LOW STOCK WARNING!

These following releases are all about to sell out, so if you wanted to grab a copy for your own personal vinyl record collection, now might be a good time to place an order:

• This Water is Life, Vol. III ft. Sheme of Gold + cydaddy
• This Water is Life, Vol. IV ft. Fuzz Jaxx + Tercel
• Female Gaze Tender Futures
• Forest Fallows Palisades
• Naïm Amor Stories
• Tracy Shedd The Carolinas
• Moyamoya Hawn

Here are some new artists you might like for your vinyl record collection

We are very excited about the last round of artists we've had the pleasure of working with these past twelve months for vinyl records we've released on Fort Lowell Records, so we thought to take a moment to highlight a few of them, just in case their awesomeness slipped through the cracks you and didn't quite catch how fantastic these musicians are.  Check them out using the information provided below, and if you happen to agree... pick-up a record or three or six to enjoy with your own vinyl collection at home.

JPW + DAD WEED — FOR FANS OF: My Morning Jacket, Steely Dan, Wilco
"Folky psych pop that meets melancholic alt-rock, in a timeless kaleidoscope of sound and sentiment—solid but surprising" ~ Add to Wantlist

        

        LISTEN TO FULL ALBUM  |  ORDER VINYL RECORD

KICKING BIRD — FOR FANS OF: Cheap Trick, The New Pornographers, The Pixies
"Quirky indie rock with pop sensibilities and classic rock roots" ~ Faster and Louder

        

        LISTEN TO FULL ALBUM  |  ORDER VINYL RECORD

FUZZ JAXX — FOR FANS OF: Common, GangStarr, Nas
"The best freestyle rapper the Port City has ever known" ~ StarNews

        

        LISTEN TO FULL ALBUM  |  ORDER VINYL RECORD

TERCEL — FOR FANS OF: Broken Social Scene, Pavement, Superchunk
"A musical aesthetic that juxtaposes jangly indie-rock/post punk with jangle rock/punk" ~ Janglepophub

        

        LISTEN TO FULL ALBUM  |  ORDER VINYL RECORD

FOREST FALLOWS — FOR FANS OF: Mac DeMarco, Real Estate, Stereolab
"The warmth but never overheat of summer air blows gently as Mike Barnett and Alex Morton strum soft chords, and sing like the fur of a rabbit in a straw hat" ~ Small Albums

        

        LISTEN TO FULL ALBUM  |  ORDER VINYL RECORD

NAÏM AMOR — FOR FANS OF: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, JD McPherson, Roy Orbison
"Late 60s Nouvelle Vague soundtrack vibe, spiced up with a bit of noise, a dash of post-rock and Tex Mex" ~ Here Comes the Flood

        

        LISTEN TO FULL ALBUM  |  ORDER VINYL RECORD

FEMALE GAZE — FOR FANS OF: Broadcast, Sugar Candy Mountain, The Velvet Underground
"Tender Futures explores the desert using empty space and towering nothingness as its language, intentionally evoking haziness and disorientation through psychedelia, post-rock, and even a bit of jazz-rock" ~ Rosy Overdrive

        

        LISTEN TO FULL ALBUM  |  ORDER VINYL RECORD

OUT NOW: This Water is Life, Vol. IV ft. Fuzz Jaxx & CoolOutSessions + Tercel

This Water is Life is a self-sustained and ongoing series of split EPs with two express purposes: to highlight new hip-hop / indie rock music from Southeastern North Carolina, as well as to provide a platform for Cape Fear River Watch and Coastal Plain Conservation Group to deliver up-to-date authoritative reports on the health of the Cape Fear River Basin for both human beings and wildlife.

Volume IV features Fuzz Jaxx & CoolOutSessions and Tercel, and is out now everywhere!

