Sven B. Schreiber (sbs)
I've ignored Nnamdi Ogbonnaya's works so far, since the cover images didn't "invite" me to take a listen so far... until "Advent" guitarist and composer Alan Benjamin bought "Krazy Karl". Alan's taste is highly reliable, and this proved to be true here once again. Nnamdï might be called a musical chameleon. He's at home in many genres, and he does incredible things in each of them. On this 20-minute mini album, he shows us his avantgarde side, which seems to be heavily inspired by Frank Zappa.
Favorite track: Ashy Casper Escaped the Scene starring Niggaless Cage.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
$10USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
The five-year anniversary repressing of Krazy Karl on black vinyl. Pressing of 500. Manufactured at Gotta Groove Records in Cleveland, OH. Full color jackets and labels, rice paper inner sleeve, shrink-wrapped. Shipping on or around August 10, 2025.
Includes unlimited streaming of KRAZY KARL
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
ships out within 5 days
edition of 500
Purchasable with gift card
$20USDor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
NNAMDÏ’s Krazy Karl on Sooper Records has the distinct honor of being the first ever album co-released with Cleveland, Ohio’s esteemed Wax Mage Records. Limited, hand poured "Starburst" vinyl design, Edition of 100, first ever Wax Mage co-release. Manufactured from Hi-Fi vinyl masters. Design will look similar to photos, but individual color and details may vary. Each disc is a one-of-a-kind hand poured record, made by the internationally collected and recognized master artisans of the handmade vinyl record, Wax Mage. This historic co-release is memorialized with a B-Side Label containing both the Wax Mage and Sooper Records logos. Full color jackets and labels, rice paper inner sleeve. Comes in a poly bag. Shipping on or around August 10, 2025.
Includes unlimited streaming of KRAZY KARL
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
ships out within 5 days
edition of 108
Purchasable with gift card
$40USDor more
Krazy Karl Kustom Painted Test Presses
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Hand Painted and Signed. Might fuck around put something freaky in your order.
Includes unlimited streaming of KRAZY KARL
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
Sold Out
Limited Edition Bottle Glass LP (Hand Numbered run of 300)
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited Edition run of 300 Hand Numbered LPs on Transparent Bottle Glass Green Vinyl. Packaging includes full color jackets, full color labels, and shrink-wrap.
Includes unlimited streaming of KRAZY KARL
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
Sold Out
Krazy Karl Exclusive Wax Mage Limited 20 copies TACO COLORS
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
ONLY 20 of these bitches. Good luck!
Includes unlimited streaming of KRAZY KARL
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
Sold Out
Wax Mage "Metallic Space Cake" Design (ed. 25)
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
The second handmade pressing of Krazy Karl by Wax Mage. Extremely limited, one-time handmade vinyl design by Wax Mage in Cleveland, OH. "Space Cake" Design with metallic foil inlay, Edition of 25. Manufactured from Hi-Fi vinyl masters. Design will look similar to photos, but individual color and details may vary. Each disc is one of a kind, made by the internationally collected and recognized master artisans of the handmade vinyl record, Wax Mage, and sealed with their logo on the B-Side label. Comes in a rice paper inner sleeve. Full color jackets and labels, shrink-wrapped. Shipping on or around August 10, 2025.
Includes unlimited streaming of KRAZY KARL
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
“Sounds like Saturday morning cartoons on Acid”
NYLON
“It’s almost entirely instrumental, a series of surreal, jazzy, cartoonish twists and turns… It’s another sensory overload from an artist too inventive to be ignored”
STEREOGUM
“Elevated with a healthy dose of chaos and confusion”
HYPEBEAST
“the music’s whimsical, quasi-symphonic mishmash of math rock, postpunk, and jazz reflects the animated energy of Stalling’s anything-goes cartoon music”
CHICAGO READER
At the beginning of 2020, NNAMDÏ was preparing to release his BRAT LP and subsequently undertake extensive touring through the remainder of the year. A global pandemic brought all of that to a halt. NNAMDÏ would still go on to release BRAT in April 2020 to much critical acclaim, but thereafter used the unplanned down time to make more music as a response to the unpredictable seismic changes of the time. What resulted was a series of unplanned releases that would see NNAMDÏ release 2 LPs, an EP and a handful of singles throughout the year. He released his acclaimed EP Black Plight on Juneteenth, having written and recorded the whole thing in 3 days in response to the racial justice protests that roiled the summer months. He raised over $12,500.00 for racial and social justice causes in the process. With additional time and no opportunities to tour, NNAMDÏ immediately set to work finishing an ambitious project that had sat dormant in his mind and hard drive for a few years: Krazy Karl, his largely instrumental LP length rock-orchestral project inspired by the late Looney Tunes composer, Carl Stalling. The first pressing of Krazy Karl was limited to 325 copies, and sold out in less than 48 hours. The album is unavailable on streaming. In the years since its release, Krazy Karl has gained a kind of cult following amongst NNAMDÏ-heads as something like his definitive composer album. In 2020 NNAMDÏ described the album as “untethered…. deranged modern compositions… when your brain tries to leave your skull, but you keep mashing it back into your nose.” NNAMDÏ commissioned fellow Midwest artist Zelooperz to paint the album cover.
The initial pressing of Krazy Karl included 25 handmade copies from Cleveland’s internationally collected and recognized master artisans of the handmade vinyl record, Wax Mage Records, as well as a series of hand drawn test presses, and 300 hand numbered copies on bottle glass green vinyl. All 325 sold out in a few days, and those first pressings have become bona fide collectors items on Discogs today.
To commemorate the 5-year anniversary of this seminal record in NNAMDÏ’s catalog, NNAMDÏ is doing his first ever re-press of Krazy Karl including a historic co-release between NNAMDÏ's own Sooper Records and Cleveland’s Wax Mage Records. The pressing includes 25 limited edition Wax Mage handmade records ("Metallic Space Cake Design" with foil inlay). Krazy Karl has the distinct honor of being the first co-release with Wax Mage Records. The co-release set includes 100 handpoured Starburst vinyl, and 6 sets of 25 handmade custom designs via Wax Mage. The co-release variants are adorned with a B-Side label featuring the Wax Mage and Sooper Records logos. All records are for sale through NNAMDÏ's Bandcamp and Wax Mage's website while supplies last.
Krazy Karl is also being made available for the first time on black vinyl via NNAMDÏ's Bandcamp. Black copies are also available to record stores for the first time.
credits
released July 3, 2020
Composed, Performed and Recorded by Nnamdi Ogbonnaya
Album Art By ZelooperZ
Mastered By Steve Marek
Track 1 & 7: Harp by Yomi
Track 2, 3, 5: Lead Violin by Mallory Linehan
Lead Cello by Joe Starita. Both bridge vocals on track 5.
