Karmacoda

trip-hop

Call them trip hop, electro-pop, or a hybrid of electronic, rock and jazz, just be careful not to incorrectly pigeonhole San Francisco’s Karmacoda as an ambient, electronic band. “Our mood is quite a bit more mature and subdued. It’s ironic, really; we are blatantly subtle,” says bassist Eric Matsuno. Karmacoda is truly a cut above most indie bands and their musical influences are so diverse that layers of complexity reveal themselves with repeated listens. On their new album Eternal, releasing independently on August 2nd, 2011, the band explores everything from the quintessential Karmacoda sound of heavy bass lines (as heard on the track “If You Give It To Me”) to jazz, 70s funk and 60s soul (“Into Each Life”), to traditional ambient and electronica mixed with hip hop, pop and rock that’s so unexpected it’s as if Dr. Dre hooked up with Fleetwood Mac (“Get Me Through Another Lonely Night”). As a total DIY band that self-produces all of their music, Karmacoda has created a sound where the production and recording is just as important as the writing and performing. Lead male vocalist, pianist and guitarist B. (Brett Crockett) also acts as the band’s engineer, producer, arranger and mixer. “We all have strong jazz backgrounds and the use of improvisation is key to how we write, record and perform music. In many cases all of the parts that you hear are written but performed in an improvisational manner. Then I take the best parts of those performance...