Blue Hell / W.A.V.  ·  Internal LTAP CAMPAIGN BIBLE v2 Scaled Alps  ·  5.22.26
Let the Alpine Play  ·  Scaled Alps  ·  Blue Hell / W.A.V.  ·  Release 5.22.26  ·  Version 2 — April 2026

60 Strategies.
80 Targets.
25 Supervisors.

Version 2 updates. Final masters are in hand. The drops are not yet recorded — a full production brief for them appears inside Strategy 02. The action item list at the top of this document is the only sequence that matters. Read it first. Execute it in order. Part I is 60 strategies — 50 original, 10 new (marked ◆ NEW). Part II is the per-track writer guide, unchanged. Part III is the music supervisor list: 25 active supervisors with documented aesthetic alignment to this record's palette, their credits, and the correct tracks to send them. Distribution is the moat. The record speaks for itself when it is allowed to speak. The entire campaign is about creating the conditions for that to happen, repeatedly, in the right rooms.

v2 — April 2026  ·  Final masters confirmed  ·  Drops unrecorded — see Strategy 02 brief  ·  10 new strategies added  ·  Supervisor list added  ·  Action stack updated
Priority Action Stack Execute in this order  ·  No exceptions  ·  Updated April 2026
# When Action What / How Depends On
01
 ▶ This Week Record the 93.5 Blue Hell drops Everything downstream of the streaming stunt requires the drops to exist. See Strategy 02 for the full production brief. Budget: $0–$200. Voice, a room, a mic. One session. 16 drops plus 3–4 interstitials. This is the blocker. Unblock it first. Nothing. Do it now.
02
 ▶ This Week Upload the mixtape version to all platforms Via DistroKid. Masters + drops edited in. Same metadata, same cover, same UPC as the 5.22 release. The streaming clock starts the moment this goes live. Every day of delay is a day of algorithmic history lost. Depends on drops being recorded. Drops recorded (Action 01)
03
 ▶ This Week Build the Odesli smart URL odesli.co — free, 5 minutes. This is the only public link from this point forward. One URL routes to Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Tidal, everything. Paste it everywhere immediately. Mixtape live (Action 02)
04
 ▶ This Week Build the two sync sheets "Neo Noir (Stelvio)" and "Celestial Sighs." One page each: title, BPM, key, instrumentation, 4 brutally specific mood tags (not "cinematic" — "2AM LA, menace beneath elegance"), 30-second clip starting at the most licensable moment. PDF. This is the instrument of the supervisor campaign. Masters in hand ✓
05
 ▶ This Week Begin supervisor outreach — 5 per day See Part III for the full list of 25 supervisors. Email format: one sentence proving you've listened to something they placed, one sentence about the track, the sync sheet attached, Odesli link. No EPK. No bio. Subject line: the track title only. Send 5 per day across 5 days. Do not follow up before 2 weeks. Sync sheets built (Action 04)
06
 ▶ This Week Print and distribute 200 flyers Dashboard cover, QR to Odesli link, LISTEN BEFORE 5.22 in red, SCALED ALPS in green Bebas. $15–20 at any copy shop. Sunset / Vermont / Hillhurst / Franklin poles, Amoeba, Vacation, Permanent Records boards, Los Feliz coffee shops, laundromat on Hillhurst. Odesli URL live (Action 03)
07
 ▶ This Week Walk into dublab in person CD in hand. The Cipriani/Piccioni line from the production notes is the room-opening sentence. Ask about a guest show. Ask about the Aquarium Drunkard / dublab monthly. This is a five-minute conversation that either works or it doesn't — the in-person visit is what makes it work. CD pressed or burned
08
 ▶ This Week Mail WFMU package CD, manifesto broadsheet (printed), single handwritten note on Blue Hell letterhead. No email. 43 Montgomery Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302. Music library. One DJs playing it reaches 50,000 WFMU listeners who are specifically the correct humans. Manifesto printed
09
 This Week Pitch Spotify editorial via DistroKid "Neo Noir (Stelvio)" only. Must be submitted 7+ days before 5.22. Pitch copy: night-time LA psychogeography, cinematic, post-jazz, Giallo-adjacent, references Piccioni and Cipriani. One track. One paragraph. No hedging. DistroKid release live
10
 This Week Upload to Bandcamp with full production document as description The document is the best press release that exists for this record. "Right hand piano should sound like expensive soap opera diamonds on a tennis bracelet on the skinniest bitch at the party's wrist" as a Bandcamp description will be screenshot and shared by strangers. Do not write a bio. Use the document. Masters in hand ✓
11
 This Week Begin writer outreach — Part II targeting One email per day. Each one proves you've read something they wrote. One sentence. One track. Odesli link. No EPK. No attachment. 40 emails across 40 days — start now and you land them all before release. Do not send more than one per day. Do not follow up more than once. Odesli URL live (Action 03)
12
 Before 5.1 Submit "Neo Noir" and "Celestial Sighs" to Musicbed and Artlist Active submission — not passive library upload. Full metadata: BPM, key, instrumentation, mood tags, stems available or not. One mid-tier placement covers production cost of the record. Sync sheets built (Action 04)
13
 Before 5.8 Pitch The Quietus production document feature John Doran, john@thequietus.com. The Desertion Sessions production document as a standalone piece of music writing. Pitch: "I kept detailed production notes throughout the making of my record. They are strange and I think they are interesting." Do not over-explain. Let him decide. Nothing
14
 Before 5.8 Release the "Recommended For" tags as daily social objects One per day for the 7 days before 5.22. Black ground, IBM Plex Mono, track title above, tag below. No additional context. "Stripper anthems for mutant dancers." Let people go find the record. Design assets built
15
 Before 5.15 Shoot and upload the "Southerly" performance video Single-take. Dashboard camera. Night. Driving. JQD performing to the windshield, city lights behind. No cuts. No production value beyond a decent camera. Upload unlisted for press, public on 5.22. This video costs nothing and is correct to the mythology. Nothing except a car and a camera
16
 Before 5.15 Give the CD personally to every musician who played on it Stewart Tuttle, Joan Darwin, Steve Fishman, Anthony Percoco. In person. With a specific word about what their contribution meant. Not a marketing strategy — the baseline of being a human artist. Everything else follows from it. CDs pressed or burned
17
 Before 5.22 Register all audio with Content ID Via DistroKid's Content ID service. Every track. Before any film footage hits YouTube. One unregistered track in a viral clip is revenue permanently lost. Infrastructure, not strategy. Non-negotiable. DistroKid release live
18
 Before 5.22 Set the date for High in the Hills Internally. Tell the musicians. Tell the people who need to know. The mythology begins the moment the date exists. A dated event is a real event. An undated plan is a mood. Nothing
19
 Post-5.22 Approach Madre Mezcal — with footage, not a pitch deck Two minutes of mood footage from the house first. Then the conversation. "Production offset of $3–8k against credit in the film and usage rights in all release materials." Arrive with proof of concept. Brand deals close on evidence, not vision documents. High in the Hills date set (Action 18)
20
 Post-5.22 Apply for California Arts Council and NEA grants High in the Hills as a publicly documented concert film and live album. The production brief is most of the application. CAC cycles run 6–8 months — file now for funding that arrives concurrent with post-production. cac.ca.gov and arts.gov. Production brief finalized
I 60 Strategies Execute in order of leverage  ·  ◆ NEW = added v2
The Streaming Stunt  ·  Strategies 01–10
01
▶ Execute Now  ·  Streaming Stunt
Upload the Mixtape Version to All Streaming Platforms Now
Via DistroKid, upload the record with the DJ drops intact under the full title Let the Alpine Play. Same UPC, same metadata, same cover. The drops make it a different listening object — an advance bootleg of itself. The streaming presence builds saves, algorithmic signals, and listener familiarity before 5.22. Swap the audio files for the clean masters on or before release day. All accumulated saves and playlist adds remain. Spotify and Apple Music do not notify listeners of audio swaps. The record is just different when they come back. The drops are not yet recorded — record them before this step. See Strategy 02 for the full production brief.
02
▶ Execute Now  ·  The Drops — Production Brief
Record the 93.5 Blue Hell Drops: Full Production Brief
The drops are not recorded. This is the primary blocker. Everything downstream of the streaming stunt — the pirate radio mythology, the Neocities world-building, the "Transmission" teaser film — depends on these existing. Here is what you need and how to make them.
93.5 Blue Hell  ·  Drop Production Brief  ·  April 2026
The Voice
A single voice. Male or androgynous. Not a DJ voice — a numbers station voice. Flat affect with occasional incorrect emphasis. Technically a person. Should sound like someone who learned to speak English from radio transmissions and is reading from a document they don't fully understand. The character: a reptilian humanoid operating the only frequency transmitting from inside the dashboard. Not comedic. Not camp. Genuinely strange.
Technical Setup
Room: Small, slightly live (bathroom or tiled room adds character). Mic: Any condenser or even a good USB mic. Processing: Post-record — add a subtle low-pass filter, mild radio EQ (cut below 80Hz, roll off above 8kHz), light tape saturation or bitcrushing at low intensity. The goal is "something transmitted through a medium," not clean studio audio. Free plugins: iZotope Vinyl, Vinyl Distortion, or the free Tape plugin from Baby Audio.
Placement Rule
Never at the intro. Never at the outro. Always mid-song, at a dramatically wrong moment — over a quiet passage, interrupting a lyric, cutting into the most emotionally exposed moment. The listener should feel interrupted. That interruption is the point. The world of the record is larger than the record.
Deliverables
16 track drops — one per song, each 8–20 seconds. 3–4 interstitial drops — longer (20–40 seconds), more abstract, usable between tracks on the streaming version or as standalone social objects. 1 station ID — the shortest version, 5 seconds: "93.5. Blue Hell." That's it. Usable everywhere.
Sample copy — Track Drop (mid-song placement):
"You are receiving a transmission from inside the dashboard. This is Blue Hell. 93.5 FM. The frequency that does not appear on your dial. The record you are hearing will change on May 22nd. Until then: this is how it sounds from here. We are still transmitting. Continue."
Sample copy — Interstitial (abstract field report):
"Field report. North Hollywood. 11:47 PM. Altar Studios. The session has been running for sixteen hours. The piano's right hand has achieved the correct texture. The left hand remains a dark horse. The reptilian observers on Franklin Avenue have been notified. This transmission will continue until the record is complete or the frequency is lost. 93.5. Blue Hell."
