Side A
• "NATURE NURTURE"
Remixed by SONIC BOOM. Mastered by SONIC BOOM at New Atlantis Studios.
Side B
• "MIRACULOUS METAL"
Recorded by The Garment District at Golden Mountain Frequencies, Pittsburgh.
• "VIGOR"
A distance sound collaboration between The Garment District and Kevin C. Smith (Oakland).
Artwork By Jesse Treece, collage artist from Seattle.
The Garment District is the musical project of multi instrumentalist Jennifer Baron,
a founding member of Brooklyn's "The Ladybug Transistor" (Merge).
Jennifer worked with legendary british musician/producer Sonic Boom
( spacemen 3, Spectrum, E.A.R) for the remix of her song "Nature-Nurture".
This 7" is featuring two news songs on the B-side.
Jennifer Baron: instruments
Lucy Blehar: vocals
• TINY MIX TAPE
"That’s all well and good, but a certain kind of fan knows it’s much more captivating when Spectrum’s Sonic Boom — Peter Kember — gets involved with anything. This time, he’s got his hooks into the track “Nature Nurture” by The Garment District (alter ego, Jennifer Baron), from her debut tape Melody Elder. The original is a synthesizer affair that arpeggiates forward with stately grace, as if meant to accompany a procession through a digital chapel..." October. 9, 2012, By Alexander Slotnick.
Read More > Here
• AD HOC
"That trend continues on her latest 7" for La Station Radar, where Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3 has remixed one of the Melody Elder tracks, "Nature-Nurture," for it's A-side. The B-side contains two originals from Baron: the wobbly deep disco of "Miraculous Metal" and eerie, vocal sample-driven interlude, "Vigor..." October. 8, 2012, by Matt Sullivan.
Read More > Here
• NO FEAR OF POP with an
INTERVIEW of Jennifer Baron
"After releasing her excellent Melody Elder tape via Night-People late last year, Pittsburgh-based musician Jennifer Baron (formerly of seminal group The Ladybug Transistor), recording under her moniker The Garment District, returns with a new 7 inch, dropped this week by French imprint La Station Radar. Of the three tracks on the single, premiered last week over at Tiny Mix Tapes, one is the Sonic Boom remix of the Melody Elder song "Nature-Nurture". The b-side is comprised of two new instrumentals, "Miraculous Metal" and the sample-driven "Vigor". We're happy to exclusively host the video for "Miraculous Metal", created by Ryan Emmett, and to have had the opportunity to speak with Jennifer about her work and the thriving music scene of her home Pittsburgh. Read the interview and watch the aptly psychedelic video below..." October, 17. 2012, by Henning Lahmann.
Read More > Here
• HARTZINE With a MIXTAPE by La Station Radar
"Nous ne nous lasserons décidément jamais de faire de la place à Jennifer Baron alias The Garment District (lire) tant son album Melody Elder (lire) – paru via le label de Shawn Reed Night People – ressemble au quartier effervescent de New-York auquel son non de scène fait référence, un panorama à la fois étourdissant de vitalité et empreint d’une certaine nostalgie. Aujourd’hui c’est au travers d’un remix que la jeune femme nous revient et non des moindres puisque c’est de Nature Nurture dont il est ici question; titre nodal et intemporel de son dernier album qui se voit revisiter avec sensibilité et minutie par l’une des figures les plus influentes dans la construction de l’univers musical de l’ex Ladybug Transistor : Sonic Boom. Qui d’autre que la Station Radar pouvait ainsi transformer en un objet rare et indispensable cette rencontre aussi élective que féconde...." October 2012, by Thibaut Signaurel.
Read More > Here
• SILENT SHOUT
"The Garment district just released a self-titled 7″ which is available for streaming and purchasable here. Our favourite track is the a-side “Nature Nurture,” a remix by Sonic Boom" October, 17th, 2012.
