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: https://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 - This Is How It Feels (Single Edit)

First mp3 single from Holographic Violence, Grave Babies' third full-length LP and second for Hardly Art.

Pre-order Holographic Violence
Hardly Art: hardlyart.com/shop/gravebabies.html
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/holographic-violence/id989018429
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00WRPMGWG

hardlyart.com/gravebabies.html

Follow Grave Babies on Twitter: twitter.com/gravebabies 
Like Grave Babies on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Grave-Babies/194986180531506
Follow Grave Babies on Instagram: instagram.com/gravebabies/ 

Follow Hardly Art on Twitter: twitter.com/hardlyart
Like Hardly Art on Facebook: facebook.com/hardlyarttrecords      
Follow Hardly Art on Instagram: instagram.com/hardlyartrecords


Holographic Violence

Eternal (On & On)

Grave Babies - "Eternal (On & On)"

Eris

'Ines de Castro' is the first single from David Vassalotti's Broken Rope LP on on 2/12/2016.  Order your copy here - http://wharfcatrecords.com/store/david-vassalotti-broken-rope-lp

Order from Apple Music here - https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/broken-rope/id1074173803

As modern life spirals further into chaos and confusion, David Vassalotti’s newest album Broken Rope, a follow-up to his revered out-of-print 2011 LP Book of Ghosts, presents itself as a soundtrack for the tumult
.
Vassalotti, a Florida-based songwriter and performer for critically acclaimed 4AD signees Merchandise (amongst numerous other projects), has used this record as an opportunity to delve further into his own diverse world of personal interests. Broken Rope is a passion project, with Vassalotti handling all of the writing, performing, recording, production, and art design.

From lo-fi guitar pop sounds (a la Flying Nun staples like The Clean and The Verlaines), to elements harsh industrial noise and musique concrete, Vassalotti weaves together a wide array of musical influences with a steady hand. Similarly, the album’s lyrics draw from literary references as far- reaching as Portuguese history, Russian folklore, and Spanish poetry.

Ambitious as it may be to cover so much ground, there is a rational flow and unity that ties the record together. In the chaotic globalism of the 21st century Broken Rope may not be the compass that helps us find our orientation, but it can still serve as a mirror to help shape our concept of where we fit into the fray. This is an adventurous album for uncertain times.

PITCHFORK: D. Vassalotti "Swallow My Pride"
“Tampa's Merchandise have a decade of artful hardcore and experimental pop under their belts-- but the devastating solo output of guitarist Dave Vassalotti is their best kept secret”

David Vassalotti - Ines De Castro

Written and performed by COLOUR OF SPRING
Recorded and mixed by Alex Greaves @ Purple Pro Studios, 16th-17th Aug & 25th Oct 2015
Mastered by Tom Woodhead @ Hippocratic Mastering
Artwork: Jaz Stanford

Pillow

Taken from the 'Crystal' EP released on Sonic Cathedral 

Reunion Message

Entopica Phenomica

Easy Touch 

"Promotional $ingle" is a snapshot of the forthcoming 7", "IBO". The 7" contains 12 one minute songs. 
It will be out in July 2018, through Spunk Records (Aus/NZ) and  Emotional Response in (US/UK/EU).

The Ocean Party "Promotional $ingle"

Suck it Up - Radio Edit

Debut album released August 24, 2018 

Preorder now via Roadkill Records

Written and performed by Muertos. 

Recorded and mixed by Matty Moon: 
mattymoon.co.uk 

Recorded at The Mother Lode: 
themotherlode.co.uk 

Artwork by Marc Crane: 
marcsbrain@hotmail.com 


Roadkill Records 

© Muertos, 2018 
℗ Muertos, 2018
license
all rights reserved

Suck it up (radio edit)

Off of "Heaven on the Rocks", the first full-length LP from Ladada.
Pre-order the 12" here:
https://goldrobotrecords.bigcartel.com/product/ladada-heaven-on-the-rocks-12

Heaven On The Rocks

Float Away

Ladada - Float Away

Premiered on Brooklyn Vegan

Music video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DztJUCCKo2w
+ unofficial video for Does It Show vimeo.com/73195315 - Unit 1

Dandelion Wine is the first single off of the band in Heaven's full length album: Caught in a Summer Swell. You can pre-order the album: http://decadesrecord.com/product/caught-in-a-summer-swell/

Lyrics:
The sights and sounds that fell all around your feet
(red white and blue, know everything true)
All turn to gold, line the sidewalks of your street
(people come and go, where to no one knows)
The summer sun will set, won’t stay too long
(don’t hide your eyes, greet the world outside)
So waste your breath and fill your lungs with songs
(songs you used to know, the ones your daddy showed you)

Kiss your wrist and ask no one the time
Stay up late getting drunk off that Dandelion Wine

Now your shoes all worn, your shirt all tucked in safe
(tucked down inside, still got nothing right)
Your hands all cracked, can’t help but show their age
(worn to the bone, spent polishing stones)
You showed up small but you grew too tall to walk
(bent and afraid, everything has changed)
Now you curse the kids that hang around your block	
(all they do is talk, the ones that time forgot)	

Check your wrist and ask someone the time
Can’t remember getting drunk off that Dandelion Wine

Dandelion Wine

Younghusband is a British band from London, UK. The line up consists of Euan Hinshelwood (vocals/guitar), Adam Beach (guitar/keys), Joe Chilton (Bass) and Pete Baker (drums). They released their first single in June 2011 with the UK label Too Pure,. This was followed by the 'Crystal E.P.' released by U.K. shoegaze label Sonic Cathedral in November 2011. Younghusband initially existed as a bedroom recording project by Euan who put out an early single and two e.p's 'The Judas Cow' and 'Idiot Son' on small u.k. label Culturedeluxe. Shortly after this a band was formed to play the songs live. Overtime the band started writing together and embraced a heavier psych filled sound, moving away from the lo-fi orientated sound of the bedroom output. They began recording their debut album in the summer of 2012 with producer Nicolas Vernhes, noted for his work with the likes of Animal Collective, Deerhuter, Dirty Projectors and Silver Jews. The album is set for a spring 2013 release. In interviews the band have mentioned Stereolab, The Birthday Party, Television Personalities, The Ronnettes, Felt, Broadcast, Wire and The Cocteau Twin's to be amongst their influences. 

Reunion Message

younghusband