Posts Tagged ‘Efrim Manuel Menuck’

WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN (WAWBARC) is the new quartet of Mat Ball (BIG|BRAVE), Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion), and Jonathan Downs and Patch One (both Ada). On NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER they present six modal lullabies drenched in seared distortion, slathered across striding electronic pulses.

Ball and Menuck began creating music in and for the bleakest moments of Montréal winters: “We’re honoring that idea of winter, when you come inside and your house is warm, a place that only exists because of how cold it is outside,” says Menuck. They later recruited Downs and Patch to flesh out their initial ideas—Menuck met first them in 2015 when recording Ada’s final self-titled album at Montréal’s Hotel2Tango, the same studio where WAWBARC convened to make this record.

The album is out September 13th on Constellation. Meanwhile, you can hear the title track here:

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La Force, the fascinating solo project of Ariel Engle, released a critically acclaimed second album, XO SKELETON this Autumn and today she unveils a music video for ‘outrun the sun.’

The video for ‘outrun the sun’ was directed by two faithful collaborators of Engle – Sara Melvin and Ali Vanderkruyck – in scorching hot locations in the Californian Anthropocene.

“The video for ‘outrun the sun’ explores the pride and arrogance of humanity, which thinks it can fool Mother Nature. Instead of a vital force, the sun is turning into something that makes us fear for our lives,” say the directors.

“Thanks to animation and an infrared drone, the perspective shifts between the runner (La Force) and the stalker (the sun). We shot in arid places like the Sepulveda Dam, an abandoned open-air location. Among the hot concrete and dried weeds, Ariel and our small crew were overheating, sweating, covered in dust. In the Californian Anthropocene, we experienced the issues addressed in the song in real time.”

Watch the video here:

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Photo credit: Norman Wong

Last month, Mat Ball (BIG | BRAVE) announced his first full-length solo album, Amplified Guitar, arriving on The Garrote on 1st July on all formats.

Today he shares the entrancing and moving video for second single, ‘To Catch Light III’. Filmed and edited by Joshua Ford at The Garrote HQ in Illinois using the most simple elements, this video presents a remarkable visual analogue to the economy and elegance of the music and provides an astounding physical account of the sound.

Having recently stood transfixed watching Ball wring notes from his guitar and similar setup while on touch with BIG | BRAVE, this video is both mesmerising and representative of that experience. Calling to mind the expansive guitar workouts of Dylan Carlson’s solo work, ‘To Catch Light III’ hints towards and album that’s rich, textured, immersive.

Watch the video here:

Recorded at Hotel2Tango by Godspeed’s Efrim Manuel Menuck, Ball performed each of these beautiful songs in a single take. Plucking, strumming, bowing, or just slowly moving an electric guitar of his own construction in front of an array of amps, Mat Ball managed to expertly coerce some very deeply moving music from very little. 

Additionally, Mat Ball shall release a book, Accidents (with orders via www.thegarrote.com and Bandcamp). Operating as a visual analog to the Amplified Guitar LP, the work in Mat Ball’s book Accidents is also based on chance: chance in discovery, chance in process, or chance in accidental results. Whether found at rest and documented in that natural/untouched state, or assembled/touched by Ball’s hand, the aleatoric element in each piece is vital. First edition limited to 100 copies.

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Photo Credit: Stacy Lee

Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion) and Kevin Doria (Growing, Total Life) have joined forces on the new LP are SING SINCK, SING, out via Constellation on 10th May. As a first offering, the duo have shared the track ‘We Will’, which layers oscillating waves of melancholy drone with plaintive, reverb-cloaked vocals, before eventually coalescing into a determined and hopeful refrain. You can hear it here:

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As the title suggests, this is also an interstitial album of sorts, an identity-bridge that leads away from Menuck as ‘solo’ artist and towards SING, SINCK SING which will be the new band name for future work by the duo.

Efrim Manuel Menuck & Kevin Doria Live Dates:
09 May – Montréal, QC @ Ritz PDB
10 May – Toronto, ON @ The Burdock
11 May – Hamilton, ON @ Christ Church Cathedral
16 May – Brooklyn, NY @ Murmrr
25 May – Biarritz, FR @ Festival Usopop
27 May – Limoges, FR @ Le Phare
31 May – Zottegem, BE @ Dunk Festival
01 June – Amsterdam, NL @ Best Kept Secret Festival
02 June – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Festival
03 June – Poznan, PL @ LAS
04 June – Berlin, DE @ Arkaoda
06 June – Brussels, BE @ Botanique Rotonde
07 June – Diksmuiden, BE @ 4AD
09 June – Paris, FR @ Villette Sonique

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