Night Beats - Levitation Sessions - VINYL LP

Hammer Down is the third studio album from The SteelDrivers. Produced by Luke Wooten and originally released in 2013, it is now available on vinyl in celebration of the band's 20th anniversary.

Danny Lee Blackwell's Night Beats released their self-titled debut album back in 2011 and 2024 sees a long-overdue vinyl reissue hit the racks courtesy of UK tag Fuzz Club. An acid-drenched modern garage-rock classic in the Texan thirteenth-floor tradition, the band's R&B-inspired Western Psychedelic sound on this 12-track set is a reckoning, a shoot-out at dawn, the ear-splitting peel-out that leaves nothing but a cloud of red dust in it's wake. Following early releases in the shape of the 'H-Bomb' 45 and a split 10Inch with UFO Club (a collaborative project between Blackwell and The Black Angels' Christian Bland), the 'Night Beats' LP was the first full-length introduction to the band and propelled them to the forefront of burgeoning contemporary psych scene in a blaze of scuzzy rock'n'roll . Heavy touring immediately ensued and hasn't let up in the years that followed, and the definitive Night Beats hit 'Puppet On A String' has since clocked up millions of streams and become the soundtrack to an underground, fuzz-worshipping generation.

As Night Beats, Texas-born, LA-based artist Danny Lee Blackwell creates music like one might assemble a puzzle. The Western psychedelic auteur builds his work from one moment, an initial spark, that must fit a certain criteria it must give him goosebumps. If that sensation arrives, Blackwell will pursue the idea relentlessly until he has a new song; if not, he moves onto the next moment, constantly looking for the perfect molecule of a song. On his new Night Beats album, Rajan, the songwriter is at his strongest, creating works that shine with captivating melodies and hypnotic rhythms, but are underscored by subtle choices of craftsmanship that can only be achieved after countless hours in the studio. Blackwell creates a work that lands somewhere between Spaghetti Western film score and psych-pop opus, a career-defining album that reveals much about Danny Lee Blackwell's artistic philosophy while keeping that ever crucial air of mystery intact.