Cotton Mather Reunites for Special SXSW Show

Also news of Future Clouds & Radar's return.

By Fred Mills

Among aficionados of ‘90s pop - the type cut from classic ‘60s cloth but filtered through an ‘80s college rock and DIY sensibility - one of the brightest lights of the era was Austin's Cotton Mather, who issued three full-lengths and a pair of EPs, all highly regarded, before the music industry's crush on corporate alt-rock and nü-metal eventually doomed them and other likeminded outfits. Bandleader Robert Harrison enjoyed considerable fame during the next decade fronting Future Clouds &Radar (profiled here at BLURT), and while that band has been relatively dormant the past couple of years, he's been working on new material and promises a re-emergence sometime this year.

Meanwhile, though, he's also been busy assembling a 2CD Deluxe Edition of Cotton Mather's classic 1997 album Kontiki, which, with its wash of Beatlesque harmonies, jangly-but-scorching guitars that wouldn't be out of place on Big Star or Superdrag records, and the kind of dense, headphone-beckoning arrangements that'd make Todd Rundgren and Andy Partridge blush, earned the accolades of such diverse tastemakers as Britt Daniels of Spoon and the Gallagher brothers of Oasis (who took the band out on tour in England that same year. For the reissue, Harrison presented the original album along with a bonus disc of outtakes and early demos, plus a thick booklet containing the entire story of the making of the album and the history of the band.

Keep your eyes peeled for our review of Kontiki soon. A wildly successful Kickstarter campaign funded the reissue - check out the awesome, and hilarious, video (watch for the celeb cameos) that was created for the campaign right here. Then check this trailer that was made for the reissue:

To further seal the deal, Harrison and fellow C.M. alumnus Whit Williams have been, Harrison tells BLURT, "hanging out a lot and at the guitars again - we want to give Kontiki a proper American release." A special Cotton Mather reunion concert is being planned for March at SXSW in which the entire album is performed. Says Harrison, ‘Most if not all of the people who played on Kontiki will be there and it will be the first C.M. show since Lyon 10 years ago this May!"

You can bet yours truly will be at the show, front and center.

Harrison adds that Future Clouds & Radar along with his Star Apple Kingdom label are officially reactivated. "I had to shut the label down and sell the studio house back in 2009 because our funding didn't survive the economic ‘down-turn'... But slowly I've put it all back together - built a new studio space and label HQ in the woods, behind my house in the country.

"The Kontiki project seemed like a good place to start a new creative chapter and draw energy back into the label."