Fading Collection
Seattle, Washington, United States | SELF
Music
Press
Local electronic duo get the remix treatment from a variety of local artists, most of which aren't well-known,
but provide some superior vocals and production work. Excellent local downtempo electronica.
- John Richards, Program Director, KEXP 90.3
This remix album from Seattle’s trip-hop trio is as good as anything available anywhere. Sarah McCulloch’s
voice is smoky and serious in all of the right places and angelic everywhere else. The rhythm section concocts
a tapestry of grooves and beats that sway heads and hips in an electronic ebb and flow for the duration of the
album. The same fierce heart that inspired their debut is at the center of this collection; only here it’s been
rethought, reshaped and rewired... these 14 songs come out of the womb veracious and raw, like life itself. - Shawn Telford, Tablet Magazine
Sarah McCulloch's vocals twist and turn like a angelic bird flying between Halou and Massive Attack. You
can hear the wings on her voice...[the mixes] groove with a dark pop snap like Garbage-lite, and then flow into
memories of bands like Single Gun Theory. It's the shadows that breathe within the beats that keep me smiling. - www.threeimaginarygirls.com
Seattle trip hop artists The Fading Collection start with unsettling psychedelic loops, then add live vocals,
bass, drums, and guitar. Dark lyrics and incisive harmonies showcase the gorgeous and turbulent voice of
Sarah McCulloch. - Michele Myers, DJ, KEXP 90.3
Discography
Attakk EP (2010)
Supertron (2005)
Stems Remix Album (2004)
Interactive Family Radio (2003)
Photos
Bio
One of life’s overarching themes is the idea of duality. The yin, the yang, Adam and Eve, the double helix, over and under, up, down…the pattern is clear. Fading Collection fit together in the same way, a synchronous blend of two distinct parts. Sarah McGuinn’s gigantic voice and producer/arranger Matt Frickelton’s inspired beatology create twin strands of harmonic resonance; he is the flash and the dazzle, his banks of machines pushing out crashing waves of chaotic energy while she is the light and the heart, her muscular alto creating weight and melodic structure.
Their music follows the trip-hop meld of the diva and the digital, with touches of Goldfrapp and the dynamic restlessness of DJ Shadow and Lamb. But those are barely starting points. What they do isn’t so easily categorized, with songs that alternate between moody ups and ecstatic downs, slippery and ephemeral, spicy and cool, alive with the crackling charge generated by a pair of uncommon musicians.
Four long years have gone by since their last collaboration, 2005’s Supertron, but Fading Collection are dormant no longer. Currently in the process of completing their next full-length record Neutron, the duo has in the meantime produced an EP, Attakk. Acting as contrast to Neutron’s chillier vibe, these five tracks are stripped down and direct, as McGuinn and Frickelton depend on muscle memory to whip rough-hewn hunks of sound into sub-four-minute bursts of quick, dirty, industrialized pop. The approach results in some of the most accessible music they’ve ever recorded, yet preserves enough depth to reward repeat listens.
Known and respected in the Seattle area, McGuinn and Frickelton have been making music together for over a decade. After meeting in college, they initially formed the band Shiver only to radically mutate, shifting their sound away from the acoustic and into the electric at a time when the Seattle music scene was still recuperating from its grunge hangover. More recently, they’ve brought on additional musicians in drummer Jeremy Hill, keyboardist Corey Paganucci, and backup vocalist Tavia Kachel, who now fill out Fading Collection’s emotional and provocative live show.
Over the time they’ve worked together, their fans have downloaded tens of thousands of MP3s from their three full-length records (2002’s Interactive Family Radio, the 2004 remix record Stems and the aforementioned Supertron). They’ve also been a fixture of the Seattle live scene, playing most everywhere in town worth playing while spending time in heavy rotation on the city’s influential KEXP radio station. Their music has been featured on MTV reality shows like The Real World, Road Rules, and Parental Control - as well as on soundtracks from indie film productions like Pyrosutra and Feeding the Hawk. With Attakk, The Fading Collection are back onstage, ready to begin the second act in their mesmerizing theater of sound.
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