Фирма Sargent House

Artist: CHELSEA WOLFE Label: PENDU SOUND

Artist: Adebisi Shank Label: Sargent House

Artist: Adebisi Shank Label: Sargent House

X'ed Out is the culmination of an arc begun on TERA MELOS' first proper full-length, Patagonian Rats - a supercollider of 60s pop hooks, MINUTEMEN garage-prog, post-punk evisceration, wiry psychedelia and nearly everything else in-between. From the very f Record Label: Sargent House Style: Independent

AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR's third album All Hail Bright Futures could be taken as both an ethos for the album and the band at this point in time. There is a new color scheme in place: new textures, emotions, sounds and voices. The 12-track, 43 min Record Label: Sargent House Style: Alternative

Oxford, England's THIS TOWN NEEDS GUNS has always been known for walking a tightrope line between pop melody and technical precision. But, their sophomore album "13.0.0.0.0" finds the band blurring the lines so masterfully that their intricate, spindling guitar lines and soaring pop hooks reach unforeseen apexes. And, so it's fitting that the band titled their new album after esoteric means of counting: "13.0.0.0.0" referring to the Mayan calendar's Long Count indicating the beginning (August 11, 3114 BCE) and ending (December 21, 2012) of the current creation. "13.0.0.0.0" is their first album featuring their new vocalist Henry Tremain following the amicable departure of former lead singer Stuart Smith in 2011. This lineup shows considerable growth and cohesion with Tim Collis' signature bluegrass style finger-picking electric guitar lines weaving around brother and drummer Chris Collis' stop 'n' go syncopated rhythms as Tremain's rich vocals glide across the proceedings. But it's the band's earnest songwriting that really shines herein. THIS TOWN NEEDS GUNS have stayed true to their sound rather than chasing pop payoff like many of their contemporaries. The result is a leaner, stronger version of themselves similar to the way kindred spirits Pinback and Grizzly Bear have honed unique identities over many years. Album opener "Cat Fantastic" kicks things off at a spritely pace with an incredibly nimble clawhammer plucking guitar melody that sounds like a hybrid of Flatt & Scruggs crossed with Robert Fripp. But, it's the warmth to Tremain's voice and the song's hooky chord progression that makes it easy to forget the depth of musicianship on display throughout. Elsewhere, ethereal vocal melodies weave together with rapid-fire guitar and bass interplay on "Havoc In The Forum" and a sliced-up sounding drum pattern on "I'll Take The Minute Snake." Tremain's vocal acrobatics in "Left Aligned" reach stunning highs while slithering bass chords, fugue-like guitar notes and rollicking drums form a sturdy base. "13.0.0.0.1" perfectly closes the album with a chiming lullaby of interwoven piano and lightly plucked guitar notes. "This Town Needs Guns sound stylish, sussed and like reformed mathcore men Minus The Bear covering seminal Mancunian miserablists The Smiths. Good, in other words." Kerrang

