Shoegaze

Vinyl, 12", Mini-Album, Limited Edition, Metallic Gold

This 2CD edition of CURVEs debut album, Doppelga?nger, is expanded and packed with the singles and the 3 EPs (all remastered from the original tapes) plus four rare tracks including the Aphex Twin remix of ‘Falling Free, as compiled by Dean Garcia CD, Album, Reissue CD, Compilation All Media, Remastered

CD, Album

CD, Album

solid white vinyl. Reverbed out rock and roll - Adam Franklin wearing Robert Smith's socks on a date with PJ Harvey. Lovely and loud, Honeyrude is a melding of time and influences. Guitarist and founding member Ian Lund first met Billy Kunath (bass guitar) asleep in a van in his driveway in Chicago back in 1994. Kunath was playing in a punk band that Lund was recording at the time. The two became friends and were in and out of contact over the years yet both landed in Austin and became bandmates in 2013. A year and 3 singers later, Jess Ledbetter (singer, guitarist) joined the band upon moving from Brooklyn, NY back to Texas. The project came recommended to her by an ex-boyfriend and bandmate. Honeyrude came to their present line-up in March of 2016 when Paul Goetz agreed to sit in on drums for a tribute show celebrating The Cure. They met each other by learning Deep Green Sea and quickly asked Goetz to join. The four began recording demos and in the fall of 2016 they self-recorded The Color Blue to be released on vinyl August 2017 via Shifting Sounds. For fans of: The Cure, PJ Harvey, Teenage Fanclub, Swervedriver, Sonic Youth, MBV [END] Having dribbled a debut single last fall exuding big promise, Austin's Honeyrude bags the EP they promised, acing an LP instead with the potency of a Porsche 968 Convertible purring down the parkway. As he was on "Roger McLain" (included), Ian Lund is a guitar mastermind, gusting Black Swan Lane, Scenic, "Language of Flowers" Pale Saints, Harry Dingman, and Johnny Marr-ish gales into hard shards that flash and fizz, careen, wail, crash, and sputter-pretty dazzling. And with blonde bastion Jess Ledbetter adding lulling, stout vocals that sound much like Long Blondes' Kate Jackson, the Pale Saints comparison (perhaps tracks that Meriel Barham sang) gets exciting. American bands rarely use effects this powerfully and reverberating, loudly-beautiful; compatibly, there's post-punk thwack in the attack: bassist Billy Kunath and drummer Paul Goetz turn quickly from spongy to bold and harsh. And with tunes as tantalizing as "The Color Blue," Falling Backwards," and the Raveonettes-dirty "Sorry I'm Late," the real color is green for "go." - Jack Rabid / The Big Takeover (NYC) - Spring Issue #80 - 2017 Vinyl, LP, Album, White

Artist: Principe Valiente Label: CD Baby

Artist: Cloakroom Label: Relapse

Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition, Numbered, Reissue, Transparent, 180 gram

Artist: Falling You Label: Projekt

We've all been there before: stuck in the wrong place at the right time. In Au.Ra's case, Tom Crandles and Tim Jenkins both walked to the wrong Sydney campus for a TAFE class on audio engineering. Once they realized no one else was going to show up-- and the fact that the right classroom was in another neighborhood--the future collaborators were forced to talk about their shared interests. As the conversation wore on, Crandles and Jenkins both realized they were at a crossroads musically. And since they seemed to be on the same page sonically, the potential for a new project felt particularly strong. Limitless even, so they started rehearsing to see where some improv sessions would lead. The duo didn't want to rush their first record, though. It took two years to wrap 2015's acclaimed Jane's Lament album, a prolonged creative process that paid off when several key outlets praised its heady hooks. The Guardian, for one, wrote, "After succumbing to the riptide pull of the opening track, 'Morning', you stay submerged, sound-bathing in layers of sublime guitar tones and effects that evoke a bevy of shoegaze legends like Slowdive, Ride, and Pale Saints. Two years in the making, the gradual build of Jane's Lament paid off in its drowsy unhurried air." Au.Ra took a similar approach with this year's Cultivations LP, embracing spontaneity on several vastly different songs (see: the intricate, slow-moving guitars of "Dreamwork" and the disjointed dance loops of "Blue Chip") and exploring the outer limits of experimental pop elsewhere. That goes for everything from the shimmering keys and steely percussion of "I Feel You" to the lush, melancholic melodies of "Set the Scene"-- tracks that take cues from King Tubby's dub-wise delays and murky synth-pop. Not to mention "Nowhere," a humid number that channels such richly woven reference points as the surreal '90s program Wild Palms and the artful duets of David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto. And to think it all sta rted with showing up to the wrong class. Fate moves in mysterious ways indeed Record Label: Felte Style: Indie Rock

