This is fucking poppy and beautiful. I love the feedback and the lyrics are impressive!

can't stop listening to this, blogged at http://bit.ly/1cnPRjK

BLACKOUT All-Nighter

On their spellbinding sophomore album, "Whispers in the Speech Machine," the young Ohio siblings from The Laughing Chimes fully embrace their Southern Gothic influences, cannily balancing the light of their infectious pop with the shadow of their rust belt environs. While attending an afterschool music program at their local opera house, Evan and his brother Quinn began recording The Laughing Chimes' debut album "In This Town," released in 2020. A string of well-received digital singles and a cassette EP for Slumberland followed, dazzling savvy pop fans with their Paisley Underground-inflected jangle that owes as much to the Flying Nun sound as it does to 80s Athens, GA.

The eight assured songs of "Whispers in the Speech Machine" prove The Laughing Chimes deserve the attention and accolades, while their approaches to songwriting and sonic aesthetics continue to evolve. "Southeast Ohio is the foothills of Appalachia, so it has this indescribable mood and atmosphere to it," guitarist/vocalist Evan Seurkamp told The Big Takeover. "Sometimes there's a haunting weight of decay you want to escape, but at the same time there is some sort of strange romanticism surrounding ghost towns. We've tried to channel those moods to add more regional flavor into our sound."

Whispers In The Speech Machine

The Laughing Chimes - High Beams

Handbrake

photography by: jessica gibbs
artwork by: melanie sarria
recorded by: airhockey
mixed & mastered by: sebastian hidalgo

little friday

Cadillac

The second single from South / East London band Cloud Studies. It's the follow-up to their debut 2024 single ‘Ghosts’.

PRESS RELEASE
============

For Fans of: Dreampop, Shoegaze, Slowdive, Film School, My  Bloody Valentine, The Cure, Stereolab, Beach House, DIIV

Cloud Studies formed in 2024, as means for Adam Cresswell and Martin J Langthorne to explore the sonic possibilities offered by the large arsenal of effects pedals they had acquired.

‘Cloud Cartography’ was the first song written by Adam for the band as a means to set the tone for the direction of their sonic explorations. It was inspired by visits to the Derryveagh Mountains of Donegal in Ireland, and fighting off the elements as sheets of rain beat down upon the mountainous landscape.

The song is about trying to make sense of a constantly changing world and our efforts to document and understand it.  In a library, the protagonist meets someone attempting to map and catalogue the clouds. They find themselves standing together on a mountainside battling the elements, their undaunted optimism constantly challenged by the impossible nature of their undertaking. 

Sonically the song presents a panoramic, full-spectrum wall of sound; dreamy synths, layers of reverb-drenched guitars from Adrian Taylor and Martin J Langthorne, ethereal vocals from Adam Cresswell, underpinned by a tight insistent rhythm from drummer Nat Guest.

Cloud Studies:
Adam Cresswell, Vocals, bass; Nat Guest, Drums; Martin J Langthorne, Guitars; Adrian Taylor, Guitars

Produced by Adam Cresswell.
Mastered by Toby Campen Mastering.
Recorded at Nan's House Studios (Liverpool) and Bellasonic Sounds (London).

Cloud Cartography

CLOUD STUDIES: Cloud Cartography

this song is from our new EP "Weed for The Parrots" out on 22nd June.

10"/digital via Luv Luv Luv Records (WW)
10" via Sonido Muchacho (SP)
CASSETTE via Burger Records (WW)

art by C.M.Ruiz

To The People Who Showed Me Their Love While I Was Here

Over the course of a decade playing together and making records as Jeanines, the duo of Alicia Jeanine and Jed Smith have charted a distinctive course through the history of pop, docking at ports of call as varied as the 60s folk of early Fairport Convention and Vashti Bunyan, the sunshine/soft pop of Margo Guryan and Laura Nyro, and of course indiepop touchstones like Dear Nora and the post-Black Tambourine projects of Pam Berry.

Their new album "How Long Can It Last" finds Jeanines grappling with serious themes of personal and professional upheaval, adding weight to their finest set of songs yet. With lyrics that look deeply at time and its reverberations, connections and ruptures, songs like "Coaxed A Storm," "What's Done Is Done" and "On and On" combine richly melodic tunes and crisp arrangements to stellar effect. While the themes might be heavy, the melodies and harmonies are simply heavenly, elevating these economical songs and giving each the feeling of a lost classic.

