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Expansion Team Records is pleased to announce the May 27th release of Ready Fire Aim’s debut CD This Changes Nothing. A collaboration between singer, poet, author, actor and political commentator Sage Rader and DJ/ producer Shaun Morris (AKA Stakka), Ready Fire Aim have come up with a stealth concept album that conjures shades of Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, The Postal Service and even Pink Floyd, but with a twisted, hyper-processed and hypnotic sound that truly sets them apart. And you can dance to it.
From the creepy opening strains of electric violin squeezed and squelched through a phalanx of effects pedals on "End of Over,” to the Reznor-esque clipped beats and crackles of "Lush But Dark,” the album is a raucous journey through electronic beat styles and modes of signal manipulation, often harking back to ‘80s Brit synth pop, but also conjuring the dystopic dreams of a music from the future. Vocally, Sage runs the gamut from gravel-voiced romantic with a dark secret ("Happy Love Song”) to caterwauling champ who could give Perry Farrell a run for his lucre ("I Would for You.”) Lyrically, he tackles topics ranging from relationships long past their prime (on the club-funky anthem "Beautiful Thing”) to backroom jockeying for power (the rocked-out "Laff It Up”).
Sage first got into music through the violin, which he picked up as a child while living in London. Then in high school, he studied violin performance at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of Stephen Clapp, now the Dean of the School of Music at Julliard, before chucking it all to roam the earth. Along the way, he became a poet (he was reviewed by The Guardian as the "Michael Moore Of Poetry”), writer and actor, grabbed a choice role in the film Beyond The Ocean (nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize), publishing an illustrated confessional called Sex Drugs and Sunday School and performing his poetry and political standup in venues around the world.
Shaun "Stakka” Morris grew up in Brighton, England, where he began DJing at an early age. As a fan of everyone from Jean-Michel Jarre to Just-Ice, he developed a wide-ranging palette and eventually got into making beats of his own just as acid house and big beat were giving way to London‘s hardcore rave scene and, eventually, drum ’n bass. He adopted the name Stakka and teamed up with Keir Tyrer to produce a string of progressive dance tracks for the Liftin‘ Spirits label (as Stakka & K. Tee), while also working with Nathan Vinall under a litany of aliases. After moving to New York in 2002, he and DJ DB began collaborating as Ror-Shak and released an album, Deep, in early 2007.
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