The Witzard

Forrest St. was "recorded over five days in Jersey City, NJ. Forrest St. shows the diverse music pallete of Brazilian-born, Sydney-based singer-songwriter, Fernando Aragones [Animal Ventura] . Produced by drummer/composer, Pat Van Dyke with the help of amazing NYC-based musicians. Animal Ventura 's Forrest St. EP, additionally, features contributions from aforementioned "amazing NYC-based musicians," such as bassist Jordan Scannella , keyboardist David Stolarz, pedal steel player Jonny Lam , vocalist Laura Stiit, melodica player Shannon Stitt , trumpet player Richard Polatchek, tenor sax player Jeff Hackworth , trombonist Peter Lin, and other talented players. As long-time supporters of fellow New Jersian, Pat Van Dyke AKA PVD , it's no secret, we were, also, big fans of Animal Ventura 's 2017 effort, Forrest St. Now, a little more than two years later, Animal Ventura & PVD have returned with a remix of Forrest St. opener "No Gravity....

Forrest St. by Animal Ventura "Back in Summer of 2016, I got an email from Brazilian -born/ Australian -based song-writer Fernando [Aragones] (aka Animal Ventura) inquiring about having me produce his upcoming record. Last November, we did just that," Jersey City -based drummer and producer Pat Van Dyke wrote within a recent email. Van Dyke is of course, referring to an album he produced, recorded, mixed, and drummed throughout for Animal Ventura over a span of 10 days last November. What was birthed out of those five days of recording and five days-worth of Jersey City gigs between sessions will now forever be known as Forrest St ; an instantly timeless 8-track collection which blurs the genre lines between " Alternative , Electronica, Roots , Dub, Electro , Groove, Hip-Hop , Jazz, and pedal steel guitar," as listed on Bandcamp . Forrest St , to my moderately trained and traveled ear, sounds something like a mix between Pharrell , fellow Aussie Jonti, Jason ...

RE: Crates 001 by Pat Van Dyke "After the release of Technicolor HI-FI , the fellas from Open Crates approached me about recording some music to launch a series of 7-inch vinyl releases that would feature remixes, re-works, and edits of existing music... essentially, a series of "bootlegs" or "white labels." I'd been anxious to take a stab at recording re-interpretations of songs that had influenced me over the years, so I was keen to make it happen," self-described drummer, producer, and band leader Pat Van Dyke (PVD) wrote within a recently emailed statement. PVD has once again teamed up with his "It's Alright" collaborators Melinda Camille & David Stolarz , as well as bassist Josh David , DJ MentPlus, and horn players Bryan Beninghove, Ted Chubb & Peter Lin to collectively unveil Open Crates' premier edition of their RE: Crates 45 series. "A few months passed and we had a show at Brooklyn Museum performing ...