Mooncha (a.k.a. Thailend Delaine Parker) kicks off “Mojo Jojo” with a deliciously fuzzy chromatic surf line from their guitar. Chris Chew responds with pounding drums, while Marcus-Aurelius C. Benton fills in the bottom end of the frequency range with keys. “Just watch me!” Mooncha screams, and the band digs into a sound as grungy as it is danceable.
But mere minutes later, on “Upside Down,” the band is delivering sunny yet anxious pop.
And on the third song, “Harder,” they dive straight into live hip hop. It’s the latest delirious — and live — performance from the Sans Serif Sessions, a series begun by the New Haven-based recording studio in the fall that, on the cusp of venues in town returning to being able to have live shows, let New Haven have a taste of what they may be in for.
New Haven-based musician Sam Carlson started Sans Serif Recording in 2018. As he and partner Patrick Dalton built out their Chapel Street studio during the pandemic, Carlson also began collaborating with Connecticut-based filmmakers Kicker Pictures on a variety of projects, from streaming to music videos. The foray into audio and visual work began yielding the Sans Serif Sessions, beginning with a short set from New Haven-based indie hip hop stalwart Ceschi in September. Sans Serif handled audio and visual work for the sessions that happened in the studio space.
As New Haven’s stages begin to wake up from their pandemic shutdowns — Cafe Nine is opening with Buzz Gordo on April 9, Best Video is kicking off its outdoor space with Shawn Taylor on April 15, and College Street Music Hall is planning shows for June — the Sans Serif sessions show that New Haven’s music scene is ready.
Collaborating with Kicker Pictures on the second session, with Sans Serif doing audio and Kicker Pictures doing video, yielded a blistering set from Killer Kin, performing from a space on the fifth floor of 91 Shelton Ave.
The sessions are “just for fun and to help artists do what they do while there’s no other ways to perform,” Carlson said.
But in the meantime, the sessions offer a genre-hopping snapshot of the way New Haven musicians have been keeping their live game sharp even without places to play. In addition to Ceschi, Killer Kin, and the recent Mightymoonchew set, In October Youth XL stopped by the studio for a winsome set of their smart, funny, and well-constructed pop songs.
In the same month, Siul Hughes offered songs from his 2020 release Hueman that showed the MC in fine form, his flow as relaxed and vibrant as ever.
In November the Split Coils visited the studio as a full band, showing that the gritty, wide-open highway sound of the band’s 2019 album Earth and Dust was no studio trick.
The series has continued with spots from Stout, Patrick Dalton, Elison Jackson, Clenn Planets, the Fiction Kids, and others — over 15 releases since September. Carlson has plans to continue the series, adding that Sans Serif and Kicker Pictures are seeking a possible grant for keep costs low. Online concert series that predate the pandemic, such as Audiotree’s and KEXP’s studio performances, showed that there were audiences for well-done online shows even before Covid-19 offered musicians and fan no alternative.
