The Architect
Joined: Feb '05
Posts: 3,287
For those of you not following Thes on instagram, he is describing the album track-by-track one day at a time until the release on Feb 1st.
So far there's an amazing list of collaborators, including the late, great pmuny a.k.a SactownConnection a.k.a Pat Taormina. Wish he was here, man he would be loving this! 
The Architect
Joined: Feb '05
Posts: 3,287
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsy1bnlhiAo/
15. The Sound Of A Memory (5:00)
C. Portugal, M.Turner
Produced by Thes One
Acoustic Piano – Kat Ouano
Recorded at PL70B, 64 Sound
“it’s the sound of the memory of many living people”
A final dedication to those lost along the way. When we started out, we never could have imagined a career long enough to lose anyone, yet here we are. On Friday, October 12th, 2018, @kato1o entered the tracking room @64sound to play us off the album, a tradition we started on Stepfather. As she slid behind a behind the beautiful baby grand piano with a vintage U-47 slung low under the lid, I said “No Pressure” and half chuckled as I walked out. I was probably more nervous than she was, yet I didn’t give her any charts or direction so I definitely didn’t make it easy. She is the most talented keyboardist I’ve ever known, and I had full faith in her to kill it on her first take. I walked back to the control room with @tyler_karmen , leaving her alone in the tracking room behind the piano. He asked “do you want me to let the song run for her to practice?” I replied, “No, record it” then picked up the talkback mic and said, “alright, we’re just gonna let it play for you to practice some ideas, no pressure, just feel it out.” What you hear on the record is what followed, exactly as she played it on her first “practice take”. The beat faded out and she kept playing, and I began crying - I couldn’t hold back, she had captured the moment so beautifully and each note struck deep into my very purpose for existing – as I listened to the notes coming through the speaker I thought I could end it all in that moment – an existential completeness as the last note sustained and rang out. If it has to end, it should end as such.
#sincerelythep
The Architect
Joined: Feb '05
Posts: 3,287
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs1w3y1hHxD/
14. Dream Sequence ’88 (3:06)
C. Portugal, M.Turner
Produced by Thes One
Electric Guitar, Bass, Keys – Mikhail Galkin
Additional Drums – Max MacVeety
Fender Rhodes – Kat Ouano
“don’t wake me. I’m dreaming”
Asleep in front of the TV, primetime is over, it was all a dream.
Initially titled “88 Girls”, this beat bounced around a few ways and after our first vocal pass, we decided to drop it from the album, never to be heard. The beat still ended up in a dropbox folder I sent @chiefbargus of beats to play on for the record, and I forgot to remove it when we scrapped it on the full length. Amongst all the amazing tracks he sent back, this one stood out the most to me – it had an Inspiration information vibe to it, a feeling of acceptance, of resignation. Hearing @chiefbargus stack up tracks of his playing is a thing in itself, so all of a sudden the song was back in play. I chopped up mike’s original verse into a few different pieces and laid it over the new guitar parts and it fit perfectly but still had some holes in it - leaving me an opportunity to do something I’ve always wanted to try - transcribe a Jazz solo and write lyrics to it. I wrote a new verse to his solo, dropped it in between mikes verse and, like that, the perfect song and vibe to set up the last song on the album. And just when it couldn’t get any better, @maxatrillion_music dropped in and layered live drums on top of my programming, and the song was complete. The last voice heard on it is @pmuny - in his final words from his last interview with us. This album is dedicated to him and this song is dedicated to the memory of Aaron Anderson and all the fallen crate diggers, music lovers and djs around the world.
#sincerelythep
EP
Joined: Jan '11
Posts: 128
Man... I got the chills reading this in a bittersweet way.
Good to see Kat in the personnel for the final album. I've been bumping her tunes on Spotify lately 
Thanks for sharing this YoYoPo!
7
Joined: Jun '07
Posts: 33
Thank you for sharing this. I love using insta but I’m currently in a step of my life where using social media isn’t a healthy thing for me. I knew any announcement would be issued through insta and that had me paranoid af that I would miss something. The end of the P is meaningful in that I’m also done with old hats like daily blunts (been at least 10 years), scratching records and plenty of fun at the expense of my future. Mike and Chris’ music kept me in a positive space when I didn’t know how to do that for myself, so this ending is bittersweet and heavy, but I’m looking forward to the future for them and myself.
