"This video was pieced together over several months. Most of the footage was shot by the intrepid Pierre Malacarnet at Beck Studios in Wellingborough, the site of the original Bauhaus recording of ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’. I filmed the game and lovely Emily Jane White in a 19th Century bathtub in San Francisco. Pierre then shot some other cut away scenes in Berlin and edited the whole thing together quite brilliantly. The mood of the film resonates perfectly with that of the music," says David J.
Released in support of the massive double album Missive to an Angel from the Halls of Infamy and Allure, there’s a lot to get enthused by. Watch the video here:
Ahead of the release of their second album, Inviolate, Dystopian Future Movies release ‘Black-Cloaked’ as a follow-up to ‘Countenance’, which came out in January.
After 3 albums Antwerp’s noisiest outfit The Hickey Underworld evaporated. They never announced a break up, they just ceased to be… but the genie’s back out of the bottle. Well sorta… Frontman and main songwriter Younes Faltakh is the sole survivor and teamed up with ex Das Pop member Niek Meul. The pair set up camp in Niek’s studio in Oslo and recorded 10 eccentric, mysterious and groovy tracks. Guitars do a lapdance wrapping their tormented strings around a worked up rhythm section while Younes’ hoarse growl sounds as familiar as it does threatening.
Birthed in post-punk, heavily infused by Eastern psychedelica, and described by their record label [PIAS] as alternative world music, most refer to Arabnormal as ‘a manically zonked-out flying carpet ride’.
Read the above and listen to Arabnormal’s new single ‘Digital Veil’ and you’ll know that doesn’t make any sense at all… ‘Digital Veil’ is a sweet, sophisticated and too cute to cuddle soft rock gem. To honour the late Hickey Underworld tradition of psycho-facemelting video’s, Arabnormal’s visual companion for their latest single is quite something. Does your mouth get wet thinking of a make-up sandwich? Well, here’s the recipe!
Pure Reason Revolution recently announced the release of Eupnea, their first new studio album in nearly 10 years, for the 3rd of April 2020. They’ve just revealed the first piece of new music taken from the record, in the form of the epic 10-minute ‘Silent Genesis’, a track which Jon Courtney co-wrote alongside original PRR member Greg Jong.
The band comments: “With some tracks it’s blood sweat & tears to get them nailed, but “Silent Genesis” came together really quickly. While Greg & I worked on the music, Chloe was blasting out vocals in London. We had a lot of fun making this track; mangling synths, riffing & unexpectedly outroing with funk!”
The experimental chamber collective Collectress, who create unique surrealist-tinged chamber pop and have been described as a cross between "the Elysian Quartet and possessed Brontë sisters teasing an unsuspecting dinner party" (Foxy Digitalis) release a video today for new single "In The Streets, In the Fields".
Using dance as a means to explore the nature of the music, and with nods to both psychedelia (particularly 13th Floor Elevators), and the 1937 recording of Virginia Woolf’s “Words”, Collectress play at taking you somewhere imaginary whilst staying grounded in reality- ‘in the streets’ yet also ‘in the fields.’ The band remark "we liked the sense of the transience of language as evoked by the crackly Woolf recordings, of time passing and of spaces shifting, of being in one place yet another at the same time, in “Different Geographies”. In this technological world of ours, Woolf’s “Words” speaks to us from the past, visionary in suggesting we are mere vessels for language to occur, adapt and move around in. “In the Streets, In the Fields” melodically ‘sets off’ and in some way is doing this too, its simple structure unfolding, shifting and developing over the course of the song." Collectress continue "the film for "Streets" was always going to include dance as a means to explore and express the nature of the music. We talked about parts of the body, colours and ‘elements’ to include. We each gave our interpretation and filmed ourselves dancing at our own respective ‘different geography’. What you see in the film is a layering of those interpretations to the rhythm and layers of the individual parts of the music, to create an indefinable space that we hope has something recognisable and grounded but that also allows for an element of getting lost."
Watch ‘In the Streets, In the Fields’ here:
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Collectress Spring Shows:
Friday April 10 – Brighton Album Launch at The Rosehill, Brighton
Sat May 9 – Daylight Session (plus special guests), Union Chapel, London
Human Impact, a “band that collects members from three of New York noise’s most important groups — the hardcore-influenced, ultraviolent Unsane, industrial anger mongers Cop Shoot Cop, and erstwhile Lower East Side pummelers Swans” (Rolling Stone), have released a video for “E605”.
The Samuel Mitchell-directed clip visually echoes the gritty, industrial-tinged noise rock on the band’s forthcoming, self-titled debut album (March 13, Ipecac Recordings). It is the second song to preview the 10-track release, with the band previously sharing the song “November”.
Videostore – the lo-fi indie duo consisting of Argonaut members Nathan and Lorna – are on a major roll at the moment, and their latest effort – pitched as a ‘love song for the apocalypse… channelling Stooges, Suede and Spacemen 3 guitars against a relentless drum machine and Atari samples’ – is their strongest to date.
It kicks in hard and that vintage mechanised drum track pumps away like a piston all the way through to the finish: no fills, nothing fancy, nothing but uptempo motoric 4/4 with that classic Roland-type snare sound.
