that rocks

Taken from the album "Stars Are Our Home."
Out now on Slumberland Records (US) and Sonic Cathedral (UK)

Order the digital download from iTunes: http://smarturl.it/bhb-itunes
Order the LP/CD: http://smarturl.it/bhb-album

more info: http://www.blackheartedbrother.com
Black Hearted Brother Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Hearted-Brother/210615915729479

It was Alfred Bester, if I recall correctly, who called 'the stars my destination', in his brilliant novel of the same name from 1956. Long considered a libertarian science fiction classic, it's also notable for featuring one of the very first accounts of synaesthesia in English-language fiction. This might be drawing a particularly long bow, but the title of Black Hearted Brother's debut, "Stars Are Our Home", immediately brought Bester's book to mind – and there's definitely something of the synaesthesic experience about this album, overflowing with enraptured, glowing textures, flaring white light like magnesium, in consort with brilliant red-blue waves of psychedelia.

Of course, the first thing that might crane your head towards "Stars Are Our Home" is the group's membership: Neil Halstead, the éminence grise behind Slowdive and Mojave 3; Mark Van Hoen, an original member of Seefeel, subsequently working solo and as Locust; and Nick Holton, the main mover behind Holton's Opulent Oog, and member of Coley Park, who have released albums on Halstead's Shady Lane label. They had previously converged on Halstead's 2001 solo album, "Sleeping On Roads," though Van Hoen also co-produced Mojave 3's "Out Of Tune" (1998), "Excuses For Travelers" (2000) and "Spoon & Rafter" (2003), while Holton took up production duties for Halstead's "Palindrome Hunches" (2012). Van Hoen and Halstead go back much further still, to 1992, when they were in Seefeel and Slowdive respectively: 'Mark taught Neil much that was electronic and ambient music.'

You could hear that education bearing fruit with Slowdive's late-period masterpiece, 1995's "Pygmalion." In some ways, "Stars Are Our Home" echoes that album's experimental process, if not the outcome, as Black Hearted Brother are a very different, distinctive beast, often indulging in what Halstead, self-deprecatingly, describes as 'a lot of very long and indulgent space rawk.' And indeed, that space-rock drive is writ loud and clear on the album's opening title track, an instrumental bliss-out that navigates through ocean-tides of FX-drenched guitar. But there's a lot more to it: 'The idea was to just make a record that was in some ways "unedited",' Halstead continues. 'To not worry about a particular sound or style, but to just go with the flow. We all make quite focused records individually so, as Mark says, it's our "guilty pleasures" album.' That seems about right, except with "Stars Are Our Home," the outcome is no guilt, all pleasure.

'Neil and Nick had, I think, started a few months before they asked me to join the party,' Van Hoen recalls. 'I think they had a few songs on the go, and needed an extra hand to add a few funny noises and generally add to the chaos – or maybe bring some order to the chaos.' Van Hoen has picked up on the dialectical nature of "Stars Are Our Home" here, its "order" and its "chaos": it's a rich, compelling album full of unexpected twists and turns, at times overloading the sensorium with so much material you're drenched in noise, but it'll just as quickly flip back on itself and drift through a glazed-eye, agrarian moment of acoustic melancholy (see the start of "Time In The Machine", which, as if to prove my point, takes less than a minute to build into a clangorous, droning monster).

So, there's a whole lot going on in these grooves, and plenty of it's unexpected, or from unexpected sources. The trio plays fast and loose with what listeners might consider their pre-ordained 'roles'. 'Primarily the songs themselves were started either by Nick or Neil individually,' Van Hoen explains, 'but then edited, developed and generally messed around with and rendered almost unlistenable by either myself or the others. The roles were not always clear cut. Sometimes Nick would be playing keyboards and synths, and myself guitars.' Lyrics on the record feel like another texture, another layer: sometimes they're invocatory chants, sometimes Halstead's and Holton's voices are ghosted by electronic manipulation, as on "Oh Crust". Often there's more going on than at first glance, and an index of the album's lyrical concerns runs to 'romance, sci-fi, places to go on holiday, real UFO abduction, the duality in the meaning of words, lament for the loss of psychedelic freedoms by the masses…'

"Stars Are Our Home" is brave and beautiful, mysterious and resonant. Its experimental edges never forget the importance of the pop moment; the best way to bring people around to your way of hearing is to seduce their ears, and there's seduction plenty here, pure pop like "Take Heart", the Other Green World of "I'm Back", the closing driftwork that is "Look Out Here They Come". A real head-wrecker of an album. And what does the future hold? The trio speaks as one: 'Black Hearted Brother will grow and mature into something very sophisticated in the coming years. A kind of comedic-space-rock-dancehall outfit to define a zeitgeist for the 22nd century, if you like.' Ha, yeah – amen, brothers!