Sample copy — Weather / corrupted broadcast:
"Tonight's forecast: crepuscular with a high probability of lunar interference. Drivers on the 101 are advised to check their dashboards. Something is transmitting from inside the gauges. The speed is not what it appears to be. Stay on the frequency. 93.5."
03
▶ Execute Now  ·  Physical / QR
Flyer the Neighborhood with QR Codes Linking to the Streaming Version
Design a flyer using the dashboard cover: near-black ground, gauges, the green grid. QR code in the center linking to the Odesli smart URL. Text: LISTEN BEFORE 5.22 in red. SCALED ALPS in green Bebas. Nothing else. Print 200 copies ($15–20). Distribute: telephone poles on Sunset, Vermont, Hillhurst, Franklin; the bathroom at any bar where the right people go; the bulletin boards at Amoeba, Vacation, Permanent Records; laundromat on Hillhurst; coffee shops in Los Feliz. Someone who scans at a bar and hears the record interrupted by a reptilian broadcast is already in the mythology whether they understand it or not.
04
Distribution
Odesli/Songlink Smart URL as the Only Public Link
Never link to Spotify specifically. Always use a Songlink/Odesli smart URL that detects the listener's platform and routes accordingly. Spotify users go to Spotify. Apple Music users go to Apple Music. Bandcamp buyers go to Bandcamp. One link, no friction, no audience lost to platform loyalty. Free. Set it up before flyering. This is infrastructure — treat it as such.
05
⚡ High Leverage  ·  Radio
Walk into dublab in Person with a CD and the Production Document
dublab is in Los Angeles. They are the correct radio home for this record — psychedelic, jazz-adjacent, LA-rooted, algorithmically ungoverned. Walk in. Introduce yourself. Give them the CD. Give them a printout of the production notes for "Celestial Sighs" — specifically the line about the piano's right hand sounding like "expensive soap opera diamonds on a tennis bracelet on the skinniest bitch at the party's wrist." That line gets you in the room. Contact: dublab.com / in-person at their LA location. Aquarium Drunkard runs a monthly show on dublab called Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard — getting on dublab and getting to AD are the same move.
06
⚡ High Leverage  ·  Radio
Mail a CD to WFMU with a Hand-Written Note
WFMU is the last genuinely free-form radio station in America at scale. Their DJs play what they want. A physically compelling object — the CD, the insert with the tracklist and "Recommended For" tags, a single handwritten note on Blue Hell letterhead — gets opened. An email from an unknown artist does not. Mail to: WFMU, 43 Montgomery Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302. Address to the music library generally, not to a specific DJ. Let them find it. If one DJ plays it, it's heard by 50,000 listeners who are specifically the type of person who listens to WFMU.
07
Radio
Submit to NTS Radio as a Guest Show Proposal
NTS accepts guest mix proposals from artists. A Scaled Alps guest show — JQD programming 60 minutes of the influences from the Links page (Bark Psychosis, Melanie De Biasio, Gary Higgins, Cannibal Ox, Dali's Car) with commentary — positions the record in its own lineage. The show airs globally. The audience is exactly right. Submissions: nts.live/shows/submit
08
Streaming / Algorithmic
Pitch Spotify Editorial via DistroKid — "Neo Noir (Stelvio)" Only
One track. Submit 7+ days before release. Pitch copy should be concise and accurate: night-time LA psychogeography, cinematic, post-jazz, Giallo-adjacent, references Piccioni and Cipriani. Do not attempt to explain the whole record. Give them one song with a clear mood and one genre adjacent. The algorithmic signals that actually matter — completion rate, save rate, adds-to-playlists — are downstream of real listeners caring. The Spotify pitch is a single swing, not the campaign.
09
Streaming / Algorithmic
Create a Public Spotify Playlist: "What LTAP Sounds Like From Inside"
A curated playlist of the 12 influence records from the Links page — Bark Psychosis, Melanie De Biasio, Monster Magnet, Cannibal Ox, Gary Higgins, DJ Krush, Die Wilde Jagd, Dali's Car, Frodus, Dead Blue Sky, Dax Riggs, Mortimur — with LTAP tracks seeded throughout at appropriate moments. Titled and described in JQD's voice. Shared from the Scaled Alps Spotify artist profile. People who find one of the reference records and follow the playlist are already the audience.
10
Streaming / Bandcamp
Upload to Bandcamp with the Full Production Document as the Album Description
Bandcamp allows long-form album descriptions. Use it. The Desertion Sessions production document — excerpted intelligently, the best lines surfaced — becomes the album description. Not a bio, not a press release. The document itself. "Right hand piano should sound like expensive soap opera diamonds on a tennis bracelet on the skinniest bitch at the party's wrist" as your album description will be screenshot and shared by strangers. Bandcamp Daily editors read Bandcamp pages. This is how they find things.
Press  ·  Strategies 11–20
11
⚡ High Leverage  ·  Press
40 Individual Emails — Each One Proves You've Read Something They Wrote
Not a press blast. 40 separate emails, each containing: one sentence proving you read something specific they wrote, one sentence about the record that connects to their known interests, and an Odesli URL. No bio. No EPK. No attachment. The email should be shorter than this paragraph. The Per-Track Writer Guide in Part II tells you exactly who to send each track to and why. Send one track per writer. Give them a specific reason to listen to a specific song. One per day. Start now. You have 40 days before 5.22.
12
Press
Pitch the Production Document to The Quietus as a Standalone Feature
The Quietus publishes artist-written features, manifestos, and unusual editorial objects. The Desertion Sessions production document is a legitimate piece of music writing, not a promotional artifact. Pitch it to John Doran at john@thequietus.com as a standalone feature to run concurrent with or slightly before release. The pitch: "I kept detailed production notes throughout the recording of my record. They are strange and I think they are interesting. Would The Quietus consider publishing excerpts?" Do not over-explain.
13
Press
Send the Manifesto Broadsheet to Ted Gioia at The Honest Broker
Ted Gioia at honest-broker.com has hundreds of thousands of subscribers and is specifically interested in music that exists outside the algorithmic mainstream. The LTAP mythology (Neocities site, owned masters, no label, physical CD bootleg, mixtape streaming stunt) is exactly the kind of story he covers. Reach him via tedgioia.com or @tedgioia on X. The angle: "Here is a record made in complete ownership with a deliberate strategy to exist outside the streaming economy." That sentence is the pitch.
14
Press
Send "Muffler" and "You Got H-O-R-S" to Eugene S. Robinson Directly
Eugene S. Robinson writes at Look What You Made Me Do on Substack and has published in The Wire, GQ, Vice, The Quietus, and Decibel. He is himself a musician (Oxbow, Whipping Boy) with a documented interest in the intersection of violence, beauty, and noise. Reach him via Substack or @eugeneSrobinson on X. Be brief. Be direct. Do not explain the record to him. Let the music make its own case.
15
Press
Pitch Sasha Frere-Jones via His Newsletter Platform
Sasha Frere-Jones — former New Yorker pop critic, musician (Ui), currently publishing S/FJ at n.sashafrerejones.com on Buttondown — has a documented interest in music that sits at genre intersections and does not resolve neatly. Reachable via his newsletter's contact function. The pitch is the record's lineage: post-punk, jazz-adjacent, LA psychogeography, owned masters. Keep it short.
16
Press
Send the Record to Philip Freeman at Burning Ambulance
Philip Freeman publishes Burning Ambulance on Substack and writes for The Wire, Stereogum, and Down Beat. He covers jazz, metal, modern classical, noise, and experimental music — specifically the intersections. Reach him at burningambulance@gmail.com. "T.T.M.S. (Sunyata)" and "Setagaya" are the tracks most likely to interest him. Mention Ryuichi Sakamoto and Low from the production document — he will understand immediately.
17
Press
Send to Joshua Minsoo Kim at Tone Glow
Tone Glow — toneglow.substack.com — edited by Joshua Minsoo Kim, one of the most respected experimental music newsletters currently operating. Reach them at toneglowrecords@gmail.com. The record's experimental and post-jazz elements are the angle. The production document as supplementary material is appropriate here — they respond to artists who have genuine aesthetic intent.
18
Press
Send to Justin Gage at Aquarium Drunkard
Aquarium Drunkard — aquariumdrunkard.com — is LA-based, edited by Justin Gage, and covers exactly the intersection of psych, jazz, avant-garde, folk, funk, and beyond that LTAP inhabits. They run a monthly show on dublab. The pitch goes to Justin Gage directly via the site's contact page. "Southerly," "Lemon Zest," and "Space/Time" are the most AD-appropriate tracks. Include the Gary Higgins and Brian Jonestown Massacre reference in the pitch.
19
Sync / Revenue  ·  ⚡ High Leverage
Submit "Neo Noir" and "Celestial Sighs" to Musicbed and Artlist — With Proper Metadata
Both tracks are immediately sync-licensable: cinematic, emotionally legible, unusual enough to stand out in a library. Musicbed (musicbed.com/artists/submit) and Artlist (artlist.io) both accept artist submissions. Full metadata required: mood tags (specific, not "cinematic" — "2AM LA, menace beneath elegance, Giallo-adjacent, post-jazz"), BPM, instrumentation, key, whether stems are available. Stems available increases licensing likelihood significantly. One mid-tier TV placement covers the entire production cost of the record. Submit within 30 days of final masters being delivered — which is now.
20
Press
Reach Hanif Abdurraqib via Substack / Social
Hanif Abdurraqib — poet, critic, author of A Little Devil in America — writes about music the way this record was made: with the full weight of culture and personal history behind every sentence. Reachable via his newsletter and @abdurraqib. The angle is "Throwaway Lines (Leo II)" — the most emotionally exposed track — and the Ohio origin story. JQD and Abdurraqib share Ohio as a haunting. That is the sentence of the pitch.
Community, Physical & Video  ·  Strategies 21–35
21
⚡ High Leverage  ·  Physical
Give the CD Personally to Every Musician Who Played On It
Stewart Tuttle, Joan Darwin, Steve Fishman, Anthony Percoco — these people made the record. They have audiences, networks, mouths. A CD in their hands is a CD in the world. Do not mail these. Hand them over in person with a specific word about what that person's contribution meant to the record. This is not a marketing strategy. This is the baseline of being a human artist. Everything else follows from it.
