v512 - Itchy-O - "Double Live: Sypherlot & Hallowmass 2020"
The 57-member neural necromancers ITCHY-O have returned to unleash SYPHERLOT/HALLOWMASS 2020, a double-live album recorded during the chaos collective's groundbreaking 2020 drive-in concert series.
It was against this backdrop of isolation and suspended reality that ITCHY-O heeded the call for a radical evolution in shared catharsis and new sonic experiments: Short-band radio broadcast turned each car interior into a private listening experience for a post-apocalyptic simulation, while roving bands of mysterious beings opened a temporary escape portal with contactless chaos, engulfing each and every vehicle in rite and ritual for the ages.
As the blaring car horns attested, these incredible live performances delivered a needed spirit-lift in the absence of concerts as we knew them amidst shuttered music venues, lighting a proverbial - and literal - torch during one of the darkest moments of modern history.
SYPHERLOT : AUG 2020 (A + B sides)
Set in an expansive parking lot at Denver's Mission Ballroom, SYPHERLOT exploded to life during a time when any/all live music had been sequestered to digital platforms. ITCHY-O blew collective minds and blanketed attendees in a cloak of fire, noise, and rhythm, eviscerating old (and new) ideas of entertainment, rewriting the book on what could be achieved at a socially distanced drive-in performance.
HALLOWMASS : OCT 2020 (C + D sides)
This series of spectacle and offertory shook the now-demolished New Tech Machinery building to its foundation during this most hallowed time of year. As ITCHY-O's tradition entered its sixth year, artifacts, momentos, and representations were collected on trays from attendee vehicles and later burned in an after-ceremony to honor impermanence and the loss felt so heavily in 2020.
SYPHERLOT/HALLOWMASS 2020 serves as documentation to a fantastical escape from the unrelenting barrage of humanity besieged by a global pandemic and is a must have for any record collection.