Alexander Laurence's Blog, page 1160

PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS SHARE NEW SINGLE "MR. PRISM"

PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETSRETURN WITH BLAZING NEW SINGLE"MR. PRISM"Photo Credit: Matt Puccinelli 
As their first move for 2020, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets return with the release of their new single, "Mr. Prism" via Marathon Artists. Bounding along with maximum energy from the onset,"Mr. Prism" is relentless in its approach - a fiery reminder of the type of band Psychedelic Porn Crumpets have grown into over the last few years on the road.
"Mr. Prism", full of chaotic builds and irresistible rhythms as it winds through its second half, is wild in its arrangement paired with trademark Psychedelic Porn Crumpets storytelling. The bulk of the songwriting took place at songwriter Jack McEwan’s home in Western Australia and was born out of the feverish haze only illness and a crazy tour schedule can bring: “After our last tour of Europe I had a plethora of reasons to see a doctor. First, he thought I had tonsillitis, so prescribed me penicillin, which didn’t help at all. I did Falls Festival over New Year’s and barely got through - turns out I had pneumonia. I was pushing through on all sorts of meds until someone offered me the HMS Hunter alternative and I realized no matter how I’d ever be, I could never turn one down. Mr. Prism (my sickly fun-fuelled fiend of an alter-ego) was born.”
LISTEN TO "MR. PRISM"
Since the release of the band’s third studio album And Now For The Whatchamacallit, the Perth group spent the second half of 2019 on tour around the world through the UK and Europe, including a raucous roof-raising show at London’s Electric Ballroom, before returning to Australia for a summer festival run. While pandemic restrictions have kept the band from returning to their natural habitat of the live stage, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets are excited to kick down the door on their next chapter in sharing more new music throughout this year, with their fourth studio album on the horizon early next year.‌"Mr. Prism" Artwork
2019 was a massive year for Psychedelic Porn Crumpets both at home in Australia and in the international market. A year of sold out shows across North America, UK and Europe, not to mention spots on lucrative festivals including Splendour in the Grass and Desert Daze, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets were well received by thousands. The release of And Now For The Whatchamacallit reaped praise from all corners with support from Triple J, BBC Radio 1 (including as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record and a Maida Vale session for Jack Saunders), NPR, a KEXP Session and noted publications including Q, Classic Rock and DIY have further cemented Psychedelic Porn Crumpets as a long lasting musical presence. With over 7 million Spotify streams and over 120k artist profile followers, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets rounded out 2019 triumphantly. The early stages of 2021 will see Psychedelic Porn Crumpets back on Australian stages, with the band joining Sydney’s Ocean Alley on their national tour, and hopefully it won’t be long until they’re barreling back into the US.
Praise for Psychedelic Porn Crumpets:
"We still don't know what a porn crumpet is, but we do know what psychedelia is, and that's just what Perth-based psych outfit Psychedelic Porn Crumpets delivers” - NPR All Songs Considered 
"This Perth, Australia band’s third album is a fine set of gonzo psych-rock reminiscent of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard ranging from crunchy stoner-rock to dreamy space-rock." - KEXP
"Psychedelic Porn Crumpets’ latest album is as memorable as their band name. And Now For The Whatchamacallit sees the Australian rockers at their very best and most developed sound, with soaring guitar and experimental arrangements." - Paste Magazine
“A band adept at chunky, foot-on-the-monitor rock” - Q
“Their third album is a blast from start to finish… enough to refresh the palate of even the most jaded garage-rock" - Classic Rock
“With jubilant tie-dye riffs and squiggly guitar lines around every corner, And Now For TheWhatchamacallit is every bit the celebratory psych-rock album it strives to be.” - DIY
“‘And Now For The Whatchamacallit’ shifts the band away from the shadow of Tame Impala and Unknown Mortal Orchestra into something far more particular and intricate, but just as entertaining – an exuberant, hair-flailing stew of prog, psychedelic rock, glam, speed metal, math rock and doom boogie.” - Metro
“Dense, spiralling guitar tapestries and complex rifferama… Tame Impala and King Gizzard fans could love tossing these Crumpets on their barbie.” - Prog
“A truly unique live proposition, their other-worldly psychedelia is melded into some startling shapes on ‘And Now For The Whatchamacallit’” - Clash
Official Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

