The Test Drive: Kongress – Summer Days

Kongress is set to drop their new EP titled ‘Summer Days’ on June 21st. Chaos as music and sonic lucidity via audio warfare, Kongress is serving a plate of mayhem and melody for the summer. Not for the faint of heart, not for the close minded, ‘Summer Days’ offer an alternative to the alternative with and ‘outside the box’ attitude by smashing the box and writing ‘f*ck you’ on the remains.

About Kongress

Summer Days by Kongress was originally released on 8/22/22 by Tik Tok via their US.soundon.global distribution service, but it is now being released with a remix as the title track of a new EP, Summer Days, on the Summer Solstice – June 21st. It is now more than just a recording, as the video is a groundbreaking release of what Coney Island Mermaid Parade observers have been seeing over the last 30 + years, most of which Otto von Ruggins, one of the founding members of Kongress, has been videotaping. This is MUST SEE VIDEO!

Last year in August, Otto attended an Immersive Music event @ PowerStation, NYC, thanks to BerkleeNYC & Mix Magazine. At the event Otto met a Hip Hop Immersive Mixer who he played the Summer Days video for on his MacBook Pro – the producer described it as ‘HOT’ & claimed it should be shown on big screens throughout NYC! It’s NOT Hip Hop, but HIP HOT (& COOL) – Coney Island Mermaid Parade Ladies dancing to his Kongress Musick in costumes that leave little to the imagination! His wife dubbed it Sodom & Gomorrah, but Otto describes it as ‘something more innocent’ akin to the Mardi Gras festivities. A reviewer, MP3Hugger, described the song thus, “the vocals for one coming across like a deity dishing out the new 10 commandments…” Otto was so impressed, he wrote & revealed ‘The New 10 Commandments’ in the EP track FutureLoop!

Otto wrote Summer Days a lifetime ago on April 28, 1967, thinking it was in a ‘60s group’s style. He came across the lyrics last summer & after playing the old music, he figured it needed some New Musick for today, which he had created last Spring using his iPad. He utilizes the Blocs Wave App as his band these days & was able to transfer many ideas into Ableton Live that needed lyrics to make them viable (three of the EP tracks were created on his iPad). Enter ‘Summer Days’ & his concept of the most familiar iconic event that ushers in the Summer – Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade! This video is the pick of his best footage from over 30 years of parades. As he worked on the video, Otto felt as though he had choreographed the participants to dance to the music & then captured it with his camera.

Otto von Ruggins, Master of the Unheard Øf, first heard rock’n’roll on TV in the late ‘50s. Seeing Jerry Lee Lewis play piano made him want to make music. When The Beatles showed up playing their instruments it inspired him to buy a Vox Organ. Otto’s first band ‘From Down Under’ played original songs & covers including The Animals, The Who, The Yardbirds, Them & The Small Faces.

LINK:
https://kongress.us