The guitars are big and fizzy and when the extra distortion kicks in, it hits that treble explosion sweet spot that takes the top off your head, and you just don’t get that buzzsaw bliss with slick studio production.
The dual vocals contrast Lorna’s sassy drawl with Nathan’s blank monotone croak and the end result comes on like a riot grrrl rendition of a Pixies song covered by Metal Urbain.
Yet for all the retro, ‘My Back’ is very much a song for now: these are dark, paranoid times and it feels like we’re on the edge of the abyss, and this guitar-driven blitzkrieg is the perfect soundtrack.
Jonathan Hultén, the darkly enigmatic Swedish Grammy-winning songwriter has released the first single & video for track “The Mountain” taken from his debut solo album Chants From Another Place, due for release on Kscope on 13th March.
The musical inspiration for singer/songwriter Jonathan Hultén’s debut album Chants From Another Place is drawn from acapella folk and church choir compositions. Throughout the album, tales are weaved and musical influences collide as HULTÉN draws comparisons to artists including Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens, Wovenhand and Fleet Foxes, as well as traditional folk artists such as John Martyn right through to his contemporaries in Anna Ternheim, José Gonzales, Anna von Hausswolff Chelsea Wolfe & Hexvessel.
“The Mountain”, the album’s debut single (released 10th January), is a potent yet minimalistic ode to loss and hope. Telling a tale of soul in distress, goes forth on a journey and faces death, transformation and rebirth is accompanied by a stunningly emotive animated video, created by Hultén himself, taking visual influence from the likes of Tolkien, Tove Jansson and art nouveau illustrator Aubrey Beardsley.
Watch ‘The Mountain’ here:
HULTÉN will join CHELSEA WOLFE on tour, opening for her ‘Birth Of Violence’ acoustic tour in the UK & Europe in March 2020. “The live show is focused on reproducing the mystical state of mind in which the songs themselves were created,” he says. “Incense and lights that follow the music are the keys and draws you into the tranquil yet sometimes dramatic world that Chants From Another Place inhabits. Like watching a sunset; peaceful, sometimes kind of intense while also slightly psychedelic.”
MAR 11, Archa Theatre – Prague, Czech Republic
MAR 12, Großer Sendesaal Des Rbb- Berlin, Germany
MAR 13, UT Connewitz – Leipzig, Germany
MAR 14, Christuskirche Bochum – Bochum, Germany – sold out
MAR 16, TivoliVredenburg – Utrecht, Netherlands
MAR 17, La Gaîté Lyrique – Paris, France
MAR 19, The Stoller Hall – Manchester, United Kingdom
MAR 20, Saint Luke’s – Glasgow, United Kingdom
MAR 21, Coventry Cathedral – Coventry, United Kingdom
MAR 22, Alexandra Palace Theatre – London, United Kingdom
MAR 23, Bourla – Antwerpen, Belgium
MAR 25, Trinity Chapel – Lyon, France
MAR 26, Octagon Theater – Pully, Switzerland
MAR 28, Kammerspiele – Munich, Germany
MAR 29, Gruenspan – Hamburg, Germany
MAR 30, DR Koncerthuset Studie 2 – København, Denmark
Toundra, the intrepid instrumental rock band from Spain that recently announced the release of Das Cabinet Des Dr.Caligari are proud to present the first video/single from the album, which will be available on February 28th 2020.
You can now enjoy the first song, Akt. 1, here:
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The video is taken from the first Act of the movie to which Toundra have composed a breath-taking original soundtrack. The film is a quintessential German silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene that turns exactly 100 years old in 2020, and that the band approached it as a dialogue with the listener with the intention of questioning ideas like manipulation, freedom and human nature itself.
There has also been a tour announced this week, a unique opportunity to watch the movie while the band performs the album entirely.
Mary and the Ram (the studio project of The Trembling Hellish Infernal Nightmare Generator’s Kiran Tanna and The Parasitic Twins’ Dom Smith) have released the video for latest single, ‘Eclipse’ which was released on October 18, 2019 through Syndicol Music.
For Fans of The Dresden Dolls, Death From Above 1979, Marilyn Manson, Nick Cave and Nine Inch Nails.
Recorded at Melrose Yard Studios in York, UK and co-produced between Kiran, and New York-based Kallie Marie (Explosives For Her Majesty), the band have also hooked in the talents of Dave Ogilvie (The Weeknd, NIN, Skinny Puppy) for mixing, and mastering by Howie Weinberg (Thirty Seconds To Mars, Mars Volta, Nirvana).
Dom had this to say on the video:
"’Eclipse’ is the darkest thing we’ve put out. I could tell you what it’s based around lyrically, but we wanted some solid occultish symbolism so that people can make up their own minds – is it about dark relationships? is it just our nightmarish fantasy? There are numerous themes and ideas in Duncan’s animated work, and we look forward to people’s interpretations."
MaTR has also made efforts to expand the live sound, recruiting musicians from both York and Hull to join the group as full-time members: Edward Alan Logie (Modern Mood Swings) and Sarah Shiels (Black Delta Movement). Live dates will be announced soon.
Aural Aggravation 