Pic: Maximo Pedraza (http://www.flickr.com/photos/maximopedraza)

Soko - Monster Love (feat. Ariel Pink)

John Maus - My Whole Worlds Coming Apart

John Maus - I Want to Live (2003)

John Maus - Keep Pushing On

Buy: http://mannequinrecords.bigcartel.com/product/mnq-062-carmody-sleep-on-mirrors-the-1981-1985-tapes-lp

MNQ 062 Carmody - Sleep On Mirrors: The 1981-1985 Tapes LP

As earlier compilations of 'Danza Meccanica' have taught us, Italy gave birth to a disproportionate number of synth-pop, new wave and electronic acts in the 80s. 

Mannequin goes deeper into the Italian new wave archelogical research with a killer 10 tracks selection of Carmody. Picking their name from a science fiction novel titled "Dimension of Miracles" by Robert Sheckley, Carmody were coming from Torino, as their pairs Monuments and Chromagain. Started as a duo (Alberto Ramella and Andrea Lesmo) and later a trio with Max Casacci joining in  as a guitar player, Carmody recorded from 1981 to 1985 and issued three incredibly rare demo tapes. "Sleep On Mirrors" compiles the best tracks from those tapes, bringing you one of the most peculiar 80's minimal synth music coming out of Italy.

Tracklist

A1 - Messengers Of Love 
A2 - Most of you 
A3 - As We Down 
A4 - Ambiguos 
A5 - Psalm 
B1 - Long Breath 
B2 - Space invaders 
B3 - Sleep on mirrors 
B4 - Bones 
B5 - Time's under 

Limited edition of 300 copies. 

Mastering by Rude 66. 
Graphic design by Alessandro Adriani.

Carmody - Messengers Of Love

U.S. Girls - The Island Song

Fake It

Midnight Cowboy

ltd. 12" available here: itsyourunhappybirthday.bandcamp.com/album/kraken-2

unhappybirthday - Himitsu

John Maus - Love Letters From Hell

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).


John Maus - Love Letters From Hell

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