Lower Life Forms - Open Invitation - 1997

12" - 1997 - Depth Charge Recordings Inc 

Lower Life Forms was an indie Hip-Hop duo formed by Zechariah Wise Dee from Washington DC and DJ Dial-Tone from Burke VA. 

Zechariah Wise Dee : "Dialtone and I were in a group called Point Blanck in grade school (1988-1991). We disbanded in 1992 and formed the Lower Life Forms. We had an album in the can but things fell through with the label... First, it was Polydor. But the A&R was dragging his feet and we were managed by Ahmed and Otis (dancers for 3rd Bass). Pete Nice had started Hoppoh Records and they wanted to put the project out with them. Unfortunately, Hoppoh lost its distribution with Sony right as we were starting to get that together."

Then Zechariah Wise Dee formed Depth Charge Recordings in 1996 and put out the 'Open Invitation' single included two songs from that project. The single came out in 1997, 'Open Invitation' on the A-side and 'Independence Day' featuring Kurious & Optical The Visionary on the flip side, both produced by Zechariah Wise Dee. 

Zechariah Wise Dee : "We met Jorge through MF Doom. He was on Hoppoh Records. Him and Doom spent a lot of time in our neighborhood in the mid 90s so we were all hanging out all the time, our managers Ahmed and Otis being Doom's cousins. Jason a.k.a Optical was in our original group in grade school and we reconnected in 1994.
About the samples used for the productions ... Hmmm... I was really into the ECM jazz label. I think I chopped the drums on 'Open Invitation' from Jack DeJohnette. Can't remember where the rest came from but there were quite a few chops and cross edits going on. The samples on 'Independence Day' are either Gary Burton or a group called Double Image (both on ECM.) I put in heavy work on both so I had no intentions of clearing them. Probably why I don't remember that well."

Only 750 copies of this single were pressed. The wax is rare but you can find a few copies for sale online for an affordable price. After that, they didn't release the shelved album named 'The Whole Universe Is Ours' on Depth Charge Recordings but decided to work on their new project. 

Zechariah Wise Dee : "We had a crew of all the artists we worked with called Team Demolition (kind of like our own Native Tongues.) We decided to do a project together. We did a single called "Dirty Gusto" and it blew up for us so we shifted focus to that. I did do a limited Cd run of the Lower Life Forms album a few years later.

Over the past couple of years I have been approached by several entities interested in releasing it on vinyl. If I do, I want to remaster it. I've done a little bit but I'm just so busy that it is taking a while, the stuff was all recorded on tape so it needs to all be transferred. My goal is to have done by Jan 1."

well, I hope that the album could see the light of day on vinyl, there will be a place on my shelf for it without a doubt !

Mad Props to Daniel Zacharias a.k.a Zechariah Wise Dee a.k.a Mister Wise.