ONE SHEET
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PRESS PHOTOS
photos by Tyree Annick
PRESS RELEASE
COLLECTING THE WORLD
While searching the internet, an American producer hears a demo by a singer from India. He contacts an agent for the singer, and commissions a vocal performance for a track he has been working on. The complete vocal is later emailed from India…
ALBUM COVER
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BIO
Michael Christie began his life in music by playing drums in a high school rock band, performing cover songs by the likes of Jane’s Addiction, Nirvana and Faith No More. But one fateful day while visiting a neighbor’s house, a career-changing moment…
REVIEWS
“By combining electronic beats with unique samples from instruments with cultural ties to the Middle East, Africa and India, Telepath has latched onto a sound that’s distinctly worldly.” -Justin Gillett, San Francisco Chronicle
“Whether dropping back-alley bass lines, floating through an Arabic caravan, or backing an Afrobeat horn section, Telepath’s music is a journey” -Stratton Lawrence, Charleston City Paper
Praise for Crush:
“Loving this album! So many great songs…” - Properly Chilled
“Crush is a versatile globe-hopping set that introduces one of the most interesting new world music acts of 2011.” – World Music Central Read the full review
“Did somebody say something about re-defining something? It’s called ‘Crush,’ by Telepath. Check it out.” – Thailand to Timbuktu Read the full review
“Crush suggests a producer at the top of his game. ” – Planet Magazine Read the full review
“Wonderfully diverse… a refreshingly unique take on world fusion” – Sun Is Shining Dub and Chill Read the full review
“An exhilarating blast of ear candy. And unlike his comparable contemporaries, ‘Crush’ is a solid work of creativity from start to finish.” – Homegrown Music Network Read the full review
“There hasn’t been such cool genre buster music since some of the great trust fund babies of a generation ago thought they could be rock stars working the outer tip.” – Midwest Record Read the full review
“Michael Christie, the creative centerpiece of Telepath, has been spreading his global gospel “reworld” sound for a number of years now. A multi-instrumentalist, producer, and cultural connoisseur, Christie’s catalog combines dance floor bangers with a slew of exotic instruments and a stable of talented transnational vocalists. Never before has his musical signature been more fully actualized than on the forthcoming Telepath album, Crush, which takes the listener on an electro-based trek around the musical world. From the reggae-influenced “Justify,” through the sitar-heavy title track, the combination of downtempo beats and international flair make for an excellent listen.
“In This Time,” which features the vocal prowess of Becky Ribeiro, sets the relaxed tone found throughout the album. Though the release is stacked with club beats, the actual mood and vibe is one of subtlety, an honest musical experience which sounds just as good on the train or in the car as on the dance floor—although “Dust” hits hard with brazen Bollywood brass and soaring vocals. Crossover world dance mixes will be packed to the brim with this cut.
“Carry the One” beautifully combines strings with a catchy bass line to create an extremely relaxing track. “Down the Block” marks the return of the sitar in tandem with traditional guitar melodies. “Freedom” brings back the reggae sound before giving way to afro-styled “The Ancient Ones”. Two instrumental, dub-styled tracks, “Critical Mass” and “Connection X”, give the album one last energetic pulse before giving way to “Mirrors”, a simple yet effective chill track to close out the album.
Christie’s greatest strength is his ability to mix and master his backing tracks to complement each singer and his or her distinctive style. The extent to which he used vocalists is a big jump for the producer in his third album. Although each track’s style may vary wildly throughout the album, he effectively blends the songs into one free-flowing musical experience. Soulful, spiritual, and educational to boot, Crush is a digital trip. Pack your suitcase, grab your headphones, and dig in. – TheUntz.com
Praise for The Remixes:
“Great music and really groovy” – Kid Loco
“This whole release fits right in with my Kruder & Dorfmeister and Thievery Corp records. I really dig the live instrument/electronic production combo.” – Joshua Heath, Golden State Recordings
“Global funktastic beats, cinematic dub drops, Indian-inspired grooves, and after midnight chilled breaks over samples and piano strings … this shines like gold.” – DJ Nova, Radom FM, Greece
“Great sounds and production on all of them! This is reminiscent of some funky soundtracks from the sixties and seventies.” – Riccicomoto, Ibiza Global Radio
“Wow, just simply wow! It’s going to be one of the weapons in my summer armory!” – Checkpoint Charlie, MyCuppaT
Praise for Contact:
“Contact is perhaps one of the best albums I have heard all year” -Alex Borsody, Hidden Track
“Contact takes [organic] electronica a step beyond, utilizing the distant sounds of the Middle East, India, West Africa, and Jamaican Dub to get the listener’s brain flowing and feet moving. Telepath brings the listener on a grooving, danceable trip through regions of the world we’re supposed to fear, shedding light and unity through the powerful potency of music. This really came out of the U.S.?” – Stratton Lawrence, Charleston City Paper
“Extremely satisfying for fans of the genre” – OkayPlayer
“Contact is the kind of album that will inspire cultured drum circles underneath a full moon. It’s spiritual enlightenment releases euphoric and therapeutic properties, taking you on a ride through your senses. The simple layout is what makes this audio art standout. Spacey elements combine with genius loops and rhythms, begging you to listen to Contact from beginning to end, craving endless spells of layers of sound experimentation. It’s easy to decipher Telepath’s political presence on tracks like “Global Rights” and “Jadhi,” with fierce drum patterns and bold bass lines.
