Graham O'Brien Releases Debut Album

Graham O'Brien - Live Drums promo video from NOECHO Records on Vimeo.

Graham O'Brien's debut solo album Live Drums is now available for purchase or download through NOECHO Records. It is also available via iTunes. You may be familiar with Graham's work in No Bird Sing, Abzorbr or any number of other bands he's played in or done production for but Live Drums is some next level business. The album features appearances by Kristoff Krane, Adam Svec, Alicia Wiley as well as Eric Blair and Robert Mulrennan of No Bird Sing.

Graham's debut solo effort, Live Drums lies somewhere near the boundaries of the Instrumental Hip Hop genre. As the title suggests, each song on the album is shaped by Graham’s drum set performances - which are inventive and creatively recorded. The dark, contrasting layers of synthetic and sampled sounds make the record an engaging listen. Compositionally, this album is influenced by DJ Shadow, Portishead and The Gaslamp Killer, among others.

Graham O' Brien to Release Solo Project

This morning I was pleasantly surprised to open an email containing a track off of Graham O' Brien's upcoming solo release. Wow. I'm currently breaking my "no music at work" rule. Over the course of the past few years I've enjoyed recording Graham's various musical incarnations. He's a monster. Like many of the best musicians the Twin Cities has to offer he's constantly in at least a half dozen bands at the same time and that's all while working on his own solo material. Graham mentioned that "the main idea behind this project is to explore some of the textures created by samples and live drumming and instrumentation." It's a commonly shared opinion around town that Graham leads the new generation of TC drummers. "Recycle Maker" features Kristoff Krane on vocals rekindling a musical partnership that has lasted the better part of a decade.

"Recycle Maker" Featuring Kristoff Krane

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Artwork: James Penfield