New Villager

I met Ben Bromley at an Extravaganza after party in Isla Vista 2003. Ben had opened up his luxury apartment and made it known that he knew how to throw a party. I stayed till the wee hours savoring the scene. On that very night I was introduced to the likes of Stereolab and Mouse on Mars amongst other far out sounds. It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

When it came time to score my first UCSB film I convinced Ben to hand over all the demos he had been working on. His multi instrumental compositions were a budding music supervisors wet dream. Ben and I shared a sense of melancholy and an appreciation for herbs that made us fast friends. A sad day came later that spring when I traded him Tortoise's Standards for Fog's masterpiece Ether Teeth and we said goodbye. Ben moved away and it wasn't till years later that we both happened to be visiting Isla Vista at the same time. We met at Woodstocks and he told me of his exploits as a touring member of Fischerspooner. Since then he has toured with Santogold as part of her band.

Years of hard work, practice and surrounding himself with amazing compositions has lead Ben to produce the first of what I hope will be countless solo recordings. This little jem holds true to the tribal pop imagery that accompanies it on his myspace. With a warped sensibility that would have a Carpark or Athmatic Kitty (ed note: looks like he hosted a castanets show at his place when he was a NY resident) residency making equal sense, New Villager is a likely contender for becoming a next big thing. Ben is currently hanging out in a cabin north of Santa Rosa CA working on his big solo breakthrough.

Befriend him so you can see it all go down from "the front row".