*200 copies limited edition* “For the last 6 years, New York sampledelia and synthesis rhabdomants Nuke Watch, duo of Aaron Anderson and Chris Hontos, also known for alternative projects and spinoffs like Beat Detectives and Weird Shit U.S.A. 2, have consistently composed and released cerebral flows of psychedelic compositions bridging the gap between the post-hippy movement wastelands, the weirdest fringes of urban beatmaking subcultures, and the wild American DIY avant-garde and noise traditions for labels like The Trilogy Tapes, There (RVNG), Post Present Medium, Patience/Impatience.
Extremely prolific, to the question “are you making new music?”, they are among the few chosen ones who can consistently reply: “always.” They stick to the process of recording as a relentless practice of figuring out what instruments can do; an exploration transpiring from each work.
For their latest effort and first European tour, Nuke Watch returns with a record on Sagome, expanding into a trio formation with musician Zack Stafford on wind instruments and electronics, bringing together different strands of musical interaction and live experiences that occurred over 2024 in various legendary locations in and around NY, particularly WFMU, The Lot Radio, and LSD Studio, with added interlude-type segments contributed by Leonard King on guitar and Daryl Seaver on the EWI MIDI wind instrument.
Somehow inspired by the vertiginous technical virtuosity of musicians and projects like King Crimson, Tony Williams, and John McLaughlin, Fusion transposes the genre’s passion for impossible key changes and whimsical compositional complexity to the realm of free-form, instant composition, becoming a document of NW’s group jam sessions and the practice of collective improvisation. Scant overdubs.
Even if Nuke Watch ends up keeping the same key and pace for the majority of the album, there is the feeling that Fusion is a thematically apt title to describe how these artists stay with the music, finding a special space halfway between stimulation and observation: a methodical, trance-like process of waiting for music to plod along and morph over and over, endlessly. In this sense, “Fusion” is a simple way to describe combining different things to make something “new”; a quasi-alchemical process happening both at an atomic level and in the mind.
With their distinct imagery and tone, Nuke Watch channels millenarist stoner anxieties and end-of-world visions, expressing it through the distinctive contemporary psyop mystique of nuclear threats, dead new continents, and psychotic breakdowns. Enter a wormhole of laid-back, demented prophetic cultures and somewhat poetic hallucinatory paranoias through magic staircases, war locks, swarm of bees, wireless bamboos and Trip-free relays. Whether you are a neophyte or a long-time initiate to the “watch”, welcome to the Fusion.” - Luigi Monteanni
