Double Live: Sypherlot & Hallowmass 2020

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 2021-10

Label: Alternative Tentacles

These explosions of sound and light took place in Denver, Colorado during one of the most challenging periods of modern history. A worldwide pandemic spread tragedy, illness, death, distrust, worry, doubt and economic disaster while domestic social unrest erupted in the streets as Americans reckoned with the deep racial inequalities that have long infected our country. As citizens grappled with an immense loss of life and livelihood, a brazen attempt by populist criminals to cling to power poured gasoline on an already roaring fire raging in our nation's capital.

It was against this backdrop of isolation and suspended reality that we heeded the call for a radical evolution in shared catharsis and new sonic experiments: Short-band radio broadcast turned each car interior into a private listening experience for a post-apocalyptic simulation, while roving bands of mysterious beings opened a temporary escape portal with contactless chaos, engulfing each and every vehicle in rite and ritual for the ages.

SYPHERLOT - Aug 2020
Set in an expansive parking lot at Denver's Mission Ballroom, SYPHERLOT exploded to life during a time when any/all live music had been sequestered to digital platforms. Itchy-O blew collective minds and blanketed attendees in a cloak of fire, noise, and rhythm, eviscerating old (and new) ideas of entertainment, rewriting the book on what could be achieved at a socially distanced drive-in performance.

HALLOWMASS - Oct 2020
This series of spectacle and offertory shook the now-demolished New Tech Machinery building to its foundation during this most hallowed time of year. As the group's tradition entered its seventh year, artifacts, momentos, and representations were collected on trays from attendee vehicles and later burned in an after-ceremony to honor impermanence and the loss felt so heavily in 2020.

On November 7, the final night of the second series, car horns blasted into the ether as we turned the page to a new chapter of American leadership. It was a less a panacea than a monolith marking the beginning of the end of this dark chapter.

This album is a documented record of those moments, a snapshot of the resulting sacraments ushering in a rapturous sonic bath of transcendental unifying magic, etched now and forever in this very polyvinyl chloride.


Includes a card to download via Dropcards and to stream on Alamo On-Demand