EP out from from Kramies

Luscious New Atmos-Pop EP from Kramies – Available on Hidden Shoal

‘Coal Miners Executive Club’: http://www.hiddenshoal.com/promo/Kramies-Coal_Miners_Executive_Club.mp3

Produced by Todd Tobias (Guided By Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils), The European sets Kramies’ gorgeous voice and acoustic guitar within a glowing tableau, epic in scope yet delicate in detail. The EP fades into view with ‘Intro’, a simple cyclical pattern of guitar, piano and vocals gradually subsumed by drones and distortion. This leads into the majestic, glacial sway of the title track, guaranteed to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Then, ‘Inventors’ is the album’s dark, shadowy heart, a ballad of subtle intensity.

Single ‘Coal Miners Executive Club’ is an emotionally resonant vortex of swooning pop built around an absolutely heartbreaking chord progression on synthesizer, carried skyward as layers and layers of instruments build and build. And the closing ‘Antiquarian Days’ is a fitting fade towards a sepia horizon, burbling loops and chiming guitars accompanying Kramies’ gentle lament.

Geoff Farina – The Wishes Of The Dead

Having found such a refreshing sense of informality, looseness and balminess across two delightful albums in 2010 with the multi-talented Chris Brokaw – namely the covers-only The Angel’s Message To Me and the originals-led The Boarder’s Door – it’s relieving that erstwhile Karate frontman Geoff Farina has retained many of the same musical sensibilities for his first solo LP since 2002’s oblique experimental Blobscape. 

Partly inspired by time living with his wife and hanging out with older musicians for a year in a small New England town in Maine, The Wishes Of The Dead is a largely acoustic and strictly one-man affair, which revisits his three solo compositions from The Boarder’s Door in slightly altered arrangements and adds another seven of a similarly reflective and ruralised hue.  As a whole, Farina focuses upon his most literary and observational lyricism as well as his distinctively graceful vocals, whilst not allowing his virtuosity tendencies to get in the way.

Highlights evidently and inevitably abound, with many alluringly-rendered songs hiding their sharper edges in layered storytelling. Therefore, the elegant “Prick Up Your Ears” opens things up beautifully, with fluid guitar-twinning underpinning an understated covert musing on military patriotism.  Elsewhere, the somewhat bleak yet comforting “Twilit” provides an acute examination of a divorcing couple; “Make The Show” hides the warped tale of a car accident from Farina’s Karate touring days inside a pretty almost-ragtime tune; the lilting “Prelapsarian” looks at the world from the wayward perspective of a heroin addict; the gliding “Evergreen” and the serene “Stems” imagine The Sea And Cake’s Sam Prekop exploring a pastoral sonic path; the slide-adorned shimmy of “Hammer And Spade” provides a homage to Maine’s original American settlers; and the gently rambling “The Dove And The Lamb” offers some nostalgic and philosophical meditations across deft guitar-picking.

Ultimately, as with some of Farina’s earlier song-based solo wares, the relative lack of diversity and unvaried pace might mean that The Wishes Of The Dead won’t engage with those in a hurry for more instant gratification.  However, at the same time, this is still one of Geoff Farina’s most generously melodic collections, which repays patience with warmth from a distinctive songwriting intellect.

Damnably (UK/Europe) / Afterhours (Japan)

Geoff Farina – “Prick Up Your Ears”

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The Aviation Orange – “Etch A Postcard”

The Aviation Orange have carved their own niche in the burgeoning New York City scene. As hard as it is to get ahead, with so many acts competing for the spotlight, TAO blend London’s The Sundays with Manchester legends The Smiths. This unique blend can be heard best on track 6 off of their East Of Here EP titled “Etch A Postcard”.

Vocalist/guitarist Mike Nesci and vocalist/keyboardist Cherie Hannouche are a perfect match. Their pitch and tonal range dance within Kate Rogers’ upbeat bass line and drummer Josh Harris’ swinging back beat. Rounding out The Aviation Orange is guitarist Alex Beninato who creates a delicate, wispy high-end to this closing track.

The Aviation Orange have been playing in around the New York City area since 2007, and have been gaining momentum ever since. With East Of Here, this 5 piece continue to gain notoriety that will hopefully follow them well into the future.

 

The Church’s Marty Willson-Piper releases Noctorum album

Noctorum – Honey Mink Forever

Heyday Records in collaboration with In Deep Recordings are proud to announce the release of the third Noctorum album Honey Mink Forever.

Recorded at The VIP Lounge in Penzance, Cornwall, Marty Willson-Piper and Dare Mason have written another eclectic set with the only thread being their diverse musical tastes and longstanding friendship.