Artist: Mountaineer Label: LIFEFORCE RECORDS

Artist: 14 Iced Bears Label: Optic Nerve

The music of Slow Down Molasses reflects the aesthetic, environment and paradoxes of life in Saskatchewan. Summers on the Canadian prairies are glorious and bright. In June the sunsets linger for hours – as late as 11pm one can still see a patch of blue sky to the northwest, as if the land is clinging to the last vestiges of a glorious day, stubbornly reluctant to let the summer end. And when total darkness hits, it’s only four hours until the sun peers over the eastern horizon once again. The prairies make for an environment of extremes: winters are as unforgiving and dark as summers are optimistic and bright, and that bipolar nature heavily informs the band’s new album. The irony of its title, 100% Sunshine, quickly becomes apparent as the Saskatoon five-piece tackles the idealisation of success, what society deems a “normal” life, and the spectre of depression lurking underneath a quixotic façade. Is the pursuit of a dream amidst growing responsibility at home worth it in the end? In past years Slow Down Molasses felt more like a loose collective than a band, with various friends and peers chipping in to help bring singer/guitarist Tyson McShane’s musical vision to life. That has changed with 100% Sunshine, as the musicians who toured behind 2015’s Burnt Black Cars also play on the new record (McShane is joined by drummer Jordan Kurtz, bassist Chris Morin, guitarist/keyboardist Aaron Scholz, guitarist Levi Soulodre and keyboardist/singer Jeanette Stewart). With the chemistry that comes from extensive touring, Slow Down Molasses are a tighter unit than ever, which in turn lends a sense of urgency to the new music. It’s as if the contrast in the band’s sonic portrait has been tweaked: the whites are brighter, the blacks denser. Produced by Chad Munson and mixed in Glasgow by Tony Doogan (best known for his work with Mogwai and Belle & Sebastian), 100% Sunshine channels the bleaker side of indie rock, evoking shoegaze, dream-pop, psychedelic rock and darkwave at once. “Moon Queen” is a superblast of searing noise in true early-1990s form, contagious four-on-the- floor rock’n’roll underscored by waves of drone and feedback. Underneath the seeming effervescence is crippling melancholy, as McShane drawls, “I do not believe that we share the same dream / As you’re flying high and I’m sitting here, just burning out.” The rampaging “New Release” weaves heavy rock, shoegaze and gothic elements skilfully, coming across as a mix of the Cure’s “A Forest” and Swervedriver’s “Last Train to Satansville”, the two sides creating a dynamic give-and- take hinting at inner conflict. “Levitation Sickness” hearkens back to the glory days of 1990s indie rock, its massive layers of guitars reminiscent of Dinosaur Jr., Sugar and Sebadoh. The Slint-esque “No Riots” and the post-punk flavoured “Ghosts & Vodka” date back nearly two decades, a constant presence in McShane’s songwriting arsenal yet only now finding the arrangements – and musicians – to make the tracks work on record. As the Rachel Goswell to McShane’s Neil Halstead, Stewart helps bring the album to a sublime denouement on the fittingly Slowdive-esque “You Made Me a Ghost”, her gentle, heavily reverbed, barely comprehensible singing giving the song an air of mystery and ethereality. 100% Sunshine reflects the sense of fatalism, lurking under the friendly smiles, that is such a strong part of prairie life. Have fun at the family get-together, but stack that buffet plate because you never know when you’ll eat this well again. Enjoy the hell out of the football team’s win, because you know they’re going to lose badly next week. Savour the sunshine, but you’d better hope it doesn’t last, because you don’t want a drought. Slow Down Molasses deal with that paradox to beautiful effect as they navigate the bumpy road between the restlessness of youth and the threat of middle-age complacency. No, everything is not fine, and we are not all okay. But that’s what music is for: to provide escapism, introspection, reflection and ultimately liberation. I’m giving up on youth As taken for granted, that I won’t ever be Torn from the times that would always bring me back taken out again, as we’ve always been Adrien Begrand Record Label: Dancan Music Style: Alternative