Everything about Canadian power-duo Indian Handcrafts seems to defy possibilities: a two piece that's louder than a hundred bands, kicking out one of the year's most riff-rollicking albums that was recorded while the guitarist had a broken hand! They're two friendly, soft-spoken Canadian guys sounding like the Funkadelic Mothership crash landing on top of the Planet Caravan in Interstellar Overdrive. Indian Handcrafts' well honed, massive melodic heft seems to belie the simplicity of instrumentation between drummer/vocalist Brandyn James Aikins and guitarist/vocalist Daniel Brandon Allen. While their songs feature hints of heavy, technically skilled bands like Big Business, Hella and Tweakbird, there are also strong melodies and a vocal intensity inviting comparisons to artists ranging from Death From Above 1979 to Jack White. Top that all off with a rhythmic groove reminiscent of a hybrid of ZZ Top's Tres Hombres and Funkadelic's Standing On The Verge of Getting It On and it's clear that Indian Handcrafts are much, much more than the sum of their parts. Bursting out of Barrie, Ontario this pair of charming gentlemen immediately impacted the world with a self-released 8-song debut album in 2011. Cathy Pellow of Sargent House quickly took notice and signed the band on to management and the label. Shortly thereafter, Civil Disobedience For Losers was recorded in Los Angeles in March 2012 with engineer Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Big Business, Red Sparowes) and featuring special guest appearances by Melvins drummers Dale Crover and Coady Willis. Even with such superfriends assisting the proceedings, Indian Handcrafts prove their own exceptional strengths throughout the album. "The doctor said if you go and record that's your problem if it gets worse," Allen explains of recording with a broken hand. "It was a little painful some days, but because of being there in the surroundings it was easy to get around that. It healed fine." Overall, the duo says the recording came together very quickly under Kasai's guidance, but it's the bond between Aikins and Allen that gives Indian Handcrafts its lean, ferocious personality. "We first started this band when playing in another band that was pissing us off," Aikins says. "We were the two who always got along. I can't ever see us having anyone else in the band. Unless Toshi played tambourine." Album opener "Bruce Lee" kicks off (as it were) with a storming drop tuned guitar riff for which Soundgarden would've killed decades ago and surreptitiously eases into a breakdown worthy of Funkadelic's Cosmic Slop before leaping headlong into a blazing double-time group chant crescendo led by triple marching snare drums courtesy of Aikins and special guests Crover and Willis of the Melvins. "Red Action" pulls Grand Funk boogie into a violent confrontation with HEALTH level effect pummeling as Aikins and Allen trade vocal-chord shredding harmonized screams. "Terminal Horse" blazes along on a harmonized riff while the dual vocalists spit out lyrics as if their lives depended on it. Elsewhere, Indian Handcrafts go in for the kill on the explosive "Centauri Teenage Riot" pitting the fury of teen angst against a wall of guitars and the dual drum attack of Aikins and Crover. On "The Jerk" chiming, delay-soaked post-punk guitar counters a propulsive 60s R&B beat as the vocalists spin a tale of seemingly depraved sex: "said you wanted a lovah, so we went down south and tried to find you a lovah/ You wanted a lovah/ You got with the other." Throughout, infectious guitar riffs, intense vocal harmonies and pounding drums spin wildly out of control as they churn out headbanging rock so catchy it seems like it's been a forgotten art for countless decades. Vinyl, LP, Album

Northern California native Chelsea Wolfe's sound is best described with broad strokes: elemental, intense, radiant, ancient yet modern, intimate yet expansive, dark and sparkling. Hues of black metal and deep blues inform her ever-evolving electric folk - a warm force that wraps itself around the listener, encouraging uplift, seeking triumph. Her voice similarly haunts and soothes, with words that illuminate life's darker corners in order to reveal the unlikely truth and beauty hidden within. In a way, Wolfe is on a journey to the surface of her own music. 2012 finds releasing her first acoustic emanation on Sargent House, titled Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs.The experience is a secret shared, a side of our heroine rarely seen or heard, and the making was as intimate as it gets: recorded in the woods of Northern California and at Wolfe's L.A. home, co-produced by her bandmate Ben Chisholm, with players Ezra Buchla of Gowns (viola), Andrea Calderón of Corima (violin) and Daniel Denton of Gothic Tropic (bass) Vinyl, LP, Album, Repress, Gold Transparent/Smoked Black

Honest, life-affirming and infectious, and it's that rare concentration of directness and simplicity that makes Fang Island so uniquely and wonderfully inclusive." Best New Music -- Pitchfork "Fang Island are simply killer fun, a proper gang who sing collectively and pummel their guitars without recourse to errant soloing." Four Stars -- MOJO Brooklyn's beloved guitar-anthem optimists Fang Island return with an album befitting its title: Major. Like the painstakingly chiseled marble of the album artwork, Major is hefty, solid, monolithic and regal. Whereas Fang Island described their celebrated 2010 self-titled Sargent House debut as, "everyone high-fiving everyone," Major is evermore confident, triumphant and brimming with infectious enthusiasm. Its warm harmonies are given proper berth with more expansive dynamics and focused pop song craft. "One of our core ideas has always been that our songs would be all of your favorite parts of the song that other bands make you wait 8 minutes to get to," explains guitarist/vocalist Jason Bartell. "We wanted to be the band that's nothing but your favorite hooks back to back." Major shows Fang Island deftly achieving that aim. Kicking off with the overlapping neoclassical piano pirouette and chiming harmonized guitars of album opener "Kindergarten", Fang Island makes it clear from the outset that this is an album of musical and sonic growth, while at the same time a chorus of voices repeat the mantra, "all I know/ I learned in / kindergarten." It's that same unabashed embracing of childlike wonder filtered through visionary artistic sophistication that gives Fang Island its unique charm and sets the tone for this (ahem) major step forward for Bartell, guitarist/vocalist Chris Georges and drummer Marc St. Sauveur. Without a moment's rest, the definitive summer pop jam "Sisterly" launches the album skyward, led by the thick hook of a wah-wah pedal "chunka-chunka-chunka" riff that's guaranteed to have listeners busting out their air guitar moves. "Never Understand" revisits the classic Fang Island guitar harmony dogpile while what sounds like a cheery mob repeatedly intones, "I hope I never understand." Elsewhere, the rollicking anthem "Asunder" quickly builds momentum like a rolling snowball that eventually careens into a summertime BBQ -- the explosive payoff as the elements collide is pure pop bliss. Throughout, Major highlights the band's endeavor to elevate positivity as an art form. "It's kind of similar to writing songs about being sad," Bartell says. "It can come across as simplistic, or easy. Positive songs often run the risk of sounding shallow, but we feel there are a lot of shades and depths to positivity that can be explored." That exploration becomes clear from the first notes of Major. However, Georges sums up the album's bold steps best in this short sampling of the band's nearly 1,000 bullet point explanation of the album title: "Some reasons we called the album Major: - Major key (the first song is minor though!) - Valley girl colloquialism - Because we are on an independent label - Because the rank under Sargent (House) is major - It sounds like a constellation - Steely Dan's "Any Major Dude" was in rotation a lot during the sessions - The record is packaged to look like stone because it's ROCK. I really wanted people to hold a piece of rock when they picked up the record CD, Album

