Ariel Pink announces the second installment of Ariel Archives, a new comprehensive series of reissues and retrospective collections concentrating on the treasure trove of material recorded and released by Ariel Pink as Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti. The second cycle of the series is comprised of the albums The Doldrums, Worn Copy and House Arrest, out April 24 on Mexican Summer. The Doldrums and House Arrest will be presented on double LPs for the first time ever. Check out the previously unreleased video for Worn Copy track “Crybaby” below.
Representing Ariel Pink’s most classic recordings as Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, the name used for his one-man recording venture between 1999–2004, each release has been restored from the original cassette masters, which have been re-transferred and remastered from single-track sources. The first volume of Ariel Archives was released late last year and featured new editions of Loverboy and Underground, plus the long-awaited follow up volume of rare and unheard tracks titled Oddities Sodomies Vol. 2.
Ariel Pink’s historic run of material as Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti unfolded in Los Angeles while Ariel was in his early twenties. Born Ariel Marcus Rosenberg in 1978, and raised in the Beverly Glen neighborhood of Beverly Hills, Ariel went to Beverly Hills High School and then UC Santa Cruz for a year before transferring to CalArts, a reputable art school in Valencia just north of Los Angeles. Ariel departed CalArts early however to concentrate on music: he presented his early masterpiece The Doldrums as a senior thesis project and then left without a degree. Following The Doldrums, and its rudimentary predecessor Underground, Ariel Pink released a half-dozen more albums that culminated in Worn Copy, the last album before Arie’s five-year hiatus from releasing new music.
Ariel Archives makes an effort to reckon with the remarkable volume of outstanding music Ariel Pink made during this time. Rapidly evolving from crude proto-punk experiments to an adventurous home-recording aesthetic that explored a wide continuum of pop music, Ariel Pink developed a sound and image that would prove highly inventive and hugely influential.
Oddly, albums such as The Doldrums, Worn Copy and House Arrest were not widely embraced initially, though their inventiveness and strange beauty was usually recognized by reviewers, if not begrudgingly. Critical opinion was divided: Ariel Pink was either a self-indulgent “weirdo” or a pop music genius.
Ariel Pink’s music became hugely influential in the years since these albums appeared, providing sprawling reference points for numerous artists who embraced idiosyncrasy or limited recording means as a default position.
Releases in the Ariel Archives series will be expanded to contain much of the original material left off prior reissues that were made available in the mid-2000s and are now out of print. Expect further releases from Ariel Pink’s wondrous canon throughout 2020.
