You might know Campsite as Raleigh Moncrief. It’s not a name change, as much as it’s an entirely new project. Campsite’s 2 Fotographic is the product of immediacy and trusting your instincts. 2 Fotographic consists of seven songs slapping across 17 minutes. No frills - just frenetic energy and the occasional air raid siren. “I always have too much stuff sitting around - hard drives full of unreleased stuff or ideas. I needed another avenue,” says Campsite. As Moncrief, he’d released a clutch of EPs and a full-length, 2011’s Watered Lawn. He’d elicited comparisons to Animal Collective, Hudson Mohawke, and the astral travelers in LA’s Brainfeeder collective. But none of the comparisons accurately fit. The music itself was too inscrutable: fusing freaky guitar pop, liminal electronic beats, and woozy R&B. “I just wanted to be able to make records that are fun again...I wanted to get back to the lightheartedness that I felt was slipping away on Raleigh records,” says Campsite. “I wanted to give that side of the music more room to breathe. The Raleigh records were getting too serious feeling and I wasn't enjoying making them anymore.”“Tokaido” is the lone record that didn’t come out of that first rush of inspiration. It’s genesis traces back to a challenge that Anticon label head, Shaun Koplow made to Baths and Moncrief while they were in touring Japan in 2012. The bet was to make a song on the Shinkansen train between Tokyo and Osaka. They didn’t hear each other’s track until they got to the club that night and performed them. If you listen closely, you can hear the high velocity collisions of metal, wind, and creative drum patterns. But the entire record is a unified emotional whole—light-hearted and inducing a blood rush. The synthesizers are insistent, the vocals are distorted, and the percussion off-kilter. It’s bright and warm, but still unfamiliar enough to feel new. Campsite is what happens when you let your subconscious take control. It’s the sound of moving forward.
