Cartel Chroma Full Album Zip
Raiquen Courcelle
Chroma is the debut studio album by the American rock band Cartel. Formed in mid-2003, they self-released an EP the following year. Shortly afterwards founding guitarist Andy Lee left the band and was replaced by Nic Hudson. Following a performance at a music conference in Atlanta, the band signed to The Militia Group. With songs planned out, the band went to record with producers Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount. Recording took place at Treesound Studios in Atlanta in May and June 2005. Chroma released through The Militia Group in September 2005. The album sold 3,000 copies in its first week and charted at number 140 on the Billboard 200 chart. Chroma is the only full-length Cartel album to feature bassist Ryan Roberts, who departed the band in 2006.
The album was recorded at Treesound Studios, in Atlanta, Georgia,[11] over the course of eight days[6] between May 18 and June 21, 2005.[11] The band co-produced the album with producers Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount.[11][nb 1] The pair also engineered and mixed the album.[11] The drums were recorded in a room called The Cave.[14] Gavin Lurssen mastered the album at The Mastering Lab in Hollywood, California.[11] Pugh later thought the band "didn't really have a lot of time" to record the album.[6] He called the recording process "really strained" and filled with "a lot of stress".[6] Pugh considered the album "a big step up" from the band's EP.[6]
Pugh was dating a girl while they were in college and shortly afterwards went on tour.[15] The pair broke up because Pugh did not know how long he would be on tour.[15] A year after they broke up, the girl began dating another guy, much to Pugh's annoyance.[15] It "just ate at me so hard" and as a result Pugh wrote "Honestly".[15] While the band were working on "Honestly" Pugh thought "it just wasn't quite sounding right". Instead he used the vocal track from the demo on the album version.[14] He felt "It matched up perfectly, which was sweet!" [14] "Burn This City" is about the band getting out of town and having other people tell them they could not.[6] "Save Us" was the first piano song Pugh wrote.[6] The melody for the song came while Pugh was messing around with a piano at Pepper's house.[6] The song was originally in the key of C, but the band changed it to G "in order to keep as little black keys out of it as possible".[6] Odom plays the strings on the song and also "The Minstrel's Prayer".[11]
"Luckie. St" was originally recorded for The Ransom EP, but was re-recorded for Chroma.[16] "If I Fail", according to Pugh, "was kind of the same thing" as "Honestly".[15] For "The Minstrel's Prayer", Pugh played all the acoustic guitars.[6] With "A" the band knew what they wanted to do with the track.[6] It features choruses of other songs on the album.[6] They wanted the album to end "with an ellipsis, where you can be expecting other things and not just really closing it off".[6] The inspiration for this was Jimmy Eat World's "Goodbye Sky Harbor".[6] "A" features programmed drums taken from André 3000's MP3 player, which he left at the studio.[14] All of the programming was done by Pugh.[6] According to him, the band were "messing around" with the MP3 player and the programmed drums they found on it were "good so we were like, 'Cool, let's just use this!'"[14] Mount provided additional programming on "Q" and "A", while Julia Kugel recorded additional vocals for the two songs.[11] David Webers plays trumpets on "A".[11]
Randall Jenkins[11] from The Militia Group[6] and Cartel handled the art direction.[11] Jenkins created the artwork for the album.[6] It was initially going to be printed on vellum, similar to what Copeland had used for their Beneath Medicine Tree (2003) album.[6] Due to the cost this was not done.[6] Pugh said that "it really didn't reflect the overall idea of the artwork we had in the long run".[6] The band scrapped this and went for "hi-res photos and things like that",[6] a concept which came from Chris Donahue, Pugh and Jenkins.[6] Jenkins produced all the photographs and compiled them.[6] Jenkins also did the design and layout.[11] Zack Arias of Usedfilm took the band photograph.[11] The Militia Group edition of the album is in a jewel case with a slipcase, while the Epic edition is only in a jewel case. The vinyl edition is in a gatefold sleeve in a die-cut slipcover.[17]
Cartel had attracted major label attention before the album was released.[6] On June 25, 2005, Chroma was announced for release in three months' time; its track listing was posted online.[18] Following this, the band joined Acceptance, the Receiving End of Sirens and Panic! at the Disco on the Take Cover tour.[19] On September 6, 2005, the album was made available for streaming.[20] The Militia Group released Chroma on September 20.[21] In November 2005, they went on a tour of Japan with Oceanlane and Buddhiston, which was followed by a stint in the US with the Working Title and Terminal.[22][23] Cartel went on the Screaming Is for Babies Tour[24] co-headlining with Copeland with support from the Starting Line and Gatsbys American Dream in February, March and April 2006.[25][26]
Chroma sold over 3,000 copies in its first week, becoming The Militia Group's most successful artist release.[25] By August 2006, the album had sold over 100,000 copies.[37] Its success was due to the band's online fan base and their use of Myspace, according to the vice president of marketing at Epic.[38] By February 2007 the album had sold 183,000 copies,[38] By and by October 2009 over 250,000 copies.[39] In an interview with Alternative Press in May 2015 Pugh reckoned that album sales stood around "280, 290 thousand copies [sold]".[15] The album charted in the U.S. at number 140 on the Billboard 200,[40] number two on the Heatseekers Albums chart[41] and number 38 on the Independent Albums chart.[42] "Honestly" charted at number 26 on the Pop Songs chart,[43] number 65 on the Digital Songs chart[44] and number 89 on the Hot 100.[45] Alternative Press included "Luckie. St" on its Windows Down - 11 Summer Driving Songs list.[16]
Got on discogs last week and bought a 2005 version of the album on cd. It is superior in every way to the re-mastered/re-recorded version (including the travesty of a re-recording of Save Us) available on streaming services that, i think, was rolled out in 2006.
