Crack Cloud has always been something beyond a rock band: both profound and grand, vaporous and elusive.
The first iteration of Crack Cloud was formed nearly a decade ago as a proxy-rehab outlet on the fringes of Calgary. Over time, two EPs and accompanying visual pieces were produced out of the residence known as Red Mile. By 2017, several members had relocated to Vancouver, working out of harm reduction centers and low-barrier shelters. Sobriety, self-reformation and the idealism of their work further formed an ethos for Crack Cloud. It was during these years that the band produced their astounding 2020 album ‘Pain Olympics’. At once, their vision became expansive, cinematic.
Now, ‘Red Mile’ is a bit of a homecoming. Members have returned to Calgary. But Calgary/home has become a liminal space, a place of flux. After a decade of personal and collective growth, what does home even mean? ‘Red Mile’ is, for them, something like samsara: a return and a rebirth.
‘Red Mile’’s sound breathes expansive energy into the circuitous, street bound sonics of Crack Cloud’s prior material. Fizzling synths intertwine with chiming pianos. Songs layer like Russian nesting dolls; one may find a Ramones chorus set within a desolate Western prog soundtrack only to watch it erupt into a joyous anthem. Real-ass guitars — alternately lilting, scuzzy and soaring — ring out across wide sun-bleached spaces. In 2024, the cumulative effect is (in rock instrumentation terms) naturalistic. Any whiff of embalmed nostalgia is absent. Even the close of the album – a winding, alllllmost Jerry Garcia guitar noodle that leads us out of ‘Red Mile’ – is delivered without sentimentality.
Dinked 298
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“Burn Out” red vinyl *
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“Freebies”’ CD with 2 unheard bonus tracks *
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Red Mile exclusive art patch (1 of 3 designs) *
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Numbered edition
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Limited pressing of 600 *
*EXCLUSIVE to Dinked Edition
Also available on Freefall Blue vinyl, black vinyl and CD.
Tracklisting
1. Crack Of Life
2. The Medium
3. Blue Kite
4. Lack Of Lack
5. Epitaph
6. I Am (I Was)
7. Ballad Of Billy
8. Lost On The Red Mile
Jagjaguwar
