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Telefon Tel Aviv
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The late 1990s were a fertile time in the American electronic underground. A growing body of artists, spread around the nation, were engaging in the latest round of a decades-long transatlantic musical conversation. At the convergence of hip-hop, electronic, and soul music, these artists sought to carve out their own lane. In September 2001, New Orleans' Telefon Tel Aviv, high school friends Joshua Eustis and the late Charles Cooper, joined the conversation with their debut album, Fahrenheit Fair Enough, released by Hefty Records. A labor of love, Fahrenheit was an attempt by the pair "to contribute something meaningful," Eustis says today, "something definitely American, and kinda southern too." On the fifteenth anniversary of it's release, Ghostly International is reissuing Fahrenheit Fair Enough with a vinyl edition and bonus digital material.Living in New Orleans in the late 1990s, Eustis and Cooper were in the thrall of two musical orbits: American staples-New Orleans' bounce, Detroit's techno, Chicago's house-and British electronica-Autechre, Aphex Twin, Jega. Recorded over the course of a year in Eustis' childhood bedroom in the Riverbend neighborhood of New Orleans, Fahrenheit mapped out a potential for American electronic music in a time of hope. The tracks were meant to be "constantly evolving sculptures." Fascinated by IDM, the pair sought to inject "some swagger into it, loosen it up a little but also make it hyper romantic."Eustis and Cooper had imagined making a "hard club record," but instead Fahrenheit came to be seen as a delicate slice of electronica by fans and critics who misconstrued it's stylistic roots. The music sounds all the more relevant in 2016 because the roadmap Eustis and Cooper desired then exists today. And because today everyone listens to what the South has to say."We just wanted to see if we could make it work," recalls Eustis. "We didn't know. Our aim was to make something we could be proud of."For the 25th anniversary of the seminal electronic LP, a watershed album for American electronic music, a deluxe obi edition double vinyl is being released in a new Watercolor variant. Joshua Eustis and the late Charlie Cooper created a classic that sits at the edges of IDM, experimental, and bass music, influencing a new generation of artists (Loraine James, Kelly Moran, etc.). The album finally returns for a new generation.