The Strange Familiar's full-length album released April 10th, 2012 via Krian Music Group / Universal Fontana.

Shelter

Armellodie Records is proud to present Dunfermline’s Dan Lyth and the Euphrates with their new album, Benthic Lines, released as a Deluxe book (that’s right, we said book!) with CD and/or download on Monday 12th May 2014.

Dan Lyth was born in the Middle East but has lived most of his life in Dunfermline, Fife. A sound designer by day, Lyth began work on Benthic Lines some five years ago, his intention to record an album entirely outdoors. On rooftops and rowing boats, in forests and high streets, mountains and quarries, ruined churches and beaches, car parks and peat bogs. Anywhere really, as long as it was outside!

Having first had the idea while on a trip to Sierra Leone, Lyth quickly realised that it's one thing to daydream of such a plan whilst in the tropics and quite another to actually attempt it back at home in Scotland. 

“I think some part of me took perverse pleasure in the thought of having to undergo some real physical exertion to make this record. I have also always been drawn to creative work that has taken a considerable amount of effort, and recording an album outdoors whilst living in Scotland with its devious climate seemed to fit the bill.”

In an age when it seems anyone can produce an album in their bedroom, Benthic Lines attempts to re-explore the relationship between music and the environment in which it is created. What happens to a recording when you have no control over the surroundings? What anomalies and accidents may occur? And would it be possible to weave together the unpredictable sounds of these environments with more traditional performances to create a cohesive whole?

As Lyth’s fondness of field recording has grown more ambitious, so too has his talent as a songwriter. Album opener ‘All My Love’ is testament to this, merging the mythological with the reality of the uncertainties that are brought when becoming a father for the first time. The vivid imagery of ‘Four Creatures’, written from the perspective of someone living in Syria, draws upon Islamic and Christian eschatological imagery to startling effect.

The influence of Steve Reich is worth noting, from the repetitive female vocal sounds on ‘Standing Start’ to the cyclic piano and accordion patterns of ‘Super Nature’ and ‘Earth Broke Its Vow’, Lyth is the first to admit of his affection for Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. 

“A big chunk of inspiration came from Steve Reich’s work and one of the main aims of the album in terms of the arrangements was to try and make music that sounds electronic or programmed but is actually all live acoustic instruments.” says Lyth. 

Benthic Lines are the deep sea communication cables through which the world is now connected, and communication is a recurring theme throughout the record ("the cables installed along ocean floors is where we had lived too long for sure" sings Lyth on ‘How It Happened’). How our constant use of communication technology can affect our thought processes and relationships (“We shot some video, scenes that would not be shown, think what you will but the devil’s in the pixels on my phone”, sings Lyth on ‘Four Creatures’).   With recording having taken place in locations as far afield as Morocco, Australia, Turkey and Uganda, Dan is also exploring the lines of human connection and lines of ancestry.

Designed with love by graphic artist Sarah Lyth, the album arrives in a beautifully bound 60-page book and includes photos from the array of recording locations. Cover art from celebrated New York artist Matthew Cusick and an accompanying short story, Already Here, by talented Fifer Craig Rennie complete the desirable artefact that is Benthic Lines. So what has Lyth got to say for himself now that his affair with the great outdoors is almost over.

“After travelling, listening, recording and being constantly surprised over the course of the five years and four continents that I’ve made Benthic Lines, what will really stay with me is not only all the wonderful sounds we heard but also the many inquisitive, open-minded and generous people we met along the way. But it wasn’t all romantic. It’s quite hard work transporting a drum kit to a remote derelict church or dragging a piano out of a small flat. There were broken mic stands, bleeding fingers and failing batteries. And there was rain, a lot of rain.”


DAN LYTH & THE EUPHRATES - All My Love

First single from my first upcoming EP "Things I Couldn't Say To You"

Love Songs

The debut single from Doc Hartley's debut album, 'Everybody Needs Some'.

Come On

So you say we got it all messed up
But I don’t know that’s true
After all we got our minds made up
And that’s something quite new
I love you madly, sadly
You don’t think I do

So you wish you’d never met my love
But I can’t feel that way
After all the good and bad my love
To whom else can I say?
I love you madly, sadly
I can’t make you stay

Come on, you’ve got to love someone
You’ve got to love someone
Right here, right now
Come on, you’ve got to love someone in love

So you cry and say I always laugh
But you know that’s not fair
After all there’s many ways to laugh
And most mean I still care
I love you madly, sadly
I can’t find you there

Come on, you’ve got to love someone
You’ve got to love someone
Right here, right now
Come on, you’ve got to love someone in love

Come on, you’ve got to love someone
You’ve got to love someone
Right here, right now
Come on, you’ve got to love someone in love

I still love you
I still love you
So down you bring me down, down
Slow down you bring me down
But I still love you

Come on, you’ve got to love someone
You’ve got to love someone
Right here, right now
Come on, you’ve got to love someone in love

Come on, you’ve got to love someone
You’ve got to love someone
Right here, right now
Come on, you’ve got to love someone in love

Come on, come on, come on, I still love you
Come on, come on, come on, I still love you
Come on, come on, come on, right here right now
Come on, come on, come on
I sill love you


Come On

Coldplay - Trouble (Live 2003)

Free Energy

Big Blue Wave People’s Song

When you were here before
Couldn't look you in the eye
You're just like an angel
Your skin makes me cry
You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
I wish I was special
You're so very special

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here

I don't care if it hurts
I wanna have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul
I want you to notice
When I'm not around
You're so very special
Yeah I wish I was special

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here

She's running
She's running out the door
I said she's running out
She runs runs runs runs...
Run...

Whatever makes you happy
Whatever you want
You're so very special
I wish I was special

But I'm a creep
I said it
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong

I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here
I don't belong here

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox:
http://postmodernjukebox.com/

Creep - Vintage Postmodern Jukebox Radiohead Cover Ft. Haley Reinhart

Lay me down on
shores of the whitest sand
soft like that woman
with the fight of a thousand men

and if you hold the key
would you set me free?
if you hold the key
would you set me free?

I’m screaming to God
‘would you come and save
what you’ve either forgot
or you’re strengthening 
I’ve finally paid the toll
and it’s all open road
just trying to find a home
take me home’

Violet iris
and lilies in bloom for spring
enticing—the silence
a song that we all can sing

and if you hold the key
would you set me free?
if you hold the key
would you set me free?

I’m screaming to God
‘would you come and save
what you’ve either forgot
or you’re strengthening 
I’ve finally paid the toll
and it’s all open road
just trying to find a home
take me home’

We’re tired and changing
heartbeats are fading
our days are numbered
the clocks, they keep ticking
I’ve been deserted,
my feelings perverted
by a pissed off and ripped off machine cycle circus
when we look in the mirror
it shatters with shame
our faces are bloody 
and sour with distain
I have seen what you are
and  I have seen who I am
and  we are desperate, we’re desperate, we’re desperate
for home…
home….

lay me down on
shores of the whitest sand
soft like that woman
with the fight of a thousand men
