the Skating Party

The Skating Party is the recording project and moniker of Philadelphia multi-instrumentalist, “Gregory James.” What started as a bedroom recording project has eventually led to several releases on all multiple mediums from digital to cassettes, CDs, and vinyl. The early Skating Party records leaned heavily on Prince-esque synths, LinnDrum programming, and hook-laden guitars in the like of the Cure meets the Cocteau Twins. In more recent years, the songwriting became more atmospheric, emphasizing reverb-soaked vocal melodies, dreamier guitar lines, and more live drumming than the past records. After originally releasing 2 albums and a compilation on Philly imprint label, Hidden Gem Records, “the Skating Party,” was regularly invited to contribute to compilations with “the Blog that Celebrates itself Records,” “Fadeawayradiate Records,” “Shiny Happy Records,” and more. In June of 2018, the Skating Party released their 4th record, titled “Been Caught Feeling,” which is a sonic blend of dreampop/shoegaze with Gregory at the helm for all instrumentation just like previous releases. It is the most consistent record to date as was voted #1 of the 1st Semester of Shoegaze/Dreampop releases of 2019 by Shoegaze Alive 9 blogspot.