Ama Divers - Shadow Seeking Sun LP

Ama Divers - Shadow Seeking Sun LP

ID: #1638117

Description

Have you ever witnessed a band perform a familiar song as if they were reciting the alphabet? Like they could be miming to their own record and no one in the audience would know the difference? Drag, right? Well, don’t judge such musicians too harshly: transforming a rigidly fixed composition into the kind of a spontaneous creative act we expect from the most intrepid jazz and improv groups is perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing any performing band. This is because doing so takes ability, imagination, and nerve; the path from the fixity of song to on-the-spot musical invention is perilous and, as a result, rarely traversed. Ama Divers is a trio from North Carolina who uses this very path as the foundation on which it builds its stirring, hypnotic music. Composed atop a chassis of field recordings and rendered with all the fussiness of a gasoline-drenched Lee Perry throwing the I Ching, the lush, moody Shadow Seeking Sun, the band’s first official full-length album, brims with nuance, power, and heart. The group--Brian Haran (organ, synth, sampler, guitar, live dub treatments, recording, mixing), Chris Girard (guitars) and Renee Mendoza Haran (field recordings, bass, clarinet, voice)—has been kicking around for a few years, performing sporadically and releasing a limited-run cassette of smart, dubwise etherea. On Shadow Seeking Sun, the band’s songs move into even sharper focus, built atop field recordings Renee captured on her phone during long work-related travels away from her family. After dutifully collecting the sounds of wherever she happened to be at both dawn and dusk of each day, Renee then sent these aural snapshots to her family back home, often in lieu of the traditional text-messaged I-miss-yous, quick phone calls, and rushed, impersonal emails. Husband Brian, upon receiving these recordings, took to the band’s home studio and began remixing them. Sometimes this meant building textures and atmospheres around his wife’s iPhone captures; other times, Brian looped them, turning the natural rhythms of Renee’s journey into hypnotic almost-beats: cricket songs in place of snapping snare drums, the sound of a car driving over a pothole filling the role of a kick drum’s deep thud. It is within this cauldron that Brian, Renee, and guitarist Chris Girard create their meditative naturalist-kosmische, all mixed live and in real time by Brian, adding a strong improvisational element to Chris’ inventive, sculptural guitar playing and Renee’s haunting melodies. Textures alternately disintegrate and build around the actions of the group, creating a sort of closed circuit in which all sounds are constantly reacting and responding to each other. One of the more prominent of these sounds is the airy, luminous and entrancing voice of Renee Mendoza Haran. Far from the mush-mouthed “vocals as another instrument” cop-out of numberless zzzinematic snore-jockeys, her vivid, spellbinding vocals provide the band’s emotional core. The group’s textural range is equally magnificent. Occasionally sounding like a lost 4AD album produced by the Wackies, or Hugo Largo’s “Turtle Song” stretched to a blissful shoegaze Shangri-la, the band’s keen ear for coloristic detail never falters. A clean, broad, and transparent-sounding recording magnifies and further enhances the magnificent, subtle interplay and unusual rhythms that propel the songs. Though the band does not attempt to obscure its influences (the band’s home studio is called Garaaji, for goodness sakes), these influences are never conspicuous, utilized more as points of entry than as blueprints. By utilizing indeterminacy and using their songs to draw attention to the very act of their creation, Ama Divers create a singular, experiential, and deeply personal music unlike any you’ve ever heard. - James Jackson Toth

Price

$19.98

Last Updated

17 August 2026, 04:27 UTC

Store Information

Bull City Records

physical store

Location

Address: 2600, Hillsborough Road, 27705, NC, US
Coordinates: 36.010835, -78.928740
Visit Store Website

More from Bull City Records

View all
NxWorries - Yes Lawd! 2LP

NxWorries - Yes Lawd! 2LP

$29.98

Anderson .Paak + Knxwledge! "NxWorries appeared in early 2015 on Stones Throw with "Suede." Knxwledge provided the dazed production, its beat a clipped gait -- Gil Scott-Heron/Brian Jackson's "The Bottle" stretched and dragged to support Anderson Paak's freewheeling vehicular exhibition and macking seminar. Dr. Dre then sought Paak for extensive work on Compton, while the rising Knxwledge produced "Momma" on To Pimp a Butterfly and released a Stones Throw album. As Paak and Knxwledge sustained their prominence with separate collaborative and solo work, their activity as a unit gradually escalated to this full-length, released during the fourth quarter of 2016. It includes "Suede," two other cuts from an EP originally released as a download in late 2015, and 40 additional minutes of keenly bent and smudged soul loops. Though Paak is an accomplished musician and bandleader, as seen throughout 2016 in several televised performances to promote Malibu, he sticks strictly to singing and rapping, leaving Knxwledge to handle all the music. Reflective of their collaborative alias, Paak doesn't sound particularly bothered, apart from some irritation related in "H.A.N.," a deflection of leeches and critics, and some serious concerns and confessions within the supremely dreamy "Khadijah." Otherwise, he keeps it lighthearted as an irrepressible rolling stone. Audibly and lyrically coarse, he rarely sounds less than entirely self-satisfied and at least a little amused, whether he's dealing out wisecracking wordplay or quoting J Dilla as he deftly coasts over and darts between the beats. If not quite as substantive as Malibu, this is one of those albums that can be played continuously without risk of depreciation. Knxwledge and Paak are so occupied with other pursuits that this seems destined to take its place in the Stones Throw discography as one of the label's fine twosome one-offs in the manner of Madvillainy and Champion Sound." -All Music Guide