The music of Slow Down Molasses reflects the aesthetic, environment and paradoxes of life in Saskatchewan. Summers on the Canadian prairies are glorious and bright. In June the sunsets linger for hours – as late as 11pm one can still see a patch of blue sky to the northwest, as if the land is clinging to the last vestiges of a glorious day, stubbornly reluctant to let the summer end. And when total darkness hits, it’s only four hours until the sun peers over the eastern horizon once again. The prairies make for an environment of extremes: winters are as unforgiving and dark as summers are optimistic and bright, and that bipolar nature heavily informs the band’s new album. The irony of its title, 100% Sunshine, quickly becomes apparent as the Saskatoon five-piece tackles the idealisation of success, what society deems a “normal” life, and the spectre of depression lurking underneath a quixotic façade. Is the pursuit of a dream amidst growing responsibility at home worth it in the end? In past years Slow Down Molasses felt more like a loose collective than a band, with various friends and peers chipping in to help bring singer/guitarist Tyson McShane’s musical vision to life. That has changed with 100% Sunshine, as the musicians who toured behind 2015’s Burnt Black Cars also play on the new record (McShane is joined by drummer Jordan Kurtz, bassist Chris Morin, guitarist/keyboardist Aaron Scholz, guitarist Levi Soulodre and keyboardist/singer Jeanette Stewart). With the chemistry that comes from extensive touring, Slow Down Molasses are a tighter unit than ever, which in turn lends a sense of urgency to the new music. It’s as if the contrast in the band’s sonic portrait has been tweaked: the whites are brighter, the blacks denser. Produced by Chad Munson and mixed in Glasgow by Tony Doogan (best known for his work with Mogwai and Belle & Sebastian), 100% Sunshine channels the bleaker side of indie rock, evoking shoegaze, dream-pop, psychedelic rock and darkwave at once. “Moon Queen” is a superblast of searing noise in true early-1990s form, contagious four-on-the- floor rock’n’roll underscored by waves of drone and feedback. Underneath the seeming effervescence is crippling melancholy, as McShane drawls, “I do not believe that we share the same dream / As you’re flying high and I’m sitting here, just burning out.” The rampaging “New Release” weaves heavy rock, shoegaze and gothic elements skilfully, coming across as a mix of the Cure’s “A Forest” and Swervedriver’s “Last Train to Satansville”, the two sides creating a dynamic give-and- take hinting at inner conflict. “Levitation Sickness” hearkens back to the glory days of 1990s indie rock, its massive layers of guitars reminiscent of Dinosaur Jr., Sugar and Sebadoh. The Slint-esque “No Riots” and the post-punk flavoured “Ghosts & Vodka” date back nearly two decades, a constant presence in McShane’s songwriting arsenal yet only now finding the arrangements – and musicians – to make the tracks work on record. As the Rachel Goswell to McShane’s Neil Halstead, Stewart helps bring the album to a sublime denouement on the fittingly Slowdive-esque “You Made Me a Ghost”, her gentle, heavily reverbed, barely comprehensible singing giving the song an air of mystery and ethereality. 100% Sunshine reflects the sense of fatalism, lurking under the friendly smiles, that is such a strong part of prairie life. Have fun at the family get-together, but stack that buffet plate because you never know when you’ll eat this well again. Enjoy the hell out of the football team’s win, because you know they’re going to lose badly next week. Savour the sunshine, but you’d better hope it doesn’t last, because you don’t want a drought. Slow Down Molasses deal with that paradox to beautiful effect as they navigate the bumpy road between the restlessness of youth and the threat of middle-age complacency. No, everything is not fine, and we are not all okay. But that’s what music is for: to provide escapism, introspection, reflection and ultimately liberation. I’m giving up on youth As taken for granted, that I won’t ever be Torn from the times that would always bring me back taken out again, as we’ve always been Adrien Begrand Record Label: Dancan Music Style: Alternative

