Mapache’s Sam Blasucci unveils motherlode of tracks on new LP and EP

SamBlasucci_JeovannaPerez_1 — Credit: Jeovanna Perez

Ojai, CA-based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Sam Blasucci has announced his fourth record and first double LP, Physical Dream, is due out April 17th. In addition to the LP, Blasucci will release an EP later this month titled La Miel, out February 27. On the EP leading up to the full record, inspired by Los Angeles and Mexico, the musician says, “This EP (the third movement, La Miel) is the honey to the largely wounded inner world of this record. Literally translated to Honey, it feels the most energizing and soothing to what I see as our collective wounds. Soothing to the damaged throat & voice that we’re now just dusting off. Largely influenced by my teachers, friends, caretakers, and musical mentors in Coahuila, MX, as well as my upbringing in Los Angeles, of course, and those musical heroes and friends of mine in that incredible hometown of mine that built me up and taught me what I’ve expressed in my recordings.”

Physical Dream holds 28 nonlinear tracks that blur genre lines, and it was recorded on a remote island in British Columbia. It features contributions from Mia Wilson (vocals), Randal Fisher (horns, flute), Andres Renteria (percussion), Laena Myers (violin, viola, vocals), and Leng Bian (harp). The album and EP can be preordered here.

It’s packed with romance, mysticism, and political resistance, including live takes of running water near the recording studio, night sounds outside Blasucci’s house, and audio from an anti-ICE protest. Years in the making, Blasucci is proud to share a body of work that is a culmination of experiences, feelings, and influences. “Physical Dream seems like it was a seed that was planted so long ago. There are years of inspiration behind this album, credited to so many places I’ve been and so many upheavals that shaped it into what ended up being my most sprawling collection of music I’ve made. I first imagined Physical Dream while I was at Wi Spa in Los Angeles and envisioned it as a painting first.”

Ready to watch the seed grow, he continues, “I painted a few drafts of what I thought it could be, and as the years went on and I continued to make demos in my living room, it slowly morphed itself into a scattered batch of all the creative influences I’ve felt in the last few years. It’s heavily revelatory of the shadow and more ‘below the horizon’ sides of myself.”

Blasucci describes the single Delicadeza as a song “with no shoes on.” He continues. “I made Delicadeza as a blueprint escape heist plan for lovers and for myself. A way to elope to a type of romance that feels like a higher place. I want to blend the soft resistance with the high-energy romantic surge I feel sometimes. I want there to exist a place almost like the afterlife within this life, and that’s what I painted in my mind here.” It’s available for purchase here.

Sam Blasucci has lived across the U.S. and Mexico throughout his life. For nearly a decade, he’s become known as part of Mapache, a roots-rock group based in Southern California. He is touring the UK and Europe later this year, and tickets can be prebooked here.

Physical Dream Tracklisting:

01. TENDER AURAS
02. Speaking In Tongues
03. VOLCANIC
04. EVENING STORM
05. Cycles
06. WHO LIVES ON THESE LANDS
07. Skin & Soul
08. Dance With You
09. No Games
10. If I’ve Got To Live
11. 2 HOT 4 TV
12. BOOMERANG
13. Soul Weep
14. Sí SE PUEDE
15. CHANCEZ
16. MOVES LIKE A WHEEL
17. Delicadeza
18. Reverse Lullaby
19. COFFEE MARTINIS
20. IN YOUR GRAVE
21. Use
22. Opal
23. SSTAR
24. Nobody Knows
25. ORCHIDS
26. Loose End of Love
27. Dance of Death
28. PHYSICAL DREAM