Read More > Here
• DECODERMAGAZINE
"Today, I'm tracking elusive prey - that most misunderstood of animals, the Untitled 7". A perennial favorite, the unit of music that collects one or more conceptually independent works such that one title would be crass. In the case of our friend Jennifer Baron's 7" as Garment District with La Station Radar, a remix by none other than Sonic Boom .....The remix is a tremendous collaboration and unique for the creative exchange that made it, though the 7"s two originals, "Miraculous Metal" and "Vigor" have at least much to recommend them, the former a particularly suitable showcase for Baron's dynamic textural universe. In large part because of its placement after Sonic Boom's remix and "Miraculous Metal", "Vigor" (the file I was sent is titled "Vigor & Vitality") may feel like a lonelier novelty...." November, 9, 2012, By Dwight Pavlovic.
Read More > Here
• FOXYDIGITALIS
PODCASTS
Nature Nurture featuring in Foxy Podcast to listen > Here
and also in Free form Freakout > Here November, 26, 2012 by David Perron.
• JOSEPH GHOSN BLOG
TALK and MIXTAPE with Jennifer Baron
"I was very fortunate to have seen Sonic Boom and Spectrum perform in New York City when I lived there, on several occasions during the late 1990s.
Over the past few years, I met and talked with him at shows in Pittsburgh, most recently when Spectrum performed at The Andy Warhol Museum. We have a few mutual friends, and so last winter when I had the idea, I contacted him about doing the remix of Nature-Nurture. I could not really imagine anyone else remixing Nature-Nurture in particular, and I feel it was an appropriate match for his production talents and distinct approach to music and his vision for recorded sound.
It is an incredible honor and also a very moving experience for me to have "Nature-Nurture" remixed by Sonic Boom, one of my musical heroes. Today, when I listen to his music from the 1980s and 1990s, which is iconic to me, I honestly can experience it in new, fresh and tactile ways — with new dimensions uncovered and revealed. To me, his music is both highly personal and yet also other-worldly. Sonic Boom’s approach to making and recording music seems very architectural and spatial and his production can be both subtle and jarring — while simultaneously highly organic — and this is frankly the only kind of remix I could imagine being involved with for "Nature-Nurture...." December, 2012, By Joseph Ghosn.
Read More > Here
• PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER
"The A-side of this 7-inch is a gorgeously weird mix of one of the songs from Jennifer Baron's 2011 solo effort, re-tooled by Sonic Boom, of Spacemen 3 — it runs a jackrabbit's course between an otherworldy realm (foregrounding Lucy Blehar's vocals) and an 8-bit video-game world. The B-side features two new tracks: the simple, soundscapey "Miraculous Metal," and the more complex, sample-filled "Vigor," a pastiche of disembodied sounds from everyday contemporary life. The music itself is worth having; with the beautiful packaging (and heavy-duty vinyl), this one is a must-have." December, 19, 2012.
Read More > Here
• 7 INCHBlog
"A-Side's "Nature Nuture" remixed by SONIC BOOM has a wavering in and out of phase sine wave loop, one of those almost grating saw sounds that rises and fades. I'm wondering if I should look up the original, but I'm going to just go sound unheard on this one. Stonger moog sounding melodies start to pick up over that now subtle loop. Real strong synth sounds that are strictly machine made in a stereolab style form the bleak landscape for Jennifer's cousin, Lucy's breathy vocal. The electronics chirp in like cicadas and completely take over for a moment until Lucy comes back, more up front this time, her doubled harmony even fuller, the vocal bigger. The multiple pieces of synth take turns fading in and out, the saw and chirping shrieks, rising out of this almost serene piece. All of this ends up fading away into drawn out bell sounds and distant old synth melody. There's a lot of weird experimentation when it comes to these harsh sounds and this comes off as real organic and ambient, even when it shouldn't.
B-Side's "Miraculous Metal" starts out with a harsh machine beat, those hissy high hats and slap snares, a heavy dance support for a building array of snths to work their way into sleigh bells and gradually more natural (?) sounds. It's a weird notion here to be working with extreme unnatural sounds and getting them to sound sympathetic...." January, 4, 2013 by Jason Dean .
Read More > Here
• CASSETTEGODS
"This French label has done some fine work so far (don't miss the Blanche Blanche Blanche "Papa's Proof" LP) and this 7" by Jennifer Baron is no exception. She's collaborated in the past with Jowe Head from Swell Maps and here she offers a track remixed by Sonic Boom (aka Peter Kember of Spacemen 3 fame) as well as two new songs....." January, 11, 2013, By Nick Williams.