IONNALEE (iamamiwhoami) Announces KONSERT Live Stream with Guests

ionnalee (iamamiwhoami) Announces KONSERT Live Stream with Guests Streaming Live via YouTube on September 2, 2020 @ 10am PT/1pm ET (7pm CEST) Watch the complete 50-chapter ionnalee/iamamiwhoamivideography 2010-2020  HERE   "Lee reveals the best sides of her music with a dreamy flourish." - Pitchfork "One of the most exciting and visually innovative artists in music"- V Magazine "ionnalee's newest project is the otherworldly hype album we need" - Nylon "Lee is making Kate Bush-influenced pop songs...there are moments of beauty in every single one" - The Fader "Swedish pop auteur Jonna Lee doesn't just craft an odd and beautiful audiovisual world, but as the iamamiwhoami collective's face, voice and driving force, has you venturing around a netherworld of the subverted familiar" - Dazed & Confused "Expect a mysterious explosion of sound that carries the legacy of simmering euro-disco simmering in the background, obscured by decaying organic foliage sporting the first signs of spring flowers" - Flaunt Magazine   "Lee's voice is delicate and otherworldly, weaving its way through warm synth blasts and creeping percussion" - The Guardian "ionnalee is a natural evolution, a conduit for her singular vision, imbued with experiences past, yet marking the dawn of a fresh era" - AnOther Magazine "...shimmering electronic, '80s-leaning production and sunny harmonies" - Paper Magazine "Breathtakingly atmospheric, widescreen synth-pop" - Idolator   "She has created music, video, choreography, fashion, and creative direction, for over a decade, and has made countless of music/videos with millions of views. She is a true testament and inspiration for what an independent artist can accomplish" - Blurred Culture Swedish independent multimedia artist, songwriter, producer and directorionnalee (Jonna Lee of iamamiwhoami) will present her latest live digital installation KONSERT on September 2, 2020, following the cancellation of her headline world tour due to COVID-19. In the spirit of her previous digital concert installations IN CONCERT (2010) and CONCERT IN BLUE (2015), KONSERT will celebrate ionnalee's decade-spanning body of audiovisual work and stellar electronic music, from her boundary-pushing collaborations with Claes Björklund as iamamiwhoami through her new acclaimed solo work. "As I can't be where you are I welcome you to my island to overlook our past, celebrate the now and look forward to the future with us and our invited guests, awaiting your arrival," ionnalee shared. "The concert will be free for all to enjoy as times are hard for a lot of us right now. If you have the ability to donate to support my work with this production I'll be very thankful." What ionnalee started as an anonymous YouTube channel in 2010 with the account name iamamiwhoami shortly evolved into a powerful series of full length audiovisual albums, installations, films and a media frenzy around her identity. 10 years later, she has become a rare musical and cultural phenomenon - an independent artist selling out tour dates worldwide with the support of a devoted and fiercely protective global fanbase and, with the launch of her label To whom it may concern. in 2010, forming a creative hub for herself and her collaborators. To date, ionnalee's audiovisual projects have earned over 80 million views on YouTube and 60 million streams on Spotify. Watch the complete 50-chapter ionnalee/iamamiwhoami videography 2010-2020 HERE. ionnalee's latest release, compilation album KRONOLOGI, was spontaneously launched this spring as in reaction to the cancellation of her headline world tour. The KRONOLOGI playlist was created in real time and offered a weekly release of demos, live takes, alternative versions and previously unreleased material. Each new addition to the project was produced, mixed and mastered by ionnalee while in quarantine, and her original watercolour paintings became single covers, offering her fans some isolation comfort for 12 weeks. ionnalee's sophomore solo album, REMEMBER THE FUTURE, was released in 2019 to acclaim from Pitchfork ,  Billboard, Brooklyn Vegan ,  V Magazine ,  Nylon and more and included contributions from Röyksopp, Zola Jesus and Jennie Abrahamson. Beyond her solo work, ionnalee has been masthead of Röyksopp's live shows for the past years including performing as part of their acclaimed show at Coachella 2017.She followed her first solo album and feature film,  EVERYONE AFRAID TO BE FORGOTTEN , with a world tour funded through Kickstarter in just 5 days. The hugely successful tour sold out dates across Europe, US, and Latin America.  (photo credit: John Strandh) WEBSITEFACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE

NEW BOMB TURKS RELEASE 'NIGHTMARE SCENARIO - DIAMOND EDITION' THIS FRIDAY / ALL PROCEEDS TO GO TO BLM ORGANIZATIONS IN COLUMBUS, OHIO

