"Carly Ricks Smith’s voice is unforgettable, a wonderful cross between the folky soprano of a young Joni Mitchell and the jazz-heavy range of Lake Street Dive’s Rachel Price.”
Album

The Nature of Things

Artist

Foxfeather

"Carly Ricks Smith’s voice is unforgettable, a wonderful cross between the folky soprano of a young Joni Mitchell and the jazz-heavy range of Lake Street Dive’s Rachel Price.”

It’s rare when an Audiophile label steps out of its acoustic comfort zone and into the power and charged energy of a kick-ass rock band, but FoxFeather’s The Nature of Things is the kind of release that gets music lovers talking and feet tapping. This is one hell of an album that we at Octave Records are excited to share with you. Brilliant songwriting, powerful vocals, and by far one of the best recordings we’ve ever made. The Nature of Things is a must-have musical treasure. Recorded exclusively in pure DSD, this remarkable work is destined to become a classic, one that’ll be heard up and down the halls of audio shows the world over.

Now available in 180 gram virgin vinyl!

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About

Foxfeather

The band FoxFeather features Carly Ricks Smith (lead vocals), Laura Paige Stratton (Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Backing Vocals), Kate Farmer (Backing Vocals), Jay Elliott (Drums and Percussion), Blake Smith (Electric Guitar), Mark Dabrowski (Electric Bass), Oliver Jacobson (Fiddle), Eben Grace (Pedal Steel, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar), and Eric Moon (Organ, Synthesizer). The band released their first full-length, self-titled album in October of 2016, and since then have been wowing crowds and building a huge following in Colorado and nationally. In this latest recording for Octave Records, The Nature of Things, songwriters Ricks Smith and Stratton have crafted a masterpiece—both musically and sonically.

The Music

01 - The Nature of Things
02 - Too Damn Small
03 - Ghost of You
04 - Is This Real
05 - End of my Rope
06 - 24 Years
07 - Lunatic
08 - Way With Me
09 - Fillin' Me Up
10 - Lonely Feeling

The Recording

The original recording was captured by engineers, Jay Elliott and Gus Skinas, in October of 2020 at the Vernon Barn in Longmont, Colorado. The Barn, a popular live venue with great acoustics, was taken over for a week in order to lay down live the band's rhythm and instrumental tracks. During those week-long sessions, Carly and Laura laid down scratch vocal tracks which were later replaced nearly a year later at Animal Lane Studios in Lyons, where the final mixes were built by engineer Jay Elliott (who was also the drummer) along with producer Eben Grace (of Grace Designs), and Octave Record's Giselle Collazo. FoxFeather's driving sound relies upon a strong rhythm track where special attention was paid to the microphone kit on Jay Elliott's drums. When listening to this release on a high-end stereo system, crank up the tracks and hear how live and in-the-room this drumkit is. One of the best drum recordings to date.
  • Kick Inside – Telefunken M82 into Aurora GTP8 Mic Pre
  • Kick Outside – Soundelux U195 into Aurora GTP8 Mic Pre
  • Snare Top 1 –Beyerdynamic M201 into Aurora GTP8 Mic Pre into Warm Audio WA76 Comp
  • Snare Top 2 – Oktava 012 into Grace 801 Mic Pre
  • Snare Bottom – Telefunken M80 into Aurora GTP8 Mic Pre
  • Rack – EV RE20 into Aurora GTP8 Mic Pre
  • Floor - Audix D4 into Aurora GTP8 Mic Pre
  • OH Pair 1a and 1b–Beesneez Lulu FET into RND 5012 Mic Pre– HPF In at 85 Hz
  • OH Pair 2a and b –Beyerdynamic M160 into Grace 801 Mic Pre into A Designs EM-PEQ 500 Low Shelf cut at 100Hz very slight and High Shelf Boost at 10K very slight
  • OH Mono – Coles 4038 into Grace 801 Mic Pre
  • Drum Room Mono – AKG 414 in Cardioid into Aurora GTP8 into IGS S-Type 500 VU Comp 4:1 Mix at 60%
  • Drum Room Stereo – Gus’s *secret weapons* into Forssell Mic Pres
Download the recording booklet

Album Features

  • One pressing Austrian gold pressed dual-layer SACD
  • Pure DSD + PROMastered CD layers
  • DVD data disc containing DSD64, DSDDirect Mastered 192kHz 24 bit, 96kHz 24 bit, 44.1kHz 16 bit PCM
  • Pure DSD recorded on the Sonoma DSD system
  • DSD64, DSDDirect Mastered 192kHz 24 bit, 96kHz 24 bit, 44.1kHz 16 bit PCM download
  • No compression in the mastering process
  • CD layer of SACD playable on any CD player
  • Mastering monitored through the PS Audio DirectStream DAC
  • All tracks hand-curated on the Infinity IRSV in PS Audio's Music Room Two
  • Limited edition one-pressing physical media

