Mike Wallace - On The Clock/Off The Clock 7"
Got the bubbly.. pouring through me.. (sparkly)
First off, quick update on Potions related things… since the Marrow of the Mind 7” went a little “viral” on Youtube last month and gained us like 700 new followers, I decided to start paying more attention to our Youtube channel, and have been posting videos of our music every other day on there, and plan on scheduling out for the next year to get all the back catalog up dere. Give us a subscribe if you aren’t already!
https://www.youtube.com/@potionsmusicnyc
Last week was our Spring Break, and I took a short jaunt from NYC to San Diego to spend some QT in the studio with Mike Wallace, who released 3 wicked LP’s on Potions last year, the Theme & Beat series.
We jammed a little a bit in his incredible studio, talked shop, listened to some of the most intense and rare PINA (private issue new age) cassettes and insanely rare records from his world class collection, and hung out with his 3 dogs and 2 cats to celebrate the release of this upcoming seven inch on Potions, Dystopian Blues, an thematic collaboration with shop owner of Groove Merchant Records in San Francisco, and all around rad guy, “Cool” Chris Veltri who provided the collage for the cover art.
Sneak peak, as this is not a publicly listed video yet:
Mike channeled these two jams in quick succession over a week or so, perfectly capturing the duality of a common day in the life living as a capitalist. The A side is a drum machine driven forward moving feel good summer jam, making progress, grinding daily to feed the 401k, dissociating from the hamster wheel, while the B side succumbs to the pressures of 3 hours of sleep, deadlines, existing only to feed the beast and takes us down a dark path.
In Mike’s words “The record is supposed to emulate the sound of a dystopian worker. On the Clock being a more industrial beat with phones ringing, construction, etc & Off the Clock being the sounds of someone “letting go”. It’s supposed to shine light on the functioning dysfunctional addict who’s on the daily hamster wheel.”
On the Clock - Moog synthesizer, Fender Rhodes, Yamaha Grand Piano, Oberheim DX drum machine.
Off the Clock - Oberheim OBXA synthesizer, CRUMAR string and brass, lots of percussion through guitar pedals.
I heard these two and was immediately down, and we pressed up 100 copies with lovely matte finished covers. We will limit these to 2 per person and they’ll be $20. They feel and look great, and indeed are a little pricy, but Mike gets paid and we recoup and you get two rad songs that only a small sliver of the world gets to own, and my small apartment in Queens does not become a record storage facility.
We will release these on Bandcamp Friday, May 2nd.
I haven’t even properly promoted it yet, but we still have the repress of Social Lovers - Drop Me A Line in the shop, along with a small handful left of the Marrow of the Mind 7”, and the Tropico Beats - Eternal Spring Soul beat tape if you want to bundle up a bunch and save, let me know and I’m usually down to avoid fee’s direct through Venmo or Zelle or whatever if you email or msg me on Instagram.