Updated: 2026-08-17 04:29 UTC
Lambchop - FLOTUS 2LP

Lambchop - FLOTUS 2LP

$24.98

"FLOTUS (For Love Often Turns Us Still) is a new full-length from the seminal Merge band Lambchop. Kurt Wagner, inspired by hip-hop, minimalism, and early electronic music, brings us a new sound for the band—one that's totally original and refreshing, yet distinctly Lambchop. The album's closer, "The Hustle", is an 18-minute whopper, which premiered with the album's announcement back in August along with a Stereogum interview . It was the soundtrack to the archival footage film The Dockworker's Dream by Bill Morrison, which was shared by NPR's First Watch. The album's second single,"NIV", was featured on an All Songs Considered's New Mix, and a video directed by William Tyler's sister Elise premieres later this month. A long-form essay by Wagner on the inspirations behind the record will run on Medium. NPR First Listen will stream the record in advance of the release date. Another single is set to be release ahead of that, and features, interviews, and reviews are set for Magnet, The Rumpus, American Songwriter, Ghettoblaster, The Big Takeover, WUNC Morning Edition, Dinner Party Download, and more." -Merge

Updated: 2026-08-17 04:29 UTC
Goat - Requiem 2LP

Goat - Requiem 2LP

$22.98

Mysterious masked Swedish psych group dabbling in Afro-beat 'n' Japanese psych influence rock. 3rd LP. "GOAT’s only outright declaration for Requiem is that it is their “folk” album, and the album is focused more on their subdued bucolic ritualism than psilocybin freakouts. But GOAT hasn’t completely foregone their fiery charms—tracks like “All-Seeing Eye” and “Goatfuzz” conjure the sultry heathen pulsations that ensnared us on their previous albums. Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of Requiem comes with the closing track “Ubuntu”. The song is little more than a melodic delay-driven electric piano line, until we hear the refrain from “Diarabi”—the first song on their first album—sneak into the mix. It creates a kind of musical ouroboros—an infinite cycle of reflection and rejuvenation, death and rebirth. Much like fellow recluse Pynchon, rather than offering explanations for their strange trajectories, GOAT create a world where the line between truth and fiction is so obscured that all you can do is bask in their cryptic genius." -Sub Pop

Updated: 2026-08-17 04:29 UTC
Hiss Golden Messenger - Heart Like A Levee LP

Hiss Golden Messenger - Heart Like A Levee LP

$19.98

"The writing of the songs that became Heart Like a Levee started in a hotel room in Washington , DC , in January of 2015 during a powerful storm that darkened the East Coast. At that time I was feeling—more acutely than I had ever felt before—wrenched apart by my responsibilities to my family and to my music. Forgetting, momentarily, that for me, each exists only with the other. How could I forget? Though maybe my lapse was reasonable: I had just quit my job, the most recent and last, in a series of dead-end gigs stretching back 20 years, with the vow that my children would understand their father as a man in love with his world and the inventor of his own days. They would be rare in that regard. And then—driven by monthly bills and pure fear—I left for another tour, carrying a load of guilt that I could just barely lift. But in that snowy hotel room I found the refrain that became my compass: I was a dreamer, babe, when I set out on the road; but did I say I could find my way home?" -M.C. Taylor

Updated: 2026-08-17 04:29 UTC
Girl Tears - Woke Against The Tide LP

Girl Tears - Woke Against The Tide LP

$16.98

"The Los Angeles/Orange County punk trio Girl Tears has mastered the art of the three-chord attack, delivering volatile blasts to the point of fury. Four tours and 100+ shows later, playing art spaces, houses, DiY venues, bars, barns, backyards, basements, and everything in between, Girl Tears has delivered a natural, confident progression from their debut. Woke Against The Tide wrestles with themes of Love/Hate, Good/Evil - and in particular - the space between these polarizing ideas. Cold Thoughtsand Uneasy personify the album's conflict. There are hooks, melody and structure, but also a bit of chaos built on a more complex arrangement that's constantly shifting and evolving, much like the band themselves. Whereas their debut Tension was more a discovery, Woke Against The Tideis more abstract. It creates a dense and unforgiving experience, really challenging the listener to keep up."

Updated: 2026-08-17 04:29 UTC
Bull City Records T-shirt! (Brown Shirt / Gold Ink)

Bull City Records T-shirt! (Brown Shirt / Gold Ink)

$12.00

Printed locally by Holy Mountain Printing on Gildan Heavy Cotton shirts.

Updated: 2026-08-16 15:44 UTC