Bastardgeist is the brainchild of Chicago-based musician Joel Midden. Through layers of kalimba, processed vocals, circuitous samples and found percussion he has crafted a bedroom opus of singular vision and ambitious design.

Comprised of ten continuous play tracks, Bastardgeist's self-titled debut explores the politics and isolation of sexuality through abstract lyrical fragments intermittently obscured by ethereal washes of ambient texture and frank, heart-wrenching melodies. Sam Scranton of upstart Leaf Label collective Volcano! applied his signature bombastic style to the drums along with the various and sundry contributions of a myriad cast of characters over the course of three years.

Bastardgeist will be released by Brainlove Records in late 2010, followed by a live date at the Iceland Airwaves festival and a string of UK dates.

Early Press Excerpts for Bastardgeist:

"A bed of stimulating sonics... detailed yet uncluttered with a captivating beauty." - Shook Mag

"We were dumbfounded by how Bastardgeist produced his strange polyrhythmic experiments. We know now, they're due in no small part to a traditional kalimba and his own, unique ethereal voice" - WNUR Radio, Chicago

"With the ripped and distant loops of singing children (are they singing?), I imagine some futuristic archaeologist finding only that 1-second clip and them playing it over and over, trying to rebuild the past. But I suppose that's what I'm doing, playing this song over and over, trying to fabricate a story to this gentle 3-minute sample, of a moment, of a day, or a month, however long this feeling lasted." - Said The Gramaphone