The Mighty Ocean & Nine Dark Theaters

When the man dangled the keys to the studio in his hands and asked, “Have you guys ever used Pro-tools before?” Astronautalis asked himself, “If I tell this guy the truth… will he still give me the keys?”

...so Astronautalis lied.

The next thing he knew, Astronautalis and his producer/old friend/partner in crime Radical Face (Electric President/Morr Music) found themselves standing all alone in the middle of the fully functioning, extravagantly stocked, and beautifully isolated “Fighting Studios”. A drab stucco pre-fab, (which was built in what can only be described as the “21st Century Florida Style”), gutted and transformed into an unbelievable live-in studio, nestled deep in the heart of an orange grove, miles and miles from anything that could have the nerve to call itself a city. There they were, all alone in a place with no TV, no internet, no cell service, and collection of microphones, pre-amps, compressors, knobs, switches, levers, lights, and various fancy looking shiny things whose combined worth would have paid off Astronautalis’ student loans about 10 times over…and that man just gave them the keys and drove off.

The truth is, Astronautalis has recorded music just about everywhere but a real studio; from bedrooms to bathrooms, basements, backyards, and bar-b-ques, he even knocked out vocals in the back of Tim Armstrong’s (Rancid, Operation Ivy, The Transplants) tour bus during some shared down time on the Warped Tour… but an actual recording studio? This was a first. After the obligatory “Risky Business” style celebration was taken care of (Bob Seger was played…but everyone kept their pants on) and the hysterical laughter died down, Astronautalis and his producer Radical Face sat down in the Scandinavian-designed and ergonomically-engineered office chairs, and basking in the soft glow of blinking pre-amps, flickering compressors, and a flat screen monitor as big as a car windshield, they tuned up the busted pawn shop guitar, turned on the aging hand-me-down laptop, and set out to make “The Mighty Ocean & Nine Dark Theaters”.

In a stark contrast to the endearingly rough-shod homemade bedroom hip hop of Astronautalis’ first release, (You and Yer Good Ideas); “The Mighty Ocean & Nine Dark Theaters” is a story of making out, making do, and making the best of what they gave to you told in 4 acts over a lush arrangement of musical layers fitting of his shiny new surroundings without ever giving up the firm grasp of his 4 track roots. Over the course of 15 months he and Radical Face made countless trips out to this “Shangri-la in the sticks”, living off whatever food Astronautalis could sneak out of his Mom’s pantry, and recording 14 hours a day for as many days as their sanity could handle (their only diversions being walks in the beautiful country side and ‘Tetris Attack’ on a old Super Nintendo with a split RF cable).

The combination of incredible equipment and limitless freedom forced the two to push their recording imagination to the limits, and had them making drums out of the dryer, a mega-phone out of a milk jug, and daisy-chaining a dozen cables together to do vocal takes in the field out back. From the ratchet set rhythm section of the electro-country ballad, “A Love Song For Gary Numan”, to the sweeping strings and elegant rap delivery of “My Dinner with Andy”, to “Down and Out in The Bold New City of The South”, an 11 minute post-rock epic built in three movements, it is hard to decide if this most diverse album you have ever heard or the best mixed tape you never made for the dream girl you wished you had met.