DARK AGE MARTIAL ARTS
Dune Castle
Dark Ages Martial Arts, an acid western funk tale composed by Cantrips’ Patrick Ryan and performed by Dune Castle, a rotating cast of session players performing as the label’s house band.
Growing up in Hong Kong from the mid 90s to early 10s, Ryan developed a fascination with martial arts films and fantasy epics. Revisiting these stories and more inspired by them, this record is the soundtrack to the fictional film “Dark Age Martial Arts”; an epic journey portrayed through the lens of 70s Kung Fu films and fantasy comic book series The Sandman. Composed throughout Melbourne’s second lockdown, this record takes cues from cinema and the martial arts through it’s sonic exploration; break-heavy soul/funk, cinematic psychedelia, and spaghetti western soundtracks.
Directed by Ryan, the record was learnt, arranged and recorded over the course of two days in the Dune Castle Throne Room – a garage studio in Thornbury. Heavy rain and a tin roof necessitated creativity in the recording process on the first day by engineer Henry Jenkins, but the troupe were blessed by sunshine on a balmy Sunday for the second. All tracks were recorded in the order you hear on the record. Henry mixed the record at his Collingwood studio.
Credits
released April 8, 2022
Produced by Patrick Ryan
Engineered and Mixed by Henry Jenkins
Recorded live in the Dune Castle Throne Room, Thornbury, Melbourne, 2021
Mastered by Max Dowling
Patrick Ryan – Classical Guitar, Farfisa, Percussion
Hudson Whitlock – Drums
Eugene Stone-Marques – Electric Guitar
Jethro Curtin – Farfisa, Wurlitzer, Solina, Model D
Lachlan Stuckey – Bass (1-5)
Carl Lindeberg – Bass (6-12)
Sam Harvey – Persussion (1-10)
Kaough Baggett – Percussion (11-12)
Artwork by Tom Ferson
