The Lab Techs
Halloween 2016 – Beakers
The debut album by The Lab Techs, Beakers was produced by Brandon Postman and bassist/engineer Ryan Laubethal, and recorded live to tape using a Tascam Portastudio 488 in the kitchen at Ryan’s home studio, Onion House, from February to October of 2016. Postman’s decision to challenge Laubenthal to use a Portastudio was influenced by the early work of Radiator Hospital and Guided By Voices, and the choice to record it live without overdubs was mostly in hopes to achieve an atmosphere like that of Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited. In addition to The Lab Techs (Postman, Laubenthal, and djembe drummer Clayton Harrison), Beakers also features guest appearances from 8 friends from around the Cleveland local music scene. Postman’s vision was to collect the best songs from various unfinished concept projects, and amalgamate them into a cohesive album that is ‘deep but danceable.’ The title and theme were inspired by the chemistry classes Postman was enrolled in at the time.
Brandon Postman – Solo Productions
Though Postman is not trained as an audio engineer, when time is of the essence, and he desires his songs to be heard immediately, he is known to self-record and surprise release music as his emotions command him to. This has resulted in a handful of tracks where he plays every instrument.
June 2018 – Machindo EP
The most ambitious of Postman’s solo projects, Postman swiftly self-produced the Machindo EP in the midst of an intense psychological episode, in an attempt to offload some of his personal darkness and depression. The term ‘Machindo’ was drawn from the Carl Sagan novel Contact, where it is a philosophy, ‘The Way of the Machine.’ Whereas the material for The Lab Techs displays more influence from singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan and Buddy Holly, Machindo draws heavily from mid-noughts emo and grunge. Postman plays every instrument on the EP, except for the drums on “Despite” and “You Wouldn’t (Would You?)” which were contributed by Lex Moda of Cellophane Jane and MadejBand.
The “Say” single was conceived, written, and recorded in less than a week. It is an example of Postman desiring to get something off of his chest immediately, thus the down-and-dirty production approach and surprise release.
The “Haunter” single was recorded for local label Eerie Erie Records’ annual Halloween mixtape, Songs For Samhain. The challenge for this project was to record an entirely acoustic track with a horror theme. Unwilling to settle for standard, Postman fills frequencies by employing a unique take on the singing saw, playing it by hitting it with a piano hammer; and the recorder, a la “Stairway To Heaven”. To meet the challenge, every sound on the single traveled through the air in Postman’s kitchen.
