Into The Sky is the fourth album by LA Priest aka Sam Eastgate. The maximalist cyber influenced album was co-written, co-produced and mixed by Eastgate’s old friend Alex Ridha - aka Boys Noize – and together they have fashioned a set of laser-guided pop songs on which Eastgate sings of love and liberation, swathed in pulsing electronics.
“I’m not sure which way I’m going, but it’s exciting – that’s the spirit of this album,” says Sam Eastgate of his latest LA Priest record, Into The Sky. Followers of LA Priest over the past decade might say that this has also been the case with his first three albums, Inji, Gene and Fase Luna – an intrepid trilogy that cast Eastgate as a nomadic sorcerer whose homebrewed psychedelia and inventive songwriting led to a string of cult hits.
But Into The Sky does feel genuinely exciting, not least because it finds Eastgate trying a new approach and in the process making some of the most satisfying music of his career. “For a long time, I wanted to make stuff for your mind. This one is more for the mind and the body,” he says. “I made this record to dance to. I haven’t really done one that you could put on and dance all the way through before.” To that end, he worked closely with Ridha - the pair have known each other since his Late of the Pier days in the late 2000s, “back when we were all pretty much teenagers. The reason I thought of Alex is because he’s doing such an innovative job in electronic music and I’m revisiting a style I haven’t done for a long time.” Enhanced by Ridha’s dynamic production, Into The Sky possesses a verve and immediacy that seems to illuminate LA Priest’s trippier instincts.
The journey to Into The Sky began in lockdown when the desire to keep active inspired Eastgate to set about making a dance record entirely from samples. He ended up so deep into the concept, devising his own style of house music, that he had to take a step back and “leave it on the shelf”. After putting it on pause, he travelled with his young family to Mexico and Costa Rica, got his guitar out and wrote Fase Luna, a collection of vivid folk songs that revealed a deeper connection to the natural world and local mythology.
Into The Sky is a chance to properly realise that electronic project. “I’ve always liked the homemade feel of very early techno, that’s why all the songs have the same drum machine and the same synth. How much ground can you cover with just a few sounds? How many different kinds of emotions can you show with one or two machines? That’s what I find exciting.”
The recording of Into The Sky drew various LA Priest strands together, which helps its harmonious homemade quality. Eastgate used the first Gene drum machine that he built in 2016 and he also invested in a vintage Korg 800 DV synthesiser to compose most of the material. He had used that Korg on his first solo album, Inji, before selling it, to his regret. That Korg inspired the sound of the first polysynth he built, the Polygene, which he used to finish off the record, “sprinkling notes here and there”. The album artwork of the drum and the egg goes back even further, to when Eastgate was coming up with designs for the sleeve of Late of the Pier’s one and only album, Fantasy Black Channel. “A full-circle moment,” he says.
“I’m not sure which way I’m going, but it’s exciting – that’s the spirit of this album,” says Sam Eastgate of his latest LA Priest record, Into The Sky. Followers of LA Priest over the past decade might say that this has also been the case with his first three albums, Inji, Gene and Fase Luna – an intrepid trilogy that cast Eastgate as a nomadic sorcerer whose homebrewed psychedelia and inventive songwriting led to a string of cult hits.
But Into The Sky does feel genuinely exciting, not least because it finds Eastgate trying a new approach and in the process making some of the most satisfying music of his career. “For a long time, I wanted to make stuff for your mind. This one is more for the mind and the body,” he says. “I made this record to dance to. I haven’t really done one that you could put on and dance all the way through before.” To that end, he worked closely with Ridha - the pair have known each other since his Late of the Pier days in the late 2000s, “back when we were all pretty much teenagers. The reason I thought of Alex is because he’s doing such an innovative job in electronic music and I’m revisiting a style I haven’t done for a long time.” Enhanced by Ridha’s dynamic production, Into The Sky possesses a verve and immediacy that seems to illuminate LA Priest’s trippier instincts.
The journey to Into The Sky began in lockdown when the desire to keep active inspired Eastgate to set about making a dance record entirely from samples. He ended up so deep into the concept, devising his own style of house music, that he had to take a step back and “leave it on the shelf”. After putting it on pause, he travelled with his young family to Mexico and Costa Rica, got his guitar out and wrote Fase Luna, a collection of vivid folk songs that revealed a deeper connection to the natural world and local mythology.
Into The Sky is a chance to properly realise that electronic project. “I’ve always liked the homemade feel of very early techno, that’s why all the songs have the same drum machine and the same synth. How much ground can you cover with just a few sounds? How many different kinds of emotions can you show with one or two machines? That’s what I find exciting.”
The recording of Into The Sky drew various LA Priest strands together, which helps its harmonious homemade quality. Eastgate used the first Gene drum machine that he built in 2016 and he also invested in a vintage Korg 800 DV synthesiser to compose most of the material. He had used that Korg on his first solo album, Inji, before selling it, to his regret. That Korg inspired the sound of the first polysynth he built, the Polygene, which he used to finish off the record, “sprinkling notes here and there”. The album artwork of the drum and the egg goes back even further, to when Eastgate was coming up with designs for the sleeve of Late of the Pier’s one and only album, Fantasy Black Channel. “A full-circle moment,” he says.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Super clean electronic pop, rich with Eastgate's unmistakeable vocals and the slo-mo technoid thump of his (and Boyz Noize's) classic sound. Brittle electronic passages and richly textured percussion lines intertwine and forge a sound that's as intricate as it is revealing. A superb journey.TRACK LISTING
1. Rayon
2. No Other
3. Voices
4. Breathe
5. Ever No
6. Can’t Get Enough
7. Sailor
8. Into The Sky
9. Time
10. Message
