Tony Price - Celica Absolu
"CELICA ABSOLU is the sophomore release from Greektown, Toronto based producer and recording artist Tony Price. It is the first official release on his new label and creative services unit Maximum Exposure.
A heady blend of 60’s garage-born psychedelia, avant-garde electronic jazz and paranormal radio show atmospheres, CELICA ABSOLU plays out like the soundtrack to a paranoid late-night drive through an eerie desert.
After years spent quietly producing acclaimed records released by labels like 4AD, Slumberland and DFA, Price unleashed his debut solo LP I PREFER COCA COLA on Burger Records in 2017. The album was a blistering rush of nihilistic “laptop garage rock” that showcased the former Actual Water frontman’s uncouth production techniques, and his blatant adoration for the crude and unrefined in it’s fullest glory.
Pitchfork noted Price’s consistent ability to navigate between the two poles of “disorienting sound collages” and “swaggering power pop”, a talent that has played an indispensable role in the creation of several key releases from Toronto’s music scene. Breakthrough records from The likes of U.S. Girls, Young Guv, Michael Rault, Slim Twig, Ice Cream, and Miss World all feature production work from Tony Price.
CELICA ABSOLU finds Price using tactics and gear prominent in hip hop and techno production to contextualize free improvisation. Constructed at Price’s Greektown Recording Complex (a former bodybuilding gym), the LP plays host to heavyweights from Toronto‘s avant-underground. Matt “Doc” Dunn (MV+EE, J Mascis) appears on vibraphone, and rips searing harmonica and slide guitar leads. Toronto avant-jazz legends Colin Fisher (Caribou Vibration Ensemble, Anthony Braxton) and Dennis Passley (U.S. Girls) perform stunning feats of saxophone acrobatics. The end result is an otherworldly experience, akin to being stuck with the KLF in the backseat of a car that’s blazing through a midnight desert while the sounds of Sun Ra, Angelo Badalamenti and the 13th Floor Elevators melt through the speakers."