Read More > Here
• HUGH SHOWS
First/Last - Questions - Interview with Jennifer Baron
"Growing up, our house was filled with LPs, cassettes and 8-tracks—some of our first toys—so I was fortunate to feel like I had a private listening library or record store to share with my brother. Among the first albums I bought were compilations of “hits” from the 1950s-1970s. One in heavy rotation included Napoleon XIV’s “They're Coming to Take Me Away” (1966), The Coasters’ “Yakety Yak” (1958) and Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs “Li’l Red Riding Hood” (1966). Those songs all have catchy melodies paired with evocative imagery and narratives to stir a child’s curiosity and imagination. They got lodged in my brain and I still love them, and instantly associate them with childhood..." February, 28, 2013, By Hugh Twyman.
Read More > Here
• PIGGLEDY POP Blog
with an INTERVIEW of JENNIFER BARON
"...Originaire de Pittsburg, diplômée du Brooklyn Museum of Art, la musicienne auteur-compositeur est actuellement en studio pour enregistrer de nouveaux morceaux après avoir signer, sous l’alias Garment District, l’album Melody Elder en 2011 sur cassette avec le label Night-People puis récemment un EP chez French label Radar Station, label français dont le nom va comme un gant à l’univers musical de l’artiste américaine. Jennifer a eu la gentillesse, le tact charmant de répondre de manière détaillée, référencée, à mon interview au beau milieu de ses sessions d’enregistrement..." March,17th, 2013, by Marie-Agnès Hallé.
Read More > Here
• TOME TO THE WEATHER MACHINE
"For all intents and purposes, this was my first real introduction to the Garment District's Jennifer Baron, a Pittsburgh-based musician also known for work with a band called The Ladybug Transistor, which unfortunately I'm not terribly familiar with. I had heard a previous tape release (well, just the digital version) on Night-Peoples under the Garment District banner which was all well and good... but this, despite being a heck of a lot shorter, just has a more meat to it. These are still psycedelic pop tunes to put it simply, but here the band broaches the darker fringes of psychedelia while sculpting out deeper arrangements to give the music a much more substantial presence. Between heavenly buoyant verses that sway as rolling waves on a pensive sea, an emerald hue glows between the cracks, pulsing up with the plodding rhythm of electronic drums,..." April 24th, 2013, By Crawford Philleo.
Read More > Here
• TEST PRESSING
"Heaven and Earth harmonies and harpsichords. American Spring angels. The sound of clockwork mice scurrying backwards. Everything twisted thin, tight and reedy by Steve Kember / Sonic Boom..." April 23, 2013, by DR ROB.
Read More > Here
• RECORD COLLECTORMAGAZINE
In Single Cream Column,
"Dream homes busted open by stretched limos hauling lava lamps and lazy confetti, with a couple of instrumentals awaiting a Julia Holter cameo. Sonic Boom does his thing on the main attraction, ribboning incandescent tracers from Jennifer Baron's retro-leaning keys. Those breathy intonations on Nature-Nurture, courtesy of Lucy Blhear, recall Sarah Peacock's stellar turn on Fuxa's Our Lips Are Sealed." ISSUE December. 2012.by Spencer Grady.
• THE WIRE MAGAZINE
In Size Matters,
"The Garment District is more or less the solo project of Pittsburgh's Jennifer Baron (ex-Ladybug Transistor. On the cassette, she's primarily interested in creating electronic dream pop nuggets with keys, beat box, vocals and various random pulses of vaguely Fripp/Eno origin. The single features a Sonic Boom remix of a track from the cassette -- turning the original into a distended visit to a more shimmering and glimmering place." ISSUE February. 2013, by Byron Coley.
THE GARMENT DISTRICT
7 INCH / 45 rpm
300 copies • 70 gsm
La Station Radar
TRACKLIST
Side A
NATURE NURTURE
remixed by Sonic Boom
Side B
MIRACULOUS METAL
VIGOR
300 copies
6 euros + shipping
OUT 15th, October, 2012.
