Dark woom

"Tess is a true believer in the church of rock’n’roll. She has great taste and is really sharp!” - Alan McGee

Tess Parks was born and raised in Toronto but moved to London at seventeen to pursue music and to study photography. She has played solo for the past four years.

Having moved back to Toronto in 2012, she put together her amazing psychedelic backing band of "sexy and talented musicians”, The Good People.
Early in 2013, she self-released a very popular EP ‘Work All Day/Up All Night’
Tess describes her songs as "lo-fi alternative drones with a hypnotic vibe”. Influences include Elliott Smith, friends the Dandy Warhols and all the classics: "I was brought up on Bob Dylan, Nirvana, The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Zeppelin.”

She met Alan McGee in London. "We stayed in touch, that was it really. I just got so lucky. I love Oasis, Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine… He’s affiliated with all of my favourite musicians.”

Tess recorded her album of scuzzy, downbeat psychedelia (think Mazzy Star crossed with The Brian Jonestown Massacre) across the summer. It’s been pre-empted by the release of her debut single proper ‘Somedays’.


Tess Parks - Gates Of Broadway

Wand - Take Me Back To The Void

Gringo and Faux Discx are set to release an expanded version of HOOKWORMS debut EP on CD and digitally on March 4th 2016

Pre-order: http://gringorecords.limitedrun.com/products/566096-hookworms-hookworms-ep-bonus-tracks-cd

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A reissue of a 7 track expanded version of Hookworms 2011 self-titled debut EP off the back of two critically acclaimed albums - 2013's Pearl Mystic on Gringo and 2014's The Hum released worldwide on Domino arm Weird World – is both a marker from where Leeds five-piece have subsequently hurtled forwards from, but also a document and proof of the undeniable character that they've never allowed to waver even as all around them has changed.

The EP contains the first tracks the group ever recorded in vocalist and producer MJ's original Suburban Home Studio, with the group just a handful of local shows into their existence – one such show, supporting Sun Araw lead to its original release.  "It was a very exciting time for us," bassist MB recalls. "MJ having his first studio meant we'd gone from practicing in a tiny basement and receiving noise complaints to having a place where we could do what we wanted. We played with Sun Araw just as we were finishing the EP and Cameron Stallones enjoyed our set and asked to hear any recordings - then subsequently released it on cassette."

Hookworms have long since evolved into a mighty beast, live able to fill cavernous warehouses with a vitriolic form of kosmiche, as when headlining Liverpool Psych Fest, or when supporting fuzzy legends Slowdive during their 2014 comeback. Hookworms as a listen though already has in place several of the traits that have helped elevate them – the strutting bass and four note repetition of Teen Dreams is pure Modern Lovers, mining the group's 60's garage and proto-punk influences and mixing them with a caustic modernity. It's the only track that still makes an occasional appearance live; another highlight is the rolling bass thunder of I Have Some Business Out West crackles with the energy of an approaching storm: "Our gear wasn't as good back then so we did quite a bit of re-amping and post-production," MB comments. "The EP was basically a playground for experimentation with a bunch of new guitar pedals we'd recently acquired."

In addition, the reissue comes with additional early and rare recordings - the drone heavy initial version of Form and Function, which would appear on a split 7" alongside Nottingham-based peers Kogumaza, plus the swaggering rumbles of The Correspondent – which appeared on 2012 Sonic Cathedral compilation Psych For Sore Eyes. The former is a premonition of phase two of the band, foreshadowing the heavier, dense sound around Pearl Mystic; the latter still sounds like a wonderful outlier – which says something for a band whose boundaries have forever stretched towards the horizon.

MJ would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for all the support, help and donations he has received after his studio in Leeds was flooded over Christmas. The band had been working on new material at Suburban Home Studios prior to the flood. 

Tracklisting:

Medicine Cabinet
Teen Dreams
I Have Some Business Out West
Resolution
Form and Function (originally released on a split 7" with Kogumaza on Gringo)
Deu (originally released on cassette Spur: Volume One compilation, Magnetic Tapes)
The Correspondent (originally released on Psych For Sore Eyes 7")

HOOKWORMS – Teen Dreams

Brian Jonestown Massacre - Fingertips

Taken from Great Ytene's forthcoming LP 'Locus', released February 17th 2017 via Faux Discx.
PRE-ORDER: www.fauxdiscx.com/shop/great-ytene-locus
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Great Ytene are a band built upon deconstruction and reassembly. In order to create something that felt truly complete, they had to tear down everything that had come before. From their formative years as 'Colours', to their reemergence as Great Ytene (taking their name from an old term for the New Forest, which is where they all grew up), they replaced sounds, members and even their name before they felt truly comfortable in their collective skin.

So, it's quite fitting that In 2015 Great Ytene lost a full album's worth of material to a technological worm hole. It was just another clean slate. It was the best thing that could have happened. The band spent six months writing new songs, perfecting their shape, pulling them apart and piecing them back together until Locus was in exactly the right place.

Locus, Great Ytene's first full length LP since their self- titled debut (via Bella Union) in 2014, sees the band moving forward to explore darker themes. The name ‘Locus’ refers to the attempt to pin-point exact moments in time when an event took place. This idea is explored lyrically throughout the album, even as the music loops and pushes back.

If you are looking for like-minded contemporary peers then look no further than the grey and black post-punk of the likes of Disappears and Preoccupations. At times waves of noise are underpinned by tight, rigid rhythms, at others they’re allowed to spill over the edges to create disquiet landscapes.

The album was recorded and mixed in East London at Holy Mountain with producer and long-time collaborator Iggy B, mixed by MJ (Hookworms) at Suburban Home Studios in Leeds & mastered by Joe Caithness of Subsequent Mastering. It's released via Faux Discx on February 17, 2017.

GREAT YTENE – Fixed Victim

A stylistic sampler of the Mexican Summer / Software Recording Co. catalog

Tamaryn - While You're Sleeping, I'm Dreaming

An independent record label based in Brighton.

http://fauxdiscx.com