Hip-Hop: Fuzz Jaxx & CoolOutSessions

These two hip hop heads Fuzz Jaxx and CoolOutSessions are a force to be reckoned with. Hailing from Georgia (FJ) and North Carolina (COS) the love and knowledge they have for the music and culture is astonishing. Fuzz had bars beyond the average emcee and a stage presence to match. The smooth melodic tones that CoolOutSessions provides compliments Fuzz’s voice and lyrics. The two are creating a different sound that is slowly but surely grabbing ears. Also, the production is far beyond the watered down versions of what hip hop is today. Their sound is a definite throwback and tribute to J Dilla and Native Tongues vibes. 

Indie Rock: Tercel

Hailing from The Cape Fear region, the Tercel sound carries reverence for its homeland. The lyricism of Robin and Savannah Wood pull from the beliefs of climate activism, societal collapse, and the ennui of existence in the modern world. But Tercel is fun. Tercel is joyous. These are heavy words, lightly thrown. Wall-of-noise guitars in alternate tunings, the give-and-take singing between the vocalists, Chris Vinopal’s pedal steel in all its brightness, Taylor Salvetti’s driving drum beats to accent the changes: Tercel knows the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And in this, we are all smothered in the green glow of existence. Go outside. Enjoy the light.

LISTEN TO FULL EP | ORDER VINYL RECORD

In partnership with: - Cape Fear River Watch

- Coastal Plain Conservation Group This Water is Life is brought to you buy: - Dock Street Printing - Fortis Builders - Gravity Records - Persephone's Farm

- Satellite Bar & Lounge

OUT NOW: Fuzz Jaxx & CoolOutSessions + Tercel [Digital Singles]

The Digital Singles from each of the artists — Fuzz Jaxx & CoolOutSessions "Welcome to Hip-Hop" and Tercel "L.O.L. (Lap of Luxury)" — featured on Volume IV of our This Water is Life series are available now everywhere!  

Fans of A Tribe Called Quest, Black Thought, Common, Del, Dilla, GangStarr, J Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Little Brother, Method Man, MindsOne, Nas, Ras Kas, Redman, and Souls of Mischief will enjoy "Welcome to Hip-Hop" by Fuzz Jaxx & CoolOutSessions — while fans of Archers of Loaf, Broken Social Scene, Built to Spill, Horsegirl, Japandroids, JEFF the Brotherhood, Pavement, Pissed Jeans, Sebadoh, Ty Segall, Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Superchunk, The Thermals, and Yuck will enjoy "L​.​O​.​L. (Lap of Luxury)" by Tercel.

LISTEN NOW: Fuzz Jaxx & CoolOutSessions // Tercel
PRE-ORDER VINYL RECORD

'This Water is Life': Wilmington record label uses music to do good

CLICK PHOTO TO WATCH VIDEO

[Repost from Spectrum News 1; by Natalie Mooney, November, 30, 2023]

An independent record label in the Cape Fear region is using music for good.

Fort Lowell Records is releasing its third record in the series "This Water is Life," something that not only highlights local musicians’ work but also gives a platform to organizations promoting clean water.

Fort Lowell Records was started in 2009 by James Tritten. Since then, he’s released an impressive collection of records, highlighting both local artists and artists from all over the country. Now, he’s using records to raise awareness of important issues in his community.

“In 2020, we did a compilation called 'Grow,' which featured all Wilmington Indie Rock bands,” Tritten said. “And we used that as a fundraiser to raise money for the New Hanover County’s chapter of the NAACP.”

Since then, he’s started a series called "This Water is Life," which not only highlights new music from the region but also gives a platform for environmental organizations — like Cape Fear River Watch and the Coastal Plain Conservation Group — to speak on the health of the Cape Fear River Basin.

“The water problem is an ongoing thing, it has been for decades as well, but we don’t see it going away, of course, it’s not a one-time fix it and be done,” Tritten said. “So we thought by creating a series that would help bring awareness to that through music, it would help educate more people.”

The Cape Fear River is the main drinking water supply for 500,000 people, and it is contaminated with forever chemicals like GenX, which can be harmful if consumed. That’s why Dana Sargent, the executive director of Cape Fear River Watch, is happy to use "This Water is Life" to help spread the word about the contamination and the fight for clean water.

