Led by Max Ramey (production, bass) and Joe Ramey (production, saxophone), and featuring members of JOVM mainstay act Monophonics, as well as a collection of some of the best Bay Area-based players, The Ironsides have specialized in a sound that blends classic psych soul with sweeping orchestral arrangements in a way that recalls the soundtracks and library music of European composers of the 1960s and 1970s.
Once again, produced by bandleader Max Ramey, The Ironsides’ forthcoming sophomore album is reportedly even grander in all scopes than 2023’s debut Changing Light. Featuring graceful orchestral writing and arrangements from longtime collaborator, Louis Robert King, the band gathered over 40 musicians for the album, including a full orchestra that recorded their parts in the historic Studio A at BerkleeNYC’s Power Station.
The forthcoming album’s first single “Passing Glance” is a gorgeous, sweepingly cinematic composition featuring twinkling keys, shimmering and soaring strings, jazzy hi-hat-driven drums, strummed guitar. “Passing Glance” evokes the rush of traveling and experiencing a city for the first time. Picture, sitting on a train as it leaves the darkness of a tunnel, and suddenly, it’s all there — the city shimmering outside the window, buildings rising overhead, crowded streets, faces and lives flickering past. And for you, everything feels new — and perhaps for a moment, anything seems possible.
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