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Mwahaha & Tune Yards’ Merrill Garbus Team Up on "Love"// Psych-Pop Meets Analog Electronics on Debut LP Mwahaha out December 6th [News+ Free Download]

November 14, 2011
Oakland, CA’s Mwahaha recently announced their debut full length album Mwahaha, set for release December 6th on their own Mwahaha Music and in the meantime, and if the steady stream of tracks that have been unveiled over the last couple months haven’t clued you in, this one should. MTV Hive has premiered “Love,” the emphatic, heart-racing collaboration with Merrill Garbus of Tune Yards, which features her undeniable signature harmonies. It’s one of the many high points on an album packed full of psychedelic ebb & flows, electronic undercurrents, and pop flourishes . They already have been compared to the likes of TV on the Radio to Black City-era Matthew Dear. The band, consisting of Ross Peacock (formerly of Clipd Beaks) and brothers Nathan and Cyrus Tilton (who were all previously in the Bay Area cult band Ned), have constructed an album that is rhythmic yet challenging, “out there” yet familiar. They have a pair of November dates coming up in the SF/Bay Area, with some to be announced December dates in Los Angeles coming up as well. Lastly, Anticon‘s Odd Nosdam is finalizing his boom-bap heavy remix for the band coing up as well.

DOWNLOAD: “Love (feat. Merrill Garbus)” mp3 / via MTV Hive
DOWNLOAD: “Poinsettia” mp3 / via Impose
DOWNLOAD: “Sleep Deep” mp3 / via RCRD LBL

Mwahaha Live Date
Saturday, November 19th @ The Starry Plough – Berkeley, CA

For the album, Mwahaha filters instruments through an array of analog synths, analog drum machines & live drums, and morphing walls of sound to create sprawling yet pop oriented sonic landscapes. The band tracked most of the album at their own studio. They recorded mostly with Eli Crews (Deerhoof, Tune-Yards, WHY?, Exray’s), who also mixed the album at New and Improved Studios in Oakland, CA. The tangible energy of the Oakland scene is something they were inspired by as well, as the city (and Bay Area in general) continues to burst with new bands, ideas, and collaborations. Mwahaha took full advantage of this, enlisting the help of their friends from other bands to lend drum parts, as well as the unique voice of Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards on one of the album stand-outs “Love, who sings……… “I am the branch you see, and you are the fragile leaves, this life it is the cold cold wind, that comes and takes you away from me.”
The members of Mwahaha have been writing and performing together for close to 10 years. Compared to their previous band, Mwahaha is giant leap forward, achieving greater rewards while still pursuing sonic exploration. And the album itself? It exists for a very important reason. “There are times you see a band perform and you’re blown away by the live show, but you bring the album home and that special something just isn’t captured in the recordings,” Peacock says. “We weren’t going to perform live until we had a record that the live show would have to live up to… something that documented the changes and struggles we all deal with, but with space to grow with and into what the listener needs it to be.” Indeed, it sounds like Mwahaha will have the last laugh after all.

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