Robert Walter’s 20th Congress has announced the release of their new studio album, Spacesuit, due September 21st via Royal Potato Family. In celebration of the upcoming release, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress has also shared the album’s first single, “Current Futures”. A Kickstarter campaign for the release is also underway with various pre-order bundles. Listen to “Current Futures” below:
Robert Walter’s 20th Congress – “Current Futures”
The organ master/keyboard virtuoso—who’s also a founding member of The Greyboy Allstars and tours with Phish bassist Mike Gordon—has assembled a new crew of brilliant improvisers and genre-bending virtuosos under the 20th Congress mantle. Drummer Simon Lott (Kool Keith, Charlie Hunter) is a longtime collaborator who brings a refreshing unpredictability anchored in deep-rooted New Orleans rhythms. Bassist Victor Little (Billy Preston, Charlie Musselwhite) started sitting in with the band on a series of West Coast gigs and gradually became essential to the evolving sound. Guitarist Chris Alford (Cassandra Wilson, Mike Dillon) has worked extensively with Lott in New Orleans, bringing a baked-in chemistry that has mutated into the infectious sound of this incarnation of the 20th Congress.
As the press release notes about the upcoming music:
Whereas previous 20th Congress albums found Walter delving deep into the wellspring of his most formative influences: hip-shaking vintage soul, window-rattling ’60s-’70s funk, and the sounds of classic organ jazz, Walter switched his source of inspiration for this latest effort from digging through the crates to gazing speculatively skyward, imagining new worlds rather than emulating classic records. The results lose none of the explosive funk and soul grooves that Walter has become known for, but it takes those sounds into outer space, blending inspiration from science fiction movies, comic books and art with wide-ranging influences encompassing everything from Dub Reggae to Krautrock to early jazz-rock fusion.
“I wanted to break myself out of writing music about music,” Walter explains. “I remember when I was a kid I loved all the mysterious qualities about science fiction, comic books and movies. I started looking at those kinds of things, trying to find something to get influenced by other than musical genre worship.” He continues. “I always want to make the record that I wish I found going through the record stacks. I love the idea of trying to create an imaginary film or a record from 1972 that you wish you could buy.”
Check out the track listing below, and head to Robert Walter’s 20th Congress website for more information.