How Long Can It Last

pre-order

Jeanines - On And On

White Fang

trade

Running Through the Airport

Running Through the Airport (feat. Flaural & Spirit Award)

Cityscape

Produced & mixed by Adam Jaffrey at Unwound Recordings
Unwelcome Light EP out March 25 on Telharmonium Records
Pre-order now to receive a free download of Whisper:
https://geo.itunes.apple.com/gb/album/unwelcome-light-ep/id1081057767?mt=1&app=itunes

Whisper

Unwelcome Light

Notes from the Malts Mansion: Spring, 2013

I’ve disconnected the doorbell; the phone is off the hook. The post office has been instructed to return all mail sent c/o Box 489 directly back to sender. These extreme actions have not been made in haste. The past year-plus has plum worn me out.

Ever since Slumberland Records lost a bet and released 2012’s "Killing Time," it seems that the bored drudges of this outhouse Earth have done nothing but follow that album title’s orders, a.k.a. harass me. (Lord knows the everyday “fan” of these “guys” has nothing better to do). Visitors, calls, letters. Look, I know I’m the only known liaison to the men behind the man, but that doesn’t mean I have the answer to the burning question on everyone’s melon: WHEN IS THE NEXT TERRY MALTS ALBUM COMING OUT?!

Oh, wait, actually I do know the answer to that one! Terry Malts’ brand-new platter, "Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere," is being released on September 10, 2013, once again on Slumberland Records. The official full-length follow-up to last year’s year-end-list-thrashing debut, hot on the heels of two more blistering 7”s in the meantime. 

Who are these Nobodies? Where is this Nowhere? The same crack-staff has been employed: Phil Benson (bass, vocals), Corey Cunningham (guitar, throat), and Nathan Sweatt (drums, confusion), recorded by they-damn-selfs in their “San Francisco practice space”, and again mixed by Monte Vallier (Weekend, Half Church). Hey, Parrothead: changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, right? Right! Which is why the Malts tropes you’ve come to know and love haven’t gone anywhere: anger, hatred, exhaustion, delusion, seclusion, consumption, life, death, breathing, eating, and probably some sensitivity or something. It’s all right in front of your earballs!

Considering a stiff breeze could blow your web address over, take this “press-release” as a “warning.” "Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere" is a punch in the gut, a kick to the teeth, a tickle exactly where you want it (wink, wink). This thing is the toupee of your record collection: throw it on top of that embarrassing stack o’ wax by the stereo to instantly transform your reputation. 

Look, we can’t do everything to help out you and those of your odor, but giving you this news is a step in the right direction. And this is coming straight from the top floor. Terry Malts’ "Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere" shreds. It blasts. It blows (a good thing!). A dynamite record, that’ll prolly say “Play It Loud!” or whatever in the liners. But seriously, folks… listen to this thing and leave me alone!

Terry: just like the days of our pathetic weeks, a name that ends in “why…?”

-Matt Kallman

Terry Malts - I Was Not There

Slumberland began operations in 1989 as a collective effort consisting of members of DC area bands Velocity Girl, Big Jesus Trash Can/Whorl, Black Tambourine and Powderburns. We were inspired by such musical happenings as C86, early Creation, Postcard, K, Bus Stop, lower East Side noise, and also the renegade art aesthetics & methods of people like Cage, Burroughs and Duchamp. The explosion of punk had left behind a thriving network of 'zines, labels and distributors and we felt that there was room for our noise-loving, pop-obsessed aesthetic. While there were loads of US indie labels releasing a steady stream of 7"s, there wasn't much pop going on. Notable exceptions included Bus Stop, K and Picture Book, and we hoped to join that group and help chisel out some space for melodies amongst the noise.

Early releases from Velocity Girl, Whorl and Black Tambourine struck a note, and we found like-minded popsters getting in touch from all over the world. As we expanded the label roster and our own horizons, the goal was always to share great songs and interesting sounds from a range of styles. Our first burst of activity through the 1990s and early 2000s brought seminal records by legendary bands like Stereolab, Rocketship, The Ropers, Lorelei, The Aislers Set, Hood and Boyracer.

By the mid 2000s we were seeing a resurgence of interest in guitar pop and the start of the ongoing vinyl revival: the perfect environment for Slumberland! We launched into our latest phase of activity with as string of classic releases from The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Crystal Stilts, Frankie Rose, Veronica Falls, Allo Darlin', Joanna Gruesome and so many more.

2025 is our thirty-sixth (!) year we are still at it, ploughing our own furrow and bringing you unique, genre-defining (and genre-defying!) releases from bands like The Laughing Chimes, Humdrum, The Cords, Autocamper, Jeanines, The Umbrellas, Neutrals, Artsick, Kids On A Crime Spree, Papercuts, Lightheaded, Tony Jay, Chime School, Lunchbox and many, many more. Indie fashions come and go but we're still thrilled by great songs and the new ways that pop can be rejuvenated to fit the times.

Terry Malts - I Was Not There

Slumberland Records

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