New Bomb Turks release Nightmare Scenario - Diamond Edition this Friday, August 7thfeaturing unheard mixes / bonus track / re-mastered by Jim Diamond Bandcamp fees waived with all monies going to BLM organizations in Columbus, Ohio • This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Nightmare Scenario, New Bomb Turks’ fifth full-length album, third for the
Los Angeles-based Epitaph Records, and first with drummer Sam Brown (Operators, Divine Fits, RJD2, Gaunt).• Recorded by Jim Diamond at Ghetto Recorders, Detroit, MI, November 3-7, 1999.• Original mixes by Jim Diamond. Newly re-mastered by Jim Diamond, July 2020.• Diamond’s production credits include Red Aunts, White Stripes, Clone Defects, The Sights, Bantam Rooster, Nathaniel Mayer, Andre Williams, Dirtbombs, Nikki Corvette, Seger Liberation Army, Baseball Furries, Scat Rag Boosters, Little Killers, The Cynics, Scott Morgan, The Sonics, Sexareenos, Mr. Airplane Man, The Go, The Fells, The Dirtys, Electric Six, Paybacks, Easy Action, Fleshtones, Patsys, Guilty Pleasures, TO NAME A FEW• Cover design by Henry H. Owings (Chunklet/Five Minute Flyers). Photo by Ewolf• Available August 7, 2020 at https://newbombturks.bandcamp.com• 100% of proceeds will be donated to: Black Queer & Intersectional Collective (https://bqic.net/)Columbus Freedom Fund (IG @columbusfreedomfund)  It was spring, 1999. New Bomb Turks had just returned from their first tour of Australia in a suspended animation. They soon procured ace drumsman, dessert aficionado [not a typo], and all-around great guy, Sam Brown. It suddenly felt like a brand new beast, but they had an album to deliver forthwith, and nary a new song in sight! Nails were chomped to the cuticle, empty beer cans sat in the corner mocking us...Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes (or at least like a bartender finding another unopened bottle of mezcal at last call), New Bomb Turks soared again. Within four months (May-August 1999), Sam slipped right into the NBT stool, 12 new songs were cooked up easy as fryin’ an egg, and they were back on the road with the Hellacopters to hash those new ones into place. By the time the band got to Jim Diamond’s Ghetto Recorders studio in Detroit – his rep revving up from production jobs with the curdled cream of that Detroit trash-rock scene (Clone Defects, Detroit Cobras, Dirtbombs, White Stripes, Andre Williams) – New Bomb Turks were piqued like a baby screamin’ for a higher push on a swing set. Over four days and nights, the band enjoyed their easiest and most fun recording session – the only break being a jaunt over to a bar to see a reunited Real Kids, their first show in years, which floored the band and only added more mezcal to the fire. Final mixes were left to Jim Diamond, and by the time he forwarded them to the band, overdub ideas had hatched, and about half the record was remixed with local studio wiz, Jeff Graham, in Columbus. A middle ground was eventually found, and what resulted was Nightmare Scenario (Epitaph Records, 2000) – the fifth album in their six album/three compilation catalog, and the one the band believe is their best. Like every band ever, the years have supplied moments of mixing rumination. So last year, when the band saw the 20th anniversary of Nightmare Scenario right up on their ass, they asked Jim Diamond if he had his original mixes lying around his palatial estate. He found them on a DAT (look it up, kids) tucked underneath a pile of professional recording deck manuals (i.e.,old MAD mags). Lo and behold, they were even more ripping and burning and stinging than remembered. There was the 20th birthday idea, screamin’ like a brat! So here you have the original mixes of Nightmare Scenario that Jim Diamond finished in November 1999, ensconced deep in his legendary, now torn-down Detroit digs. Ain’t saying it’s better than the original, just leaner and meaner. But don’t take our word for it – take yours when you’re screamin’ along too! - Lance Forth, July 2020 (Astoria) 
Photo: Ewolf

THE ARCHAEAS... sign to Goner Records - Announce debut S/T album out Sept 18 - Release new single "Reality Commander" - Live on GonerTV Aug 15

INTRODUCING…THE ARCHAEAS
ANNOUNCE DEBUT S/T ALBUM COMING SEPTEMBER 18 ON GONER RECORDS
REVEAL LEAD SINGLE “REALITY COMMANDER”
Wild Zero, a story where superheroes come to help a trans heroine save Earth from an influx of alien zombies, resonated deeply with Violet Archaea as she was coming to terms with being a badass trans musician in Kentucky. Gender politics don’t dominate Archaeas’ message - it’s more the anxiety and pressure of living in today’s world that creates such intense music and feelings. Here’s one of the year’s most explosive debut punk records that forces you to feel.
LIVE ON GONERTV AUGUST 14 AT 9PM ESTAlbum Artwork By MF Joyce
“Tension, anxiety, ominous energy, and the release that comes from vanquishing those mental foes. Specifically, vanquishing them with rock and roll.” That’s how Violet Archaea, guitarist, singer and leader of Louisville’s Archaeas describes the themes of their new self-titled album on Goner Records. 
Wild Zero, a story where rock and roll superheroes Guitar Wolf come to help a trans heroine save Earth from an influx of alien zombies, resonated deeply with Violet as she was coming to terms with being a badass trans musician in Kentucky. As in the film, gender politics don’t dominate Archaeas’ message -- it’s more the anxiety and pressure of living in today’s world that creates such intense music and feelings. 
Their first single "Reality Commander", debuted today is about “Striving to be able to effectively change reality,” Violet notes. “The struggle for self actualization in an environment that makes it very difficult to achieve." HEAR "REALITY COMMANDER": YOUTUBE, BANDCAMP, SPOTIFY, APPLE
The Archaeas’ roots make sense: the bombastic Japanese trio Guitar Wolf (Goner Records’ first release in 1993) and Mark Sultan (“BBQ” from the King Khan & BBQ Show’s first album, released by Goner in 2004.) “I began working on the first set of Archaeas songs after seeing Wild Zero for the first time,” Violet explains. “Back then I had the drums on my feet Mark Sultan-style. We projected it on a wall and had the audio blasting through a huge PA system. I’m hugely inspired by Seiji.”
Beginning as a one-witch band, they now perform as a perfectly-balanced rock trio with frightening power. Archaeas reflect punk rock and rock n’ roll from the last fifty years. From AC/DC, Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers and The Dead Boys through The Reatards and Carbonas, even early Ty Segall, but Archaeas are young enough to soak up sounds, attitudes, riffs and turnarounds from other bands and songs and still push them into their own Battle Royale. It’s a sound full of chaos but the band always knows its next move, even if you don’t.
The result is one of the most explosive debut albums in recent memory. In the midst of the mud and blood and the riffs, a rhythm starts up. Then guitar and bass blast as one thick bulldozing wall of distortion. The drums kick your ass, and the vocals express a yearning, an anguish, and hopefully a release, with all the parts racing until the song is over… quickly. Violet can really play some guitar, but don’t look for solos long enough to get your lighter out for. Some razor cuts and she’s done with it. 
Attacking the difficulty of being your own person, The Archaeas’ message and meaning fly out of their souls, mashed into rhythms that hit your body as hard as your heart. Their debut demands your ears and forces you to feel things. What kinds of things? Violet has a few thoughts. “Anger, paranoia, chaos, evil, love, regret, happiness, disenfranchisement, release, clarity, freedom, power. In that order.” 
Archaeas hits September 18 on Goner Records. To pre-order go here. You can also catch a live performance on GonerTV August 15 at 9PM EST - watch here.