Contact’s structure is similar to that of a storybook. It’s quite easy to identify the story’s beginning, middle and end – like a complete journey – which is what makes Telepath’s holistic experience so special. It’s a hike atop a mountain, where the reward is sheer serenity and splendor, much like the album’s comedown: “Toward Peace,” where there’s no greater sound that that of an airy flute. Contact is the complete expansion of the open mind, reminding us of both the pure and exotic beauties of music.” – RumBum.com
Praise for Fire One:
The multicultural downtempo sound of Telepath’s debut album evokes the spirit of a Buddha Bar compilation or Thievery Corporation mix (fittingly, since Telepath [was previously] represented by Thievery Corporation’s Outernational Music outfit). The tracks are undergirded by laid-back island beats and Fela-esque horn lines, and there are sequences that wouldn’t be out of place in a Bollywood film – even otherworldly sounds find their way into the mix. Writer/performer/producer Michael Christie – along with the aid of several guest musicians – makes music that will get your head nodding, if not your feet moving. Of course, it depends on how kinetic you’d like your dub experience to be, but Telepath offers up quite a few danceable tracks on this disc.
– Mannie Dalton, The Mountain Xpress
“Here is something special… you should check out this record… you won’t regret it”
DubFlash, reviewing Fire One
PROMO POSTERS
11″x17″ POSTER
8.5″x11″ POSTER
COLLECTING THE WORLD While searching the internet, an American producer hears a demo by a singer from India. He contacts an agent for the singer, and commissions a vocal performance for a track he has been working on. The complete vocal is later emailed from India to the U.S. and added to the track. While on tour in Tennessee, the producer is struck by the talents of a singer who opens for him, and after the show discusses with her the possibility of working together in the future. They reconvene in a hotel room six months later (while he is again on tour in Tennessee), where they set up a makeshift recording studio. There they record the vocals for a new song that the producer has written with her voice in mind. And so the pattern continues with various singers and musicians from around the world, until Michael Christie, the producer who has been recording under the name Telepath since 2005, has completed the album "Crush" - a globe-trotting, widely varied, yet entirely cohesive collection of music that features this international cast of guests, along with the producer's own keyboard, guitar, bass, flute, drum, and percussion talents. The album's 15 tracks start with banging organic beats, add elements of Indian and Arabic music, Jamaican reggae and dancehall, splash in a touch of Afrobeat and dub-style production twists, and filter all of this into songs that are vocally-based and hook-laden. Telepath's trademark "reworld" sound found on previous releases is still there, but it's all grown up, and ready to reach out to the masses. "Crush" is the producer's third studio release under the Telepath moniker, but it is the first to feature vocals so prominently. Christie explains: "The first album had vocals on one track, and the second record was supposed to as well, but the singer backed out at the last minute. I think that was actually what planted the seed in my head for a vocal album -- one of those things where something gets taken away, and you immediately decide you want it even more!" So the seed was planted, but this bold new direction for Telepath's music presented new challenges. The first such challenge would be the material. "It had been a long time since I had written vocal tunes. But I think that turned out to be a positive thing -- I sort of had all this energy for lyrics and vocal melodies that had been building up, but I was totally unaware of it until I sat down to write the first tune. Ideas started coming faster than I could write them down, and it was at that moment I knew this was going to work." The second challenge, of course, would be finding the vocalists. "I definitely wanted to feature a bunch of different singers, rather than dedicating an album to just one voice. So then it became a matter of spreading the word -- sending out all these messages in bottles to anyone I could think of that would know somebody who knew somebody. And in the end, they all came to the project in different ways. Some I had worked with before, some were friends of friends, and some were found via the internet". And now we get to the true MVP of the project: the world wide web. "That's such an appropriate name for it, especially in this case. It was truly a web that connected me in various ways to all these people whom I never could have worked with otherwise." In fact, the majority of the guest artists - 6 of the 9 singers and 7 of the12 instrumentalists - recorded their performances on their own, and emailed them to Christie. "This album would have never been possible 20 years ago. It's pretty amazing to be able to bring about collaborations between people in different countries who will probably never meet face-to-face, but have been part of a larger project together." The album's January 2011 release will find Christie back on tour, bringing audiences the new material in a live setting. "Another situation where 'without technology, this would not be possible'" he laughs. "I'm able to bring all of these guest performances with me on my laptop, and trigger them live, along with the beats and live keyboards that I'm playing. Most of the material from the new album was played live on the Fall 2010 tour, and the reactions from audiences have been amazing. I think that the vocals give people much more of a lifeline to connect to the songs, and I've seen it every night. Even though a song might be brand new to someone, by the third time they hear the chorus, they're already starting to sing along." A multinational collection of influences, an album full of cross-continental collaborations, and a spirit of communal celebration in concert: Telepath is proud to share all of this with a global audience, and with you. Thanks for being a part the journey!