P fan #1
Joined: Oct '08
Posts: 582
I’ve not been on the forum as much as i’d like lately for various reasons but as we draw closer to the final album it feels like the end of an era in my life. All good things must come to an end & I am confident PUTS will deliver a fitting end to an amazing career. I just hope the forum will continue for a long time to come. Can’t wait for next Friday but also part of me doesn’t want it to end.
new cat
Joined: Nov '18
Posts: 2
It seems from the track descriptions above that they are more organic played or replayed loops.
I personally liked the way on past releases they blended samples from vinyl, will check it out anyways..
LP
Joined: Oct '06
Posts: 380
C'mon Thes, hit us with some more updates!
Also update https://www.puts.band with the flac/wav pre-order of the album 
LP
Joined: Oct '06
Posts: 380
13. Family Ties (3:27)
C. Portugal, M.Turner
Produced by Thes One
Acoustic Piano – Kat Ouano
Tuned Water Glasses – Thes One
“Family is not an important thing. It’s Everything.” – Michael J. Fox
Both Double K and I, as do most of our generation, share a love and nostalgia of prime time television and the king of all lineups was The Cosby Show/Family Ties/Cheers run which occurred Thursday nights from 1984 to 1988 on NBC. For the formative years of our youth, this was the evening families around the country would gather around a television – a night where time would slow down and we’d find humor in a diverse portrayal of class, race, politics and circumstances. In the moment of course, for a couple of young boys living on opposite sides of LA, it was just another night of TV and an escape from homework and the stress of growing up in homes with working parents struggling to make ends meet. When the lineup died, Straight Out Of Compton dropped and again, another formative turn for a young Chris and Mike, but in those years, life really was simple and family was everything. And I remember most often, falling asleep during the latter half of the programming block, a 10 year old dreaming of being a rap star…
#sincerelythep
LP
Joined: Nov '13
Posts: 317
This sounds like it'll be legendary.
It's really good to get an insight into the feelings and stories driving the songs.
Pat would be proud.
7
Joined: Jun '07
Posts: 33
Instrumentalist said:
C'mon Thes, hit us with some more updates!Also update https://www.puts.band with the flac/wav pre-order of the album
How do I view this?I don't know the password.
LP
Joined: Oct '06
Posts: 380
Yeah, probably only Thes that does. When he updates the site, it won't be password protected.
LP
Joined: Oct '06
Posts: 380
12. Letter To My Son? (4:29)
C. Portugal
Produced by Thes One
Saxophone - Sai Portugal
Electric Guitar, Bass, Keys – Mikhail Galkin
Fender Rhodes, Acoustic Piano – Kat Ouano
“You know that I love you, and I pray your dreams come true. But if they don’t I’ll still be there for you”
On the 2008 album FunDMC, I wrote a song about the moment we found out we were having our first baby, and the realization that my whole life would change. At the end of that track, “A Baby”, you hear audio of my newborn son crying. He was one month old. A decade later, this song opens with him playing the saxophone, doubling a part he wrote on his own. It was a proud and surreal moment for me to sit in the control room and record my son; a reminder of just how much time has passed since FunDMC, our 6th album. After his birth, the sacrifices I made to continue on for another decade became immeasurable. Every milestone I missed while on the road, every dollar spent on daycare while I was in the studio, every smile, laugh and story I was absent for was a heavy burden to carry in a time before FaceTime. I addressed these feelings in a song titled “all good things” on our next album Carried Away. Meanwhile, my family would make paper chains with each link being a day I‘d be gone on tour, and they’d pull off a link until I made it home. Seeing him and his sister scotch taping construction paper together the night before I would leave on tour would always fill me with a deep sadness. Nevertheless, we made it through and I’d like to think - hope - that I did my best and that PUTS touched a lot of people around the world, even if It left a hole at home. And because life is fleeting and kids grow up too fast - I wrote this song to leave some parting words to my son and for every little boy whose dad is gone. Raising a young man is the heaviest and noblest of tasks, especially for single moms, and I salute all the parents out there struggling to give their kids a better life.
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