Black Hearted Brother - (I Don't Mean To) Wonder

Taken from the album, Herein Wild, released on Fat Possum Records Sept. 24 (US/Canada)/October 8th (UK/EU)

Pre-order Herein Wild from Fat Possum - http://www.fatpossum.com/products/herein-wild

Frankie Rose "Sorrow"

"Blurred Lines"
originally by Robin Thicke feat. T.I. & Pharell Williams

vocals by Miko Manguba  
guitars by Miko Manguba


Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikomanguba
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mikomanguba
YouTube: www.youtube.com/mikomangubamusic

--------------------------------------------
DOWNLOAD LINK:
(maximum downloads reached, thanks guys!)

http://www.mediafire.com/folder/zqwmhloddrm2h/SoundCloud_covers
--------------------------------------------

"Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke feat. T.I. & Pharrell Williams - Miko Manguba cover

Taken from the album "Stars Are Our Home."
Out now on Slumberland Records (US) and Sonic Cathedral (UK)

Order the digital download from iTunes: http://smarturl.it/bhb-itunes
Order the LP/CD: http://smarturl.it/bhb-album

more info: www.blackheartedbrother.com
Black Hearted Brother Official Facebook: www.facebook.com/blackheartedbrother

It was Alfred Bester, if I recall correctly, who called 'the stars my destination', in his brilliant novel of the same name from 1956. Long considered a libertarian science fiction classic, it's also notable for featuring one of the very first accounts of synaesthesia in English-language fiction. This might be drawing a particularly long bow, but the title of Black Hearted Brother's debut, "Stars Are Our Home", immediately brought Bester's book to mind – and there's definitely something of the synaesthesic experience about this album, overflowing with enraptured, glowing textures, flaring white light like magnesium, in consort with brilliant red-blue waves of psychedelia.

Of course, the first thing that might crane your head towards "Stars Are Our Home" is the group's membership: Neil Halstead, the éminence grise behind Slowdive and Mojave 3; Mark Van Hoen, an original member of Seefeel, subsequently working solo and as Locust; and Nick Holton, the main mover behind Holton's Opulent Oog, and member of Coley Park, who have released albums on Halstead's Shady Lane label. They had previously converged on Halstead's 2001 solo album, "Sleeping On Roads," though Van Hoen also co-produced Mojave 3's "Out Of Tune" (1998), "Excuses For Travelers" (2000) and "Spoon & Rafter" (2003), while Holton took up production duties for Halstead's "Palindrome Hunches" (2012). Van Hoen and Halstead go back much further still, to 1992, when they were in Seefeel and Slowdive respectively: 'Mark taught Neil much that was electronic and ambient music.'

You could hear that education bearing fruit with Slowdive's late-period masterpiece, 1995's "Pygmalion." In some ways, "Stars Are Our Home" echoes that album's experimental process, if not the outcome, as Black Hearted Brother are a very different, distinctive beast, often indulging in what Halstead, self-deprecatingly, describes as 'a lot of very long and indulgent space rawk.' And indeed, that space-rock drive is writ loud and clear on the album's opening title track, an instrumental bliss-out that navigates through ocean-tides of FX-drenched guitar. But there's a lot more to it: 'The idea was to just make a record that was in some ways "unedited",' Halstead continues. 'To not worry about a particular sound or style, but to just go with the flow. We all make quite focused records individually so, as Mark says, it's our "guilty pleasures" album.' That seems about right, except with "Stars Are Our Home," the outcome is no guilt, all pleasure.

'Neil and Nick had, I think, started a few months before they asked me to join the party,' Van Hoen recalls. 'I think they had a few songs on the go, and needed an extra hand to add a few funny noises and generally add to the chaos – or maybe bring some order to the chaos.' Van Hoen has picked up on the dialectical nature of "Stars Are Our Home" here, its "order" and its "chaos": it's a rich, compelling album full of unexpected twists and turns, at times overloading the sensorium with so much material you're drenched in noise, but it'll just as quickly flip back on itself and drift through a glazed-eye, agrarian moment of acoustic melancholy (see the start of "Time In The Machine", which, as if to prove my point, takes less than a minute to build into a clangorous, droning monster).

