The Ol’ One-Two Combo

In January, Atlas & Oracle kicked off their year with the first of 3 releases that followed a pattern: a collaborative song featuring another artist in the ska community, followed by a synthed-out cover song as a B-Side. The A-Sides were written with the featured artist in mind, in a uniquely blended style between the two bands, always featuring ska guitar (pop-ska). When the song drops out, the guitar does as well, and the synths take over (ska-pop, or “synth ska”). Two tracks in such distinctly different styles might sound odd coming from any other band. But for Atlas & Oracle, it’s a continuation of a trend.
 
Read more about the band

About the Albums

On the first ska compilation album that Atlas & Oracle participated in, ‘Songs for Moms Vol. 2’, Atlas heard the music of Lumpy for the first time and loved it. They reached out about a potential collab and got an affirmative back, then binged Lumpy’s catalog for a bit before coming up with the idea for Live This Way. The demo was sent over, ideas and recordings were sent back, and eventually a finished song was produced.
 
It would become the first of many, as over the next few months Atlas would connect with several other artists whose music inspired them. With each song, the goal was to blend the wide-ranging pop sensibilities that had informed Jubilee with the musical style of the collaborator. This allowed the group to explore far-flung possibilities that sounded unique and different, but also still distinctly A&O.
Read more about the albums

More About the Band

Atlas & Oracle joined the online ska scene during the summer of 2021, at which point their debut album Jubilee had been written, but not yet recorded. In the time leading up to this, the group felt lost in an impossibly big musical world- it turned out drawing influence from too many different genres makes it difficult to find your footing in any one community.
 
Throughout the years, the music of Streetlight Manifesto had been a primary influence in how singer/songwriter Atlas O’Clare thought about horns, and they would periodically be drawn back to the music of third wave ska. So when they discovered “ska Twitter” and realized that ska was still going strong with an entire generation of new bands in just as many different styles, they were A. overwhelmed B. socially anxious and C. feeling like they weren’t so alone after all.

When Jubilee was written, no one in the group knew a guitarist, so Jubilee was released without guitars. It was through this limitation that the “ska-pop” (pop/rock base, but directly influenced by ska, except with no guitars) and “synth ska” (ska-pop where the synths are directly playing a ska rhythm)  styles were developed, and Jubilee is split pretty evenly between the two.
 
2022 was spent releasing Jubilee as a “living album”- the album was released and rereleased every time a new song was finished until 7 songs total had been uploaded, then the second half was uploaded all at once. This allowed Atlas to take their time promoting each release, and allowed them to meet new people and hear new music all throughout the process. It was only a matter of time before the influence of all these new bands started working its way into A&O’s music. And then they met a guitarist- but that didn’t mean they were finished with synths.
 
Musically, songwriter Atlas O’Clare draws on a rich tradition of genre-bending, inspired (if not always directly) by the wide sonic palettes of Streetlight Manifesto, Bloc Party, TV On the Radio, and Snarky Puppy. It only makes sense that they should settle under the umbrella of ska, a genre that’s been blending itself with others since its inception.

More About the Albums

On the first ska compilation album that Atlas & Oracle participated in, ‘Songs for Moms Vol. 2’, Atlas heard the music of Lumpy for the first time and loved it. They reached out about a potential collab and got an affirmative back, then binged Lumpy’s catalog for a bit before coming up with the idea for Live This Way. The demo was sent over, ideas and recordings were sent back, and eventually a finished song was produced.
 
It would become the first of many, as over the next few months Atlas would connect with several other artists whose music inspired them. With each song, the goal was to blend the wide-ranging pop sensibilities that had informed Jubilee with the musical style of the collaborator. This allowed the group to explore far-flung possibilities that sounded unique and different, but also still distinctly A&O.
 
The major difference between Jubilee and these collaborations is the introduction of guitar. In order to properly meet the styles in the middle, Atlas figured there had to be some elements of each- and that meant synths alone weren’t going to cut it. The final product is a bizarre and electric blend of sounds and styles, one that no one could have expected, but about which everyone can find something to like.
But they didn’t drop the synths entirely. Originally planned as a same-day drop, the companion album ‘Time Machine’ is made entirely without guitars, in the style of Jubilee. So named because the tracklist features one song from each decade going back to the 1960’s, the covers album faced unexpected delays, but is now almost completely mixed and ready to release within just a few weeks.
 
‘Sad Songs With Happy Endings’ will release on Spotify on July 4, 2023, barring any unforeseen delays. The synth-ska covers album ‘Time Machine’ will release a few weeks later. There will be 7 songs on each release, which makes each an album instead of an EP, but just barely. Given that they’re each half the size of Jubilee, we’re calling these our first two “mini-albums”.
 

Press for Atlas & Oracle

4/27/23: Video Premiere: Atlas & Oracle “Fade Away”

3/27/23: Ska, Punk, and Other Junk (Mar edition)

1/30/23: Ska, Punk, and Other Junk (Jan edition)

12/16/22: The Music Shelf Top 10 Albums Of The Year

11/8/22: Atlas & Oracle Debut Music Video For “Walls Come Crashing”

10/11/22: A Little Comfort for One More Season with Atlas & Oracle

7/19/22: Atlas & Oracle “Don’t (Need To) Try”