Chroma came out on the Militia Group in September of 2005 [check out this incredible promo, which is somehow still online], but it was a slow build. Did you know from the start that the album would eventually be upstreamed to Epic Records? Or was it a matter of, things were selling, so now they wanted to pick it up?
Numbers often indicate a passing of time, but music never gets old. 2005 marked a year of success and excitement, highlighting the release of one of the most perfect records on the very day of September 20. The album cover of Cartel's Chroma may be simple, but there is a boldness within the vibrant red color that resembles the record sonically, as a whole and its individual's tracks. Music is constantly evolving in style and in this day and age, but for two sold out nights on April 19th and 20th, Cartel helped New York City and their show's attendees hit rewind, jointly celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the record.
However, Austin-based Driver Friendly sparked the excitement of the night. There is no doubt, they started the night off right with their unexpected and unique energy, with lead vocalist and keyboard player Tyler Welsh alternating between both sides of the stage and raising his arm into the air. Alongside Welsh, he was joined onstage with guitarist and vocalist Andy Lane and drummer Jeremi Mattern, in addition to bassist, guitarist, keyboard player, and vocalist Chris Walker and trumpeter Juan Lopez. Together, as they delivered a set that included songs across their albums and EPs, they created this sort of upbeat fun not often evoked from a supporting act that opens up a show.
As the crowd gradually expanded and filled the beautiful theatre, TEAM* exhibited a humble entrance onto the stage. If there is something they nailed besides their sound, it w would definitely be their colorful variety of instruments, with guitars and basses with a body color of red, blue, or black, in addition to a drum set with their band name on the bass with a sort of rim design resembling a zebra print but in dark brown and tan. As they busted out some tunes off their new album titled Good Morning Bad Day and previous releases, they sought interaction with not only the crowd singing along, but also with each other, as a means of playing their instruments and making eye contact opposite each other. TEAM*, formed by frontman Caleb Turman and Rico Andradi, have only been active for a few years; however, it is their sound that matters, which is rapidly shaping to become an authentic mixture of melodies, harmonies, keyboard, and rhythm.
At last, the time had come to embrace the span of ten years through music instead of simple numbers. With a backdrop that resembled the album cover and lights of different colors and beams enough to illuminate it, smiles from the crowd filled the room, from the first row of the tight crowd standing at the barricade to those seated in the chairs. Rather than immediately emerging from backstage, Cartel rather, opened up the hearts and ears with a short automated message that almost sounded intergalactic with, "Hi, welcome to the Chroma experience." From that moment on, a rare and special night was ahead of the concert-goers, comprised of a mix of individuals mostly in their early to late 20's who were familiar with Cartel with some who may have stumbled upon them for the first time, but little did that matter, since everyone had devoted their Sunday night to gather for music and commemorate ten years since the release of the debut masterpiece, and of course, Cartel. Within seconds, Will, Kevin, Joseph, and Nic quickly geared up to begin with the opening track "Say Anything (Else)," followed by the well-known single "Honestly," which the band had broke the exciting news that it had gone gold, which meant it had hit at least 500,000 sales. Shortly after nailing the last beat of the hit, they continued with each track, one after another.
aa06259810