[Weekly Mix] 2018.04 (1)

Delay

From the "Distant Star EP" out 27th April 2018 on By The Time It Gets Dark.
Pre-order at bythetimeitgetsdark.bandcamp.com

Spielbergs - Distant Star

Nest Egg

Nest Egg - Nothingness Is Not A Curse

From the album Warrior, available April 6, 2018 from Western Vinyl

Bandcamp: https://airwaves.bandcamp.com/album/warrior
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/warrior/1337353378?ls=1&app=itunes
WV: http://westernvinyl.com/shop/wv167

The album cover for Warrior, the third full-length by Brooklyn-based band Air Waves, features a ominous, androgynous figure standing with a bicycle, wearing a gas mask adorned with a daisy.  The remarkable image was taken on April 22nd, 1970 at the inaugural Earth Day celebration in New York City by Nicole Schneit’s dad, Martin Schneit.  Forty-seven years later, artist Em Rooney hand-painted Schneit’s original black & white photo, resulting in an image that radiates with Warrior’s indefatigable spirit, strength, and love.

Like many queer women, Nicole Schneit is a warrior by necessity, fighting for basic rights, dignity, and acceptance.  Such determination in the face of hardship and injustice runs in Schneit’s family; her new album was inspired in part by her mom who was diagnosed with fallopian cancer last year.  As she explains, “The doctor told her she had a fifteen to twenty percent chance, and her response was ‘I’m going to get this mother fucker.’ So the title ‘Warrior’ and the song are about her. After chemotherapy,  surgery, and then more chemotherapy, all the cancer in her body has left and she's currently in remission. I feel like most of the people in my life, including myself, are warriors and have overcome obstacles that seemed impossible to defeat.”

The dignified fighter archetype referenced in the album’s title is explored on each of Warrior’s eleven pieces of bittersweet, empowering indie pop.  According to Schneit the song “Gay Bets”, written after the 2016 election is “about being gay and being proud and open. I was thinking about hate crimes spiking and the current state of the world. My friend Jennifer Moore, who sings on the track, was my partner a long time ago, so I felt like I was writing a fuck you to Trump, for trying to take away queer rights, women's rights, people's rights.”  The song “Tangerine” was inspired by the film of the same name in which two trans women try to make ends meet as prostitutes. This movie, a dark docu-comedy shot in the contrastingly sunny setting of L.A., reflects Schneit’s battle between identity and society via Brooklyn pop rock that swings between the pastel-tinged and the downright melancholic.

On the album’s gorgeous closer “Blue Fire,” (inspired by the Adrienne Rich poem "The Will to Change") Schneit equates her post-presidential-election anxiety to a flame that grows and recedes, as she pleads for herself and listeners to remain calm. Like its namesake, the track burns slowly and brightly into one of the most glowing points on the record, leaving the listener smiling with thoughtful hope.  Warrior’s highlights, and all of the unmissable, satisfying pieces that tie them together show Schneit’s perseverance and resilience through crumbling relationships, personal adversity, and the current political climate, all leading to her most powerful collection of songs to date. Understated, subtly sophisticated, and equally empowering and comforting, Warrior launches Air Waves above the apolitical complacency of too many of the group's contemporaries.  Schneit proudly declares her mission statement: “I want these songs to be heard by people in my queer community, but also by anyone that wants to feels strong, powerful, and included.”

Warrior

Air Waves - "Warrior" ft. Kevin Morby

Taken from the Dappled EP, released on 4th May as a limited edition 12", 100 on pink vinyl, 200 on black.

