Rock & Roll

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Imagine a shoreline alone, carved from the continent, without land or water to border it, a rind of possibility, a moon-colored border between land and sea, knowing and unknowing. This is Conceptual Beach, a place John Rossiter, vocalist/guitarist of Los Angeles-based Young Jesus, describes as his long-time mental refuge, where he imagines himself living—like a medieval, stigmata-wrought hermit—all his needs for okay-ness finally met. Their new album, Welcome to Conceptual Beach, first took form as a physical zine in 2016, when the four members of the band were on their first tour together. At that time, it was still somewhere Rossiter inhabited alone, protective of his solitude. Now, he is allowing others to join him there. “The reason it’s called Welcome to… [Conceptual Beach] is because I’m inviting other inner landscapes into it,” Rossiter explains as he describes the transformation of the beach’s terrain into a whole varied emotional world.Indeed, Welcome to Conceptual Beach elucidates the balance between many contrasting forces: the individual and the collective, the rational and the emotive, the tame and wild. It transforms the complex musicality of much post- and math-rock into a radical, crystalline practice, vibrant and light-casting. The band’s members––including Marcel Borbon (bass), Eric Shevrin (keys), and Kern Haug (drums) in addition to Rossiter himself––refract and reconnect throughout the record, experimenting with new kinds of sounds and composition. They artfully balance the wandering riffs of previous records with irresistible hooks, woven into their characteristic swathes of improvisation to create a shimmering, molten tapestry.“Faith,” the opening track, runs parallel to the album as a whole: dynamic and groovy and psychedelic and emotional. Each musician has a moment to shine and to speak. Opening with Kern’s version of the Purdie Shuffle, to Marcel’s polyrhythmic bass, to Eric's organ solo, and held together by John's whispered prayer that, “we just might grow,” Young Jesus offer a music uniquely in service to emotion. “(un)Knowing” is a “meditation celebration,” a song about the confusion and pain of re-examining a life—of committing to a life of experience and curiosity. Mixing the spirit and experimentation of OK Computer with the sincerity of Bon Iver, “Root and Crown” is the first song that offers a way out of the traps and patterns of a life. A commitment to grieving, listening, and growing. A devotion to spring, sung from the depths of winter.Whether it’s a bank-vault-turned-concert-hall in San Francisco, a Brooklyn artists’ collective, a house show in central Connecticut, or a recording studio, a Young Jesus performance is unique and unrepeatable. Recordings are only snapshots of their songs in a given moment. Over dozens of shows, a single song will metamorphosize each time it’s played, taking on infinite new geometries. When they play live, their jamming—a self-selected, unaffected and doggedly genuine term for their complex improvisations—is a visceral, communal experience. They render sound an instinct, filling the space with urgency and joy. The intensity of feeling and connection between the band members and to their music is a thick, palpable force that sweeps audiences up, propelling them into uncharted territories.On Welcome to Conceptual Beach, Young Jesus pries our sobs from parentheticals and wields them with a brutal but tender force. They take these elements and translate them into a spacious ground for growth, for ourselves, our communities, our world. They affirm that change starts with how we reckon with ourselves as individuals, that we are all magicians, as the closing track of Welcome to Conceptual Beach suggests, “making love and doing dishes,” capable of conjuring new worlds for ourselves, and to live in others’

Repress. XIV Dark Centuries release their new album Waldvolk on 28.02.2020. This musical work, which is connected to the deep forests of the Thuringian Forest, contains 7 new as well as three already known songs of the band in a new sound. XIV Dark Centuries, one of the first Pagan Metal bands in Germany, has remained true to itself and its fans even after more than 20 years with their style. Melodic guitars, powerful drums, an unmistakable voice and sophisticated arrangements are in the center of attention. Musically, XIV Dark Centuries deliver melodic, guitar-heavy Pagan Metal. The broad, also very melodic backgrounds are mostly played by a keyboard. A bit more often than in the past, violin and acoustic guitar also fit into the sound, but the keyboard still sets the tone for the accompanying instruments. Vocally, XIV Dark Centuries rely on their already known branch of growl and (preferably polyphonic) clear vocals. Also well known is their wide musical range, which roughly speaking ranges from metal ballads (Julenzeit, Firratan) to very fast, swinging pieces like Skogafulka.

With The End In Mind is an ever-changing musical entity based in the Salish Sea region of the Pacific Northwest. Initially conceived as a solo project, WTEIM has grown over the years to include many unique and talented collaborators.

Mr. Waldeck proudly presents Grand Casino Hotel, his 6th studio album and by far his most cinematic. Over the last decade or so Waldeck has often taken an inspirational foray into a certain musical genre or epoque, the essence of which he took as blueprint for his own musical ventures: Let?s think of his "Ballroom Stories" (2007), considered to be one of the most influential albums of Electro Swing, "Gran Paradiso" (2016), his homage to spaghetti western and Italian canzone " then more recently Atlantic Ballroom" (2018) featuring jazz-flavoured crime fiction sounds of the late 1960ies. This time around Mr. Waldeck enters the realm of American road movies - in all its different shades and colors. A genre in which the journey is the reward and the reward is freedom. Listening to Grand Casino Hotel you will immediately find yourself drawn into images of dire desert landscapes, where cheap motels with defunct pools and endless highways outline the scenery. A decrepit casino building adjacent to our motel catches the eyes. One of the employees looks like a grumpy twin brother of Waldeck. Musical film d?auteur! Klaus Waldeck: Grand Casino Hotel is not just a "widescreen cinemascope sound track", it is a metaphor for the traveller, who - in search for a fast and lucky strike - fails to arrive at his place of longing. Recently, Waldeck's work was featured in movie and TV productions (among others, an episode of Grey's Anatomy and spots for Versace and Ferrero). Waldeck's music has been streamed over 100 million times.

Either Light is the new album from Boston band Vundabar. It marks their first album since 2018's Smell Smoke which received wide critical acclaim from the likes of NPR, Pitchfork, FADER, Stereogum, and many more. Either Light was recorded in 2019 with producer Patrick Hyland (Mitski's Be The Cowboy, Puberty 2, Bury Me at Makeout Creek) across sessions in Philadelphia and New York City. The album sees guitarist/vocalist Brandon Hagen and drummer Drew McDonald exploring new themes and sounds throughout the collection of songs. Hagen says about the album "We delved into new sonic territory on this record as we employed the use of electronic drum sounds, guest vocals from Emily Massey (Slow Pulp), samples, loops, vibraphone, synths on synths, sub bass and extensive layering for certain songs." Themes of light and water are recurrent throughout the record. In most every situation that gave rise to the songs on the album, Hagen found myself noticing the intensity of light and how it framed the formation of memory and feeling as well as its ability to frame and establish or skew perception. Vundabar will be touring Either Light extensively across the world in 2020 behind their much talked about live show.