“Everything that we’re relying on in this community especially is built on the water, either on the river or the ocean or both,” Sargent said. “So this is so huge and so great that James and Fort Lowell have kind of brought these two beautiful things together.”

It’s not just the music on the album, Tritten uses every part of the record to get the message across.

“The liner note portion of the record itself here is what we refer to is written by Cape Fear River Watch where they speak to how the water is affecting us as humans,” Tritten explained. “Meanwhile on this side, the Coastal Plain Conservation Group is speaking to the wildlife and how the wildlife is being affected.”

Sargent has been writing liner notes on behalf of her organization for all three records in the series.

“James was like, 'just write what you’re thinking,' and I was thinking about the heaviness of the world, and I wrote, ‘Unless we take the time sit with the heaviness of the world, we become heavy with it, and that’s when apathy bleeds in,'” Sargent said. “And what can we do? For me, the answer has always been to immerse myself in music and nature, and so that’s kind of what this project does.”

That’s also why cydaddy, one of the two musicians on the record, says he wanted to be involved.

“Growing up in the area, you spend a lot of time growing up in wildlife, outdoor habitats,” cydaddy said. “So to be part of an intersectionalist piece of art that can bring both awareness to the local art scene and kind of bring awareness to the health of the wildlife around the community was super special to me.”

Sheme of Gold is the other musician on featured on the record. You can check out more of his work here.

Tritten is excited for the record to be released and hopes that this collaboration can help lead to change.

“The most rewarding part for me is simply bringing awareness to the community and just helping drive more projects in the community with like-minded people for a positive effort,” Tritten said. “And of course, if they can help Coastal Plain Conservation Group and Cape Fear River Watch get their agenda across to a new audience then that’s the greatest success of all.”

Click here if you would like to buy a digital download of the album or purchase a copy of the vinyl record.

You can also find a copy at Gravity Records in Wilmington.

If you would like to volunteer with Cape Fear River Watch, you can click here.

If you would like to get involved with the Coastal Plain Conservation Group, you can click here.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO INTERVIEW

OUT NOW: This Water is Life, Vol. III ft. Sheme of Gold + cydaddy

This Water is Life is a self-sustained and ongoing series of split EPs with two express purposes: to highlight new hip-hop / indie rock music from Southeastern North Carolina, as well as to provide a platform for Cape Fear River Watch and Coastal Plain Conservation Group to deliver up-to-date authoritative reports on the health of the Cape Fear River Basin for both human beings and wildlife.

Ever since our forebears crawled up out of the water and drew their first breath, our – which is to say human and animal (and for that matter, plant) – experience has never strayed too far from its life-sustaining force. This water IS life. It will continue to be. But what kind of life? Threats to that water are, in turn, threats to the very life it supports. 

Inspired by photography focused on water in urban landscapes against a backdrop of the evolving GenX (PFAS) water pollution problem in the Wilmington, NC / Cape Fear region, This Water is Life is a local multimedia, multi-platform project. It takes what Fort Lowell Records does best – put out and promote killer indie music of varied stripes – and fuses it with photography and other visual arts alongside river and wildlife advocacy. The goal is a virtuous circle contained within an intended series of records. Packaged together, musical and visual artists from the Port City combined with a separate, serialized and locally-specific environmental message gives rise to the future promotion of other local music acts and further advocacy.

Volume III features Sheme of Gold and cydaddy.

Hip-Hop: Sheme of Gold

Sheme of Gold is an artist born and raised in Goldsboro, North Carolina, who relocated to Wilmington to attend culinary school in 2019, six months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. His unique style of hip hop is nostalgic and psychedelic, which grabs the listeners attention right away. His stories shed light on the struggles he’s endured and the confidence and braggadocio it takes to make a man of this stature. 