The first 500 people to order the album will be given three free downloads. The first song Better Hope You’re Not Alone is a taster track – the other two do not appear on the album. These two bonus tracks, Turn the Dial And Scream and The Fugitive have an interesting story. Dare and Marty each sing their own lyrics and vocal melody over the same musical backing. It’s a unique and interesting experiment that shows a personality can shape anything into one’s own personal vision.

Dare and Marty grew up together in the North West of England close to Manchester and Liverpool spending their teenage years on the Wirral Peninsula between Liverpool and North Wales. Marty’s tenures with Australian cult band the church, English folk goths All About Eve and punk legends The Saints are a good indication of his eclecticism. Dare has an extensive CV as a producer/ engineer working with Queen, Prince, David Sylvian, Ravi Shankar, Paul McCartney and a whole host of different kinds of artists. He has also recorded and released two ambient albums.

Together they make a musical stew of diverse ingredients, happily genre-hopping from Pink Floyd-esque epics, to rock, folk and pop, even jazz rock. The ten tracks are invariably richly harmonic and melodic but can also be dark and aggressive. Always lyrically intriguing with stories of woe, love, fantasy and down to earth songs of reality, Noctorum will take you on a journey outside of yourself, inside of yourself and everywhere in between.

Record label:
Heyday Records
www.heyday.com

Noctorum Reverb Nation www.reverbnation.com/noctorum
Noctorum Facebook www.facebook.com/Noctorum
Noctorum My space www.myspace.com/noctorummusic
martywillsonpiper www.martywillsonpiper.net

Sear Bliss – Eternal Recurrence

Sear Bliss can best be described as a non-conventional, atmospheric black metal band from Hungary.  Their new album Eternal Recurrence on Candlelight Records is their seventh full length release since their inception in 1993.  This is my first foray into this audial madness and from my first overall impression it seems a worthy offering to the metal gods indeed.

Before we go any further let’s get down to brass tacks.  After listening to about the first four tracks it becomes obvious there is a direct correlation to Ihsahn and his solo endeavors.  Songs are presented in a slow, methodical pacing with harmonious choruses and ambient keyboard passages.  There is even a horn player as well, which adds greatly to the presentation.

Don’t get me wrong, there is enough merit for this work to stand on its own.  Just listen to the epic track “Great Cosmic Disorder” and you will quickly find out that this is serious business.  Some tracks like “The New Era of Darkness” tend to plod along and don’t really do a lot to expand the listening experience unfortunately.  The album’s closer “Entering the Seventh Gate” begins with an eerie, hypnotic carnival-like riff and transforms into this Mike Patton-esque vocal display and vibe, along with crunchy, doom-laden riffs.  All of this then builds up to a climax filled with dark, cavernous ambiance.

Eternal Recurrence is extremely off the wall in every way; not your run of the mill metal by any means.  I have a deep appreciation for this kind of art but it has a tendency to drag in certain spots, even for an album that clocks in at only 36 minutes.  If you enjoy Ihsahn or Aenaon then this may be right up your alley.  Also, don’t forget to check out their extensive back catalog.  Definitely one of the more unique metal bands I have encountered in a while.

Lana Del Rey – “Born To Die video

As was mentioned in the two previous reviews of Lana Del Rey’s videos “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans”, Lana mania has been building up in the blogosphere for quite some time as the world awaits the imminent release of her album Born To Die.  In the meantime, a constrained Lana warbled through a couple of disappointing performances on Saturday Night Live that was blamed on badly jangled nerves.  It was strange to behold because Lana seems to be coolly collected at other shows that are viewable at YouTube. Granted, there wasn’t the pressure of millions of people watching her on live TV…

On the studio version of the compellingly languorous “Born To Die”, Lana sings-talks with a regretful, melancholic, mid-register Stevie Nicks-like style with a knowing finality to her phrases that fits with the bleak lyrics of “Sometimes love is not enough…” and “…you and I / We were born to die.”  Her restless vocals swoop and droop, riding along with the poignant flow of symphonic strings.  Contrasted with this sumptuous sweep of orchestration is the steady metal clang of industrial percussion, a hip-hop backdrop of occasionally exclaimed male vocals, and Lana’s blunt lyrics of “Let’s go get high.”

Lana’s video for “Born To Die” is a melodramatic opus directed by Yoann Lemoine, AKA Woodkid.  The video is a cinematic narrative that unspools like a super-condensed movie – a glamorous death wish ode to tragic romance and doomed youth.  The camera homes in on Lana as she regally sits amid baroque opulence, like a queen on her throne, with the addition of two live tigers by her side, in what looks like the Royal Chapel of the Palace of Versailles.