So, there's a whole lot going on in these grooves, and plenty of it's unexpected, or from unexpected sources. The trio plays fast and loose with what listeners might consider their pre-ordained 'roles'. 'Primarily the songs themselves were started either by Nick or Neil individually,' Van Hoen explains, 'but then edited, developed and generally messed around with and rendered almost unlistenable by either myself or the others. The roles were not always clear cut. Sometimes Nick would be playing keyboards and synths, and myself guitars.' Lyrics on the record feel like another texture, another layer: sometimes they're invocatory chants, sometimes Halstead's and Holton's voices are ghosted by electronic manipulation, as on "Oh Crust". Often there's more going on than at first glance, and an index of the album's lyrical concerns runs to 'romance, sci-fi, places to go on holiday, real UFO abduction, the duality in the meaning of words, lament for the loss of psychedelic freedoms by the masses…'

"Stars Are Our Home" is brave and beautiful, mysterious and resonant. Its experimental edges never forget the importance of the pop moment; the best way to bring people around to your way of hearing is to seduce their ears, and there's seduction plenty here, pure pop like "Take Heart", the Other Green World of "I'm Back", the closing driftwork that is "Look Out Here They Come". A real head-wrecker of an album. And what does the future hold? The trio speaks as one: 'Black Hearted Brother will grow and mature into something very sophisticated in the coming years. A kind of comedic-space-rock-dancehall outfit to define a zeitgeist for the 22nd century, if you like.' Ha, yeah – amen, brothers!

Black Hearted Brother - My Baby Just Sailed Away

I think we were all knocked out by the Frankie Rose and the Outs album from 2010, the effortlessness of its gorgeous girl-pop mantras, the intimate immensity of its Spector-esque walls of reverb, the beauty of a song sung sweetly over the most graceful two-chord vamps. But are you ready for the new Frankie Rose? – her transformation into a wholly other kind of pop, the reverie and revelation of "Interstellar," an album that floats free of its maker’s history – time spent with Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Crystal Stilts, and creator of one of the most breathlessly compelling girl-pop albums of the past few years – and offers the listener something strangely other, as alien as it is familiar, as compelling as it is enchanting.

On "Interstellar" Frankie takes the lessons learned with her debut album – like reverb as the holy route to pop-grandeur, scaling a wall of teenage tears – fully digests, and transfers those skills into the brave new world mapped out by ten new songs. Aided by production ace Le Chev, remixer supreme for Lemonade, Narcisse, Passion Pit, and Frankie’s own “Candy,”  Frankie has replaced that reverbed-out classicism with the confident swagger of a singer and auteur fully aware of how to build the simplest of pop moves into aching, full-blown melodramas, how to grab hold of an emotion and ride its darker waves.

"Know Me" is the first single from "Interstellar." It's a gorgeous piece of widescreen pop, dreamy and driving at the same time. The clean, big hooks bring to mind the best of mid-80s pop -- Smiths, New Order -- without sacrificing any of Frankie's unique melodic style. It's a single in the best sense; a three minute gem that perfectly captures the essence of the new album. Le Chev's remix on the flip side is pure 2012 - a slow-motion house burner with a tropical vibe and atmosphere to spare. Turn it up and drift away.

Frankie Rose - Know Me

Julian Casablancas, Pharrel & Santigold - My Drive Thru

Formed in 1985 by Rob Sekula, 14 Iced Bears ably blended shambolic pop with a psychedelic punk edge that set them apart from their C86 contemporaries. Inspired by bands like the Stooges, Velvet Underground, 13th Floor Elevators and Echo & the Bunnymen, Sekula injected the then-nascent indie-pop sound with a twisted dose of noise and experimental menace. While still owing plenty to the Byrds/Ramones influences evident in the output of labels like Creation and Pink, it was this dark 60s flavor that always set the 'Bears apart.

The first single, "Inside," appeared on TV Personality Mark Flunder's Frank label in late 1986 and was an instant success. BBC recording sessions for John Peel and fanzine/music weekly adulation quickly followed. A second single for Frank, "Balloon Song," further consolidated their following. The band toured England and Europe and the press was ecstatic. The late 80s revival of classic guitar-based pop was kind to the 'Bears, and Sekula's talent at penning catchy, twisted melodies earned them a coveted spot as one of the best of the lot. A third single sealed the deal, the raucous "Come Get Me" on the then-new label Sarah.

The band went on the release their self-titled debut album in 1988; it was a masterpiece of psychedelic pop that turned a lot of heads with it's ambition and skilled songcraft. A raft of singles and a second album in 1991 followed, and the band quietly disbanded in 1992.