Pre-order 12" (pink vinyl) - http://smarturl.it/HolmDappled
Facebook - www.facebook.com/holmband/

Biog
Holm is the solo project of Danish multi-instrumentalist Mikkel Holm-Silkjær, and the latest iteration of an impressive musical trajectory that has seen him record and play with Yung, Brooch, Tears, Urban Achievers, and Happy Hookers for Jesus. At just 23 and with a discography already in double figures, Holm-Silkjær is nothing if not prolific. Yet his work as Holm might prove to be his most complete. While previous projects were often collaborative, all four songs on Dappled, his debut EP for Tough Love, were written, recorded, performed, and mixed by Holm-Silkjær himself in a shared rehearsal space. This resourcefulness has long been characteristic of the music he makes, defined by an overarching DIY ethos that has also seen him champion the music of others through the two record labels he runs (100 and Shordwood, the latter of which also released the first Holm recordings as a 7") and the organisation of numerous live events in both Aarhus and Copenhagen.

Those familiar with Holm-Silkjær's other music will certainly recognise Dappled as his - that unmistakable metallic vocal, brash chiming guitars, and a preternatural melodic sensibility. Where Dappled differs from previous work, however, is in song structure, most obviously on 'Hope' and 'Grow', the opening and closing tracks respectively. Though anchored by recurring motifs (not quite choruses!), these are sprawling and explorative songs, matched by lyrics unusually insightful and clear-sighted for someone so young. Take the neat double-meaning in the repeated coda of 'Grow' for example: "I’m growing, growing, growing, this arrangement, it’s not in tune". In that line there's a convenient way of understanding what Holm-Silkjær has arrived at with Dappled - a relatable reflection on finding personal identity through his own ever-evolving music. Holm is, after-all, his own name.

Holm - Hope

Frog Eyes 'Violet Psalms' out May 18, 2018 on Paper Bag Records

'Idea Man': http://hyperurl.co/pkbxq7
Album pre-order: http://hyperurl.co/wpts5f

FROG EYES - 'Idea Man'

Enjoy the sounds of our debut EP 'Want Love' - now available to stream worldwide 

(website)

Want Love

HONEY

You, Forever

Health Machine

Taken from the debut Lp 'The Orust Tapes'.

Vinyl: https://tictail.com/westcoastrecs/wcr009-ok-the-orust-tapes

The Orust Tapes

Oktoberklubben - Varekil

Recorded and mixed by: Jaunt 
Mastered by: Dave Graham 
Additional vocals throughout: Caitlin Woelfle O'Brien (Blunt Chunks), Eliza Niemi

Album artwork by Jaunt

Jaunt is Thomas Helliwell, Duncan Hood, Nick Nausbaum, Pat O'Brien and Daniel Reardon

Thanks for your time, and thank you for being you

Faster Interactions

Keep You Close.
Available now.
http://fanlink.to/launder

Keep You Close (ft. Soko)

Taken from the album, Stains on Silence, out 15th June on Tough Love. Pre-order here -  http://smarturl.it/StainsOnSilence

Formats:
LP  - black vinyl, with cream sleeve
LPX - orange vinyl, with black sleeve (indie stores-only - 300 copies)
LPXX - ultra clear vinyl, with black sleeve, poster and hand-numbered (Bandcamp only - 200 copies)
CD & digital

Biog

It stands to reason that many vital albums come critically close to never being made. The eight-track upshot of doubt, upheaval and financial strain, Stains on Silence by Girls Names is one such release.

Following 2015’s blitzing Arms Around a Vision, and the parting of drummer Gib Cassidy just over a year later, the Belfast band suddenly found themselves facing down a looming void. “There was a finished – and then aborted – mix of the album, which was shelved for six months,” reveals Girls Names frontman Cathal Cully. “We then took a break from all music and went back to full-time work. We chilled out from the stress of rushing the record and not being happy with it, as well as being skint with no impending touring on the cards and constantly having to worry about rent.”

The stumbling blocks that proved a strain became the album’s defining breakthrough. Recorded in various locations including Belfast’s Start Together Studio with Ben McAuley, Cully’s home and the band’s practice space, spontaneous creation, cut-up techniques and self-editing took centre-stage for the first time. "We started tearing the material apart and rebuilding, re-editing and re-recording different parts in my home in early Autumn last year,” says Cully. “When we got them to a place we were happier with we went back into Start Together Studio with Ben McAuley to finalise the mixes to what they are now."

