Past Releases

Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang began playing music together as the rhythm section, co-songwriters, and sometime singers in Galaxie 500. Since the demise of Galaxie 500, Damon and Naomi have worked as a duo, exploring folk music, psychedelia, and collaborations with other like-minded musicians. After releasing a series of recordings with Shimmy Disc, Sub Pop, and Drag City, they established their own label 20/20/20, releasing the Damon & Naomi albums The Earth Is Blue, Within These Walls, False Beats and True Hearts, and Fortune. All their LPs and CDs are available from 20-20-20, or via high-quality download from the Damon & Naomi bandcamp page.

Lowlight’s most recent show was Feb 28th 2020, at The Saint in Asbury Park, NJ. As always, it was a great time full of friends and music. We ended up canceling our next show in Brooklyn. Like many, our lives had changed practically overnight. Just when we were getting the littlest bit of traction, it was a major blow. It became clear that If we were going to push this band forward, we needed to make a sharp left turn.

I remember talking to Rey (bass, MPC) over the phone, and he was told me, “I have this thing I’ve been working on… I’m not sure if it’s ‘on-brand’, but I’ll send it anyway…” That thing was later dubbed “Quarantino”—a convenient mashup of Tarantino the circumstance we were in. We had always written songs in rehearsal, but in the spirit of experimentation, we started tracking remotely over Rey’s foundation of drums, samples, and bass. Renee (vocal, guitar) was living with us at the time. We sat on zoom meetings by day and nights were spent working our way through the song… keys, guitars, lyrics/vocals. Five distinct sections emerged, and we began treating them as such, giving each movement its own unique character. Inspiration got thrown around… Tom Waits, Roxy Music, J Dilla, Bernie Worrell… a somewhat disjointed cluster of influences. This was definitely our “let’s do that thing we always wanted to try” –song. Multi-gong percussion, mega-arpeggiator synth for no reason, 808s, what we felt (at the time) was an indulgent Gilmore guitar riff… all in the name of art and not much else, really. Everything felt uncertain, which left us free to do what we wanted, as if we had just started the band and literally had nothing to lose by experimenting.

Through a combination of in-person and remote recording, the song took shape. We planned to release the single on its own, but we were struck by the inspiration we found in this new scenario. Another six songs flew by with the same process. The world was quiet and tense while Lowlight was buzzing with an explosion of new work, huddled in our secluded sanctuary. Our efforts eventually blossomed into a full length album, Strange Light, which will be released on August 13th 2021 with Mint 400 Records.

There has always been a Reggae influence in the music of El Michels Affair. From their cover of “Hung Up On My Baby” done in a Reggae style, to the general sound and approach that permeates Leon’s production style. While recording Bailey’s 2020 Ekundayo album, they did some straight forward reggae tunes inspired by different eras alongside some modern R&B tracks that would fit more comfortably next to Frank Ocean than Jacob Miller. It is this same notion that old and new can live so comfortably together that birthed the idea of Ekundayo Inversions.

Traditional dub came out of reggae in the late 60s and early 70s when pioneers like King Tubby and Lee Perry started taking the multi track recordings of songs and running them back through the board adding effects and additional instrumentation. These recordings are called “dubs” or “versions” and are typically instrumentals with flourishes of vocals from the original tracks.