"In The Beginning" compiles those classic first three singles in their entirely, along with eight never before released BBC session cuts and four demos/live tracks. This is the complete story of the band's most seminal, influential recordings. Upbeat, punky songs like "Inside" and "Balloon Song" are tempered by dreamy ballads like "Cut" and the folky "Like A Dolphin." Every tune is a perfect little gem, combining memorable melodies with punchy guitar noise and infectious enthusiasm. These songs have had an undeniable influence on indie pop in the years since, and the 'Bears stand tall with contemporaries like The Pastels and The June Brides as cornerstones of the indie scene.

14 Iced Bears - Like A Dolphin

First-wave Slumberland Records band Lorelei are back with their first new album since 1994's "Everyone Must Touch The Stove." In their 90s heyday, the Washington, DC based three-piece (Matt Dingee on guitar, Stephen Gardner on bass and Davis White on drums) earned a well-deserved reputation as one of the most unique bands around, with a very distinctive blend of post-rock dynamics, sneakily melodic song-writing and ear-blasting guitar noise. Finding kinship with bands as disparate as Whorl, The Swirlies, Laika, Bailter Space and Lilys, Lorelei's records are as subtle and multi-layered and their live show is aggressive and memorably powerful.

New album "Enterprising Sidewalks" picks right up where Lorelei left off, serving up ten gorgeously complex exercises in pummeling rhythms and melodic abstraction. Produced by the band with Ben Bailes (Chessie), with additional recording by Archie Moore (Velocity Girl, Black Tambourine) and mixing by Guy Fixsen (My Bloody Valentine, Moose, Laika), "Enterprising Sidewalks" is a deep and intricately-produced listen. Tunes like "Hammer Meets Tongs" and "Sorry For The Patience" are as full rich with rhythmic twists and melodic intrigue as their very best material, and Matt's guitar attack is as varied as ever, ranging from ringing harmonics to shredding feedback and back, often within the same verse.

Lorelei - Sorry For The Patience

The Oldest Of Sisters, out 10th September, is the first single from Balthazar's forthcoming album RATS, out 15th October. Pre-order RATS from iTunes here http://smarturl.it/RatsiTunes

Rats

Balthazar - The Oldest of Sisters

Formed in January 2009, Girls Names quickly garnered recognition outside of the confines of their hometown of Belfast with the release of their eponymous debut EP in 2010 through New York's Captured Tracks. A mini-album through London imprint Tough Love soon followed, setting the foundations for their critically acclaimed debut LP "Dead To Me," released in April 2011, again by Tough Love in Europe and West Coast label Slumberland Records in the US. October 2011 brought the excellent "Black Saturday" single, a frisky slice of dark, driving pop. Earlier this year the band released "A Troubled See" as one side of a split 7" with Weird Dreams, also on Slumberland/Tough Love. "A Troubled See" startled with it's stark precision, pointing to a new direction.

Girls Names are now hinting at making their boldest and most exciting record to date. New single "The New Life" clocks in at over 7 minutes and takes you on a journey that mirrors the feelings of a band living and working in economy stricken Northern Ireland - the perfect soundtrack of the bleakness to where they exist. The B-side is a mesmerizing, dubbed-out JD Twitch Optimo remix of the single.

This year the band expanded to a four-piece and has spent the last six months in virtual seclusion honing and developing a more progressive and expansive sound, feeding on the darker sides of Echo and The Bunnymen, Spacemen 3, The Birthday Party and David Bowie's "Low" before heading off on a triumphant Spring/Summer European tour culminating on their biggest and most successful shows to date at the prestigious Primavera sound festival in Barcelona.

A new full length is currently being finished off but for now it seems Girls Names are intent on making a lasting impression with "The New Life." It certainly feels as though the band is ready to enter a new phase in their existence and the way they've grown and honed their sound shows that they're not afraid to take risks.

"The New Life" 12" is out now on Slumberland Records (North America)/Tough Love (Rest of World).

Girls Names - The New Life

Remix of Ill Fit by Post War Years
Single out now via Itunes http://bit.ly/T89HVX
Or on 10” vinyl http://bit.ly/VlzewL

Ill Fit (Post War Years Remix)

Girls Names - The New Life (A JD Twitch Optimo mix)

Belfast-based four-piece Girls Names are a singular proposition, both geographically and psychically removed from their contemporaries at home and abroad. Released in February 2013, their second album 'The New Life' is the sound of a band on the fringes striving to forge their own path, purposefully out of step - and time - with their surroundings. Weighed heavy with the grey landscapes of their hometown, 'The New Life' is isolation laid bare, shot through with an undeterred sense of purpose and individuality.