Honest, life-affirming and infectious, and it's that rare concentration of directness and simplicity that makes Fang Island so uniquely and wonderfully inclusive." Best New Music -- Pitchfork "Fang Island are simply killer fun, a proper gang who sing collectively and pummel their guitars without recourse to errant soloing." Four Stars -- MOJO Brooklyn's beloved guitar-anthem optimists Fang Island return with an album befitting its title: Major. Like the painstakingly chiseled marble of the album artwork, Major is hefty, solid, monolithic and regal. Whereas Fang Island described their celebrated 2010 self-titled Sargent House debut as, "everyone high-fiving everyone," Major is evermore confident, triumphant and brimming with infectious enthusiasm. Its warm harmonies are given proper berth with more expansive dynamics and focused pop song craft. "One of our core ideas has always been that our songs would be all of your favorite parts of the song that other bands make you wait 8 minutes to get to," explains guitarist/vocalist Jason Bartell. "We wanted to be the band that's nothing but your favorite hooks back to back." Major shows Fang Island deftly achieving that aim. Kicking off with the overlapping neoclassical piano pirouette and chiming harmonized guitars of album opener "Kindergarten", Fang Island makes it clear from the outset that this is an album of musical and sonic growth, while at the same time a chorus of voices repeat the mantra, "all I know/ I learned in / kindergarten." It's that same unabashed embracing of childlike wonder filtered through visionary artistic sophistication that gives Fang Island its unique charm and sets the tone for this (ahem) major step forward for Bartell, guitarist/vocalist Chris Georges and drummer Marc St. Sauveur. Without a moment's rest, the definitive summer pop jam "Sisterly" launches the album skyward, led by the thick hook of a wah-wah pedal "chunka-chunka-chunka" riff that's guaranteed to have listeners busting out their air guitar moves. "Never Understand" revisits the classic Fang Island guitar harmony dogpile while what sounds like a cheery mob repeatedly intones, "I hope I never understand." Elsewhere, the rollicking anthem "Asunder" quickly builds momentum like a rolling snowball that eventually careens into a summertime BBQ -- the explosive payoff as the elements collide is pure pop bliss. Throughout, Major highlights the band's endeavor to elevate positivity as an art form. "It's kind of similar to writing songs about being sad," Bartell says. "It can come across as simplistic, or easy. Positive songs often run the risk of sounding shallow, but we feel there are a lot of shades and depths to positivity that can be explored." That exploration becomes clear from the first notes of Major. However, Georges sums up the album's bold steps best in this short sampling of the band's nearly 1,000 bullet point explanation of the album title: "Some reasons we called the album Major: - Major key (the first song is minor though!) - Valley girl colloquialism - Because we are on an independent label - Because the rank under Sargent (House) is major - It sounds like a constellation - Steely Dan's "Any Major Dude" was in rotation a lot during the sessions - The record is packaged to look like stone because it's ROCK. I really wanted people to hold a piece of rock when they picked up the record Vinyl, LP, Album

CD, Album

Chicago trio Russian Circles return with not only their fourth and heaviest album to date -- but also with Empros they're poised to take the crown as innovators reinvigorating the staid trappings of genre. Empros picks up where the anthemic riffs and melo Record Label: Sargent House Style: Post-Rock

...Band Called Adebisi Shank Adebisi Shank are an electric, energetic, loud band from Ireland proving there\'s more to the artistic,experimental musical nature of their land than just \'charity giving\' money grabbers like U2. Taking their cue from acts s Record Label: Sargent House Style: Indie Rock