Listen: I'm old school and I grew up on vinyl records. I developed a meaningful relationship with my Sony cassette Walkman at one point but nothing has ever come close to the ceremony of sitting down, slipping needle onto vinyl, the drop and then the hiss and then of course, the sound of hallowed music. 


When I was invited by the White Label Series on Joyful Noise Recordings to elect an artist to enjoy the luxury of having a particular recording of their original music pressed onto vinyl, I immediately thought of Matt Walker, the musician, composer and producer behind 1000faces. The album of choice is the gloriously ambitious, instrumental Astronomica - a dreamy, shape-shifting aural swoon of a record that deserves far more attention than it garnered at the time of its release.


I cannot lie, I am brutally biased in my admiration of Matt and he is the closest thing I have on this earth to a brother. We met on tour as far back as the mid 1990’s when Matt stepped in to play drums for a beleaguered Smashing Pumpkins when garbage was their opening band. Matt has since gone on to save the day more times than I care to recall by stepping up whenever Butch Vig was unable to tour with garbage for one reason or another. Over months and months spent together in backstage spaces and tour buses, we have become fast friends and allies in a nasty business quick to eat people up and spit them right out.


I am constantly struck by Matt's devotion to music, his fierce red-headed passion, his delightful curiosity and endless willingness to explore. There are a million and one other reasons why I elected Matt for this project but above all I return to the music. He birthed an exquisite, sonic bloom - a divine trip between the stars and a slow, romantic dance with the bittersweet delights. I trust it will bring you as much pleasure as it brought me. Please listen and enjoy with care. This beautiful record is more than deserving of our attention.



- Shirley Manson