Lana as narrator recounts the all-American, star-crossed love story between a “poor little rich girl”, played by Lana, and a “bad boy” from the wrong side of the tracks.  She flees her home in order to meet up with him and they retreat to his vintage Ford Mustang, kissing and smoking in the shadows of the night.   A patriotic theme is revealed in the colors of Lana’s outfit – red high tops, white fringed jacket, and blue jean cut-offs. The video is bookended by the couple holding each other in their arms, standing in front of an American flag.

Brief images surface and fade, displaying Lana as an innocent captive in her gilded domicile.  She is sheathed in a white slip, confined in a luxurious bedroom, dreaming of her lover who appears to her in fleeting glimpses.  Foreboding foreshadowing builds through the story, with cues like Lana’s lover pointing his fingers like a gun to her head and, in Lana’s mind, her seeing him laying beside her with his hand resting on her throat.

The story, this rhapsody about a tragedy, rolls along to its foregone conclusion, as the love-crazed pair make their escape by car, Lana gazing fatalistically at her guy behind the wheel, as he drives recklessly fast and, bathed in a lurid red light, plants a final, fatal kiss on Lana’s lips…

The aftermath of the crash is pretty horrific, with Lana’s man holding her lifeless, covered-in-blood body in his arms against a fiery backdrop of mangled metal.  Symbolically, however, at least from what the video shows, Lana is at last granted her wish to be free, as she expectantly walks along the gilded and marbled halls of her home and opens a door, releasing a flood of brilliant light as she steps out of her previous life.

Official Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bag1gUxuU0g&ob=av2e

Official Site: http://www.lanadelrey.com/

Dressy Bessy returns with new songs

http://www.dressybessy.com/dressybessy_mrkringles_320k.mp3

Denver-based indie rock band Dressy Bessy is back with a new plan. This time, the band is playing by its own rules. Having previously taken cues from its Sixties and Seventies heroes, Dressy Bessy is taking that one step further and plans to start releasing a series of singles this year and beyond.

Lead singer and guitarist, Tammy Ealom, along with rocker boyfriend, lead guitarist John Hill (The Apples in stereo), founding bass player Rob Greene, and the solid backbeat of Craig Gilbert, intends the work to be a full-length album, but released one or two songs at a time, “So this way”, Ealom says, “you won’t have to wait more than three months for new songs, ever.”

The upcoming “album” plans include full digital releases every three months starting in March 2012, with videos and limited edition vinyl along the way. CD and vinyl collections will follow in 2013. All songs will be available at select online marketplaces and directly from the band’s website. There you will find a variety of single downloads, various merchandising, as well as several “Club House” subscription packages that should be enticing to both the casual Dressy Bessy fan and the most dedicated.

“We’ve always had an emphasis on having fun,” says Dressy Bessy guitarist and recording engineer, John Hill. “Recently we realized the ups and downs that come with a full album production. It was just getting in the way of our fun. We want to make music our way, release it, and keep it coming. This should keep us happy and in turn our music and our fans will benefit,” Hill concludes.

Official Site: http://www.dressybessy.com/

Imperial Teen – Feel the Sound

Here’s a fun fact, courtesy of Wikipedia, and familiar to those who are familiar with Imperial Teen: Roddy Bottum is the former keyboardist for Faith No More.  Here’s another fact, less fun than the former: after listening to this album you will long for a little more of Faith No More.

Feel the Sound isn’t a bad album, but it’s not a great album either, and the comparison to Faith No More is appropriate in this respect: while sometimes sonically clunky, Faith No More, especially on their great album Angel Dust, made you sit up and notice, or at least scratch your head a little puzzled (they did, after all, seem to invent the word “menstruating” in the song Midlife Crisis).  Not so with the latest from Imperial Teen.

Feel the Sound is such a consistent, and consistently smooth, pop album, that it might put you to sleep, or at least a musically-induced coma.  None of the songs is especially adventurous, nor does the band really change the tempo up. Again, it is consistent.  Unfortunately, consistency isn’t always a virtue in music.  When the band mixes it up a little, as on “Out From Inside”, it feels as if one is coming up for air.

I really wanted to like this album, and the first few songs, especially the opener, “Runaway”, had me asking, “Where has Imperial Teen been all my life?”  They are the type of band I was born to admire: male-female harmonies, peppy guitars, floating electronic keyboards, and apparently they switch up their instruments at shows (this never fails to impress).  In fact, Imperial Teen had entered my consciousness before, as I had really loved the track Shim Sham, from their much better (and better titled) album, The Hair The TV The Baby & The Band.

