The main contribution that Karma – very generously – brings into our lives is one that I find very interesting. I believe it holds a certain purpose. To free one’s self from the continuous relapse between suffering and reward. It is not to judge. But to change one’s mind on what the inner core of their being is craving. Whether it falls back on you or something bigger than yourself.
Black Market Karma revealed its closest relationship with the term when Stan Belton, lead member and founder of the London-based band, released its first-ever album, out for the public to enjoy with nothing more than a nod to his return. Compensation relies on his good faith to contribute to the underground music scene rather than lining one’s pockets. And one that has charmingly come back around.
On the 16th of August, Black Market Karma will be releasing a song with Sonic Boom. Having reached out to Belton about his new upload of the song ‘Sour Truth’, this laudatory exchange became the cause of a fine collaboration between the two. Sonic Boom had been a great inspiration for him from a young age – “it was magic to have him involved in a track”. The single is to be released by Flower Power Records on 10” clear vinyl, alongside a B-side he recorded especially for it.
Once you engage with the band’s fuzz-like induction of what Stan describes as “The Technicolour Liquid Audio Machine”, you begin to understand a journey behind the musical outcomes of a wistfully, weightless psychedelic rock. Having been releasing music for over a decade now, with altering members except for Stan himself, we have been embodied by their offering of bluesy top-line melodies, jangling details, the unmistakable 60’s guitar crunch, and its Hip Hop-influenced colours.
They are songs that come in meaningful layers of unspoken acknowledgements, which we are welcome to interpret as our own. ”I mean, I know what they’re all about, but I feel like sharing that would be getting on top of it. I’d prefer to let them mean what they mean to each person and not invalidate that.” He tells me.
Earlier this year, Black Market Karma brought “Friends In Noise” to the field. A first-ever collaborative LP for the band. Yet one which came swiftly in the efforts of a feathers release. It wasn’t an intentional project to fall upon, of which somehow the tracks came beautifully together. Each track is in collaboration with a different good friend of his. These include Tess Parks, Ruari Meehan, The Underground Youth, Les Big Byrd (Joakim Ahlund) and The Confederate Dead. The album offers its gratifying contribution to hearing each of their sonic flavours throughout the release.
Their broad sound on heavy layers results from a challenge, overstepped by Stan, from self-producing all his records from the start. He has avoided the long reliant process by depending on others to reach his intentions. By recording and producing the material from his very own backbone. Leading him to release four records back in 2012, including their debut. “That pace wouldn’t have been possible if I wasn’t self-sufficient.” Giving him the freedom to reinforce independence to work as he best wishes creatively.
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