Album of the week: Die Fantastischen Vier and "Supersense Block Party"
09/12/2016
written by Michel Imhof
Today sees the release of "Supersense Block Party", the new album by the Fantastischen Vier. The album is a journey through time: It was recorded completely analog on tape and vinyl.
Smudo describes Supersense in Vienna as an "analog temple": "It's an exhibition space for everything analog with an adjoining café," he says. However, the vinyl cutting machine, which can be found in the café, became the centerpiece of their new album "Supersense Block Party". This enabled the Fantastischen Vier to record their new album from the mixing desk directly onto tape and onto vinyl. This means that post-production is impossible, the moment is burned onto the sound carrier.
The album is not an album in the classic sense: it is the recording of a performance at Supersense, the Block Party, and consists largely not of new songs but of a series of Fanta 4 hits. There is a maximum of 14 minutes of music on one side of the record, so it had to be calculated exactly when each song could be heard and for how long. "It still has to be a live show and not a hit medley," says Smudo. New music was also recorded at Supersense with the track "Eines Tages".
The sound carriers on which "Supersense Block Party" is released are extraordinary. On the one hand, there are 77 limited edition vinyl records that have been scratched directly from the original tape onto the vinyl record in the Supersense manufactory. These records are packaged in envelopes specially made by an artist and printed during the performance. Nostalgic fans will also get their money's worth with 12" vinyl records, cassettes or original "Block Party" tapes. Of course, the album is also available as a high resolution download, regular download, stream and on CD.
