It only takes hearing a couple seconds of Basketball's music to realize the band are extremely world-minded. Since starting up a couple of years ago, the eclectic Vancouver, BC combo have managed to jumble Euro-centric club music, African rhythms, Croatian-sung lyrics and skittered electro beats into their kitchen-sink sound. The group even took off in 2008 for a year-long residency in Barcelona, bringing back with them an even more dance-driven aesthetic, as well as a stronger sense of purpose. Since their return to Canada last fall, they've been hard at work on their debut album.
Unfortunately, we may have to wait a bit longer for that full-length, as the band have headed out for Africa.
In an interview with Exclaim!, vocalist Tome Jozic states that the act are indeed sitting on a number of tracks but feels that most of them can stand a little outside work. In a move he hopes inspires some great results, he and multi-instrumentalist Luka Rogers will be travelling around Morocco and Algeria, among other spots, to find some brave new beats.
"Luka and I are heading to North Africa for our initial recruitment of extended members into Basketball," Jozic says. "Sampling sounds from our well of ancestry has been a large part of Basketball and as much as possible, we intend to move towards sampling people/musicians we've made connections with globally. The plan is to spend time with friends and musicians and involve them in our project; playing our rough track recordings for them, and if they're so inspired, recording them on the spot, bringing these recordings back to Vancouver and including them in our songs. The climax being in the future where these people would join us on stage to perform these songs in their homelands and wherever possible."
Though Basketball will be sidelined from gigging for the next little bit, fans of the band can take solace in a parting gift: the group's new single, "Suspiros de Chile." The mind-expanding rave number, which can be heard below, furthers Basketball's culture-mashing abilities by bringing together South American drum cadences, early '90s break beats, ear-piercing shehnai loops and a barrage of melodic chants. The sensory-flooding song is overwhelmingly awesome, to say the least.
It's the first of what the troupe hope to be a series of leaked singles to tease their new record.
"We'll be releasing a few intermittently over the next couple months as we wrap up this saga of a recording process this month," Jozic explains. "We want nothing more than to have it as accessible as possible, and until the official release, sharing these songs for free via interwaves."
Though Basketball are currently without a label, they hope to release their album early next year.
Basketball - Suspiros de Chile by basketballaz
Unfortunately, we may have to wait a bit longer for that full-length, as the band have headed out for Africa.
In an interview with Exclaim!, vocalist Tome Jozic states that the act are indeed sitting on a number of tracks but feels that most of them can stand a little outside work. In a move he hopes inspires some great results, he and multi-instrumentalist Luka Rogers will be travelling around Morocco and Algeria, among other spots, to find some brave new beats.
"Luka and I are heading to North Africa for our initial recruitment of extended members into Basketball," Jozic says. "Sampling sounds from our well of ancestry has been a large part of Basketball and as much as possible, we intend to move towards sampling people/musicians we've made connections with globally. The plan is to spend time with friends and musicians and involve them in our project; playing our rough track recordings for them, and if they're so inspired, recording them on the spot, bringing these recordings back to Vancouver and including them in our songs. The climax being in the future where these people would join us on stage to perform these songs in their homelands and wherever possible."
Though Basketball will be sidelined from gigging for the next little bit, fans of the band can take solace in a parting gift: the group's new single, "Suspiros de Chile." The mind-expanding rave number, which can be heard below, furthers Basketball's culture-mashing abilities by bringing together South American drum cadences, early '90s break beats, ear-piercing shehnai loops and a barrage of melodic chants. The sensory-flooding song is overwhelmingly awesome, to say the least.
It's the first of what the troupe hope to be a series of leaked singles to tease their new record.
"We'll be releasing a few intermittently over the next couple months as we wrap up this saga of a recording process this month," Jozic explains. "We want nothing more than to have it as accessible as possible, and until the official release, sharing these songs for free via interwaves."
Though Basketball are currently without a label, they hope to release their album early next year.
Basketball - Suspiros de Chile by basketballaz