Indie Rock: cydaddy

cydaddy is a solo recording project for singer-songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Cyrus Goudarzi. Cyrus’s musical journey started in high school exploring home recording and sneaking around local shows in Wilmington, North Carolina. After an album release in 2010, his musical journey continued to Chicago, Illinois, where he would fill in rotating lineups for the next several years. Following, cydaddy was a leading member of local salt rock outfit Reef Blower.  Unquestionably, cydaddy is a product of his environment in the wildlife of the southeastern coast and has a heavy heart for the natural habitats that have shaped his years.

Just as clean water helps sustain life on Earth and here in the ILM, your purchase of this record fosters the work of not only hip hop, indie rock and visual artists in Wilmington but advances the advocacy of groups seeking to protect and preserve water and wildlife in the region. This water is life.

LISTEN TO FULL EP // ORDER VINYL RECORD

15 great new songs by Wilmington-area artists that you need to listen to right now

[Repost from StarNews Online; by John Staton, November 22, 2023]

It's been a banner year for new music in Wilmington, a corncucopia overflowing with good songs, if you're feeling the Thanksgiving vibes.

It helps that we've got two tiny but mighty labels punching above their weight and cranking out new tunes — sonic veterans Fort Lowell Records and indie upstarts Suck Rock Records — but there's been plenty of good self-released stuff, as well as a couple of former Wilmingtonians shining from afar. From rock and pop to folk and hip-hop, it's not just one scene, either.

Take a listen, and keep in mind there's plenty more where this came from. Keeping the list to 15 was a challenge, which is a good problem to have.

Cydaddy "CHEERS (WATER MIX)"

New single from Wilmington-based Fort Lowell Records' "This Water Is Life: Vol. III," a series of albums split between local rappers and indie rockers designed to draw attention to our area's significant water quality issues. Cydaddy's "Cheers (Water Mix)" is a sweet piece of lo-fi indie pop, suffused in melancholy and regret but also tinged with hopefulness.

—

Doggy Daycare "ACID WALK"

That intro, man oh man. Doggy Daycare's new single is big and bold and fuzzy and psychedelic, like a slice of the coolest grunge that somehow escaped your notice back in the '90s. According to a social media post by the band, "acid walk" is "an ode to being in love and definitely not (about) doing drugs while hiking."

—

Sheme of Gold "RAP GAME TAN SANDERS (REMIX)"

New single from Wilmington-based Fort Lowell Records' "This Water Is Life: Vol. III," a series of albums split between local rappers and indie rockers designed to draw attention to our area's significant water quality issues. Sheme's laid-back delivery and raw subject matter about the things we do to get by are set to some soulful samples, with a guest spot from D$5.

—

Summer Set "THE JETTY"

Longtime Wilmington indie rock band wrote this song some years ago, but it's new to us, as it just came out Nov. 3 on their new, self-titled album for Fort Lowell Records. Definitely has the beachy sheen of classic Summer Set, with some boom-bap drums and hazy vocals about not losing your grip on the jetty, or on life for that matter.

—

Tracy Shedd "LET IT RIDE"

Wilmington singer Shedd's latest single, a groovy, moody meditation on patience and trust, came out in August on Fort Lowell. Shedd's vocals are pristine here, sweet and understated.

OUT NOW: New Singles from both Sheme of Gold + cydaddy

This Water is Life is a self-sustained and ongoing series of split EPs with two express purposes: to highlight new hip-hop / indie rock music from Southeastern North Carolina, as well as to provide a platform for Cape Fear River Watch and Coastal Plain Conservation Group to deliver up-to-date authoritative reports on the health of the Cape Fear River Basin for both human beings and wildlife.

Volume III features Sheme of Gold and cydaddy. Today, November 10th, one song from each artists has been released into the world as a digital single for your enjoyment ahead of the full EP's release, which is set for December 1st. Click the links below to listen to Sheme of Gold "Rap Game Tan Sanders (Remix)", ft. D$5, as well as cydaddy "Cheers (Water Mix)".

