Dream pop – Page 2 – 7th Level Music

Will Butler + Sister Squares frolic in the “Long Grass” with their debut single.

Will Butler + Sister Squares announce their new self-titled album out September 22nd on Merge and present its lead single/video, “Long Grass.” Sister Squares are Miles Francis, Julie Shore, Jenny Shore, and Sara Dobbs; what made them a musical unit was working with Grammy winner and Oscar nominee Will Butler. The resulting Will Butler + Sister Squares is a record with a warm, humane soul.

“I met Jenny—my wife!—in college, the year before I joined Arcade Fire,” says Will. “When I needed a band to tour Policy [Merge, 2015], I asked [Jenny’s sister] Julie to join because I trusted her musically. And I asked Sara, Jenny and Julie’s childhood friend, because I knew she was super talented,” says Will. “Antibalas (who I was drumming for) opened some Arcade Fire shows,” says Miles, who offered to play drums anytime Will needed. Will, Julie, Sara, and Miles jelled on tour and everyone worked on vocal arrangements. All along, Jenny contributed to recordings and general performance ideas, and she joined onstage in 2019.

“After Generations [Merge, 2020], I considered making a weird solo record. Me alone in the basement, etc., etc. Mostly I realized that what I wanted was the opposite,” says Will. He increasingly turned to the band for feedback on lyrics and song structures. He asked Miles if they’d produce the record.

“Will and I organically discovered our relationship as a production duo through making this album. We didn’t have to talk too much about things as they happened, because the music just flowed,” says Miles. “As a producer, working with Jenny, Julie, and Sara is the dream. They connect so innately. In one motion they can conjure a mood, or get at the root of a feeling.”

The band played a run of shows in August 2022, airing out studio ideas in live rooms. After coming home, the band regrouped at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn. The album, broadly, is equal parts from Figure 8, group experiments from Will’s basement, and sessions in Miles’ Synthia Studio.

“I had quit my band Arcade Fire very recently, after 20 years—maybe the most complex decision of my life. I had spent the preceding two years at home with my three children. I was 39 years old. I was waking up every morning and reading Emily Dickinson, until I had read every Emily Dickinson poem. I was listening to Morrissey, to Shostakovich, to the Spotify top 50. I had unformed questions with inchoate answers,” says Will. “But, honestly, I was feeling great about the record.”

The album projects widescreen emotional landscapes. Lead-off single “Long Grass” is like a Harry Styles song with 20 more years of life behind it. “I had read this novella called Jamila by a Soviet/Kyrgyz author named Chingiz Aitmatov from the ’50s,” says Will. “It’s about an artist looking back on his childhood in a small town in Kyrgyzstan in WWII. It’s about love, and becoming an artist, and melancholy, and vast landscapes with a single train track running through them. And it reminded me of young adulthood, of wandering moodily down the train tracks. Maybe the song is also about leaving behind the things that formed us, but trying to remember the world as it used to be?”

Will Butler + Sister Squares will tour in support of their new album this fall.

Watch the video for “Long Grass”

Pre-order Will Butler + Sister Squares

Will Butler + Sister Squares Tour Dates:

July 29-30 – Guelph, ON @ Hillside Festival

Sept. 23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Zone One

Oct. 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon

Oct. 4 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent

Oct. 6 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios

Oct. 7 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza

Oct. 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret

Oct. 17 – Boston, MA @ Deep Cuts

Oct. 18 – Montreal, QC @ Bar le Ritz

Oct. 19 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace

Oct. 20 – Detroit, MI @ Loving Touch

Oct. 21 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village

Oct. 22 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop

Nov. 7 – Riga, LV @ Palladium

Nov. 10 – Berlin, DE @ Privatclub

Nov. 12 – Aarhus, DK @ VoxHall

Nov. 14 – Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown

Nov. 15 – Paris, FR @ Café de la Danse

Nov. 16 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique

Nov. 17 – London, UK @ ICA

Nov. 18 – Dublin, IE @ Whelan’s

Nov. 30 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA

Dec. 1 – Washington, DC @ DC9

Dec. 2 – Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Kedr Livanskiy send her new single “With Love K…”

Producer / musician Kedr Livanskiy (neé Yana Kedrina) returns with a dance-floor-ready new EP, K-Notes. It’s an expert fusion of drum and bass, trance, and alt-pop anchored by Kedrina’s signature crystalline vocals. K-Notes feels at once nostalgic and remarkably current: Livanskiy filters today’s UK revivalism through her own unique lens, shaped by her upbringing in Russia’s underground music scene and her personal love of early electronic and alternative music.

