Songwriter and accordionist Margaret Stutt, aka Pezzettino, may have moved to Brooklyn earlier this year, but she's kept her promise to maintain her Milwaukee ties. Next month she'll return home again for the release of her latest album LubDub, which she recorded with Milwaukee producer and multi-instrumentalist LMNtlyst, who played up the occasional hip-hop undertones in Stutt's music. A melodica player himself, he was intrigued by the possibilities of working with an accordion.
"Initially we didn't plan on making an album together, we just though it'd be fun to play around in the studio, but the collaboration took on a life of its own and we soon had over 20 tracks," Stutt explains.
The two recorded in LMNtlyst's equipment-laden Milwaukee studio between Stutt's tour dates, then refined their recordings over e-mail.
"I showed up with songs in my head, some were fully formed and had been around for years, some were a cappella songs that I'd been performing by having the audience clap out the beat, and several were just scraps that hadn't been developed yet," Stutt says. "He picked out ones that he dug and drafted treatments. Then we both refined the sound by exchanging files over e-mail until we could agree on the final result. Our musical backgrounds and tastes are quite differentsometimes finding a common ground was instantaneous, and other times was like a long, diplomatic sonic debate. We both had to learn to let go in order to stretch the limits, grow, and let the songs become something that neither of us would have individually fathomed."
The album is Pezzettino's most expansive yet, touching on trip-hop, reggae and doo-wop, while milking moody tones and textures from Stutt's accordion, which she played with an effects pedal for the first time. Stutt and LMNtylst will play a local release show for the record Saturday, Sept. 11 at the Turner Hall Ballroom as part of the Mondo Lucha event, but in the meantime, a temporary stream of the record is posted below.
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