FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 19 AT 4:00 PM PT AT WWW.TWITCH.TV/SPINMAG
Out today, January 15, fans will find Blue Stahli returning to his tracking roots on Obsidian. The album is the completion of the deadchannel_Trilogy following his 2020 full lengths, Quartz and Copper.
Listen to Blue Stahli’s Obsidian now here: https://bluestahli.ffm.to/hopeinspiteofabjectmisery.opr
View video for album track “The Mountain” at:
Look for Blue Stahli to perform on SPIN’s Twitch channel in support of the new album on Tuesday, January 19 at 4:00pm PT at www.twitch.tv/spinmag.
Obsidian was created initially to be a standalone album, but the multi-instrumentalist, rock-leaning electronic artist who is Bret Autrey, experimented with a variety of sounds, moods and locations while preparing the record. It spawned the deadchannel_Trilogy that encapsulates his most personal material yet. Quartz, like the crystal, is a translucent album of songs – there is confusion and uncertainty but you can hear and see a haziness of the 90s, with cyberpunk elements, unintentionally playful and even comic book-like, foreshadowing the steep slope to come. Copper achieves the melancholy, experimental soundscape, left only with his thoughts and the mountains and a disorienting awareness that something massive may be coming, and like the malleable metal, it takes on a serene, dreamlike illusion, reflecting Bret’s frequent drives through the rust-colored desert. Finally, the grand finale of Obsidian is Blue Stahli’s journey through a life change, processing grief and family tragedy, defining who he is as a person after being broken down and starting anew.
Using modern tracker Renoise to craft the newest iteration of the Blue Stahli sound, his latest music is a window into his journey through being his mother’s caretaker as she battled malignant brain cancer and mourning the loss of his biggest champion after she passed away in 2018 while additionally reconnecting with his family origins after the loss of a major cornerstone.
Each song on Obsidian—which includes the title track and previously released songs “The Mountain,” “Prognosis,” “Catastrophe” along with the earlier deadchannel_Trilogy albums has specific meaning and purpose. “We all don’t have a lot of time,” says Bret. “If I kick it next month I want to make sure I have these songs out – every song on this trilogy. Some of the songs came together quickly, I didn’t do them quickly out of the sense like ‘ah, fuck it, here’s a song for filler,’ more that there’s more stuff to get out there before I’m gone.”
Obsidian Tracklist:
01. Obsidian
02. Prognosis
03. Gravity
04. The Mountain
05. Nothing Ever Stays
06. Legion
07. One Last Breath
08. Catastrophe
09. Endure
10. Daylight
About Blue Stahli:
Regarded for his slick, genre-bending electronic rock, Bret Autrey – commonly known as Blue Stahli – produces cyberpunk anthems of the fringe zeitgeist. Born in Phoenix and currently residing in Los Angeles, Autrey’s musical career began with the discovery of computer trackers as a teenager. Soon after, he led electro-industrial collective VOXiS before a stint in the Midwest to hone his mix of explosive guitar riffs and ghostly vocal hooks. The one-man beat-heavy electronic noise collage Blue Stahli launched his solo career, which expanded to include Sunset Neon – an indie pop blast of ocean breeze, sun-drenched skin, and nu-disco dance floors. Beyond artist projects as Blue Stahli which include the self-titled debut album (2011), the Antisleep series (Vol. 1-4 from 2008-17) and the deadchannel_Trilogy (2020/21), he produces custom music which can be heard in film and video game trailers. Perpetually cinematic, Blue Stahli’s body of work has also underscored scary monsters (Lights Out), zombie decapitation (Dead Rising 2), the rescue of the galaxy (Iron Man 3; Star Trek Into Darkness), hailed a new era in video games (Playstation 5 worldwide launch), soundtracked brutal digital battlefields (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare), and calls to mind gunfights, explosions (Kingsman: The Golden Circle), and cosmic horror (“American Horror Story”). Most recently his tracks “Upgrade” (with Danny Cocke) and “Clockwork OS/Stackoverflow” appear exclusively in the highly anticipated video game Cyberpunk 2077.
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