Having released a series of singles and EPs on various independent labels, Girls Names made their first significant impression on the wider world in 2011 with their debut album, 'Dead To Me,' earning plaudits from the likes of Pitchfork, NME and Loud & Quiet amongst a host of others. And yet, despite all the praise heaped on it, as soon as that record was released Girls Names were already moving into a different headspace. 

The band’s performance at this year Primavera festival provided them with their first real opportunity to showcase the songs that were to comprise 'The New Life.' The sunshine backdrop of the Spanish coastline offered a somewhat incongruous setting to the eerie dissonance of the new material, a kind of trial by fire metamorphosis rapturously received. Following a tour of Europe, the band returned home to record the album over a series of months. Having been produced by singer and songwriter, Cathal Cully, they’ve managed to capture that sense of otherness the performances at Primavera hinted at. The expansion to a four piece means the garage-clatter of the spritely pop songs of their debut have been replaced by a deeper, shadowy exercise in catharsis, driven by repetition, psychedelia and Dionysian crisis. And the record was born of a weighty concept too, as Cully explains: 

“'The New Life' is not an over night change for Girls Names - just over two years in fact. 'Dead to Me' literally was dead to us by the time it was committed to wax. But it's a learning curve. We started moving on as artists the moment we finished that recording session, maybe even before. Not to dwell on the past, 'The New Life' is what happens when you reset everything back to zero and start again, but try to perfect. It starts back at zero the minute the needle hits the groove but we're also starting back from zero once the needle lifts at the end of the record. Ad infinitum. 'The New Life' is what follows now.”

The album’s title track, and the first single to be taken from the album, is an ideal entry point. Just shy of 8 minutes long, it rotates around a hypnotic bass line, and in Cully’s evocation of renaissance, offers a perfect metaphor for the album as a whole. New single ‘Hypnotic Regression’ - available to stream today - reflects another side to the record. The reverb-heavy guitars and compelling melody are immediately memorable, but there are signs of experimentation, too; the white squall of the lead break; the uneasiness in the vocal echoes that furnish the verses. As such, 'The New Life,' stands as a brave statement; the mark of the band untying themselves from the past and easing forth into the unknown.

"The New Life" will be released on February 18th, 2013 on Tough Love (UK) and February 26th, 2013 on Slumberland Records (US).


Girls Names - Hypnotic Regression

Portrait

Pittura Infamante

Drawing Lines

Occultation

A Second Skin

About a decade ago Mario Hernandez (of Ciao Bella & From Bubblegum To Sky) was casually sitting on a Stockholm couch drinking a really good cup of coffee when a friend put on the "Back To Mono" box set and Hernandez's life was forever changed. He was instantly drawn in by the excellent songwriting and lush instrumental arrangements; and what started out as an innocent side trip into the Phil Spector back catalog soon became a longtime fascination with the Brill Building and Spector's fabled wall of sound.

As time passed he realized that he just couldn't get away from it. He kept coming back to the idea of a simple pop song that wasn't really that simple – a happy melody with a dark underpinning in the lyric– and he knew that it wasn't enough to just listen. He had to make his own version of this great sounding stuff. Kids On a Crime Spree is the result of this obsession.

After living in New York for a spell to more fully immerse himself in the culture that spawned the music he loved, Hernandez moved back to California and began recording in earnest. Of the more than one hundred songs he composed but was not able to record while in New York, eight of the best were chosen for 2011's We Love You So Bad, Kids On a Crime Spree's first record. Much care was taken to use older recording techniques akin to those used in the sixties in the Brill Building and the whole record was recorded on analog tape. We Love You So Bad set out their stall with eight nuggets of pure pop excellence, blending 60s pop chops with Ramones-y energy and drive, and a taste for noise. The tunes are brief and uncluttered, distilling 50 years of pop history into a completely focused, modern sound.

The new single "Creep The Creeps" has been a staple of the group's live set for a while now, and we're excited to finally have it on vinyl. It's punchy, handclap-driven power-pop of the very highest order, with a driving dance beat courtesy of Ms Barron. It's accompanied by an excellent video by Stagnant Cult that reinforces the band's love of AM radio and pop history. "New Ex-Boyfriend" on the flip adds some minor-key drama and echoed surf guitar leads to the mix. It's a heady combination, and points to new directions for exploration.


that rocks

AnnSo WhΛt ?