But there comes a point where too much of the same good thing is simply: too much.  By the time we get to “All the Same”, the sixth track on the album, we feel like we’ve heard this before, because we have: we’re back to sounding a lot like the first track (or the second, or the third…).  All the same, indeed.

Feel the Sound left this listener feeling a little numb, and longing for something a little more epic.

Ghost at the Bowery Ballroom, New York City 1/18/12

For the first time in my 34 years on planet Earth, I traveled over 1,500 miles to see a band. Sure, I’ve done the road trips and the quick bus ride “thing”. What better reason to board a 7am flight bound for JFK than to see Ghost, playing their 3rd show on American soil.

The mystery surrounding the identity of the band aside, they proceeded to put on a show that will go down as somewhere between magical and life changing. A few down sides to the show were the sheer frigid temperatures I had to endure the entire day, as well as sitting through the first opening band: Ancient VVisdom.

I was truly shocked by the borderline mediocre musicianship and overtly played out lyrical content of this Austin, Texas quintet. It seemed as though the band was formed moments before the gig. Lead vocalist/percussionist Nathan Opposition was somewhat impressive, mixing tribal beats amid his “abandon all hope” tinged lyrics. Although the sold-out crowd ate it up, I failed to hear anything new, or original in their performance.

Next up was Blood Ceremony, a Toronto based band who were able to mix Pentagram and Blue Cheer with Jethro Tull. The group is a straight ahead stoner metal band with a stunning vocalist/pianist/flutist named Alia O’Brien, whose sheer neanderthal lankiness and heart stopping beauty was equally matched by her operatic vocal delivery and stage presence.

The final performance of the night was of course, Ghost. The set began with the instrumental “Genesis”, track 9 off of 2011′s Opus Eponymous. They proceeded to play every song in their current repertoire including “Here Comes The Sun” by The Beatles. The Bowery Ballroom holds 400 people and to hear the entire crowd singing along to such lyrics as, “hear our Satan Prayer, our anti-Nicene creed”, and “believe in one God do we, Satan almighty” was like being in a room filled with my friends.

At one point, vocalist Papa Emeritus I passed around a bottle of wine and fed the crowd “the body of Christ” in the form of circular slices of bread, typical of those shared in any church Communion. But this was the anti-Communion, a ritual in honor of the Dark Lord.

Being this close to the members of my favorite band, along with going through so much to be in this exact spot on that chilly January night was more than worth it. Rarely does an act come along that are able to encapsulate everything I love about music and put it all inside a 45 minute set.

Ghost is a rare breed. As cliche as it sounds, they’re in a genre of their own. Part Misfits, part pop rock, part metal Satanists. I would gladly do it all again 1,000 times over.

65Daysofstatic’s Paul Wolinski releases solo debut

Polinski (65Daysofstatic’s Paul Wolinski) releases solo debut

Paul Wolinski of British electronic-infused post-rock heroes 65Daysofstatic has released his solo debut under the nom-de-tune Polinski.

Labyrinths mixes sci-fi soundtrack moods with Daft Punk styled beat-laced anthems. It is released worldwide via Monotreme Records. Check out MP3s for “Stitches” (MP3) and “Tangents” (MP3) from the album.

After ten years (give or take) on the road and on the record with 65daysofstatic, Paul Wolinski finally steps out from behind that particular outfit’s notorious smokescreen and emerges as Polinski, a man with a laptop, some synths and a plan, in the meta-physical sense of the word.

In our childhood bedrooms and minds, the possibilities were always endless, there were worlds within worlds, and galaxies upon galaxies. If the suburbs outside seemed limited by how far we could get on our bikes, then in the real and unreal realities of space travel and science fiction we were satiated, if only momentarily. What if your bike could take off?

And it is to there that Polinski has returned, to soundtrack the impossible possibilities of the sci-fi mentality. Says Wolinski, “this is basically an album I daydreamed of writing back when I was 15 and just learning how to program MIDI…lots of beats and distortion and piano and big melodies, with a dance-y toughness.”

Feeding himself a steady diet of 70s and 80s sci-fi movies and endless second hand paperbacks from the golden era of sci-fi publishing, and free of the myopic shortcomings of writing music in a room with 3 other people, this is music that is unconstrained in its search for warp speed, the 1.21 gigawatts that launches the listener back to the future.

Throughout, John Carpenter-esque synths collide with robot voices, Philip Glass style piano motifs pair up with punching rhythms, gliding melodies soar with the retro-futuristic furor of Bowie-Eno collaborations… Even in the thickest analogue bubblebath, the digital heart beats on.

Labyrinths is available on CD, 180-gram black or white vinyl and download on November 8th, 2011 via Monotreme Records.

On the Web:
polinskimusic.net
www.facebook.com/pages/Polinski

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