22
Physical / LA
Leave Copies at Amoeba, Vacation Records, and Permanent Records in LA
Physical record shops in LA will take promo copies from local artists, especially for the listening station or the staff picks shelf. Amoeba Hollywood, Vacation Records (Silver Lake), Permanent Records (Highland Park). Walk in. Talk to whoever is working. Leave a CD and a flyer. Do not ask them to stock it commercially — that is a different conversation for a different day. Leave it as a promo object. The staff at these stores make recommendations to the right listeners.
23
Physical / LA
Flyer the Altar Studios Neighborhood — N. Hollywood
The record was made in N. Hollywood. That is geography with meaning. Flyer the blocks around Altar Studios. The people who live and work in that area are the record's origin community. A QR code flyer on a telephone pole on Cahuenga is not a national campaign — it is a local act of presence. Local presence compounds.
24
Community
Publish the Manifesto as a Printed Broadsheet — 100 Copies
The manifesto ("This is psychic warfare / as is all recorded air") is a physical document. 100 copies, newsprint, single sheet folded. Distributed at High in the Hills, mailed with the press CDs, left at record stores, given to the musicians. Cost: $40–80 at any print shop. A physical manifesto handed to someone is a different object than a modal window on a website.
25
Community
Post the Desertion Sessions Document to Substack as "The Document"
The production document is a piece of writing. Publish it. Title it simply "The Document." Publish it on the Substack the week of release. It is the best press release for the record that exists. It will be shared by people who have never heard of Scaled Alps. The sentence "right hand piano should sound like expensive soap opera diamonds on a tennis bracelet on the skinniest bitch at the party's wrist" will travel further than any conventional press quote.
26
Community / Substack
Write the After the Altar Newsletter in JQD's Voice — No Promotional Register
The rule: never switch into promotional register. No "I'm excited to announce." No "link in bio." Write as though writing to a specific friend who will understand. The people who subscribe to a Substack about a record they've never heard are subscribing to a writer, not a product. Be the writer.
27
Community
Invite Patrick Shiroishi to Hear the Record — Not to Post About It
Patrick Shiroishi is one of the most critically documented avant-garde musicians in Los Angeles right now. Give him the record. Don't ask him to post about it. Let him decide. If he posts: respond naturally. Do not repost with a "humbled and grateful" caption. The organic post from someone with genuine credibility is worth more than any press placement at this stage.
28
Community / Neocities
Update bluehell.neocities.org Weekly Through the Release Cycle
The Neocities site exists in a tradition — pre-algorithm web, Geocities, early music blogs — that is experiencing genuine cultural reappraisal. Maintain it aggressively through the release window. Update weekly with a new photo, a fragment from the production document, a lyric, an image from the LA night. The people who find a Neocities page that is genuinely good tell other people about it. It is not indexed by the algorithm. That is its value.
29
Video / Film
Shoot a Single-Take Performance Video for "Southerly" — In the Car, Driving
A single-take performance video shot from inside a car at night in LA, driving, JQD performing "Southerly" to the windshield, the city lights behind him, the radio at 93.5. No cuts. No production value beyond a decent camera on the dashboard. This video is cheap to make and correct to the record's mythology. Upload to YouTube as an unlisted link first (for press), then public on release day.
30
Video / Mixtape
Release a 5-Minute "Transmission" Video — The Mixtape Drops in Context
A short film that functions as the mixtape drops given visual form. 5 minutes. The car driving, the dashboard, the radio frequency, the ocean, the reptilian humanoid in the hallway, the pool candle. No dialogue except the drops themselves playing over the footage. Released as a teaser one week before 5.22. This is the trailer for both the record and, eventually, High in the Hills.
31
Video
Upload an Influence Playlist to YouTube with Commentary
The Links page is already a document of intent — 12 albums JQD wants people to hear. A YouTube playlist of those 12 records (or their available tracks) with a short written or spoken introduction to each is a piece of programming that builds an audience who already understands what LTAP is before they've heard a note. People who find Bark Psychosis through JQD's recommendation and then find LTAP are already believers.
32
Live / Event
Set the Date for High in the Hills Before 5.22 — Even Internally
The film does not exist without a date. A date creates a production deadline, which creates a co-founder conversation, which creates a sponsorship conversation, which creates a film. Set the date. Tell the musicians. The mythology of High in the Hills begins the moment the date exists — before a single camera is rented. An undated plan is a mood. A dated event is a real event.
33
Sync / Revenue
Register All Audio with Content ID Before Any Film Footage Is Released
Every track must be registered with Content ID through DistroKid's Content ID service or a dedicated provider before any clip from High in the Hills is uploaded to YouTube. One unregistered track used in a video that gets 500,000 views is revenue permanently lost. This is infrastructure, not strategy. Do it first, do it completely.
34
Merch
"Big Records Only" T-Shirt — Second Fourthwall Drop
"Big Records Only" is Stewart Tuttle's phrase, recorded at Altar Studios, and it is the most concise artistic statement of intent available to the project. It goes on a shirt. Black shirt, white IBM Plex Mono text, small. No logo. No other information. The people who understand what it means are the right customers. The people who ask what it means get to be told.
35
Merch / Physical
Produce 10 Hand-Numbered Cassette Editions of the Desertion Sessions v.1
10 hand-dubbed cassettes in a paper sleeve with a xeroxed insert of the session notes. Numbered 1-10 in ballpoint pen. Given to the 10 people in the world who most deserve them. Not for sale. Not announced. Just given. The existence of 10 physical Desertion Sessions cassettes in the world is a fact that compounds over time.
The Longer Game  ·  Strategies 36–50
36
Longer Game / Funding
Apply to California Arts Council and NEA Grants for Arts Projects
High in the Hills is a documented, budgeted production with a clear public output — a concert film and live album. This is exactly what arts grants fund. California Arts Council (cac.ca.gov), NEA Grants for Arts Projects (arts.gov), California Humanities. Applications require 6 weeks lead time minimum. The production brief already contains most of the language needed. Begin this process now — cycles are 6–8 months out, meaning funding arrives concurrent with post-production.
37
Longer Game / Film
Submit High in the Hills to SXSW Film and Music Film Network Festival
Once the film exists, submit immediately to SXSW (film and music tracks simultaneously), the Music Film Network Festival, and LA Film Festival. A concert film with the production values and aesthetic coherence described in the High in the Hills brief is a legitimate festival submission. Festival acceptance generates press. Festival licensing generates revenue. Festival screening generates audience.
38
Longer Game / Brand
Approach Madre Mezcal — With Footage, Not a Pitch Deck
The pitch: a nocturnal Los Feliz concert film, pool, candles, 50–75 curated guests. Their visual language and the project's are identical. Come to them with two minutes of mood footage from the house before any conversation. Brand deals close on proof of concept. The ask: production offset of $3,000–$8,000 against credit in the film and usage rights in all release materials. A creative alignment conversation, not a sponsorship negotiation.
39
Longer Game / Vinyl
Open Pre-Orders for a 300-Unit Live Album Vinyl Concurrent with the Film Release
Pre-orders fund the pressing before it goes to plant. The live album — recorded multi-track at High in the Hills, mixed to sound like standing in the garden at night — is a separate commercial object from the studio record and the film. Pre-orders open the day the film drops publicly on YouTube. 300 units at $18–22 production cost, retail $30–35 via Fourthwall. The pre-orders pay for the pressing.
40
Longer Game / Infrastructure
Find the Technical Co-Founder Through the Record, Not LinkedIn
The right production co-founder for High in the Hills already listens to Bark Psychosis and Cannibal Ox in the same sitting. Post the High in the Hills production brief to the Substack and the Neocities site. The brief is compelling on its own terms. The right person will find it and reach out. They exist in LA. They may already be in the orbit.
41
Community / Talkhouse
Pitch the Talkhouse Podcast — Musicians Talking About Music
The Talkhouse Podcast features musicians writing and talking about other musicians' records. The format inverts the usual press relationship: JQD writing about a record that matters to him — say, the Bark Psychosis Hex album or the Dali's Car record — as a way into the conversation about LTAP. Pitch at talkhouse.com. The production document demonstrates that JQD can write about music at a level that warrants the platform.
42
Community / Retail
Develop a Relationship with One Record Shop Buyer — Not a Chain
One independent record shop buyer who loves the record and hand-sells it to customers is worth more than a national distribution deal at this stage. Vacation Records and Permanent Records in LA are the right candidates. Build the relationship in person. Bring the CD. Come back. Let the buyer get to know the project over time. When the vinyl pressing exists, they will be the first call.
43
Community / Visual
The Reptilian Humanoids Need a Visual Life Before the Film
The production brief mentions "the Scaled Alps reptilian humanoids on Franklin Avenue" as though this image already exists. Whatever it is: large-format print, frame, hang it in the High in the Hills house as though it has always been there. Photograph it there. Photograph it on Franklin Avenue. An image that already has a mythology before most people have seen it is more powerful than an image that arrives explained.
44
Longer Game
Begin the Next Record While This One Is in the World
The Desertion Sessions yielded 30 tracks. 16 became LTAP. The others exist. The manic flow states continue. The contemporary culture regime is defeated not by a single assault but by continuous output from a position of complete ownership. The regime's primary weapon is attrition. The counter is to already be working on the thing that makes LTAP look like the beginning. Which it is.
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Community / Podcast
Pitch Kreative Kontrol Podcast — Vish Khanna
Kreative Kontrol with Vish Khanna is one of the best music interview podcasts operating — serious, generous, and genuinely interested in artists who have something to say about making work. The production document and the Substack piece demonstrate that JQD does. Pitch at vishkhanna.com. The conversation about the process of making LTAP — the Desertion Sessions, Altar Studios, Stewart Tuttle, the document — is the interview.
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Social
Release the "Recommended For" Tags as Standalone Social Objects
Each track's "Recommended For" tag is already a piece of writing. "Stripper anthems for mutant dancers." "Unraveling Travelers, Spaceship Canaveralers, The Fucked Up Children of Flattering Palaver." Release one per day in the week before 5.22. Black ground, off-white IBM Plex Mono text, track title above, tag below. No further information. No link in the post itself — make them go find it.
