Infinity Shred
Infinity Shred, photographed by Richard Gin.
Brooklyn’s Infinity Shred recently released their second album Long Distance that followed-up their debut Sanctuary from 2013 & today we are proud to present the Antonio Mendez (fka Lindsay Lowend) remix of the title track that introduces more rhythms & varied re-arrangements of the original audio stems. The core trio of Nate Ritholz, Damon Hardjowirogo & Clara Warnaar work off of inspirations that find realizations from cinema for the ear scores from yesterday that perhaps allude to the great audio epics that await at the threshold of what the future might hold.
“Long Distance” (Antonio Mendez Remix) takes all the ambient components of the original & bolsters them into new rhythmic patterns & sequences that light up like the industrious Brooklyn city lights at night. Clara’s percussive work is met by added drum work that flutters about like fireflies providing sparkling dots of illumination in the evening’s air. Antonio highlights the progressions from the keys & adds time-machine style effects to the original where the lengths & distances of design patterns feel both near & far at the same time. Infinity Shred’s “Long Distance” track here is transformed into what we imagine is the sound of a phone signal traveling across interstate wires where Antonio highlights the electrical aspects of the keys where synths can be heard making their way along a course of cables from one heart to another.
Antonio “Tony” Mendez provided the following insights on the remix of “Long Distance”:
Listening to Long Distance, the entire album actually, I got a serious sense of golden era trance and post rock. Both styles rely heavily on these anthemic chord progressions (for instance: IV V VI). I’ve been playing a lot of In The Groove this year and revisiting the music that sparked my interest in production, Sota Fujimori’s stuff in particular, so taking this remix in that direction was the most natural way to approach it.
Nate Ritholz from Infinity Shred took the time to talk to us about the new album, lineup changes & more:
Describe how the progressions from Sanctuary to Long Distance along with various lineup shifts & more have affected you all creatively & personally.
We took our time between the two albums, obviously, which allowed us to try a lot of different styles and ideas. We wanted to create something very different from our previous work, as opposed to just a straightforward progression from Sanctuary. The lineup change played a part in this too. It slowed us down initially when George left but also gave us time to mess around. In the end Clara joining the band pushed us to embrace a more expansive sound, which I think we were hoping to achieve the whole time.
Describe how the three of you approach the collective creative process.
Our process actually changed pretty drastically over the course of this project. On Sanctuary, the song ideas would always start with Damon and then we’d write guitars, drums, arrange and finish each song together. On the early Long Distance demos, we started using an application called Splice which basically allows you to have shared sessions on whatever DAW you use. So it naturally became more collaborative, with either me or Damon starting a track and then sending it back and forth altering, adding, even deleting each others work. With the addition of Clara, we have someone from a very different background, she’s classically trained, to bounce these ideas off of. The final phase of writing was really the three of us re-arranging and deconstructing whole songs or sections of songs, as well as adding new instrumentation. Clara was the primary force in pushing us outside of our comfort zone musically and getting weird with some of the transitions, which were a huge part of tying this project together.
What else is exciting right now in Brooklyn that you all find inspiring?
I’ve been seeing more lineups of artists that are embracing some less standard genres than what you normally get in Brooklyn. On the darker side there’s artists like Oneirogen and Kel Valhaal playing shows together and people embracing dark ambient music and metal which has never really been cool here. I also recently saw a show that DV-I was playing and it was all hardcore techno and then someone played an insane speedcore set.
Having a drink with Infinity Shred; photographed by Richard Gin.
Thoughts on how Antonio Mendez impacted the title track “Long Distance”?
It’s a total deconstruction. The elements of the track he uses don’t even sound familiar at first because they’re used in such a different context. He took our most upbeat, blissful track, which is a rare thing, and managed to take it to this dark, driving, cinematic place, which we never would have thought to do with it. It’s a very satisfying listen. A very subtle build the whole time, and then such a good choice to have no drums in the end and just create this wall of sound climax.
Next things in the plans & works for Infinity Shred?
We’ll be touring in November, playing Shea Stadium in Brooklyn on November 18, and are planning more touring in early 2017. We have some more videos in the works which we’re very excited about, as well as a bunch more remixes that are so cool we can’t talk about them yet.
What do you all feel are some of the most important events happening locally & internationally that you all would like to draw attention toward?
The Union Square farmer’s market is important, also vote!
Infinity Shred’s new album Long Distance is available now.
