Escalade is multi-instrumentalist Greg Sullivan along with other core members, currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Having recently moved back to the US after a five-year sojourn in Japan, Sullivan has culled this debut album like an audio diary from his time abroad. While staying true to its own brand of songwriting over the years, the project first gained momentum when Sullivan and a handful of songs were flung out onto the road in early 2002. Embarking on a self-imposed exile across the Pacific to New Zealand, the subsequent framework for this album was arranged and recorded while hostel-flopping and while staying at an artist loft co-op in the hilly NZ capitol of Wellington. Along the way, the song 'X's & O's' was cut direct-to-disc by lathe record artist Peter King, and self-released as a 10" single. This transient life-style made the band a solo-project by default.

Fast-forward to a full time life in Japan, where with the help of various guest players, the songs blossomed slowly, coming to fit together like an audio jigsaw puzzle. Aiming to develop each song to its fullest capacity included the use of traditional Japanese instruments like the koto and shamisen in a pop setting. The result is a colorful sonic palette that bands together like clockwork, yet moves to its own unique sense of time. Influenced both musically and in the studio by the New York guitars of Television, Branca and Sonic Youth, as well as the beats and electronics of Chicago's John McEntire's productions, and also the UK etherics of Cocteau Twins and other 4AD greats. After making strides in the Tokyo independent music scene for the past two years, Greg is now back with a new band in the US with hopes to release and tour in support of this debut effort "Odo".