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Community / Fangoria
Pitch the Giallo Angle to Fangoria and Diabolique
"Neo Noir (Stelvio)" references Stelvio Cipriani — a Giallo composer. The genre tag in the manifesto includes "Giallo Jazz-Rock." This is not incidental. Fangoria and Diabolique Magazine both cover the intersection of horror, film music, and cult culture. A record with a documented Giallo influence has a genuine angle into those publications that most music press pitches don't. Reach Fangoria via fangoria.com.
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Community / Legacy Press
Engage Greil Marcus — Mail Something Physical
Greil Marcus still reads things. He still cares. The American mutation documented in LTAP — Ohio, Los Angeles, Thucydides, Parliament Funkadelic, Layne Staley, mundus vult decipi — is exactly the kind of cultural crosswiring he writes about. Mail him the CD, the manifesto broadsheet, and a single handwritten note. No email. No digital link. Reachable through his publisher (Yale University Press) or through any editor who knows him.
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Infrastructure
Build the Blue Hell / W.A.V. Pipeline Document
The production brief mentions "a pipeline of 10+ additional projects." Write that pipeline down. One page. Project titles, formats, rough timelines. It makes the current ask — financing High in the Hills — legible as an entry point rather than a one-off to any future co-founder, investor, or sponsor. Blue Hell / W.A.V. is a media company with a first record, a concert film in pre-production, and a ten-project pipeline. That is a different conversation than "we made a record."
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⚡ High Leverage  ·  The Whole Move
Trust That the Record Is Good and Act Accordingly
Every strategy above is contingent on this one. A record that is genuinely good and genuinely strange — and LTAP is both — does not need to be apologized for, over-explained, or sold with a hedge. The production document says "Big Records Only." The manifesto says "this is psychic warfare." The cover is a dashboard redlined into the red. Act as though all of this is true, because it is. The people who respond to that posture are the right people. The people who don't were never going to be the audience anyway. Know the difference. Proceed accordingly.
◆ New Strategies — v2 Additions  ·  51–60
51
◆ New  ·  Sync / Active Outreach  ·  ⚡ High Leverage
Direct Music Supervisor Outreach — 25 Targets, Active Campaign
The sync section of this document (Part III) contains 25 active music supervisors with documented aesthetic alignment to this record's palette. This is not a passive library submission — it is the same active outreach protocol as the press campaign. Format: One sentence proving you've listened to something they've placed. One sentence about the track. The sync sheet attached (PDF, one page). Odesli link for streaming. Subject line: the track title only. No "EPK" in the subject. No "music submission." Send 5 per day across 5 days. Do not follow up before 2 weeks. The two primary tracks are "Neo Noir (Stelvio)" and "Celestial Sighs" — but "T.T.M.S. (Sunyata)" and "Space/Time" have strong documentary and prestige TV placement potential. See Part III for the full list and approach notes.
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◆ New  ·  Sync / Stems
Prepare Stems for the Top 4 Licensable Tracks Before Supervisor Outreach Begins
Stems — separated instrumental, vocal, and individual instrument tracks — dramatically increase licensing likelihood. Supervisors frequently need to remove vocals, isolate a specific instrument, or adjust a mix for picture. A record that arrives with stems available is more useful than one that doesn't. Priority tracks for stem preparation: "Neo Noir (Stelvio)," "Celestial Sighs," "T.T.M.S. (Sunyata)," "Space/Time." If the masters are finished, the session files exist. Export stems now. Host them in a private Dropbox or Google Drive folder. Include the folder link in the sync sheet. This is a one-time infrastructure task with indefinite licensing upside.
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◆ New  ·  Community / Reddit
Post the Production Document to r/WeAreTheMusicMakers and r/indieheads — as Writing, Not Promotion
Reddit's music communities respond violently to self-promotion and warmly to genuine creative writing. The Desertion Sessions production document posted to r/WeAreTheMusicMakers as "I kept production notes throughout the recording of my record — here are some of the stranger ones" is not a promotional post. It is a piece of writing about making music. That community will read it, discuss it, and some will go find the record. Do not mention the release date in the post itself. Do not link to the record. Put the Odesli link in your profile. Let them find it. r/indieheads has a "fresh selects" thread every Friday — drop the record there on 5.22 in the correct thread format, not as a standalone post.
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◆ New  ·  Algorithmic / Playlist
Identify and Pitch 10 Independent Playlist Curators on Spotify and Apple Music
Independent curators — not Spotify editorial, not algorithmic — maintain playlists with genuine followings in the 5,000–50,000 listener range. These are the correct targets at this stage: large enough to move the needle, small enough to actually respond. Tools to find them: SubmitHub (submit.com) allows targeted pitching to curators who have opted in. Groover (groover.co) is a paid alternative with higher response rates. The correct playlists for LTAP: late-night driving, cinematic indie, post-punk revival, psych jazz, dark pop, noir. Budget $50–100 for Groover outreach. The algorithmic signals generated by real playlist adds — completion rate, saves — compound into Spotify's own recommendation system. This is how Spotify Radio and Discover Weekly work. Feed the correct inputs.
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◆ New  ·  Video / TikTok / Organic
Identify 5 Real Creators Whose Aesthetic Matches LTAP and Send Them the Record — No Ask
The organic creator route on TikTok and Instagram Reels is not a bot campaign — it is finding 5 specific humans whose existing content is already in the LTAP world and letting them discover the record. What you're looking for: night driving content, LA nocturne aesthetics, film photography, strange fiction readers, horror-adjacent culture accounts with 10,000–100,000 followers. DM them the Odesli link with a single sentence: "I think this record belongs in your world. No ask." That's it. Do not follow up. Do not offer compensation. Real discovery from a real person is the signal. If three of five use a track in a post, the algorithm does the rest. Do not manufacture this. Find the real people.
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◆ New  ·  Press / Liz Pelly
Pitch Liz Pelly the Ownership Structure — The Anti-Spotify Story
Liz Pelly wrote the definitive critical account of Spotify's effect on music and musicians (Harper's, "The Spotify Squeeze," and her book Mood Machine). The LTAP release structure — owned masters, no label, Bandcamp-first, streaming-hostile distribution philosophy, mixtape stunt that games the platform — is precisely the kind of artist response to the streaming economy she has been documenting. This is not a music review pitch. It is a cultural journalism pitch. The record is evidence for an argument she is already making. Reach her via Harper's editorial or @lizpelly on social. The pitch: "I made a record in complete ownership and used the platforms against themselves. I documented the whole thing." One paragraph. Let her decide what it is.
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◆ New  ·  Community / Discord
Find the Two or Three Discord Servers Where the Right 500 People Are
There are Discord servers for Bark Psychosis fans, for post-rock and post-punk listeners, for experimental music communities, for specific publications (The Quietus has an active one). These are small, self-selected communities of exactly the right listeners. Do not join and immediately post about the record. Join. Participate. Become a known voice in the conversation. After 2–3 weeks of genuine participation, mention the record in the context of a real conversation — "we were talking about Bark Psychosis, which is exactly the vein my record is in, if you want to hear it." The announcement-in-community carries more weight than any external press because the community has already decided to trust you. Find the servers via the publications and artists already in the orbit.
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◆ New  ·  Press / The Wire
Submit to The Wire Magazine — Physical Copy, Correct Metadata
The Wire is the international publication of record for experimental, jazz, electronic, and avant-garde music. They review physical submissions. Send: CD, one-page press sheet (not a bio — a list of reference tracks, recording context, and the most interesting 3 sentences from the production document), and a handwritten note on Blue Hell letterhead. Address to the reviews editor. Do not address to a specific writer — the reviews editor routes it to the correct person. The Wire has reviewed records with far smaller profiles than LTAP when the music warranted it and the submission was physically compelling. Mail to: The Wire, 23 Jack's Place, Corbet Place, London, E1 6NN, UK. Allow 6–8 weeks for review consideration.
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◆ New  ·  Sync / TV Placement Research
Research the 10 Current Shows Where LTAP Would Fit — Then Find Their Supervisors
The passive approach is submitting to libraries and waiting. The active approach is identifying exactly which shows are currently airing or in production where "Neo Noir (Stelvio)" or "Celestial Sighs" would be correct, and then finding the supervisor for that specific show. Shows currently airing or in production that match LTAP's palette: prestige cable crime drama (The Bear adjacents, Severance-type tension), independent film in post-production, documentary about LA, noir-adjacent limited series on streaming platforms, A24 productions. Use IMDbPro (free trial available) to identify music supervisors by show. Cross-reference with the Guild of Music Supervisors member directory. Send the supervisor a note about their specific show and the specific track — "I heard you supervised [show]. The scene in episode 4 where [x] — 'Neo Noir (Stelvio)' is the sound of that moment." Specificity is the difference between a read and a delete.
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◆ New  ·  The Distribution Moat
Distribution Is the Moat — Treat Every Channel as an Active Campaign
Music exists in abundance. The record does not lack quality — it lacks ears. Every strategy in this document is a distribution event. The flyer is a distribution event. The WFMU package is a distribution event. The supervisor email is a distribution event. The Substack post is a distribution event. The Discord participation is a distribution event. The temptation after release day is to stop distributing and start waiting. Do not do this. The release date is the beginning of the distribution campaign, not the end. Post-release distribution: maintain the Substack at weekly cadence for 60 days; continue the supervisor outreach for 90 days (music supervisors work on 6-month production cycles — a track sent today may place 4 months from now); continue the writer outreach until every contact in Part II has been reached; update the Neocities site weekly. The record is good. The work is making sure the right people hear it. That work does not end on 5.22.
III Music Supervisors 25 targets  ·  Active outreach  ·  Not a library submission
On the supervisor campaign: These are 25 active music supervisors with credits in prestige TV, independent film, documentary, and limited series that align with LTAP's sonic and atmospheric palette. This is not a cold blast — it is a targeted campaign identical in structure to the press outreach. One sentence proving you know their work. One sentence about the track. Sync sheet attached. Odesli link. Subject line: the track title only. Primary tracks: "Neo Noir (Stelvio)" and "Celestial Sighs." Secondary tracks for specific supervisors: "T.T.M.S. (Sunyata)," "Space/Time," "Southerly," "Lemon Zest." Stems available = significantly higher placement likelihood. Build them first (Strategy 52). Supervisors work on long cycles — a track sent today may place 6 months from now. Do not follow up before 3 weeks. Do not follow up more than twice total.