Early Praise for The Archaeas: 
"This Kentucky gang knocks it outta the park on the first pitch. ARCHAEAS’ sound centers on skull-streamlining—full forward-motion guitar riffs, rhythms jabbing outta the garage but careening too wildly to be saddled with that tag. Feels freer, younger, druggier and more genuine than much of what ya hear as of late. A cool and true two-prong hit here—A-side’s the good-time, B’s the head-crack—jammed with enough spirit to make the shittiest over-it puker smile through the chunks. Cannot wait to hear more." MAXIMUM ROCK N ROLL
"Kind of a bold move to start off your debut 7″ single with a song title as gloriously generic as “Rock N Roll”, but that’s the sort of gutsy move I’ve come to expect from this label. As far as this specific track is concerned, it sounds perfectly fine, not too raw nor too melodic, somewhat reminiscent of the more upbeat punk tunes on Tyvek’s debut full-length... “Replica” is ever so slightly more refined, coasting downward on a chorus of “your brains / fell out”, which works for me." YELLOW GREEN AND REDPress Photo By M. Scruggs

Deradoorian Reveals Swirling New Single "Mask of Yesterday", Listen Now

DERADOORIAN UNVEILS “MASK OF YESTERDAY”


5TH NEW SONG FROM UPCOMING ALBUM ‘FIND THE SUN’,
COMING OUT SEPTEMBER 18



Photo Credit: Sean Stout


Deradoorian’s new album Find the Sun is a record intended to be felt as much as it is heard. “I think it would be cool if people lay on the floor to listen to it, and let it go through their bodies,” she says. “Being in that kind of space of awareness making it, I hope it evokes a physical reaction for people...that has so much to do with frequencies, vibrational relationships in sound.” As a Vedic astrologer, this is a focus of her readings, the way our brains and bodies work in concert, and how that is completely spiritual. We are nothing without our bodies.

Today Deradoorian has shared “Mask of Yesterday”, the final pre-release track before her new album Find The Sun is released on September 18. “I know it happened / But why does it feel like it never did?” she sings in the song’s swirling, dreamlike state. Listen to it HERE.

Find the Sun is not the record Angel Deradoorian originally sat down to make. It’s a waypoint on a spiritual journey of acceptance, the result of years of lifting veils that obscured her innermost self, and coming to the realization that in order to find peace, she might need to cede a bit of control. The result is something that could only be found by the physical act of its construction.

Sequenced with a double vinyl disc package in mind (its only available physical format), the record is broken up into quadrants, helping guide the listener through its various twists and turns. The connecting thread is the theme of internal exploration, reaching for the best version of yourself.

“Overall, a lot of these songs are about trying to reach yourself - how to be your most
brilliant self,” Deradoorian says. “...because we come from a culture that doesn't actually support this. We are so deeply programmed to obey societal boundaries that we don't even know the power we contain within.”


EARLY PRAISE FOR DERADOORIAN + ‘FIND THE SUN’

“Primeval … The track is propulsive and confrontational in a way indie rock rarely is, reminiscent of Natasha Khan’s Sexwitch side project in its psychedelic, multicultural influences and hypnotic chanting.” – Paste on “Saturnine Night”

“Deradoorian sings with a hymnal affect over light acoustic strums and regal piano arpeggios, her vocals eventually layering into a majestic choir that evokes the spiritual energy of the song’s lyrics.” - Consequence of Sound on “Monk’s Robes”

“Expansive, celestial … seven minutes of rolling, thunderstorm-like soundscapes and vocal surges.” - Cool Huntings on “Saturnine Night”

“Over pounding drums and a drony, bass-heavy sound, Angel Deradoorian's powerful voice carries this track.” - BrooklynVegan on “It Was Me”

“A true standout from an album that is shaping up to be very good.” - Stereogum on “Corsican Shores”





DERADOORIAN
Pre-Order ‘Find The Sun’

1. Red Den
2. Corsican Shores
3. Saturnine Night
4. Monk’s Robes
5. The Illuminator
6. Waterlily
7. It Was Me
8. Devil’s Market
9. Mask of Yesterday
10. Sun

www.deradoorian.com
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Charli XCX to live-stream one off 'how i'm feeling now' event with Boiler Room