LISTEN TO DIGITAL SINGLES:

• Sheme of Gold "Rap Game Tan Sanders (Remix)", ft. D$5
  
• cydaddy "Cheers (Water Mix)"

PRE-ORDER VINYL RECORD

Hip-Hop: Sheme of Gold

Sheme of Gold is an artist born and raised in Goldsboro, North Carolina, who relocated to Wilmington to attend culinary school in 2019, six months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. His unique style of hip hop is nostalgic and psychedelic, which grabs the listeners attention right away. His stories shed light on the struggles he’s endured and the confidence and braggadocio it takes to make a man of this stature. 

Indie Rock: cydaddy

cydaddy is a solo recording project for singer-songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Cyrus Goudarzi. Cyrus’s musical journey started in high school exploring home recording and sneaking around local shows in Wilmington, North Carolina. After an album release in 2010, his musical journey continued to Chicago, Illinois, where he would fill in rotating lineups for the next several years. Following, cydaddy was a leading member of local salt rock outfit Reef Blower.  Unquestionably, cydaddy is a product of his environment in the wildlife of the southeastern coast and has a heavy heart for the natural habitats that have shaped his years.

Three New Vinyl Records For You!

Okay, so technically we have four new records being released before the end of the year:

1. Summer Set Summer Set — Release Date: November 3rd
2. Jon Rauhouse & Blaine Long One Day Will Never Come Back — Release Date: November 17th
3. This Water is Life, Vol. III ft. Sheme of Gold + cydaddy — Release Date: December 1st
4. Common Thread Fountain | 30th Anniversary Vinyl Edition — Release Date: December 8th

However, our Jon Rauhouse & Blaine Long LP sold out before we even launched our first press release for the album. 😁

So, officially we have three new vinyl records to offer you this Fall / Winter / Holiday Season ahead that you can pre-order right now: 

1. Summer Set — PRE-ORDER VINYL RECORD
2. This Water is Life, Vol. III — PRE-ORDER VINYL RECORD
3. Common Thread — PRE-ORDER VINYL RECORD

Reserve your copy of each record today before these sell-out as well!  You've been warned!

Summer Set Summer Set

*SOLD OUT* — Jon Rauhouse & Blaine Long One Day Will Never Come Back — *SOLD OUT*

This Water is Life, Vol. III ft. Sheme of Gold + cydaddy

Common Thread Fountain | 30th Anniversary Vinyl Edition

Artist Interview: Color Temperature

[Repost from The Alternative; by Zac Djamoos, January 23, 2023]

Ross Page is a sort of wunderkind. He juggles five different projects, including his solo endeavor Color Temperature, and double as many styles of music between them all. As Color Temperature he’s just released his fourth full-length, Me Talk Pretty, as well as an experimental single titled “The River” for Fort Lowell Record’s This Water Is Life split series. Me Talk Pretty is the apex of Page’s work to this point, an indie kaleidoscope that takes in elements of Americana, heartland rock, folk, and dream pop and spits out something entirely unique. We sat down with Page to discuss his latest record.

How’d you start writing and playing music in the first place?

I’ve been writing ever since maybe eighth grade. I never did it seriously until college, but I’ve always played in bands. After I got into it a little more near the end of college I just couldn’t stop. I moved to California for a bit after college and was lucky enough to have a whole room to set up my drums and it was this online music blog that did this ‘make an album in a month challenge.’ I’d never done anything cohesive or real, but I did that and I thought it was sweet.

You’re in Seeking Madras, Lauds, and Azza on top of Color Temperature.

There’s an indie folk band called Tumbleweed I play with too.

How did you get involved with all of them, and how do you balance all these bands?

I play drums in all of them, which really helps. I don’t have to learn all these chord progressions. But it’s neat discipline myself to just play that one genre. I’ll try to play intentionally–and sometimes even take parts of my set out of the equation. For Tumbleweed I play with a smaller kit. It’s a fun challenge, and it helps that I play other instruments, so I can hear where drums need to lay back more. A lot of the bands have shared members too.

