NOW AVAILABLE: RADIO CITIZEN "HOPE AND DESPAIR" LP

DOUBLE LP INCLUDES BOTH SLIPCASE CD COPY AND DIGITAL DOWNLOAD!

Four years have passed since the release of Berlin Serengeti, the debut album from producer Niko Schabel and friends, aka Radio Citizen. His first album was an all-out assault of electronic music armed with organic tentacles that reached far into an eclectic bag of rough jazz and worldly funk. It not only caught the ears of tastemaker DJs and press (“It leaps dozens of genres in a single bound, digs up all those old sounds I love, fits them together, and erects a temple to pop's melting pot” - Pitchfork) but also wound up in movies and TV shows as varied as Grey's Anatomy, Californication, and this summer’s blockbuster Takers.

Schabel creates music that balances being accessible and exciting by way of his ability to blend the electronic with the organic. On Berlin Serengeti he seamlessly glued-together a loose collage of sampled textures and embellished them with gifted musicians and vocalists. On Hope and Despair he takes an even headier blend of raucous live instrumentation and works it into gritty songs and walls of sound with deft mixing and subtle studio trickery all rooted by heavyweight bass lines. His mass ensemble of musical friends often performs together in the Radio Citizen live show that developed after the release of the first album. Their unified musical prowess is reflected in the soloing, the harmonies, and all the interactions, that lift Hope and Despair above its predecessor.