CHARLI XCX TO STREAM A ONE-OFF 'HOW I'M FEELING NOW' PERFORMANCE WITH BOILER ROOMThursday 13th August –– 3PM PDT/11PM BSTTICKETS AVAILABLE HEREPop pioneer Charli XCX will live-stream a one-off live performance featuring a selection of tracks from her new Mercury Prize-nominated album "how i'm feeling now" on Boiler Room on Thursday 13th August from 3pm LA / 11pm LDN time. A digital-only experience, the event will combine live performance of the tracks for the first time, a conversation & a DJ set. Access to the performance will be via a paid web portal. Tickets are $5, with all proceeds going to the LA Alliance for Human Rights, a US-based organisation tackling the homeless crisis in California. Tickets to the digital event go on sale at 5pm BST on Wednesday 05 August at: live.boilerroom.tv/ how i'm feeling now"how i'm feeling now" is Charli XCX’s latest work, which was written, recorded and released within 39 days during self-isolation earlier in the year. The album, a part-reaction to the global COVID-19 pandemic, has proven Charli to one of the most adaptable artists of the decade, with the Guardian naming the album “truly a work of its time”. Charli XCXAn iconic figure for postmodern pop and creativity without limits, Charli XCX is one of the world’s most unique talents. Helping to expand the landscape of popular music over the last decade by seamlessly traversing the underground and the mainstream, Charli’s tireless approach has opened up new possibilities within the pop sphere for both her and others to build on in the future, and with one of the most relentless work ethics in the game, Charli's bringing the future sooner than anyone could imagine. Boiler RoomBoiler Room is an independent music platform and cultural curator, connecting club culture to the wider world, on screen and IRL through parties, film and video. Founded in 2010, Boiler Room started with a webcam taped to a wall, broadcasting from a warehouse in London, opening a keyhole to the city’s underground. DIY at its finest; raw, uncut, homemade. Since then we’ve built a unique archive; featuring over 4,000 performances, by more than 5,000 artists, spanning 150 cities, enabling everyone regardless of where they live to enjoy the freedom it stands for.  With its award-winning content Boiler Room reaches more than 283+ million per month. Boiler Room has a significant and growing fan base in Latin America, key broadcast hubs in New York, London, Los Angeles and Berlin and the dedication of the world's most committed music fans, who consume shows expertly, curated by its passionate music team.heir remit is to platform music in new ways - sound on for the voices and stories of the fringes of the mainstream. Boiler Room: watch, listen, dance.


Charli XCX: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

EARTHEATER announces album on PAN & shares VIDEO + audio for SINGLE

EartheaterPhoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My SkinVinyl / download / streamPAN

 'How To Fight' video and Soundcloud / all other DSPs Pre-order Today Eartheater announces a new album, Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin, out October on PAN. Phoenix is Eartheater’s first full-length album for PAN since 2018’s IRISIRI. 
Earlier this year, Eartheater shared the single Below The Clavicle, which will appear on Phoenix. Last year, Eartheater released a collaborative EP with LEYA, titled Angel Lust, on PAN. She also self-released her Trinity mixtape via her own label, Chemical X. Composed, produced, and arranged by Eartheater alone, Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin draws a path back to the primordial lava lake from which she first emerged, as it also testifies to the reincarnating resurrections the Eartheater project has undergone over its first full decade of existence. While the album renews her focus on guitar performance and legible structure, Eartheater balances the unabashed prettiness of acoustic harmonic songs with the dissonant gestural embroidery of oblique instrumentals. Having fallen back in love with the idioms that first captivated her, she worked to crack open the techniques that had fossilized inside of her, while still seeking to apply the electro-alchemical knowledge she picked up along her journey. The result of a laborious revival in fire, Phoenix recontextualizes Eartheater’s combinatorial approach to production within her most direct and anthemic songs to date. Eartheater composed and workshopped most of Phoenix over a ten-week artist residency for FUGA in Zaragoza, Spain, housed in a sprawling, cubic glass facility that looked out over wildflower-flecked mountains. Following an intensive period of recording and touring, the residency provided her with an unprecedented period of solitude in the small Spanish town. Her newfound sense of isolation ultimately became liberating, leading her to sidestep the crutches and steady grids inherent to electronic music, and to conceive pieces rooted in her guitar and her desire to perform with other players live.  Eartheater’s voice glows brighter than ever at the center of Phoenix’s arrangements — her familiar operatic highs are grounded by newly expanded velvety lows, leaping lucidly up and down octaves. Her intricate guitar work flits across baroque fingerpicked passages and latches into cyclical figures that meet her voice in lush harmonic progressions.  From her own guitar parts, to the orchestral string arrangements she wrote for the Spanish conservatory group Ensemble de Camara, to the harp and violin lines performed by her close friends and collaborators Marilu Donovan and Adam Markiewicz of LEYA, Eartheater’s applications of acoustic instruments bring an extraordinary emotional emphasis to her compositions. Phoenix prepares for a future where electronic sound — or even electricity itself — isn’t guaranteed, but where her music could still come to life with a group of hands dexterously winding across instruments against the light of the fire. Eartheater drew inspiration for Phoenix from geological imagery, whose turbulence and potential for genesis mirror the trajectory of her own life and relationships. The album’s instrumental pieces directly reference these moments of upheaval, colliding audio of volcano and lightning storms with resplendent string and vocal arrangements.  Volcano looks out over the album from its peak at the center, its tectonic plates colliding in towering melodies and layers of vocal harmonies, as piano accents crest and cascade down the mountainside. When Eartheater sings, “I’m still building mountains underground,” she is trying to reconcile the pinnacles of her ambition with the comforts of a simple existence buried beneath the surface. Diamond in the Bedrock finds her admiring the gemstone forming under intense pressure inside her, but rejecting the romantic promise that the diamond signifies, choosing instead to escape a relationship that has come to stifle her.  With the album’s subtitle, Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin, Eartheater imagines being tempered to a state of perfect equilibrium, suspended between melting and freezing, where fire could streak across her body and appear as a crystalline blush. This image captures the tension at the heart of the Eartheater project, as she decides how best to distil her passion and render it cool to the touch; to find beauty in simple pleasure, while keeping one eye fixed on the peaks that loom in the horizon. 01. Airborne Ashes02. Metallic Taste of Patience03.  Below The Clavicle 04. Burning Feather05. How To Fight06. Kiss Of The Phoenix07. Volcano08. Fantasy Collision09. Mercurial Nerve10. Goodbye Diamond11. Bringing Me Back12. Diamond In The Bedrock13. Faith Consuming Hope

