
11. kids'hop
12. cupcake
13. all a game
14. no healthy drink this morning
15. turtle preservation
16. sleek car
17. spies like me
18. westing
19. q_1
20. q_2
21. q_3

artist / track:
sunless / 1-4
epstein / 5-10
shedding / 11-18
quarantine / 19-21

artwork: jed voltz www.monglo.com
esto es ocio002 2007

OCIO 001 cdr (2005) epstein / boom & birds
"japan tour"

ALL SOLD OUT!

STORY:

ocio 001 was the release that got us talking about doing little runs of records and cds. roberto needed something to sell to peeps in japan on his tour and he put this sweet little guy together.

INFO:

lado 1: epstein
1. opening
2. hecho mas
3. gritan
4. death wish
5. entonces
6. canto de hermanos

lado 2: boom and birds
7. interlude
8. insect black eloise
9. naelotrebor
10. one visit
11. theme 1

songs 1-7 roberto carlos lange
song 8 jason trammell and roberto lange
song 9 rearranged and recomposed by shedding
song 10 jason trammell and roberto lange
song 11 adam heathcott and roberto lange

design: adam wills
printing: kristi sword
shout to: carlos a. lange, lmf, bobby rose (cp), botanica del jibaro, and arepaz
visit: www.robertolange.com
ocio001 2005

review from uncommonfolk: Epstein and Boom & Birds is a mostly electronic project done by Roberto Lange with a little help from assorted friends. Recently his two bands, Epstein and Boom & Birds toured Japan and released a 100 copy limited edition record called the Japan Tour CD. The split album is made up of all unreleased material from both bands including a remix by Shedding and collaborations between Lange and Jason Trammell. Self-released on Lange’s OCIO label one may still be able to procure a copy of this beuatifully silver silk-screened, chipboard gatefold record. If not, available on Lange’s website are full Epstein, Boom & Birds and ROM albums which were released on various other labels. Lange’s work is heavily influenced by jazz, hip-hop, folk, electronic music and many other styles. It’s a beautiful mish-mash of sounds. Opening the album is the voice of Leadbelly which quickly goes into a more turntablist-sounding track. Sound experimentations, whether found or produced, also fill in the gaps of Lange’s records. Truly prolific, Lange uses modern electronic compositions and sampling to fuse the sounds as seemingly diverse as mellow jazz, psychadelic folk and prog-rock and contemporary hip hop. While arguably a departure from what Uncommon Folk usually covers, Lange’s talent and depth of musical history which he so aptly applies to new and future tenchniques can very well be considered a progression of folk. While hip hop is considered by many as the real “new folk” (and we aren’t talking Jay-Z here), Lange finds away to channel older sounds through hip hop beats, making highly accessible and at the same time highly experimental music. Any listener with an open mind who is into psychadelic music as a whole, and not just of the folk variety, needs to check out and trip to the compositions of Robert Lange and his bands Epstein and Boom & Birds. Big in Japan, as they say, and big all over the world, Lange’s records have been released on many diverse and foreign record labels such as Botanica del Jibaro which was founded on the following socio-political premise: “To break the walls of silence and bring the culture and struggle of Latin America forth via the universal language of hip hop.” While Uncommon Folk is unaware of his political ideology and does not mean to connect the person with the politics, Lange definitely breaks down the walls of silence, incorporating so many cultures and sounds that, whether folk or not, are important in what music can do to help raise awareness of those cultures and sounds to an international audience while attempting to find common ground on which to build a much better tomorrow. Though highly debated in historical circles, socialist Emma Goldman supposedly once said something to the effect that if you can’t dance to it then it isn’t my revolution. She obviously did not have hip hop in mind, but any revolution needs to not only incorporate the past but use the tools of the present. So, sit back and picture Emma Goldman dancing to break beats, have a chuckle and then act on the impulses of the music and the task at hand, the task Emma never saw accomplished. Thus ends the Sunday sermon: Socialismo o Muerte!