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"There are no women in Azeda Booth. If
you’re reading this before you’ve played their debut album In
Flesh Tones, you’re probably puzzled. Press play and come back.
The band shares the same sublime androgynously-voiced space as
Antony and the Johnstons, jazz great Little Jimmy Scott and
Philly-soul angels the Stylistics. Musically, there are only
sightlines, no touchstones. They twist and flutter, too skittish
for space rock, too hot for IDM, too concise and charming for
glitch-core. The Calgary, Alberta five-piece conjure up the
sound of human travel. The arrivals and departures are hazy and
blurred, the tone both tense and delicate, the fuel potent and
clean, the direction most definitely UP. In Flesh Tones, Azeda
Booth’s debut full length is a benchmark album, a thing of
dazzling beauty and fragile inspiration. It’s not so much a bomb
in the mineshaft as it is an incandescent dove illuminating the
way out.
Formed in the summer months of 2004, the group was originally
comprised of only two members (Morgan Greenwood & Jordon Hossack),
who were to remain a duo until the fall of 2006, when three
other like-minded musical outcasts of the Calgary scene (Chris
Reimer, Marc Rimmer & Mike Wallace) joined to form the group’s
current incarnation. With the release of 2007’s Mysterious Body
(which was recorded almost two years prior by Morgan & Jordon),
the group marked the end of their days as a duo, and began
writing and recording material for their forthcoming full length,
In Flesh Tones. Recorded with the same “musical chairs-esque”
enthusiasm as featured in their live shows, In Flesh Tones is
inspired and simple in its celebration of sound and movement.
With the force of five to translate the material to a live
setting, the group’s live shows have been the focal point of
much of their recent attention. Always changing and growing,
Azeda Booth’s live show is as much about exploring the facets of
the energy shared by audience and artist as it is about creating
a memorable musical experience.
-Absolutely Kosher, 2008
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