PUP Share Cover Of Grandaddy's “A.M. 180” + Announce "Quaranzine"

 SHARE COVER OFGRANDADDY’S “A.M. 180”LISTEN HEREANNOUNCE PUPTHEZINE VOL.4 “QUARANZINE”Morbid Stuff out now via Little Dipper/Rise(photo credit: Jess Baumung)

Toronto, Ontario’s PUP have shared a cover of one of their favorite songs today -- a genius take on indie rock band Grandaddy’s timeless track “A.M. 180.” Listen to their cover HERE.“Grandaddy are one of the unsung hero bands of indie rock,” says Pup’s drummer Zack Mykula. “A best kept secret. I mean, forgive me for going ham, but this song is like a lily in an otherwise barren valley. An outstanding piece of songwriting, doing more with less than most any other song of the same caliber. So, that's why we decided to cover it.” (PUP “A.M. 180” Single Artwork | Download)
PUP have also announced that they will be releasing PUPTHEZINE Vol. 4 titled “QUARANZINE.” The issue will include cut-out PUP figurines, a postcard, each band members’ resume, guitar tabs for “Anaphylaxis,” a pedal board breakdown, a flexi-disc of a ska song written in quarantine (hailed as “a truly unparalleled, transcendent musical masterpiece” by PUP themselves) and much much more. Order it HERE.More on “QUARANZINE” from the band: “This zine was created in the first few weeks of our mandatory quarantine. It was printed and ready to ship before the full impact of COVID-19 was felt across the world and before the senseless deaths of George Floyd, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, and Breonna Taylor (to name but a few) further exposed the foundational white supremacy and structural inequality at the heart of American, Canadian, and other capitalist societies. We are grateful for the voices and perspectives of marginalized peoples that continue to play a central role in this worldwide awakening and in the sustained call to dismantle racist and patriarchal structures that have perpetrated violence in our communities. We stand in solidarity with all those trying to envision safer and more just communities and will continue to do our daily best in amplifying and uplifting these voices as we move forward in the world.With that in mind, we hope you’ll view this thing for what it is: a time capsule. It is the four members of PUP, bored as fuck, fresh off a cancelled tour, trying to create something as silly as possible because, at the time, we wanted a distraction. Although it doesn’t necessarily represent our current emotional states, we had a good laugh making it and had a good laugh revisiting it all these months later. Honestly, that’s why we started making these zines in the first place. If you buy this thing, we hope it helps you find a bit of levity in what has been an incredibly bleak few months.BLM / ACAB / WEAR A MASK.And please, take care of each other. See ya in the pit when this thing’s all over.xoxoStefan, Steve, Nestor and Zack”In 2019, PUP released the massive album Morbid Stuff last year to critical acclaim, earning countless year-end nods, their late-night debut on Late Night With Seth Meyers, and a largely sold-out world tour that had them on the road for a solid 9 months. As 2020 got going, PUP released the video for “Anaphylaxis,” their first new material since Morbid Stuff’s release. You can watch the claymation video for “Anaphylaxis,” directed by Callum Scott-Dyson, HERE as well as a quarantine-induced performance of the track HERE. Recently, the band released Live at The Electric Ballroom on Bandcamp for one day only, with 50% of the proceeds, totalling $27,504.82, going to Critical Resistance and Breakaway Addiction Services in Toronto.   About Morbid Stuff:Formed in Toronto five years ago, PUP, comprised of Stefan Babcock, Nestor Chumak, Zack Mykula, and Steve Sladkowski, quickly became favourites of the punk scene with their first two, critically-beloved albums, winning accolades everywhere from the New York Times to Pitchfork, from NPR and Rolling Stone, and more. Now, with Morbid Stuff, PUP have grown up and doubled down on everything that made you love their first two records. It’s gang’s-all-here vocals, guitarmonies, and lyrics about death. Lots of them.Fitting to their ethos, their new album takes the dichotomy of fun and emotional wreckage in their songs and teeters between gleeful chaos and bleak oblivion while wielding some of the best choruses the band has ever written. Morbid Stuff is also a pretty intense foray into singer Stefan Babcock’s fight with depression, and shows, in perfect PUP fashion, how taking responsibility of his own depression lead him to….laughter. Admitting his depression allowed Babcock to laugh in its face, and the result is that marriage of darkness and joy that made PUP who they are, but in a brand new way.Indeed, despite its dark subject matter, at times Morbid Stuff is funny as hell, even in the music. It’s the most insightful, sweetest, funniest, sickest, angriest, saddest and most inescapably desperate collection of songs they’ve recorded to date. If their self-titled record was the fuse and The Dream Is Over was the bomb going off, Morbid Stuff is your family sifting through the rubble, only to find you giggling while you bleed to death.
STREAM / BUY MORBID STUFF HEREPUPWebsite * Facebook * Instagram * Twitter