Новый студийный альбом американских инди-рокерш, при участии продюсера Radiohead, участника Atoms For Peace - Найджела Годрича 5 интересных фактов о группе Warpaint (согласно журналу TIME OUT Москва) 1. Warpaint - это четыре молодые девушки с гитарами и барабанами — беспроигрышное сочетание, что-то подобное вы могли увидеть на летнем выступлении англичанок Savages. Только там был исступленный британский постпанк, а здесь прокуренный калифорнийский псих-рок. 2. Раньше группа выглядела еще более выигрышно, поскольку за ударной установкой сидела актриса Шэннин Соссамон, которая покинула Warpaint в 2008-м. Warpaint - не новая и не молодая группа, хотя и записан всего один альбом (и тот не так давно), но девушки играют рок без малого десяток лет. 3. Warpaint и знаменитости – солистка группы Эмили Кокал встречалась с гитаристом Red Hot Chili Peppers Джоном Фрушанте, который сводил их дебютный EP. 4. О группе постоянно пишут «калифорнийская», при этом никто из ее участниц не родился в Калифорнии. Творчество Warpaint вообще не вяжется с открыточными представлениями о штате солнца и серфинга. «Мы — мрачная правда о Калифорнии, — говорят участницы группы. — Мы — это Лос-Анджелес в четыре часа утра, когда бары уже закрылись, и осталось отчаяние». 5. Единственный альбом группы «Fool» вышел в 2010-м и был заслуженно принят «на ура!», он до сих пор составляет основную часть концертной программы Warpaint. Но 20 января выходит новый альбом «Warpaint», к которому чуть приложил руку продюсер Radiohead, участник Atoms for Peace Найджел Годрич. http://www.timeout.ru

Artist: M83 Label: Republic of Music

Artist: Place to Bury Strangers; Artist: Telescopes Label: Fuzz Club Records

Artist: Ingenting Label: Labrador Sweden

That's the most intense fear and feeling-when you go to a show and you're actually scared," says frontman Oliver Ackermann, guitarist and frontman of Brooklyn trio A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS. "Or you can palpably feel the danger in the music," adds bassit Lunadon, "Like it's going to fall apart at any moment and the players doing it are so in the moment they don't give a shit about anything else. They're just going for it. It's a gutter kinda vibe; everything about it is icky and evil and dangerous." The same could be said for A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS' fourth album, "Transfixiation". Rather than fixate on precious recording techniques and minute details like they may have done in the past, the group, rounded out by drummer Robi Gonzalez, trust their instincts and try to keep things as pure as possible. Music is much more exhilarating when it's unpredictable even on repeat plays. Gonzalez makes his recording debut with the band here, and it's obvious that he's helped pushed the band's recordings closer to the level of their infamous live shows. From the tortured straight-to-tape transmission of "I Will Die" and molten funk melodies of "Straight" to the violent guitar spasms, cannon-like drums and not-so-idle threats of "Deeper," this is very much an unpredictable record. "The one thing we have in common is this fire when we're playing," says Gonzalez. "I don't know; it's real intense." "It's not rocket science," says Lunadon, "but rock 'n' roll shouldn't be. When you start to do bluesy scales or try to be too fancy, it doesn't work for us. You gotta keep it simple and rock it fucking hard." Record Label: Dead Oceans Style: Independent