Chronic Town by Ventifacts

Damon and I both love R.E.M., and their work has been a key influence on both of us. One day, the idea occurred to me that the spare, spidery spookiness of their earliest material could be fun to try in microtonal tuning. An experimental quarter-tone version of Wolves, Lower, soon followed. I thought it might just be a quick one-off for fun, but after hearing it, Damon suggested... what if we did the whole Chronic Town EP as one continuous suite of music? It seemed like an absurd undertaking, which is probably part of why it fascinated us.

Damon says: "I'm not usually one to fetishize first albums, but to me the essential ghost of R.E.M. was never so upfront as in their very earliest material, even as they grew as conventional songwriters in later years. There's always been something appealing and natural to me about going microtonal with R.E.M. -- something that almost enables us to grab and reanimate that original gothic hauntedness."

Climbing inside these songs and re-animating them in a new form, while trying to be true to their essence, was an incredibly illuminating experience. It gave us new respect for the alchemy the original foursome was able to create with this material. We hope that our new spins on these songs will twist your ears in new directions, as well as remind you how great the original music is!

Ventifacts is a microtonal songwriting duo comprised of Ben Spees (of The Mercury Tree) and Damon Waitkus (of Jack O' The Clock). This bicoastal collaboration has been developing since late 2019, and released a full-length album in September 2021.