Cut Copy share "Like Breaking Glass" single + announce 2021 European tour dates; sixth studio album 'Freeze, Melt' out Aug 21

CUT COPY SHARE NEW SINGLE“LIKE BREAKING GLASS” OUT TODAY VIA CUTTERS RECORDS/THE ORCHARD
BUY/STREAM HERE
+ ANNOUNCE 2021 EUROPEAN TOUR DATES+ SHARE PART 1 OF FILM ON MAKING ALBUM 6
 SIXTH STUDIO ALBUM  FREEZE, MELTOUT FRIDAY, AUGUST 21
PRE-ORDER/SAVE HERE | MERCH PRE-ORDER/BUNDLES HERE 
Beloved Australian electronic act, Cut Copy return with their third single for 2020, “Like Breaking Glass,” out today via Cutters Records/The Orchard. The track is taken from the four-piece’s greatly anticipated sixth studio album, Freeze, Melt, to be released on Friday, August 21.  “Like Breaking Glass” summons the quintessential Cut Copy sound from the vault, with high-end sonics and a reverb-laced backbeat upping the mood, while Dan Whitford’s unmistakable vocals conduct a choir of assorted textures, unsuspecting at every turn. Rising and falling vectors tear through warm synth-work and dance-tingling beats, mimicking sentiments behind the physicality of deep love and a heartbreak’s violent rhythms through the body.  Dan Whitford says of the single: "In the beginning 'Like Breaking Glass' started out as a completely different track. Before one weekend I was mucking around in the studio with just a drum beat and an acid bassline. I never managed to finish it, but when I came back to it the next week there was something about that beat that felt compelling, so I started writing a song over the top of it. It is about the conflicted feelings of a relationship that has begun to unravel. Where sometimes against all logic, you discover that affections run deep just as a break up becomes inevitable. It was also one of my favourite songs working in the studio with the band when we crafted the middle section of the song comprising of weird delay effects, off-beat drum hits and metallic clangs where Mitchell was throwing a box of metal objects around the room, and we stood there recording him." Cut Copy’s forthcoming sixth album, Freeze, Melt, will feature “Like Breaking Glass” and the act’s previous two singles “Love Is All We Share” and “Cold Water,” as recently premiered on Double J. The body of work showcases an expansion yet refining in their sound over the past three years while maintaining a legacy unmatched in Australian music since their inception. Written during an especially cold European winter, the collection takes an evocative turn finding slowed meaning and influence from emotional manipulations that feed into their work but have never taken center stage, ultimately shaping a headier journey inward while lyrically exploring love in strange times. A treat for the mind, as well as the body.
Earlier this week, Cut Copy announced their first shows in support of Freeze, Melt to come in 2021. Traveling to Porto, Lisbon, Amsterdam, London and Dublin, European fans can now be among the first Cut Copy fans worldwide to catch the beloved act on stage in March/April 2021. Pre-sale is now open, with GA on sale from 7pm AEST this Friday, August 7.
After returning to Australia and being joined by his bandmates at Melbourne’s Park Orchard Studios to enhance and complete the recording, the record’s sense of place was further enhanced by the mixing contribution of Swedish legend Christoffer Berg (Robyn, The Knife), finishing the record in Svenska Grammofonstudion in Gothenburg. The Neve console they used was also used by Bowie/Eno/Visconti to make Lodger, and was also used by Queen, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, AC/DC, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder and Jonny Cash. The result of finalizing the record at Svenska Studios is a treat for the mind as well as the body.
Born from a bedroom recording project by Whitford and expanding to a full-fledged band with guitarist Tim Hoey, drummer Mitchell Scott, and bass player Ben Browning, Cut Copy’s output has stood the test of time. Their unique sound and unencumbered taste have earned praise locally and globally, performing on the likes of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live, and picking up nominations for several awards. 2008’s In Ghost Colours, featuring “Lights & Music” and “Hearts on Fire” received nominations for the ARIA Awards' Best Dance/Electronic Album and Album of the Year at the J Awards, while 2011's ARIA chart-topper Zonoscope was nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Album at the Grammy Awards and awarded Best Dance Release at the ARIA Awards.
Their strength is also evidenced by their powerful live shows, which have graced the stages at Coachella, Primavera Sound, and countless other global marquee festivals. Their secret power – being able to convert crowds of thousands into a unified, joyous dancing whole. When you add over a thousand sold-out headline shows over five continents to the mix, you can just about begin to understand their appeal, instantly apparent the minute you step foot inside a Cut Copy concert.
Perfectly molding with recent singles “Love Is All We Share” and “Cold Water”, plus their respective club-ready remixes from the likes of Patrick Holland (aka Project Pablo) and Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas, today’s single breathes the quintessential Cut Copy sound. Brimming with vibrancy and the intricate production they know best, “Like Breaking Glass” lends another taste of a most highly-anticipated album to come in Freeze, Melt. Cut Copy fans, get ready. Photo credit: Tamar Levine (@tamarlevine)
CUT COPY 2021 TOUR DATES
TICKET INFO HERE \ PRE-SALE HERE
Tuesday, March 23 - Hard Club, PortoWednesday, March 24 - Coliseum, LisbonTuesday, March 30 - Melkweg, AmsterdamWednesday, March 31 - Roundhouse, LondonFriday, April 2 - Whelan's, Dublin "Australian synth-pop juggernauts"- SPIN

