Family Dynamics - Service (2023) [Hi-Res]

The debut album by Family Dynamics. Family Dynamics is Laura Ortman, Shelley Burgon, Ryan Sawyer & Shannon Fields.

BIO
Service is the sole recording by Family Dynamics (2010-2012), the brief and brightly burning offshoot of anarchic and polarizing Brooklyn music collective Stars Like Fleas. Not yet ready to let go of their musical relationship, Family Dynamics' four members splintered from Stars Like Fleas in 2010, following legendarily chaotic performances at MoMA (NYC), Centre Pompidou (Paris), and the release of its final album, The Ken Burns Effect ("you need to hear it", Pitchfork; “a work of mad genius”, NPR; “has an eerie power”, The New York Times; “sublime”, Paper Magazine; “a resounding success”, Time Out NY; “uncanny”, The Village Voice; “Recommended”, Other Music).

Service was collectively composed, improvised and sung by Laura Ortman (Whitney Biennial sound artist, composer, violinist/guitarist, collaborated with Tony Conrad, Okkyung Lee, Raven Chacon), Shelley Burgon (harpist/sound artist with Bjork, Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, William Tyler, Milo Hatori), Shannon Fields (producer and performer with Leverage Models, Helado Negro, Duane Pitre Ensemble, Field Guides, etc.), and Ryan Sawyer (drummer whose long CV includes Gang Gang Dance, Boredoms, Jandek, Thurston Moore, Matana Roberts, Wendy Eisenberg, Chris Forsyth, and Sun Ra’s Marshal Allen).

Service commits to building a world where raw, brutalist group vocals, melodic immediacy, fiercely idiosyncratic instrumental improvisations, magical realist lyrics, analog synthesizers and consumer electronics coexist in a delicate, surreal balance. This short album travels mystifying distances without losing its way, recalling 70’s private-press new age, the improvisations of AAM, goth-adjacent 80s DIY cassette culture, Italian electro prog rock and community choirs – sometimes within the same song.

With evident love, humor, sincerity, anxiety, ecstasy and intimacy, in Service Family Dynamics attempted to wrap its arms around the entirety of the human animal, from within the perspective of one small, battle-scarred friend/family unit.

RIYL: Tuxedomoon, early 80s Psychic TV, Jewelled Antler Collective, Robert Wyatt, Mariah, Kate NV, early Animal Collective, Tower Recordings, Legendary Pink Dots, Beverly Glenn-Copeland

Tracklist:
1.01 - Family Dynamics - Questions (Invocation) (4:45)
1.02 - Family Dynamics - Safe Operations (3:29)
1.03 - Family Dynamics - Faenza (5:26)
1.04 - Family Dynamics - Downstream (5:13)
1.05 - Family Dynamics - Rushing Down (4:47)
1.06 - Family Dynamics - Shímásaní (5:51)
1.07 - Family Dynamics - Punchline (4:53)