Polymath playmates Sandy Carson and Karen Skloss started making music together during the pandemic as a way to keep their sanity and creativity. Now their homebased experiments are going global as they have announced the first album as noise duo Skloss will be released by Fuzz Club Records.
Following up on their self-released 2022 EP Voices Travel Through This, their full length debut, The Pattern Speaks, will be released March 7. Mixing drone, stone, post-rock, and ethereal cosmic heaviness, its eight tracks were engineered and co-produced by Charles Godfrey, famous for his work with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Swans, …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Prong, and Har Mar Superstar.
The duo crafted their signature sound in their East Austin home, with its view into the woodlands beyond and the open sky at night. “Living next to the woods has something to do with it,” said Skloss. “We started to use music as an outlet, like most everyone during that time, we were so cooped up.”
The title track has been released as a single today through the UK-based Fuzz Club, who signed the husband-and-wife noise duo after intense interest from several other labels. That makes them label mates with Austin psych heroes the Black Angels, uncategorizable Australian maniacs King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, and Carson’s fellow Scots, the Jesus & Mary Chain. The album is available for pre-order now.
If you think you know the name, it’s no surprise since Carson and Skloss have been fixtures on the Austin cultural scene for over a decade. Native Austinite and drummer Skloss is no stranger to the music scene, having served behind the skins of local trio Moving Panoramas, but is probably better known for her work in the film scenes, both as a South By Southwest-selected director with her family documentary Sunshine and psychedelic fantasy The Honor Farm, and as the editor on films like Kyle Henry’s Time Passages and music doc Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd. Equally, guitarist and Scotsman Carson is no stranger at local gigs, but that’s mainly from the former BMXer’s time in the photo pit for publications including the Chronicle. More recently, he’s published several books of his photography, (available through Cardinal Press), including the Texas-centric I’ve Always Been a Cowboy in my Heart. Now even those familiar with their respective works will have to look at them through a different lens.
If you can’t wait for March, the duo will shake the walls at 13th Floor tomorrow, Nov. 21, at 9pm for an official single release show and Trail of Dead afterparty, but if you can’t make that, then there will be three more opportunities to catch them in Austin before the end of the year: Nov. 30 at Nomad Bar as part of Duo Fest, Dec. 8 at the James Turrell Skyspace on the UT campus, and then Dec. 15 at Empire Control Room.
Here’s the video for the title track and first single from the album, “The Pattern Speaks,” directed by Darryl Tocco and Devon Hutchins of 360 media and produced by Tracy Frazier, who also produced Austin documentary (Becoming Leslie.
The video was filmed during a live performance last year by Skloss at Rio Market (although eagle-eyed Austinites will also note the exteriors provided by Brodie Food Mart). Explaining the location, Carson wrote, “Rio’s a fun venue whose owner Mu is very supportive of giving college kids (like us haha) something productive to do with their spare time. He’s really lovely. Also, local lore has it that the Clash filmed part of the music video for ‘Rock the Casbah’ in that location.”
This article appears in November 15 • 2024.