Collector's Vinyl

There's a certain magic vinyl brings to the listening room: a magic unlike any other. Where DSD captures every nuance in the music, a vinyl release directly from the DSD master is on yet another level altogether. Octave Recordings features limited-edition collector's vinyl on most releases. Each of these albums is build to perfection on 180-gram virgin vinyl, individually numbered and exemplifying everything great in the art of producing world-class vinyl. When you strive for perfection, every detail counts. The finest pressing equipment: In order the ensure maximum quality and perfection in every numbered disc, the pressing plant we use spares no expense by employing a state-of-the-art closed-loop heating/cooling system and programmable logic controllers to precisely temperature control the vinyl molds. This attention to detail is unlike just about any plant in the world where differing temperatures and times of day can change the final discs. Materials matter: Not all records run the same way during manufacturing. In order to maximize heavy gram-weight vinyl pressings, using the highest quality vinyl grades available from Neotech. Plating is critical: An essential step in producing vinyl discs is the electroplating of the masters. Our manufacturer has an exclusive agreement with world famous NiPro Optics as an electroforming partner. This provides noticeably superior sounding masters as a result of using the best metalwork from the most technologically advanced and modern electroforming facility in the world. In addition, a proprietary reverse-osmosis (RO) water system is used, versus the more traditional deionization (DI) water systems in use at other plating facilities. GrooveCoated Stampers: NiPro Optics and Gotta Groove Records also co-developed and provides the first new form of record plating technology in the past 30 years, called GrooveCoated™ stampers. This combination of superior electroplating and groove coating dramatically increases the lifespan of the stamper and reduces high-frequency loss as pressing cycles continue over the course of manufacturing so that our short-run single pressings are perfect from number 1 to number 500. Limited edition single pressings: To ensure that every Octave Record's vinyl release is as close to perfect as the current state of the art allows, we limit our runs to 500 pressings per stamper and offer them in individually numbered albums, each hand-inspected for perfection. QA at an unprecedented level: At our vinyl pressing plant of choice, Gotta Groove Records out of Ohio, one of the reasons we chose them is they have more quality control workers than any other pressing plant in the U.S. — one quality control employee per every two pressing machines listening to approximately every 25th record off the press during every shift. If you know the magic of vinyl, then may we suggest you've yet to hear what a remarkable combination of pure DSD recording and single pressing virgin vinyl collectors’ vinyl can sound like. Available exclusively at Octave Records.

Watch the Video

To date, every person we have played FoxFeather's album, The Nature of Things has been instantly hooked. The songs are so good once you hear them they'll stay with you. FoxFeather's foot-tapping music is just so great it's hard to put into words. One need only listen to Carly and Laura talk about their music to get hooked. Spend the next 6 minutes with singer-songwriters Carly Ricks Smith and Laura Paige Stratton as they share their thoughts and emotions on crafting one of the best albums of the year, FoxFeather's, The Nature of Things.

Record Reviews

Like nothing I have ever heard
I bought and downloaded this stunning Foxfeather album. The recording is like nothing I have heard before – extraordinary.

Thanks to PS Audio and Octave Records.

- Richard Peace

Just awesome
I downloaded The Nature of Things. Paul, they are just awesome, musically and technically. Such a pleasure to listen to. They are so much out of the ordinary, I say so as I have tried other sources selling HiRes and DSD. None comes even close, and some I would rather declare being fakes. Octave records is now my only source for digital music files to purchase. I can hear (and see with an analyzer) Gus‘ fingerprints all over them. Terrific.

- Hans in Hamburg

Electrifyingly real!
A phenomenal album. Electrifyingly real, with spectacular air and presence. Another good job very well done. Please keep it up! You’re leaving the others in the dust.

David

- Dr. David Campbell

Best recording yet
Wow. The Octave hits just keep on coming. I've never had sound so live and right in my room. Thanks for the chance to get a first crack at this amazing album

- J.R. Henley

What a voice
The singer is amazing. I would love to see them live.

- foreweather

Fillin' me up rocks!
My favorite is Filling it up. That song just rocks. You can tell the drummer is pushing the band, driving them hard. Great work.

- R. Bensley

I just caught the video
I just caught Too Damn Small on the video. That was enough for me. I am buying this album right now.

- Todd

About Octave Records

Bringing life to music

Octave Records™ is dedicated to offering the highest-quality life-like stereo recordings in high-resolution formats including pure DSD and high resolution PCM to 352.8kHz. Located in Boulder, Colorado, Octave has built one of the industry’s most technologically advanced DSD recording facilities based around the state-of-the-art Pyramix DSD recording, mixing, and mastering system.

At Octave, we respect musicians by paying them fairly. Octave Records covers 100% of all studio, mixing, mastering, production, distribution, and marketing expenses so that artists may have the opportunity to bring their music and magic to the world in the highest fidelity possible while retaining ownership of their music.

At Octave, it’s all about bringing life to the music.

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