TL Stamp Signs to Sunreturn + Announces Album + Shares Single
TL Stamp is the musical project of Tony Stamp (he/him), a producer, engineer and award winning broadcaster based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa.
For two decades Tony has been behind the mixing desk, engineering at radio institutions 95bFM and RNZ. Stamp is an on air talent too, hosting 95bFM’s Totally Wired and co-hosting Saturday Drive show Carnival In Rio. In 2021 Stamp was handpicked as Nick Bollinger’s replacement for RNZ’s The Sampler and is now a music critic and producer of Aotearoa’s flagship music show Music 101. Stamp also wrote and co-presented a science fiction film show for Sky TV, featured on TVNZ’s U-Live (and later U-Late), is a contributing writer on Flicks.co.nz and has a monthly Totally Normal column on David Farrier’s Webworm. In 2022 Tony won the inaugural NZ On Air Outstanding Music Journalism Award at the Taite Music Prize.
For the past decade Stamp has been bashfully uploading minimal electronica, field recordings and aural experiments to Soundcloud & Bandcamp, gaining the recognition of the taste makers and early adopters. Now teamed up with Sunreturn, TL Stamp shares Belladonna Of Sadness, the first single from new album creases out digitally on November 3. To celebrate TL Stamp will be hosting a creases listening party on October 29 at Karangahape Road’s The Frog, with DJ assistance from Aaron Yap (host of 95bFM’s Psychic Glands).
STREAM TL STAMP – BELLADONNA OF SADNESS
Indicative of TL Stamp’s creative process, Belladonna of Sadness carries traces of sonic explorers such as Teebs, DJ Shadow and Mogwai. TL Stamp begins by riffing on whatever instrument is at hand, gradually building and layering those performances through an additive approach to sample-based DAW composition. The magic, in other words, is happening in ‘the box’.
The track begins with click-clacking percussion intertwined with chiming kalimba before the undertow of Crowther Hotcake seared sub bass pulls the composition into rhythmic motion. Drawing inspiration from classic animated cinema; notably Katsuhiro Otomo’s 1988 Akira and Eiichi Yamamoto’s 1973 Belladonna of Sadness, after which the track is named – Stamp constructs a sound world that feels like an intricate patchwork.
“Initially I wanted to make something that blurred the line between ‘percussive’ and ‘melodic’” notes TL Stamp. “The pattern that starts the song is a combination of things that live somewhere between. I had Kaneda from the Akira score in my head and later when I wrote the chorus-type section it turned into something more emotional and maybe triumphant. There’s the sound of me hitting various bits of wood in my house and a kalimba I recorded at my friend’s place in Vienna.”
Midway through Belladonna Of Sadness the kalimba is joined by a lament performed on banjo by Stamp’s former RNZ colleague Kirsten Johnstone, giving the track an earthy, human counterpoint to its electronic textures. “The most exciting part for me was the inclusion of banjo. I got my friend Kirsten to play several scales at different intensities, then mapped them to my sampler and came up with the song’s main hooks. One of them ended up at a higher register than your average banjo, so it sounds like a whole new thing.”
The release of Belladonna Of Sadness and creases marks a deliberate shift for TL Stamp: away from excess and towards restraint and brevity. “When I listen back to some of my older stuff, I often think tracks have one or two more elements than they actually need. I always think that it’s fun for repeat listens, but it can be overwhelming on the initial play through. On this album I wanted to fight that impulse, so whenever I got to a point where I felt like I needed to add something new, I just stopped. That’s why the tracks are all quite short (and often end abruptly). I wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible.”