Private World shares new single 'Birdy', 'Aleph' LP out Aug 28 on Dais Records

CARDIFF BASED POP OUTFIT PRIVATE WORLD SHARE NEW SINGLE
LISTEN TO 'BIRDY'  HERE
ALEPH OUT AUGUST 28 ON DAIS RECORDS
                                                                                                                                           photo courtesy of Tom HughesCardiff-based pop outfit Private World are sharing 'Birdy' from their upcoming  Aleph  LP today, The infectious, slow-paced single is ripe with dreamy vocals and a synth line that sticks with you. The band had this to say of the track:

"'Birdy' introduces our affiliation to ‘cyclical rhythm’ in where all or no instrumental parts are as important as each other."

"'Birdy’ is also exemplary of our use of unconventional song structures; motifs are introduced and reappear throughout the song in different contexts. Rather than having conventional verses and chorus sections, motifs and parts are ‘re-contextualized’ as the song proceeds."

Listen here

Aleph  is often defined as the “oneness of God”, and Cardiff, UK indie pop outfit Private World thematically embrace the sentiment on their debut album for Dais while eschewing pop conventions, simultaneously navigating and subverting its context. Rather than individual tracks that inform a greater narrative, Aleph finds members Harry Jowett and Tom Sanders weaving in and out of a space they call the “pop psyche,” where songs become scenes in a collective exploration of sentimentality and melody.

In a sense, the songs that comprise Aleph are soothing vehicles that dart about pop history, stopping at touch points throughout the ‘80s to borrow from jazz-tinged synth, ambient music, and even cinéma vérité. The plot twist is while weaving this tapestry, they omit the familiarity of chorus-driven song, allowing space and mood to build melancholy transitions that feel whole and floaty.

As much as their single “On the Run,” released with Dais in 2019, touched on this hushed world of memory, Aleph retains Private World’s DNA but tames the dynamics of pop with Eno-esque intention. Aleph is an album you can pick up at any entry point and loop into its conscious nostalgia. Rather than singular statements, each song on the album nods to Roxy Music, Peter Gabriel, Talk Talk, Spandau Ballet in tandem. In a sense, it’s a rolling piece that spans ten movements, each informing a sphere of culture. Though it’s not forward-facing lyrically, Aleph is a culture driven work, as the duo offers it as an equalizer that transcends social boundaries or divisions — united passages meant to be heard and immersed by all.

On its own, “Blue Spirit,” is very much the album’s mission statement, as vocal unapologetically indebted to Brian Ferry leads the way over a gated beat as instruments pulse in and out, punctuating the rhythm before disappearing into the echoes of the next moment. One second over five minutes in length, “Magic Lens,” is Aleph’s most direct and authoritative, without disrupting its tonality. As Tom Sanders delivers a syncopated vocal, the track lightly sprinkles synth washes and prominent bass accents that plod out atmospheric
pattern. Embracing the overarching north star for their sound to be a return to sophistication, Aleph embodies the sentiment by redefining it.

Yes, the album’s sounds work back to the masters of synth-pop but the actual journey bounds forward with vivid personality and contemporary control. Private World offers a singular embrace of the pop psyche – and a startlingly refreshing debut. Listen: Private World - "Birdy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID1PWY5KUu8&feature=youtu.be
Pre-Order: Private World - Aleph
http://smarturl.it/privateworld




Private World
Aleph
Dais Records
August 28, 2020

1. A Private World
2. Blue Spirit
3. Birdy
4. Hypnagogia
5. Magic Lens
6. Somethin' Special
7. Chasm
8. Spine
9. Alien Funeral
10. Jones to Engel (Pierrot)

Follow Private World
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