Where AAAV proved a brazen statement of intent, Stains on Silence bounds forth as its feature-length comedown. What could have seen the band buckle became an opportunity for approaching things tabula rasa. During its two-year transmutation, Cully, bassist Claire Miskimmin and guitarist Philip Quinn had a single aim for their fourth album: to make an old-fashioned record clocking in around 30 to 35 minutes in length that made the listener reach straight for repeat. From the Bang Bang bar-summoning swoon of opener '25’ and the submerged disco doom of ‘Haus Proud’ to the rapt, dub-leaning ‘Fragments of a Portrait’, Girls Names have excelled in their goal by forging an LP of synchronous nuance and defiance.

Marked by the presence of drum machines and programming throughout, these eight masterfully-woven tales are once again commandeered by founder Cully, whose words, understated yet defiant, mine purpose and meaning from the mire ("I want to bathe again, I want to swim again / In a pool of twisting bodies, blackened gold." — ‘25’). But while Stains on Silence came critically close to never being made, having lived with it, reconfigured it, and guided its metamorphosis from flickers of inspiration and half-formed schemes, it’s both a statement of pure perseverance, and a head-on confrontation with ambivalence that couldn’t be more assured. (Brian Coney, March 2018)

https://www.facebook.com/GirlsNames
https://twitter.com/Girls_Names
https://www.instagram.com/girls_names/
https://girlsnamesbelfast.bandcamp.com

Girls Names - 25

Listen to the Dance Moves EP in full: juicebox-recordings.lnk.to/2yjpO

Headline UK Tour Tickets:
www.livenation.co.uk/artist/franc-moody-tickets

Stream / DL

Dance Moves

Healing Contest is out April 20 on Sybaritic Peer/ May 18 on Nicey Music

Owe it 2 the Girls

'touch' by Koda

the third single off of my upcoming debut album 'i hope this makes us better'

written and produced by Koda
mixed and mastered by Miguel Lara
artwork by KILLGRAY

http://smarturl.it/koda-touch-spotify

LYRICS
we touch ourselves to distant memories
i feel what you felt when you were lying next to me

you broke my body in
and i broke your body in
you turned me on to sin
will you make me whole again
whole again

i settled without- for no reason in particular
you sold me out but so does everyone 

you broke my body in
and i broke your body in
you turned me on to sin
will you make me whole again
whole again

next time i hold you close
i'm not letting go
i need another dose
so you can make me whole again
whole again

next time i hold you close
i'm not letting go
i need another dose
so you can make me whole again
whole again

-
listen on spotify: http://smarturl.it/Koda-Spotify
listen/purchase on apple music: http://smarturl.it/Koda-Apple
listen on soundcloud: http://smarturl.it/Koda-SC
listen/purchase on bandcamp: http://smarturl.it/Koda-Bandcamp

sign up for email list: http://smarturl.it/koda-email
follow on instagram: http://smarturl.it/Koda-IG
follow on twitter: http://smarturl.it/Koda-TW
like on facebook: http://smarturl.it/Koda-FB
check out website: http://smarturl.it/Koda-Site

touch

STREAM/SAVE

Koda - touch

Deter

Buy on Bandcamp

LXRC32 - Sleep Forever - Basalt

Taken from Light Vibes' debut EP Following, out April 20 via Fading Trails Recordings.

www.facebook.com/lightvibesmusic/
www.fadingtrailsrecs.com

Light Vibes - "Kiss It Goodnight"

Released on March 29 in celebration of Piano Day 2018.
Pre-order the album 'Persona' here: http://phonofile.link/rivalconsoles-persona

Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles has announced his fourth full length album 'Persona' will be released on 13th April via Erased Tapes.

The title 'Persona' was inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s film of the same name, specifically a shot in the opening credits of a child reaching out to touch a woman’s face on a screen, which is shifting between one face and another. This powerful image struck Ryan and it inspired the album’s main theme — an exploration of the persona, the difference between how we see ourselves and how others see us, the spaces in between; between states, people, light and dark, the inner persona and the outer persona. 

