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For the Makers

by saajtak

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1.
Big Exit 05:10
Luck, is it enough to bleed? I honored my side of the bargain. Chance, remember to burn the letter after reading, no return to sender. I borrowed something that I shouldn’t have had until tomorrow. I’m begging your pardon. Honor, if I were the laughing one in pearls and had switched sides, Would that omit the omen? Milkmaid, brow sweat, dog of the summer The devil asked me to bubble the cauldron You can take your own car, drive it to the party. Dance disco in factories far away. Big Exit. Salt, lots of it in boiling water. Send you swimming in deep-end salinations. [You were never a fair fight for my mark, I’m wearing my yellow trainers with the red-laced laces.] Luck [The lovely boy] *cast a spell* *poof* My god whatcha done? Farmboy’s all chewed up. Luck, is it enough to bleed? I honored you as my partner. Luck, couldn’t you direct traffic far away from this And omit the omen? Big Exit. A big ball gown, the chiffon is starting To carry a weight that I never saw coming. You can take your own car, drive it to the party Dance disco in Damn disco in Dance disco in Factories far away. You can take your own car, drive it to the party Dance disco in Damn disco [my god, what have you done?] In factories far away In factories far away. Is it enough? Do you remember? ading
2.
Desire 5ever rainbows. Spy on you.
3.
But only the arms bearer could carry his banner or standard in the age of Chivalry The Cross of Saint George The Lion of Saint Mark Saint Peter with his Keys Saint Paul with his Books Saint George Slaying A Dragon but only the arms bearer could carry his banner or standard. This sounds like running around You’ll feel bad on Monday for being so damn impressive. Even if I’m strong it’s like I’m standing on a wagon It’s that bad feeling that can’t have an answer but always shows up. It’s that time of year to be alone. Even if I’m strong I’m falling in and out of balance Mm, must be that time of year to be alone. You squeezed your tongue so smooth that it keyed any lock, steeled as an unyeilding memory walker finding eternal company with the children of children who memorize and memorize and memorize your folklore by flashcard. This sounds like running around You’ll feel bad on Monday for being so damn impressive. Even if I’m strong it’s like I’m standing on a wagon It’s that bad feeling that can’t have an answer - Must be that time of year to be alone. Even if I’m strong I’m falling in and out of balance Mm, must be that time of year to be alone. Inky gossiper gallops across pages, History remembering its famous faces, but here, now, there is no pen, and your children’s children will not recognize them. There’s a Leak In the Shielding once the forest claims back its sword, sworn of Saturn’s secrets none smooth tongue can hope to unlock anymore. There’s a leak in the shielding.
4.
Sister 00:56
5.
Passing time think about radical love Electric stripe the way it moved in me Fiery dancer looking up at the shadow in the sky Who knows what coach argues courtside? Static Over My sweaty body. All the fans cry out for my life Static over my sweaty body, my sweaty body. But when i choose I get and go confuse My empathy for trust Get back the cat who stole your tongue Who knows what coach argues courtside? Static over my sweaty body. And diamonds on the back of the body Forever, forever, forever, forever. Big mouth had a big chance subtle double duty stake a high score. Big mouth had a big chance double crosser, bad math - it’s irrelevant. Big mouth had a big chance subtle double duty stake a high score - Who knows what coach argues courtside? Static over my sweaty body (you’re bigger with love, let it in) My sweaty body (you’re bigger with love, let it in) My sweaty body (you’re bigger with love, let it in)
6.
[Part I] Nurse Geraldine Found us here Making funny faces at the night And when we laugh - we laugh the same Final sky, come back inside when you are ready. Mary, may I be your friend? Watching all your bubbles burst and tears try to swim, to swim, to swim. Water flows under the bridge Time to sink our differences Mourning with our eyes completely wide If you don’t mind I have one thing I’d like to ask you now: When you look in the mirror? Do you see an animal not a man? Do you bend the knee, believe it? In a silent valley, your the sound in quicksand? Cause we share blood in a holy mystery Your Eternal is coming, I’ll be listening. Send the answer back to me, send the answer back to me. Mary, may I be your friend? Watching all your bubbles burst and tears try to swim, to swim, to swim. [Part II] I hear you say you’re afraid of the dark in that chill that I get when I listen for you. So I swim out to where the water hits my breast and I, make you laugh by the light of the moon. Did you get your answer? Out there with the astronauts? You say, “We laugh the same. We laugh the same. See you in the morning in satellite. See you in the morning in satellite.”
7.
Floral smells in the air so my antennas guide the sugar on my mind. How cool - I can carry ten times my weight on my body. There’s a marigold right over there – I’m tryin’ to get to. But watch out for Robin, watch out for Robin. And I’m out to get to and I’m traveling to I’m about to move. I’m trying to get to cause I wanna reach you gotta gotta get through so I’ll walk right over to it I’m spotted by his glassy eye “Who said you could come trespassing on my side of the garden?” Robin says,“Where’s your proof?” Can’t I get back over to my side of the Garden? While the humans drink lemonade, Robin’s flying around. He’s gonna watch me up high. I feel him over my head like a zombie or a drone or a mountain Look. Please. happier then since the air cleared up? Aren’t we happier since the air cleared up? So I move in on in and I’m gravitating I wish I levitated but I’m locked in on it got the pheromone scents on it. and the soil’s got a crunch and I’m feeling kinda groovy up to my marigold flower Look! Robin! Is still out! Robin! Still spying down! Who says I’m trespassing onto your side of the Garden? Who says I can’t be where I wanna be, where I wanna get to and make a Home.
8.
Since my decision To run course in my life I made you a promise To be your light Since my decision To bury worry in the ground To which all goodness flows And cursive clouds bow down I wanna show you. I wanna show you. Cause there’s bad luck - When sprout catches stone. Harsh operator Or Dangerous flood So here’s good luck - A blossom in snow. Cause we brought flowers And I made you a crown. I made you a crown. A crown x4 Marry My Bones.
9.
Earth is screaming out toward the belly of its farthest star she arises Queen Ghost speaks, lulls his terror. Floats up to Elysian Fields and carries the message. Let your light shine Let your light shine Automatic when truth is moving out. Virtues shake hands here. With the warm fuzz of expectation, hurried the baker’s children - ran into the woods. Limbs elastic, hair static electricity frantic just to see Queen Ghost speak: “You are an oak tree, feet planted in the ground. Every birthday, cursive clouds bow down to hand you a new ring. Every version with age saves as flesh around your childhood skin. Like something around Something around something Around moving something around…” In Hot Clocks of time, the baker's children stayed until the snow fell. And became several years older. But their faces laughed the same - Earth is a man and a child too! Queen Ghost speaks she arises. Looks up with soft eyes across her elysian field. Watered well the roses. Says goodbye to the soil and scoops up the children, now frozen. Remembers the plan, shakes virtues hand and carries the message to Earth’s farthest star.
10.
A violent adjective Wanted a receipt. Bit my cheek inside When you kissed me again. All this bleeding love Had me for sometime. Used to drip heartbreak Now I’m ready to return it. Words we shared then Needed a better friend. Hoped it would be you. An angry adjective Wanted a receipt In case there was a chance to reunite what’s lost. All this bleeding love Had me for sometime Used to drip heartbreak Now I’m ready to return it. Bad words withheld Tried to keep us friends Now I’m in my big new city Shrug at sour language like that. Where does it start? The intention of the letters was the shiniest thing that I ever borrowed. The way we talk - to draw attention to the intention of the letters was the shiniest thing I - Put on my heart - the intention of the letters was the shiniest thing that I ever borrowed. It follows - the intention of the letters was the shiniest thing in my new new city I wrote them all down, kicked them off the Brooklyn Bridge. Then, to be unbothered, I am reborn.

about

The band Saajtak, based in Detroit (Jonathan Barahal Taylor, Ben Willis, Simon Alexander-Adams) and Brooklyn (Alex Koi), makes futuristic music that synthesizes a wide range of genres—often in ways that seem to clash against each other, always in service to the song. The band has quietly made music in Detroit for the better part of a decade, collaborating with members of clipping. and sharing bills with Xiu Xiu, Ava Mendoza and Greg Fox. Koi sings and writes lyrics; Taylor plays drums, Willis bass; Alexander-Adams contributes keyboard and electronics. But to individuate their contributions does the music a disservice. Saajtak sounds, feels, like a living, breathing organism, for which recordings don’t present definitive documents as much as they reflect songs at given points in their lives. For the Makers, the band’s first album, brims with ideas, treating their shape-shifting compositions with a high depth of field.

Saajtak’s compositions are rooted in collective improvisation; their first release, spectral [ drips ], collects several free improvisations. The band was recording music live for a full-length debut when the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic pressed pause on their principal way of making music. In response, the band began working on new music remotely, in increments of eight days. Every two days, members would trade songs, gradually sculpting them into final iterations. Willis recalls putting on his headphones as he began recording bass: “The layers that Alex, Simon, and Jon had begun to craft engulfed me like a wave, filling me. I was suddenly surrounded by my friends.” Over time, the music organically cohered into an album, bringing together influences as wide-ranging as Richard Davis, Meredith Monk and Melvins. Koi’s lyrics balance narrative and enigma, incorporating several perspectives within a song in an approach she calls polyphonic narrative. “I like to imagine how personas might converse in worlds with varying levels of familiarity and skewness,” she explains. “What we receive are relationships that flow between splintery and harmonious, and that contain both ecstasy and affliction. There’s a big thrill in all this, when nothing can be apathetic.”

The record is in motion from the start, opening in medias res with anthemic lead single “Big Exit.” Koi treats her words like playthings, stretching syllables past semantics, vocal lines in conversation with one another. Alexander-Adams’ electronics quiver, and Taylor’s clattering kit seems to deconstruct the rhythm it builds, before the song unspools into a lush, minimal coda just before the 4-minute mark. “Concertmate 680” follows in a similar fashion, with a tight groove belying the song’s spare lyrics: “Desire 5ever rainbows. Spy on you.” Collaborations with guitarist Kirsten Carey, saxophonists Marcus Elliot and Kaleigh Wilder, cellist Pat Reinholz, and vocalist David Magumba add still more color to the band’s vibrant compositions. “There’s a Leak in the Shielding” references history, then uses it as a weapon: “Here, now, there is no pen,” Koi sings, “and your children’s children will not recognize them.” Her vocal melody, and the seeming naiveté of her inflection, recalls Arthur Russell, as do Alexander-Adams’ wet, percussive electronics. Throughout, the album mixes the organic and synthetic. Even as motifs, images and lyrics recur, the music thrums with energy, opening into new worlds.

This, perhaps, is part of the point: to illustrate an escape, to be one. To Alexander-Adams, For the Makers was "as much a healing practice as it was a means to create"; to Willis, it "feels like a year-improvisation, for which the music never stopped the whole time." Says Taylor, "it represents our collective voice in the deepest sense: an amalgamation of our individual vulnerabilities, imaginations, ambitions, and love for each other." The album is testament to the restless creativity powering Saajtak's engine, and the importance of cultivating creativity, trust and community.

credits

released June 3, 2022

All tracks composed and produced by Saajtak (Alex Koi, Simon Alexander-Adams, Jonathan Barahal Taylor, Ben Willis), except 4 (composed and produced by Alex Koi) and 9 (composed by Alex Koi and Ben Willis).

Alex Koi: vocals, lyrics, vocal arrangement, vocal production (1-10), synth (1, 3, 9), electronics (2)

Simon Alexander-Adams: keyboard, synth (1-3, 5-8, 10)

Jonathan Barahal Taylor: drums (1-3, 5-8, 10), vibraphone (1, 8, 10), percussion (2-3, 6-8), sensory percussion (5, 10)

Ben Willis: bass guitar (1-2, 5, 7, 10), double bass (3, 6, 8), pianohorn (3), electronics (6), guitar (8)

Kirsten Carey: guitar (1)

Kaleigh Wilder: baritone saxophone (1)

Marcus Elliot: tenor saxophone (7)

David Magumba: vocals (8)

Pat Reinholz: cello (9)

Mixed by Chris Koltay.

Mastered by Mikey Young.

Artwork by Sandy Ewen.

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saajtak Detroit, Michigan

Called "One of the most intriguing and unclassifiable bands in the country right now"(Tone Madison), Detroit/Brooklyn band saajtak makes futuristic music that synthesizes a wide range of genres—often in ways that seem to clash against each other, always in service to the song. saajtak weaves together experimental electronica, post-rock, trip-hop, and cosmic opera in a spirit of deep collaboration. ... more

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