Each of these bands has a different vibe. Tumbleweed is folk, Azza is post-punk, Lauds is dream pop, and Color Temperature’s sort of a little of all of that. Which project would you say is closest to what you listen to in your day-to-day?

I go through seasons of it, but there’s a couple I come back to. I listen to Kurt Vile a lot, especially lately. Probably mostly I listen to indie rock stuff, Alex G, that kinda stuff. I’ve been into egg punk lately. [laughs]

What is egg punk?

I didn’t know it had a name. It’s like this newer subgenre of punk that’s kinda goofy with a lot of chorus on the guitars. If you know the band Prison Affair. They’re all short songs. I love a sub-two-minute song.

I wanted to talk a bit about that Azza EP–how’d that band start? Most of the other bands you’re in have been around for a while. 

I literally–probably mid-2020–was listening to a lot of punk, that Illuminati Hotties album Free I.H. I listened to it obsessively, four times a day. I was like, “I need heavier music. I’m over relaxing, I’m over Brian Eno and Aphex Twin.” I posted on Instagram like, “Who wants to form a punk band?” My buddy Jeff in Seeking Madras hit me up and said let’s do it, so when COVID calmed down we got a practice studio downtown. We both wanted to get someone on the mic to sing and write that had something to say. We write our own stuff but wanted to intentionally be political. I asked around and someone at the coffee shop I go to, Luna, told me to ask Janice. She joined and we tried it out. We immediately clicked. Janice’s husband, who’s in Nice Derek, is a really good guitar player, so we tried it out. He brought a weird Devo energy, Coneheads–oh, and they’re a really good egg punk band. The person who mixed it said it sounds like we’re all trying to be the lead instrument in a cool way.

You also just dropped your fourth Color Temperature full-length in June. I always appreciate that your stuff’s always got a consistent art direction from the albums to the singles. How’d you get the art for Me Talk Pretty?

I also do film photography, which is kinda where the name came from. Color temperature is a way to measure light–if you’re in a doctor’s office, the light’ll be blue and sterile, so that’s got a cold color temperature, but candles will have a warm one. It’s a way to portray mood in moviemaking and photography through lighting. The artwork–I do film photography, so all the photos for the record were photos I took, except for the drawing. The first two were random, but with Me Talk Pretty and the singles, I thought it had an overall theme. It’s mainly about a new relationship, and all the photos I used were taken without the intention of using them for a record. I cropped them to fit the songs.

The title is very striking too, and I’m curious why you chose to title the record Me Talk Pretty. What is it about that that captures this record?

That’s one of the two oldest songs on the record. “Me Talk Pretty” and “Your Math” are five years old, maybe. They’re from a different time but fit this positive theme of support for a loved one and viewing yourself in a positive light in a new relationship. Me Talk Pretty One Day is a collection by David Sedaris, and I listed that for the song when I wrote it, and then I shortened it and thought it made the song feel a little more present. This is the first album I’ve written that’s not super depressing. [laughs] I write therapeutically a lot, and the first three are sad. This one’s not. It felt fitting to repurpose something old and spin it positively.

How has the reception been to the record?

Pretty good, man. My manager and I, when I released the first single, were toying with the idea of shopping it around, but I got kinda antsy. All the songs are written in the moment, and I didn’t wanna get bored of them. I said, “I gotta get this out,” so we did it. I reached out to Small Albums on Twitter, who I’d been following online for years, because they just happened to say, “Who’s releasing music today?” They latched onto it.

That was “Open Carry,” right?

“Stunner” was the first single, and it’s one of my favorites. That kinda felt like a copout, though, because it’s a minute long, but I figured I’d put it out and that counts as doing something. It just synced up so well. I released a single every couple weeks, and they liked them. It’s the most successful my music’s been since I started doing it. That’s affirming, too, because it’s the best music I’ve written.

What others are some of your favorites?