"My music is generally is generally inward looking. I like finding something about the self within music, that doesn't have to be specific but maybe asks something or reveals something. This record is a continuation on the self through electronic sounds. Like Legowelt once said ‘a synthesiser is like a translator for unknown emotions’, which I think sums up what I am trying to do. I think all these emotions we have make up our persona. So in a way by finding new ones you alter or expand your persona. And that is what I want my music to try to do. I deliberately aimed to be more sonically diverse with this record. I wanted to experiment more. I wanted to create new sounds and new emotions.”

Recorded at his studio in south-east London, ‘Persona’ benefits from Ryan’s exploration of a dynamic production process that combines analogue-heavy synthesisers, acoustic and electric instruments with a shoegaze-level obsession with effect pedals. A greater depth of emotion and confidence can be heard across the album. From the deconstructed movements on ‘Unfolding’ that starts the album with a snap of delayed snares, the apocalyptic drones of the title track and thundering drums in ‘Phantom Grip’ to more  restrained ambient feels of ‘Dreamer’s Wake’, ‘Rest’ and ‘Untravel’. The latter transverses six beatless minutes of undulating melodies representing “a limbo space, a feeling of ennui, of not really ever being known to others and others not ever really being known to you”.

'Be Kind' reveals a musical connection with fellow Erased Tapes artist Nils Frahm, with its minimal approach and improvisational nature. On the more complex sounding ‘I Think So’ Ryan aims to replicate a colour collage with sound. Like a musical kaleidoscope, a flashing and convoluted mass. Written after he saw Slowdive perform live last year, ‘Hidden’ builds from whispers to landscapes of controlled noise. In an interview with XLR8R magazine, Ryan explains: “once you start trying to make a sound loud, then you turn your back on thousands and thousands of sonic possibilities. One of the best things to do is to start a track with a really quiet, weak sound.” Taking this idea to its ultimate conclusion, ‘Fragment’ closes the album as an innocent sounding ambient piece, almost nursery rhyme like, yielding time for reflection on how the persona has changed.

'Persona' follows the success of a series of releases — the ‘Odyssey’ and ‘Sonne’ EPs, long player ‘Howl’, and 2016’s mini album ‘Night Melody’ — that saw Ryan mature into what Pitchfork has called a “forward-thinking electronic musician with his own ideas about sound”. Atypical of instrumental-electronic music, Ryan has achieved a signature sound that’s unmistakably identifiable as Rival Consoles. Going beyond typical electronic music production, Ryan defines it as “songwriting with an electronic palette of sounds”.

The increasingly dynamic live audio-visual show, born from bespoke performances at the Tate and for Boiler Room at the V&A Museum featuring self-programmed visuals in Max/MSP, has propelled him to play around the world. Ryan launches ‘Persona’ at London’s XOYO on 12th April with further dates to be announced.

Persona

Be Kind

Buy 2LP/CD/DL

Rival Consoles - Be Kind

Produced by Charlie Russell
Mixed by Matt Wiggins at Strongroom Studios
Engineered by Jonny Solway
Assistant Engineer Tristan Ellis
Recorded at Dean Street Studios London
Mastered by Robin Schmidt at 24-96 Mastering, Berlin, Germany

Under license to LAB Records, Ltd
Distributed by Alternative Distribution Alliance, a Warner Music Group company

What Makes A Man - lyrics


Losing his own nature 
Tearing at the seams  
When there’s little left to wait for
But a bad memory 

Oh they moulded and they shaped you
Till you forgot to dream 
Now the place you crawl for comfort 
Is a place you can’t reach 

What makes a man

They said you could move a mountain
Little mustard seed, 
Now you’re weighed and you’ve been counted 
You don’t mean that much to me 

And the taste it leaves on your tongue 
Gives you no relief 
Now you’re looking for deliverance 
From things you can’t unsee 

So long, so long, so long, 
To bad memories

[Weekly Mix] 2018.04 (1)

Niche Music