Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel) Announces New Album Bringing It Down to the Bass
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Legendary bassist Tony Levin, best known for his work with King Crimson and Peter Gabriel, has announced the new album Bringing It Down to the Bass. The LP features contributions from Robert Fripp (King Crimson), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Vinnie Colaiuta (Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell), and more.
The album arrives via Flatiron Recordings on September 13th, one day after Levin kicks off the highly anticipated “BEAT” tour celebrating the music of King Crimson with Adrian Belew, Danny Carey, and Steve Vai. According to Levin, the album is a long-time coming, as he’s been working on a number of the songs for years, if not decades.
“It could have been done a long time ago, frankly,” Levin said in a press release, “but it’s because of a problem I have, which is a very good problem to have. And that’s that I have a lot of touring and that’s what I love to do, playing live. It just didn’t give me much time at home to work on finishing the album that I’ve been working on for five or six years.”
Levin, who made Consequence‘s list of the 100 Greatest Bassists of All Time, added, “But, a year ago May, I looked at my schedule and saw a lot of touring with Peter Gabriel for almost a year and then in November 2023, there was a Stick Men tour –and then in January a Levin Brothers tour – and I said to myself, ‘If I take March, April and May off from any live playing and maybe even any recording for other people and really focus on this, I can finally get this album out.’ It could have happened ten years before if I had the gumption to turn down tours.”
As for the music on the album, Levin explained, “I had pieces very much in the prog-rock vein and I had pieces that were based on the bass, and somewhere around the middle of the record I made the difficult decision to toss the prog stuff – well, not toss it exactly, save it for another album – and the more I focused, I chose the kind of pieces that had to me a sense of unity to it in that it’s about the bass. Not songs with singing about the bass, but each song is either based on a bass riff or a bass technique that I then invited some great rhythm sections to play on.”
The song “Floating in Dark Waters” features a soundscape that was donated to him by King Crimson founder Robert Fripp.
“Way back when we toured with King Crimson a lot, there were a few tours this century where Robert would play a looping soundscape he would create before the show and the audience would hear it as they came in,” recalled Levin. “Robert said, ‘Tony, go out and play bass to my soundscape.’ These soundscapes were often atonal, but sometimes they were tonal. We played many on stage, every night for years and it occurred to me then that it would make a very interesting piece on an album, just bass and soundscape.”
Mike Portnoy drums on the track “Boston Rocks,” while drummer Vinnie Colaiuta plays on the song “Uncle Funkster.” Most of the tracks on the album are instrumental, but a few feature female vocalists.
As mentioned, Levin will embark on the “BEAT” tour with Adrian Belew, Danny Carey, and Steve Vai on September 12th in San Jose, California, with tickets available here.
Hear a one-minute snippet of the title track to Bringing It Down to the Bass below, and see the album art and tracklist. Pre-order the album via Amazon or Bandcamp (where you can see the complete list of contributors).
Bringing It Down to the Bass Artwork:
Bringing It Down to the Bass Tracklist:
01. Bringing It Down to the Bass
02. Me and My Axe
03. Road Dogs
04. Uncle Funkster
05. Boston Rocks
06. Espressoville
07. Give the Cello Some
08. Turn It Over
09. Beyond the Bass Clef
10. Bungie Bass
11. Fire Cross the Sky
12. Floating in Dark Waters
13. On the Drums
14. Coda
Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel) Announces New Album Bringing It Down to the Bass
Spencer Kaufman
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