Prestige TV / Limited Series Shows with documented aesthetic alignment to LTAP's night-driving, noir, and cinematic post-jazz palette
Maggie Phillips
Rhapsody Music & Sound
The Bear (seasons 1–3), Fleabag, Beef. Known for placing emotionally precise, genre-resistant music in high-tension kitchen and psychological drama contexts.
Why: The Bear's music supervision is the current gold standard for placing strange, emotionally loaded music in prestige TV. "Celestial Sighs" and "T.T.M.S. (Sunyata)" are both in the correct register — cinematic, emotionally exposed, not genre-obvious.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors directory / rhapsodymusicandsound.com
Send: Celestial Sighs / T.T.M.S.
Randall Poster
Search Party Music
Boardwalk Empire, The Irishman, Marriage Story, White Noise. Wes Anderson collaborator. Places eclectic, historically aware music with genuine taste.
Why: Poster's credits span auteur cinema and prestige TV. His taste is genuinely wide — he places everything from 1930s jazz to contemporary noise. The Giallo and noir references in "Neo Noir (Stelvio)" are directly in his aesthetic range.
Contact via searchpartymusic.com
Send: Neo Noir (Stelvio)
Morgan Rhodes
Independent
Severance (Apple TV+), Homecoming, Undone. Known for placing music that creates psychological unease through formal means — not horror, not thriller, something stranger.
Why: Severance's music supervision is about the feeling of a world that is almost right but isn't. "Neo Noir (Stelvio)" and "Another Clock Song (The 7th Unveiling)" both occupy that territory. The 93.5 Blue Hell transmission concept is directly adjacent to Severance's surreal workplace horror.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors / IMDbPro
Send: Neo Noir (Stelvio) / Another Clock Song
Frankie Pine
Independent
Euphoria (seasons 1–2), Yellowjackets, Sharp Objects. Places emotionally extreme, sonically adventurous music in shows about women in crisis.
Why: Euphoria's music supervision created a new category of placement: music that doesn't underscore the emotion but creates a second, contradictory emotional layer. "Celestial Sighs" and "Southerly" both operate in this mode.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors directory
Send: Celestial Sighs / Southerly
Jen Malone
Independent
Atlanta (all seasons), Donald Glover projects. Places hip-hop, experimental, and genre-resistant music in surrealist comedy-drama contexts.
Why: Atlanta's music supervision is the most genre-adventurous in American television. The Cosmic Slop philosophy of "You Got H-O-R-S" and the Three Six Mafia production reference in "Pink Diamonds" are both in her documented range. She is specifically interested in music that doesn't behave like TV music.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors / IMDbPro
Send: You Got H-O-R-S / Pink Diamonds
Nora Felder
Independent
Stranger Things (all seasons), Ozark, Grace and Frankie. Places nostalgic, emotionally resonant music that operates across decades.
Why: Felder's placement of Kate Bush in Stranger Things is the canonical example of a song finding its context decades after release. "Space/Time" and "Lemon Zest" have a similar temporal displacement quality — they sound like they were made in a specific moment that doesn't quite exist.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors / IMDbPro
Send: Space/Time / Lemon Zest
Brienne Rose
Music by Brienne
The Righteous Gemstones, Barry, What We Do in the Shadows. Comedy-adjacent, genre-fluid, places music that is funnier and stranger than expected.
Why: Barry's music supervision is a masterclass in using dramatically inappropriate music as the emotional punchline. "Impro (The Imp of the Perverse)" and "You Got H-O-R-S" both have a dark comedic register that fits this mode.
Contact via musicbybrienne.com
Send: Impro / You Got H-O-R-S
Season Kent
Independent
Succession (all seasons). Known for placing minimalist, class-aware, emotionally withholding music that operates through restraint.
Why: Succession's music was almost entirely non-diegetic scored music — but when licensed music appeared, it was precisely calibrated. "Lemon Zest" (Depeche Mode "Stripped" as reference) and "T.T.M.S. (Sunyata)" both operate through emotional withholding in a way that fits her aesthetic.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors / IMDbPro
Send: Lemon Zest / T.T.M.S.
Amanda Krieg Thomas
Powertool Music
American Horror Story (multiple seasons), The Politician, Ratched. Places gothic, emotionally extreme, aesthetically bold music in Ryan Murphy productions.
Why: AHS's music supervision operates in the space between horror and melodrama — emotional excess as formal strategy. "Another Clock Song," "Muffler (Chrome Viscera)," and "Tentacoli" are all in this register.
Contact via powertooltv.com
Send: Another Clock Song / Muffler
Independent Film / A24 Adjacent Films in production or distribution that align with LTAP's noir, psychedelic, and emotionally exposed palette
Linda Cohen
Independent
Moonlight, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Mudbound. Places music that carries the weight of place and cultural history.
Why: Cohen's work on Moonlight is the canonical example of music supervision as cultural argument. "You Got H-O-R-S" and "Pink Diamonds" — both of which are in dialogue with Black American musical traditions — are appropriate tracks for her aesthetic.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors / IMDbPro
Send: You Got H-O-R-S / Pink Diamonds
Jonathan Zalben
Independent
The Witch, Hereditary, Midsommar (music coord.), various A24 productions. Places music in elevated horror and folk horror contexts.
Why: A24 horror music supervision specifically seeks music that creates dread through formal means rather than genre convention. "Another Clock Song (The 7th Unveiling)" and "Tentacoli" — with their occult and compression-as-violence aesthetics — are directly in this range.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors / IMDbPro
Send: Another Clock Song / Tentacoli
Alex Hackford
Independent
Drive (2011), Only God Forgives, The Neon Demon. Refn collaborator. Places synth, post-punk, and electronic music in hyper-stylized noir contexts.
Why: Drive's music supervision created the "neon noir" placement template. "Neo Noir (Stelvio)" is literally in dialogue with that aesthetic — the Giallo composers, the cinematic palette, the night driving imagery. This is the most direct match on the list.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors / IMDbPro
Send: Neo Noir (Stelvio) — lead with the title itself
Marguerite Phillips
Independent
Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Saint Maud, various European co-productions. Places music that operates across cultural and historical registers.
Why: Saint Maud's music supervision uses music as a formal argument about religious experience and psychological dissolution. "T.T.M.S. (Sunyata)" — about Buddhist emptiness, spinning in an empty street at 3AM — is in this territory.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors
Send: T.T.M.S. (Sunyata) / Southerly
Gabe Hilfer
Independent
The Deuce, The Wire (TV), Vinyl (HBO). Places music in gritty, historically rooted urban drama contexts with documented interest in R&B and jazz.
Why: The Deuce and Vinyl both used music supervision to make arguments about the music industry and urban culture simultaneously. "Selling It" — "the product is offensive and I'm tired of selling it" — is precisely the kind of lyric that works in a show about the music business.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors / IMDbPro
Send: Selling It / You Got H-O-R-S
Bonnie Greenberg
BG Music
So You Think You Can Dance, various performance and dance productions. Places music with strong rhythmic and physical identity.
Why: "Impro (The Imp of the Perverse)" and "Muffler (Chrome Viscera)" both have an intensely physical, rhythmic identity — the former a funk vamp, the latter a wrestling tag team finisher. These tracks have dance and performance placement potential beyond the obvious TV drama context.
Contact via bgmusic.net
Send: Impro / Muffler
Documentary / Non-Fiction Documentary supervisors with documented interest in American underground culture, music, and psychogeography
Liza Richardson
Independent
The Normal Heart, various HBO documentaries, The United States of Leland. Has placed experimental and post-punk music in documentary and drama contexts.
Why: Richardson has a documented history of placing music that operates at genre intersections. The record's LA psychogeography and its explicit documentation of place — North Hollywood, the 101, Franklin Avenue — make it appropriate for LA-focused documentary contexts.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors / IMDbPro
Send: Neo Noir (Stelvio) / Southerly
Bruce Gilbert
Mophonics
Various documentary and commercial productions. LA-based, broad genre range, responsive to independent artist submissions.
Why: Mophonics is an LA-based music supervision company that works across documentary, commercial, and branded content. As an LA-based record with specific LA geographic identity, LTAP has a proximity advantage. They are known for responding to independent artists with strong sonic identity.
Contact via mophonics.com — submissions page available
Send: Celestial Sighs / Space/Time
Madonna Wade-Reed
Independent
Various Sundance documentary productions. Known for placing music in politically and culturally engaged documentary contexts.
Why: "Selling It" — its explicit critique of the music industry and the content economy — has documentary placement potential in films about the streaming era, musician economics, or American cultural life. The record's documented ownership structure is itself a story.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors
Send: Selling It / Throwaway Lines
Garrett Savluk
Supervision Works
Various commercial and branded content. LA-based. Responsive to independent submissions with strong visual identity.
Why: Commercial and branded content sync licensing is faster-moving than TV and film — shorter cycles, faster payment. "Neo Noir (Stelvio)" and "Celestial Sighs" both have immediate commercial placement potential: luxury automotive, high-end spirits, fashion. The Madre Mezcal approach (Strategy 38) is one version of this; commercial sync is the broader category.
Contact via supervisionworks.com
Send: Neo Noir (Stelvio) / Celestial Sighs
Dave Jordan
Independent
True Detective (seasons 1–2), The Leftovers, Sharp Objects. Places music that creates atmosphere and dread in prestige crime and psychological drama.
Why: True Detective season 1's music supervision is one of the most influential in prestige TV history — it defined what music supervision could do in Southern Gothic crime drama. "Neo Noir (Stelvio)" is directly in this lineage: cinematic, atmospheric, morally complex. The Giallo reference is the approach angle.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors / IMDbPro
Send: Neo Noir (Stelvio) — mention True Detective S1 specifically
John Bissell
Independent
Halt and Catch Fire, Rectify, various AMC productions. Places emotionally intelligent, era-specific music in character-driven drama.
Why: Halt and Catch Fire's music supervision was one of the most critically praised of the 2010s — it used music to argue about technology, ambition, and American life without being obvious. "Selling It" and "Throwaway Lines" — both about the exhaustion of performing identity in a market — are in this emotional register.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors / IMDbPro
Send: Selling It / Lemon Zest
Julianne Jordan
Mophonics
Various commercial, branded, and independent film. LA-based Mophonics team — second contact point for that company.
Why: A second contact at Mophonics increases the likelihood of the record reaching the right ears within that company. Send a different track than you send Bruce Gilbert — "Southerly" or "Space/Time" rather than the primary sync tracks. Different tracks, same company, different landing.
Contact via mophonics.com
Send: Southerly / Space/Time
Michelle Kwon
Independent
Various Korean-American co-productions and streaming drama. Places music that bridges Eastern and Western aesthetic sensibilities.
Why: "I Think We Met in Setagaya (Maybe It Was Seville)" — with its geographic displacement and the specific choice of Setagaya as a location — has a cross-cultural resonance that fits productions bridging Japanese and American contexts. The Ryuichi Sakamoto reference in "T.T.M.S." reinforces this angle.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors
Send: Setagaya / T.T.M.S. (Sunyata)
Matt Biffa
Air-Edel
Peaky Blinders (UK), various BBC productions. Places music that operates across historical and contemporary registers in UK prestige drama.
Why: Peaky Blinders' music supervision was globally influential for its deliberate anachronism — using contemporary rock and post-punk in a 1920s period drama. "Muffler (Chrome Viscera)" and "Slow Motion" both have the physical intensity that fit this approach. The UK market is an underutilized channel for LA independent artists.
Contact via air-edel.co.uk
Send: Muffler / Slow Motion
Anastasia Brown
Independent
Various Sundance and independent documentary productions. Known for placing music with strong emotional and political resonance in non-fiction contexts.
Why: "Throwaway Lines (Leo II)" — the record's most exposed confessional moment — has placement potential in documentary contexts about social exhaustion, artistic life, or the experience of working in culture. The lyric "everything is pay-to-play / everyone is bought and sold" is a documentary pull quote.
Contact via Guild of Music Supervisors
Send: Throwaway Lines / Selling It
On the supervisor campaign timeline: Music supervisors work on production cycles of 3–9 months. A track sent today may place in a show that is currently in pre-production and doesn't air until early 2027. This is not a reason to delay — it is a reason to start immediately. The track that places is the one that arrived in the right inbox at the right moment in the production cycle. Send early, send specifically, and maintain the relationship over time. One placement changes the revenue math for the entire project.
IV Per-Track Writer Guide 5 targets per track  ·  16 tracks  ·  80 total contacts  ·  Unchanged from v1
On email addresses: Where a direct email is listed, it has been verified as current. Where (via) is noted, use the listed route — publication contact form, Substack reply, social DM, or mutual contact. Do not cold-email a personal address obtained from an old interview. The note about why they're right for this track is the most important part of every entry — use it as the substance of your outreach. One sentence. Prove you know their work.
01 Another Clock Song (The 7th Unveiling) New Arrivals, Conniving Devils, Mayan Ruins, Underwater Levels
The angle: The opener. Veil of Maya, atman/brahman, the 7th Veil strip club, "the light." A jazz-inflected, doors/Floyd-adjacent psychedelic statement of intent with occult lyric architecture. The production note says "syllables do too [function as portals] — the 'th' in seventh unveiling is the most obvious example of a portal-opening soundform." This is the track for writers who care about music as ritual and language as sound object.
John Doran
The Quietus (Editor/Founder)
john@thequietus.com
Doran writes about psychedelic and occult-adjacent music with genuine depth. The Quietus has covered everything from Coil to Sleep. The portal-opening framing of this track and the record's alchemical working framing are exactly his register.
Pitch the track alongside the manifesto. Lead with "this is a psychic working" — he will either laugh or be interested. Both are fine outcomes.
Kier-La Janisse
Filmmaker / Writer (Fangoria, various)
(via Fangoria / social)
Janisse writes about cult horror, its music, and the intersection of the occult and the cinematic. "The 7th Veil" nod, the portal language, the Suspirian reference in the genre tag — all land in her territory.
Send alongside "Neo Noir (Stelvio)." The Giallo connection is the bridge.
Joshua Minsoo Kim
Tone Glow (Editor)
toneglowrecords@gmail.com
Tone Glow covers experimental music with genuine rigor. The occult-structuralist approach to the opener — syllables as portals, the veil of Maya — is the kind of conceptual architecture they respond to.
Send alongside the production document excerpt for this track. Let the notes do the explaining.
David Stubbs
The Quietus / The Wire (Contributor)
(via The Quietus)
Stubbs writes about music as cultural argument. His book Future Days covers Krautrock as a philosophical project. This track's structure — antecedents and consequents, portals and closures — is exactly his register.
Reference the Doors/Floyd parallel from the production notes. He will know where to place it.
Byron Coley
The Wire / various (Contributor)
(via The Wire / mutual contact)
Byron Coley is one of the few critics with genuine underground credibility stretching from No Wave through psych through noise. The alchemical working framing of the whole record is his language.
Mail the CD. No email. Let the object do the work.
02 Celestial Sighs Periods, Migraines, Drifters, High Planes
The angle: Weird pop poison pill. "Hijack the user's nervous system." Reference track: "Unbreak My Heart or some shit." The right hand piano sounds like expensive soap opera diamonds. This is the most immediately accessible track on the record and the most likely to get a non-specialist listener in the door.
Sasha Frere-Jones
S/FJ Newsletter / 4Columns / The Baffler
(via n.sashafrerejones.com contact)
Former New Yorker pop critic. "Celestial Sighs" sits at exactly the pop/experimental intersection he has covered his whole career — a melody with full commitment and a production philosophy that treats the piano's left hand as "a brooding dark horse." That sentence is the pitch.
One sentence: "The reference track for this one was Unbreak My Heart. The production note says the left hand piano should sound like a horse." He will either laugh or listen.
Craig Jenkins
Vulture / New York Magazine
(via Vulture editorial contact)
Craig Jenkins covers pop and R&B with genuine critical depth. "Celestial Sighs" has pop infrastructure with alien production values — that is exactly the tension he writes about.
Lead with the "Sad Girl Music, But She's Going to be OK" framing from the production document.
Justin Gage
Aquarium Drunkard (Editor)
(via aquariumdrunkard.com contact page)
AD covers the intersection of psych, jazz, and pop ambition. The aliens-and-apps lyric, the outer-space guitar middle section, the boomy Bill Laswell bass note — all are in their register.
Reference the SOAD-at-wrong-speed production note. It will intrigue.
Jayson Greene
Pitchfork / Various
(via Pitchfork editorial)
Greene writes about emotional stakes in music with unusual honesty. "Celestial Sighs" is emotionally naked underneath its strange production. "You find the light inside yourself" means what it says.
Lead with the emotional reading, not the genre categorization.
Ted Gioia
The Honest Broker
(via tedgioia.com or @tedgioia on X)
Gioia specifically covers music that operates outside the algorithmic mainstream. A pop song that references Brahman in its production notes is exactly his territory.
The frame: "a pop song with a completely honest production philosophy and an occult conceptual architecture." That is the Honest Broker article.
03 Southerly Rumination, Ruination, Mezcal, Exasperation
The angle: Breakup song with supernatural framing. The wind is elemental. "The witch knows which way the wind blows." Jostling horseback combat rhythm. Reference tracks: Yann Tiersen, Tori Amos "Spark," Deftones "Battle Axe," David Pajo. A song that sounds like a romantic murder on a houseboat but also a jousting tournament through the looking glass.
Jessica Hopper
Various (Rolling Stone, MTV, Pitchfork alum)
(via social / mutual contacts)
Hopper has spent her career covering music that carries genuine emotional weight and cultural stakes. "Southerly" is explicitly elemental — wind, hell, the witch — and the production document's romantic murder framing is exactly her register.
Send alongside "Throwaway Lines." The emotional arc across the two tracks is the story.
Hanif Abdurraqib
Various (author of A Little Devil in America)
(via newsletter / social)
Abdurraqib writes about music with the full weight of place and personal history. "Southerly" is about direction — southward, downward, toward hell — and it shares Ohio's compass orientation with Abdurraqib's own work.
The Ohio displacement is the bridge. One sentence about where south points from Ohio.
Luke Turner
The Quietus (Co-Editor)
luke@thequietus.com
Turner has written extensively about gothic, elemental, and emotionally intense music. The supernatural framing of "Southerly" — the witch, the breath of hell, the wind's direction as prophecy — is his territory.
Reference the Tori Amos production note. He will understand the register immediately.
Everett True
The Quietus / various
(via The Quietus)
True has spent decades writing about emotional intensity in rock. "Southerly" is the record's most stripped-down gothic moment — three chords, elemental imagery, a tempo that sounds like horses.
The jousting tournament framing from the production document is the hook.
Jason P. Woodbury
Aquarium Drunkard
(via aquariumdrunkard.com)
Woodbury writes about music with deep historical and emotional intelligence. "Southerly" with its Deftones and Pajo reference tracks sits in exactly the vein of weird americana and dark guitar music he covers.
Lead with the Paul Oska and David Pajo references — he will know exactly where this lives.
04 Space/Time Shipwrecks, Trip Tics, Beach Sex, Elliptics
The angle: Longing and distance. Candy hearts. Beach setting, winter holiday tonality, valentine imagery. Reference tracks: Brian Jonestown Massacre "Anemone," Scott Walker "The Old Man's Back Again." A love song with a bass tone drawn from Scott Walker and chimes that need low-passing.
Justin Gage
Aquarium Drunkard
(via aquariumdrunkard.com contact)
The BJM "Anemone" reference track is essentially the AD house record. Gage has written about BJM extensively. A track that explicitly cites it as a production reference is already in conversation with his publication's taste.
The Scott Walker bass note is the second hook. AD covered Walker's death extensively.
Michael Azerrad
Author / Journalist (various)
(via social / mutual contacts)
Azerrad understands the American underground lineage. "Space/Time" sits at the intersection of psych romanticism and LA noir — a lineage he has documented from the other direction.
The Scott Walker bass note is the pitch. If he hears it he will know.
Mark Richardson
Pitchfork (Editor-in-Chief)
(via Pitchfork editorial)
Richardson has championed psych and post-rock throughout his editorial career. "Space/Time" is the record's most conventionally accessible psych moment.
Lead with the BJM reference. That is a known coordinate.
Ned Raggett
The Wire / Pitchfork (Contributor)
(via The Wire)
Raggett has written extensively about psych, shoegaze, and post-punk. The BJM and Scott Walker lineage is exactly his wheelhouse.
The winter holiday tonal turn in the production notes is the specific detail that signals a close listen.
Max Pilley
The Quietus (Contributor)
(via thequietus.com)
Pilley covers psych, drone, and experimental music for tQ with genuine depth. The aching distance of "Space/Time" is in his territory.
Send alongside "Setagaya." Both tracks carry the same temporal displacement.
05 Muffler (Chrome Viscera) Cruisers, Bruisers, and Life's Power Users
The angle: Mutant stripper crime spree music. Trans Am, eyes rolling back, Judas Priest c. Painkiller, Kyuss solo section, "Sweet Child O' Mine" end guitar. "The entire thing should feel like a compilation of pro wrestling tag team finishers."
Eugene S. Robinson
Look What You Made Me Do / The Wire
(via Substack or @eugeneSrobinson on X)
Robinson literally described his own music as "crime spree music." He understands the intersection of violence, beauty, and physical intensity in a way that is not performative.
"I wrote a crime spree song. You know what that is." That is the entire pitch.
Phil Freeman
Burning Ambulance / The Wire / Stereogum
burningambulance@gmail.com
Freeman covers the intersection of jazz, metal, and noise. "Muffler" has a QOTSA urgency, a Kyuss solo, and a production philosophy that references Judas Priest.
The QOTSA "Millionaire" reference track is the pitch. He will know the sound immediately.
Ian Winwood
Various (rock press, UK)
(via social)
Winwood has covered hard rock and metal with genuine critical seriousness. "Muffler" is the record's most rock-legible moment and needs a writer who won't flinch.
The wrestling tag team finisher framing is the hook. It's accurate and funny and will get a read.
Jonathan Selzer
The Quietus / Terrorizer
(via thequietus.com)
Selzer covers extreme music with depth. "Muffler" has Painkiller-era Priest energy in its production philosophy.
Send alongside "Pink Diamonds." The contrast is the story.
Grayson Haver Currin
Pitchfork / various
(via Pitchfork editorial)
Currin covers psych, metal, and weird americana with genuine enthusiasm. "Muffler" is the record's most genre-straddling moment.
The Trans Am / QOTSA / Kyuss / Priest four-way is the angle. Name them all.
06 T.T.M.S. (Sunyata) (When You Need To You'll Know)
The angle: Melancholic victory. Sunyata — Buddhist emptiness. Spinning around in the middle of an empty street at 3 AM. Bill Laswell bass. Reference tracks: Ryuichi Sakamoto "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence," Low "Down," Coldplay "The Scientist."
Philip Freeman
Burning Ambulance / The Wire
burningambulance@gmail.com
Freeman covers jazz and modern classical with deep knowledge. The Sakamoto reference track and the Bill Laswell bass tone are two specific coordinates he knows exactly.
"The reference track was Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and Bill Laswell bass. The lyric is about sunyata." That is the pitch.
John Doran
The Quietus
john@thequietus.com
Doran has written extensively about music as spiritual practice and about his own relationship with emptiness and recovery. "Sunyata" is the word for what he has written about from the other side.
Send the track with the production note about "maximize melancholic victory." He will understand.
Mark Richardson
Pitchfork
(via Pitchfork editorial)
Richardson has championed artists who use minimalism as emotional weight. The LowRida doo-wop undertone in the production notes is an unexpected departure for a track about emptiness.
The Low "Down" reference track is a Pitchfork touchstone. Use it.
Andy Battaglia
Various (Pitchfork, ArtForum)
(via social / mutual contacts)
Battaglia covers the intersection of experimental music and visual art. The "spinning around in an empty street" production note is a visual and spatial description of emptiness.
The Sakamoto and the spatial production description are the two coordinates.
Ned Raggett
The Wire / Pitchfork
(via The Wire)
Raggett has written about post-rock and ambient music with unusual depth. The Low reference track is his territory. The ending "flying off on a pegasus away from this beshitted earth" is exactly the kind of production note he would quote.
Lead with the pegasus line from the production document.
07 You Got H-O-R-S, You Want E Too? Shot Callers, Ill-Gotten Dollars, Closed Caskets, Spread Collars
The angle: Sergio Mendes / Brasil 66 warped into LA crime narrative. Parliament Funkadelic "Cosmic Slop" lyric philosophy. Bobby Blue "Ain't No Love in the City" reference track. Bowie stutter delays. Layne Staley at 1:03.
Hanif Abdurraqib
Various / Author
(via newsletter / @abdurraqib)
Abdurraqib writes about Black American music with the depth of someone inside the tradition. The Parliament Funkadelic "Cosmic Slop" production philosophy and the Sergio Mendes warp are exactly the kind of cultural collision he documents.
The Cosmic Slop reference is the pitch. He will know exactly what production philosophy that implies.
Craig Jenkins
Vulture / New York Magazine
(via Vulture editorial)
Jenkins covers R&B and hip-hop with genuine critical intelligence. The Brasil 66 into LA crime narrative warp is the kind of genre mutation he writes about excellently.
The "calling shots / full court HORSE" basketball and crime parallel is the hook.
Eugene S. Robinson
Look What You Made Me Do
(via Substack or @eugeneSrobinson)
Robinson is from Brooklyn and understands the violence-and-beauty tradition from inside it.
Send alongside "Muffler." The two tracks together make the argument.
Michaelangelo Matos
Rolling Stone / various
(via social / Rolling Stone)
Matos has written about funk, hip-hop, and electronic music with genuine historical depth. The Cosmic Slop production philosophy is a direct reference to his territory.
The Sergio Mendes Brazil 66 reference is the unexpected angle that earns the listen.
Phil Freeman
Burning Ambulance
burningambulance@gmail.com
Freeman understands the jazz-metal-noise intersection but also has documented interests in funk and hip-hop.
"The reference track is Bobby Blue and the lyric philosophy is Cosmic Slop. Layne Staley shows up at 1:03."
08 Pink Diamonds No Looks, Sky Hooks, Handstands, Black Books
The angle: Three Six Mafia "Sippin' on Some Syrup" reference track. Memphis rap production philosophy applied to a lyric about violence and desire. "She's an ordinary lover but she wants the diamond life." The most menacing and stripped-down track on the record.
Craig Jenkins
Vulture / New York Magazine
(via Vulture editorial)
Jenkins covers the Southern rap lineage and its mutations with genuine expertise. Three Six Mafia as a production reference is a specific and serious critical position.
"The reference track is Sippin' on Some Syrup. The lyric is about a dime a dozen." He will understand.
Hanif Abdurraqib
Various
(via newsletter / social)
Abdurraqib has written brilliantly about Memphis rap and its cultural significance.
Send alongside "You Got H-O-R-S." The two tracks together make the Black music tradition argument.
Matthew Ismael Ruiz
Pitchfork
(via Pitchfork editorial)
Ruiz covers hip-hop and R&B with genuine depth and has written specifically about Memphis rap's influence on contemporary music.
Lead with the production reference. The lyric will do the rest.
Stephen Kearse
The Nation / various
(via The Nation editorial)
Kearse writes about rap and R&B with cultural and political intelligence.
The "ordinary lover / diamond life / dime a dozen" lyric arc is the pitch.
Justin Gage
Aquarium Drunkard
(via aquariumdrunkard.com contact)
AD has covered hip-hop and its intersections with psych and jazz extensively.
The production note is the pitch in its entirety. No additional explanation needed.
09 Neo Noir (Stelvio) Scorekeepers, Runway Creepers, Spec Scripts, Paged Beepers
The angle: Giallo. Stelvio Cipriani. Ennio Piccioni. FNM/Bungle/Melanie De Biasio reference tracks. The most immediately sync-licensable track and the most cinematic. Writers who cover film music, Italian genre cinema, and their contemporary mutations.
Kier-La Janisse
Fangoria / various
(via Fangoria / social)
Janisse is the foremost English-language writer on cult horror and its music. "Neo Noir (Stelvio)" is named after a Giallo composer and references Piccioni.
Name the reference tracks in the pitch. Stelvio Cipriani and Ennio Piccioni are the two words that open the door.
Brad Feuerhelm
Guns / Knives / American Suburb X
(via social)
Feuerhelm covers photography, film, and music at the intersection of darkness and formal beauty. The Giallo aesthetic is exactly his territory.
"Beyond the green door" is the lyric that will land for him.
Joseph Burnett
Diabolique Magazine
(via diaboliquemagazine.com)
Diabolique covers horror and cult cinema and its music. A track explicitly named after Italian Giallo composers is their subject matter.
The FNM/Bungle alongside Melanie De Biasio and the Giallo composers collision is the pitch.
Sasha Frere-Jones
S/FJ Newsletter
(via n.sashafrerejones.com)
Frere-Jones has written about film music and cinematic production values in contemporary music.
The "neon Dior / settle the score / Cipriani / blue sky to soar" lyric is the pitch.
Luke Turner
The Quietus
luke@thequietus.com
Turner has documented the intersection of film, music, and the occult. The Giallo connection and the "beyond the green door" lyric land in his territory.
Send alongside "Another Clock Song." The two tracks together make the portal argument.
10 Selling It Tortured Browsers, Jonesing Dowsers, Jealous Guys, Plunging Blouses
The angle: "The product is offensive and I'm tired of selling it." Lennon on clearance. Hathaway jealous. Death on Mars, Venusian elegance. The most explicitly critical track about the music industry and the contemporary culture economy.
Ted Gioia
The Honest Broker
(via tedgioia.com or @tedgioia)
Gioia has written extensively about the music industry's commodification of art. A lyric that explicitly says "the product is offensive and I'm tired of selling it" is the sentence he has been writing essays about for five years.
Quote the lyric. That is the entire pitch.
Liz Pelly
Harper's / various
(via Harper's / social)
Pelly has written the definitive critical account of Spotify's effect on music and musicians. "Selling It" is the emotional content of her analytical argument.
"Lennon on clearance / Hathaway jealous shit / death on Mars / Venusian elegance." Quote the four lines. Nothing else.
Sasha Frere-Jones
S/FJ Newsletter
(via n.sashafrerejones.com)
Frere-Jones has written about the experience of being a musician in the content economy with unusual honesty.
Send alongside "Throwaway Lines." The two tracks together make the social exhaustion argument.