I love singing “One Year Lease.” I think it’s one of my favorites to sing, even just me on my couch. “Open Carry” and “Long Fall” are two of my favorites I’ve written. I think the driving energy without being intense is what I’ve been pushing the project towards. I wanted to write songs that have the attitude of punk music but recorded really small. It works well with my voice singing quietly, so recording everything quietly just made sense. “Me Talk Pretty” was written to be a loud emo song. I was listening to a lot of Krill and Kal Marks when I wrote it. All the songs I wrote in that time were all geared towards that sound, but I didn’t like the demos. When I recorded it this way it clicked. I have a well of songs I wrote years ago that I can draw on if I think it fits thematically.

So we can get noise rock Color Temperature eventually. 

It’s a possibility. I have a new song that’s out, a concept song about the Cape Fear River, and it’s 13 minutes long. It’s a one-off–I don’t write songs above three minutes usually. But I’m excited about it.

OUT NOW: 'This Water is Life, Vol. II' ft. Haji P. + Color Temperature

This Water is Life is a self-sustained and ongoing series of split EPs with two express purposes: to highlight new hip-hop / indie rock music from Southeastern North Carolina, as well as to provide a platform for Cape Fear River Watch and Coastal Plain Conservation Group to deliver up-to-date authoritative reports on the health of the Cape Fear River Basin for both human beings and wildlife.

Volume II features Haji P. and Color Temperature.

Haji P. (short for Pajamas) is a North Carolina based multi-talented artist, who is heavily influenced by 80s / 90s pop culture.  As the illustrator 'HP Fangs', he is known for drawing big teeth on things. Haji is also a Middle / High School Art Teacher at the Glow Academy, has always been in youth advocacy and development, and uses the word “dope” – a lot.  Haji P.'s last musical release was his album, 'Neighborhood Kid', and he is sometimes found rapping with the San Francisco based collective, Rec League.

Color Temperature is the moniker for multi-talented multi-instrumentalist Ross Langdon Page; known for his musical contributions to AZZA, Lauds, Seeking Madras, and Tumbleweed, as well as his work as a professional photographer. "The River" was written from the perspective of a leaf traveling through the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, beginning at the mouth and passing through the polluted waters of the Chemours chemical plant—the company responsible for dumping Gen X into the drinking water of residents—before passing through Wilmington, NC and floating out into the vast ocean.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW

NOTE: The vinyl release of This Water is Life, Vol. II sold out during pre-orders.  You can enjoy This Water is Life, Vol. II, along with Volume I, on Fort Lowell Records' Bandcamp page, as well as all Digital Music Platforms.

HCTF premiere - Color Temperature: The River

[Repost from Here Comes the Flood; by Hans Werksman, November 30, 2022]

Ross Langdon Page, who goes by the stage name Color Temperature takes part in the second installment of This Water is Life series. Each EP has one side of hiphop and one side of indie music. The release supports a good cause: keeping tabs on Cape Fear River Basin in North Carolina by Cape Fear River Watch and Coastal Plain Conservation Group. He contributed the sprawling track The River, a piece that speeds up and slows down like its title suggests. Part ambient, part left-field danceable indie rock, and sprinkled with synths and spoken word, he created a journey that you don't want to end.

Langdon Page explains: "The Cape Fear River in North Carolina is 191 miles long. About 2/3 of the way to the ocean lies the Fayetteville Works Chemours manufacturing plant, which has been poisoning the drinking water of hundreds of thousands of NC residents since the mid-1980s. “The River” is a 13 minute 48 second journey down the Cape Fear, through the eyes of a leaf - first falling from its tree at the mouth of the river in Raven Rock State Park, traveling through the toxic waters near the plant, past the town of Wilmington, NC, then eventually floating out into the ocean."

The River will be released via Fort Lowell Records. This Water is Life, Vol. II is available for pre-order here (vinyl - 100 handnumbered copies, digital). Hiphop artist Haji P. contributed four tracks that take up the A-side of the EP. Release date: December 16.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW