“Mantis Preying”, the first “official” release by Alvin Band, will be available on iTunes September 8th and is available for pre-order now. The album will be in stores on September 22nd! The record includes a bonus 6 song EP from an earlier bedroom recording that has come to be known as “Lady Portrait”.

While stationed in Phoenix, AZ during the recording of Miniature Tiger’s “Tell It To The Volcano”, (Rick is also a member of Modern Art/Epic act Miniature Tigers it should be noted) Rick holed up in a friend’s bathroom with a microphone and a Powerbook and went to town. The end result is the 9 song “vocal composition” coined “Mantis Preying”. By limiting the recording to body parts and vocal gymnastics, Rick began his first journey working with unlimited multi-track arrangements via Digidesign’s Pro Tools. Bjork’s “Medulla” served as the predominant inspiration behind Rick writing and layering vocals without the use of instruments.

The songs on “Mantis Preying” feature dense, layered, complicated arrangements that somehow weave a central melody and structure throughout the cacophony of ideas. This complex blend of rhythms and harmonies cannot seemingly come from one voice and one microphone. Though recorded under the constraints of “vocals only”, it projects a sum much larger than it’s parts, making use of the full sonic spectrum. The record is completed with the song “Mystery of the Yellow Room” paying tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber by combining a medley of themes from the “Phantom of the Opera”.

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