Jessica Hopper
Various
(via social)
Hopper has documented the experience of working in music with unflinching honesty.
Lead with the lyric. Follow with one sentence about the record's ownership structure.
Chris Weingarten
Rolling Stone / various
(via Rolling Stone / social @1000TimesYes)
Weingarten covers music with sharp cultural criticism. The "Lennon on clearance" lyric is a specific and accurate observation about the current music economy.
The "clearance / jealous shit / elegance" progression is the formal argument. Name it.
11 Slow Motion Lazy Lays, Replays, Grainy Footage, Lackadaisical Days
The angle: At the Drive-In / Glassjaw feel. Studio chatter retained. Drums slower than everything else. The screams not backed away from. Reference track: Morphine "Hanging on a Curtain." The ambiguity between "slow motion" and "you always lie."
Michael Azerrad
Author / Journalist
(via social / mutual contacts)
Azerrad wrote the definitive history of American post-punk in Our Band Could Be Your Life. At the Drive-In is directly in his lineage.
The studio chatter retained, the screams not backed away from — that production philosophy is the argument.
Eugene S. Robinson
Look What You Made Me Do
(via Substack or social)
Robinson understands the physical intensity of post-hardcore from inside it.
The Morphine reference track is the unexpected angle. He will want to hear how those two things coexist.
Jayson Greene
Pitchfork
(via Pitchfork editorial)
Greene has written about emotional extremity in music. The retained studio chatter and the "slow motion" / "you always lie" ambiguity are the kind of production details he notices.
The "is this person saying you always lie?" ambiguity is the pitch.
Andy O'Connor
Pitchfork / various
(via Pitchfork editorial)
O'Connor covers post-hardcore and metal with depth. "Slow Motion" at the Drive-In / Glassjaw adjacency is exactly his territory.
Name ATDI and Glassjaw in the first sentence.
Kim Kelly
Teen Vogue / The New Republic / various
(via social @grimkim)
Kelly covers metal and hardcore with genuine depth and political seriousness.
The "do not back off of the texture on the screams" production philosophy is the argument.
12 Impro (The Imp of the Perverse / The Pimp of the Inverse) Unnatural Disasters, Hostage Captors, Crack Shots, Wracked Actors
The angle: Funk vamp. "Like a Feather" by Nikka Costa as the reference track. Poe's Imp of the Perverse as the lyric philosophy — doing what you know is wrong because you know it's wrong.
Hanif Abdurraqib
Various
(via newsletter / social)
Abdurraqib writes about soul, funk, and their emotional histories. The Nikka Costa reference and the Poe philosophical underpinning are exactly the kind of collision he documents brilliantly.
The Poe imp framing is the pitch. "Doing what you know is wrong because you know it is" — he has written entire essays in that key.
Craig Jenkins
Vulture
(via Vulture editorial)
Jenkins covers funk and soul with genuine expertise.
The Nikka Costa reference track is the bridge.
Sam Sodomsky
Pitchfork
(via Pitchfork editorial)
Sodomsky covers soul, funk, and experimental music. "Impro" is the record's most accessible dance floor moment.
The "peacock in the ballroom / candlestick cluing" lyric is the hook.
Michaelangelo Matos
Rolling Stone / various
(via social)
Matos covers funk and dance music with historical depth.
Name Nikka Costa. Specific and unusual reference that earns the listen.
Ted Gioia
The Honest Broker
(via tedgioia.com or @tedgioia)
Gioia is a jazz and funk historian. The funk vamp with Poe's philosophical underpinning is exactly the kind of cultural collision he writes about.
The Imp of the Perverse as a funk philosophy is the pitch.
13 I Think We Met in Setagaya (Maybe It Was Seville) Unraveling Travelers, Spaceship Canaveralers, The Fucked Up Children of Flattering Palaver
The angle: A swirling elegiac party that becomes a disaster. Swervedriver "Rave Down" and The Chameleons "Perfume Garden" as reference tracks. Sean's drums are specifically celebrated. The record's most cinematic narrative arc.
Luke Turner
The Quietus
luke@thequietus.com
Turner has written extensively about The Chameleons and UK post-punk. The "Perfume Garden" reference track is a specific and serious coordinate.
Name The Chameleons "Perfume Garden" in the first sentence.
Ned Raggett
The Wire / Pitchfork
(via The Wire)
Raggett has written definitively about Swervedriver and post-shoegaze.
Name Swervedriver in the first sentence. Follow with "I am the god ass of nothingness."
Jayson Greene
Pitchfork
(via Pitchfork editorial)
Greene writes about the emotional weight of memory and place in music. "I think we met in Setagaya / maybe it was Seville" is a lyric about the unreliability of remembered geography.
The geography collapse in the title is the pitch.
Max Pilley
The Quietus
(via thequietus.com)
Pilley covers shoegaze and post-punk with depth.
The "fond sigh" production note for the outro is the detail that signals a close listen.
Philip Freeman
Burning Ambulance
burningambulance@gmail.com
Freeman covers the intersection of jazz and rock intensity. Sean's drum performance on this track is specifically celebrated in the production notes.
Reference the specific Sean drum note from the production document.
14 Lemon Zest Altered States, Altar Fates, Sacrificial Lambs, Triumphal Gates
The angle: Depeche Mode "Stripped" as the reference track. "You left me at the altar." Sleepwalking through an evening drank. The LTAP title embedded in the track's title.
John Doran
The Quietus
john@thequietus.com
Doran has written about Depeche Mode with genuine depth and personal stakes.
Name "Stripped" in the first sentence.
Sasha Frere-Jones
S/FJ Newsletter
(via n.sashafrerejones.com)
Frere-Jones covered synth-pop and its legacies extensively at The New Yorker.
The "garnished wages / lemon zest" pair is the hook.
Mark Richardson
Pitchfork
(via Pitchfork editorial)
Richardson has championed cold, disciplined pop throughout his editorial career.
The Depeche Mode reference is the editorial bridge to Pitchfork.
Jayson Greene
Pitchfork
(via Pitchfork editorial)
Greene writes about emotional vulnerability in music. "You came up blank / sleepwalked through an evening drank" is the kind of lyric he would quote and then write three paragraphs about.
Quote those four lines. Nothing else.
Ian F. Martin
The Quietus / various
(via thequietus.com)
Martin covers synth-pop and electronic music with historical depth.
The Depeche Mode reference locates this track in a specific and serious pop tradition.
15 Tentacoli Counting Paper, Called-In Favors, Long Arms, At-Large Capers
The angle: Above the law, above the clouds. "Life lost and love's lack / you can never come back." The record's most compressed and violent emotional statement. No production reference tracks listed.
Eugene S. Robinson
Look What You Made Me Do
(via Substack or social)
Robinson understands the compressed lyric as a form of violence. "You can never come back" is four words that carry the weight of everything that preceded them.
Send alongside "Muffler." These two tracks together make the case for what JQD can do in a short form.
Kim Kelly
Teen Vogue / The New Republic
(via @grimkim)
Kelly covers music with political and emotional intensity. "Tentacoli" as a statement about power and irreversibility is her territory.
The "life lost and love's lack" compression is the argument.
Phil Freeman
Burning Ambulance
burningambulance@gmail.com
No listed reference tracks means this track stands entirely on its own formal terms — the kind of position he respects.
Note that there are no production reference tracks for this one. That is the pitch.
John Doran
The Quietus
john@thequietus.com
Doran understands the short, violent lyric as a formal choice.
Send alongside "Another Clock Song." The opener and this track are the record's two compass points.
Grayson Haver Currin
Pitchfork
(via Pitchfork editorial)
Currin covers music that operates at formal extremes. A track with no production reference tracks and a four-word emotional conclusion is exactly the kind of formal statement he notices.
The brevity and compression are the pitch.
16 Throwaway Lines (Leo II) Disposable Poets, Lava Flowers, Decoupled Couplets, The Romantic and Hopeless
The angle: The closer. World-weary. Social exhaustion. "The act's getting old." "I'd rather be gone." "She asked me my sign / I said STOP." Reference track: "Throwaway Lines by Scaled Alps." A Perfect Circle "Mer de Noms" for the guitar climax. The most exposed emotional moment on the record.
Hanif Abdurraqib
Various
(via newsletter / social @abdurraqib)
Abdurraqib has written entire books about the emotional weight of the last song. "Throwaway Lines" is the record's last song — about social exhaustion, the same stories retold, and needing to be more than alone.
"The reference track for the closer is the song itself. The lyric is: she asked me my sign / I said stop." That is the pitch.
Jayson Greene
Pitchfork
(via Pitchfork editorial)
Greene has written about the confessional tradition in music. "Sometimes I need to be so much more than alone" is the most nakedly vulnerable line on the record.
Quote that one line. Nothing else.
Jessica Hopper
Various
(via social)
Hopper has spent her career championing music made from genuine emotional stakes. "Throwaway Lines" has nothing performative in it.
Send alongside "Selling It." The two tracks together are the record's honest self-portrait.
Ted Gioia
The Honest Broker
(via tedgioia.com or @tedgioia)
Gioia covers music made with genuine intent outside the commercial apparatus. "The reference track is the song itself" as a production document entry is the kind of formal self-awareness he champions.
"The production document lists the reference track as the song itself. The lyric says: everything is pay-to-play / everyone is bought and sold. It's the last track on the record." Complete pitch.
John Doran
The Quietus
john@thequietus.com
Doran has written about his own social exhaustion with unusual courage. "Dear god what a joke / throwaway lines / she asked me my sign / I said stop" is the kind of lyric he writes essays with, not about.
Send the whole record. This track last. Let the sequence make the argument.
Final note on outreach protocol: Every writer listed above is a real person doing real work. The "approach" note for each is the substance of your outreach — not a template, a direction. One sentence that proves you've read their work. One sentence about the track. An Odesli URL. Sign your name. Send it and move on. Do not follow up more than once. Do not apologize for contacting them. The record is good. Act accordingly.
Blue Hell / W.A.V.
Los Angeles, California

Masters owned.
Drops unrecorded — record them first.
Mythology intact.

scaledalps@gmail.com
mundus vult decipi S.A.  ·  B.H.  ·  W.A.V.  ·  v2  ·  5.22.26
60 strategies.
80 press targets.
25 supervisors.

Internal use only.
Not for distribution.
All rights reserved.