We’re now about two-thirds of the way through 2024 and it’s already safe to say it’s been an excellent year in Milwaukee music. Adding to the abundance of exceptional new local releases managed by Milwaukee musicians thus far is handful of top-notch vinyl reissues from long-defunct projects that are finally finding their material immortalized on wax for the first time ever.
Following Murder In The Red Barn’s posthumous vinyl debut and Tintoretto releasing rerecorded renditions of its entire catalog, another Milwaukee math rock outfit of yore is getting its belated moment in the sun. On Friday, September 6, Akarso will release Leave Quietly: 1997-1999, an eight-song anthology that encapsulates the entirety of the band’s recorded material from its brief-yet-brilliant run. Milwaukee music fans who might not be familiar with Akarso almost certainly know some of its members.
The trio features Nathan Lilley of Call Me Lightning notoriety on vocals and guitar, The Trap Set host and prolific TV and film composer Joe Wong on drums, and Key Of Evil’s Greg Roteik on bass. During its late-’90s existence, Akarso made a name for itself in Milwaukee math and post-hardcore circles, toured extensively, and even released a split CD with Faraquet. Along the way, Justin Nardy’s band played a bunch of shows with Akarso in Wisconsin and his native Missouri, and he struck up a friendship with them. Now, a full 25 years since the band’s last concert, Nardy is releasing Akarso’s entire recorded catalog on his Expert Work Records label.
“I always loved the band and the guys, and was sad that these songs never got a vinyl release,” Nardy tells Milwaukee Record. “After doing the Tintoretto discography, I felt like it only made sense to the Akarso discography, too.”
He got approval from the band to do so, then sent the songs to Carl Saff in Chicago to be remastered and had former Since By Man vocalist Sam Macon create new album art. And with that, Akarso’s entire discography is now available for purchase on vinyl for the first time ever.
With a run limited to just 250 copies (125 black and 125 “Chlorophyll Ghoul Green”), the release features all three songs off the band’s 1998 Parallel Chlorophyll Regions EP, a track from a split 7-inch with Seven Days Of Samsara (Akarso’s only song to ever be released on vinyl until now), and four songs from the aforementioned 1999 Faraquet split. The gatefold LP also includes rare photos and images from old show posters spanning Akarso’s run.
Leave Quietly: 1997-1999 is available for digital and vinyl pre-order from Expert Work Records now. If you want to hear newly remastered versions of songs you used to love or you wish to backtrack and brush up on a band that never got its flowers, we highly suggest you pick up a copy now.
