“Two Freedoms” will be Sweet Cheetah’s fourth physical release collaboration, following an LP from Nashville’s Palm Ghosts, an indie band playing Dayton Music Fest this October.
Tim Anderl, the figurehead of Sweet Cheetah, began writing about music on a part-time, freelance basis back in 1997. And while many aspects of the music business have changed since then, he said one constant is that bands and labels still hire publicists to promote records.
Anderl then had an idea that combined his passions.
“I wondered if I could pivot a bit and provide that publicity work for my local friends in exchange for some donation to charity of their choosing instead of a bill,” he said. And so, Sweet Cheetah Publicity was created. The pro bono publicity firm has run out of Anderl’s home for the last 12 years and has resulted in around $130K in donations to charities, including House of Bread, Brigid’s Path and Shoes for the Shoeless.
In 2023, supplementing the PR work, Sweet Cheetah started releasing cover songs by other artists to benefit charities under the name Covers for a Cause. Palm Ghosts, Michigan’s Jeremy Porter & the Tucos, Toledo’s Resignation, Dayton’s Halicon and Kansas City’s Canyons have all contributed tracks.
In addition to his philanthropic ventures, Anderl toyed with the idea of releasing bands’ original music via his own Dayton-based independent label, which he eventually named Sweet Cheetah Records. It has since partnered with artists and labels to put out physical and digital releases.
One PR referral that came Sweet Cheetah’s way was to support an album by cellist Gordon Withers. Withers and Anderl hit it off, sharing a mutual love of Ohio-based music. That relationship eventually led to supporting Withers’ subsequent work, including that with New Freedom Sound.
Since 2020, New Freedom Sound composer, Zach Barocas — who may be best known for his work with seminal DC post-hardcore band Jawbox — has bridged the gap between the punk, classical and jazz communities with this freeform project.
In Jawbox, Barocas pioneered an influential drum-forward presence that carried through his later projects. In New Freedom Sound, those rhythmic sensibilities are still at the core of the compositions, but they make way for more experimental sounds, objectively drawing from myriad genres.
“Two Freedoms,” the project’s second full-length, continues the idea of labeling the works as numbers and “Freedoms” (e.g. “Fourteenth Freedom” and “Twelfth Freedom”), appearing to distinguish them from mere songs. Each obscure work varies in duration and instrumentation, but stays consistent with autonomy from the norm.
And while Barocas generally allows New Freedom Sound to speak for itself, he doesn’t deny the influence of chamber and symphonic music, nor does he disagree if it’s suggested that it gives off a Frank Zappa-meets-Miles Davis-meets-Mozart-meets-ren faire-meets-EDM vibe.
New Freedom Sound features musical contributions from Withers, Mark Cisneros, Erica Kane, Amy Domingues, Lenny Young and more, including J. Robbins — the lead singer of Jawbox — on piano. Robbins recorded “Two Freedoms” with Matt Redenbo at Robbins’ Baltimore studio, Magpie Cage.
“J has recorded pretty much everything I’ve done for the last 25 years,” Barocas said. “I try to stay close to J, musically. His sensibility and his sense of harmony and his sense of rhythm I feel I know intimately, and I trust absolutely.”
Juxtaposing the softer sonic improvisations of New Freedom Sound to the dissonant yet focused guitars of Jawbox could be jarring for some listeners. Yet knowing that both sounds were derived from the same musicians displays their virtuosity.
“Two Freedoms” is a continuation of Barocas’ desire to defy conventions and to challenge labels.
“I think what New Freedom Sound creates is incredible, and love that it doesn’t necessarily fit into a neat genre box,” Anderl said. “Is it free-jazz? Is it modern classical? Is it Afro-Cuban informed music? I still don’t really know the answer other than it gives me goosebumps.”
More details
All Sweet Cheetah Record releases are available via sweet-cheetah-records.com.
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