Kedrina’s longstanding fascination with the natural world is still apparent in her lyrics, sung in her native Russian. Throughout these tracks, lovers disappear into clouds, seek shelter from the rain, and look back fondly on summers past. As always, Kedrina has a remarkable knack for world-building: her rich compositions envelop the listener in a dream-world so visceral that it transcends the barriers of language. Concise but immersive, K-Notes is a fresh dose of ebullience from an artist at the top of her craft.

Its vivacious lead single “With Love K…” is a melodic drum-and-bass love song and is out today alongside its amorous / nostalgic video which Kedrina directed herself.

Watch / Share “With Love K…” (Official Music Video)

Bright and upbeat, K-Notes is more akin sonically to Kedrina’s 2019 album Your Need than her recent work. Where Your Need was a neon-tinged ode to early house, dub, and breakbeat, Liminal Soul saw her infuse her electronic compositions with organic textures and hone in on her vocal technique. More recently, she chased that inspiration further and teamed up with her partner Flaty to form the indie duo Kosaya Gora, experimenting with guitar-based folk and dream pop compositions on their debut record Kosogor. Her artistic focus has once again found the dance floor, and on K-Notes she channels the sounds of her spirited live show into a dynamic new collection.

K-Notes sees its release solely across digital platforms on Thursday, June 22 via 2MR. Pre-save it here.

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[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side.]

Girl Ray lift us “Up” with their new single.

Last month, London band Girl Ray announced their third LP, Prestige (out August 4th on Moshi Moshi). The three-piece comprising Poppy Hankin, Iris McConnell and Sophie Moss, made an immediate impact with the release of their 2017 debut Earl Grey on the influential indie Moshi Moshi (Anna Meredith, Florence & The Machine, Kate Nash), which channeled the baroque 70s soft pop of Todd Rundgren through the scrappy aesthetics of 80s UK indie and earned high praise from outlets like Pitchfork, The Guardian, Stereogum and FADER among many others. Their second LP, 2019’s Girl, saw the band change direction dramatically, taking on a kind of indie-fied R&B that The Guardian described as “the great sound of a band getting pop wrong,” and in 2021 the band returned in yet another new guise, releasing the one off, house-adjacent single “Give Me Your Love” that was produced with Hot Chip‘s Joe Goddard and Al Doyle.

Their latest album, which they made with the revered producer Ben H Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, MIA, Belle & Sebastian), sees the band adjust the formula once more, incorporating a disco influence that in Girl Ray’s hands led FADER to describe their sound as the music “Dua Lipa would make if she was more used to playing pubs than arenas.” The early response to their new direction has been extremely enthusiastic in the press, with the lead single “Hold Tight” and pre-announce track “Everybody’s Saying That” earning praise from outlets like FADER, Billboard, Paste, Consequence, BrooklynVegan, Line of Best Fit, Clash, The Guardian, Under The Radar and Stereogum who described the lead single as “like if Haim were hopping on Vampire Weekend tracks when Rostam was still in the band.”

Today, the band are sharing a new preview of their new album, the groove-oriented “Up” that recalls Young Americans-era Bowie as filtered through the blended synths and strings aesthetic of early Giorgio Moroder.

LISTEN: to Girl Ray’s “Up” HERE

About the track, Poppy Hankin, says:

“This song was written at the beginning of my current relationship, and it deals with all the emotions of a fledgling romance: adoration, self-doubt, and everything in between! Musically we wanted to pay homage to the sparseness of Queen’s ‘Cool Cat’, and the groove of Bowie’s ‘Fame.'”

In support of the new LP Girl Ray have announced a UK tour that will begin in November. Full details can be found below.

Prestige will be released August 4th on Moshi Moshi. It’s available for preorder/presave here.

Tour Dates
04/08 – London, Rough Trade East
09/08 – Nottingham, Rough Trade Nottingham
10/08 – Bristol, Rough Trade Bristol
17/08 – Brecon Beacons, Green Man Festival
12/11 – Amsterdam, Paradiso
13/11 – Hamburg, Aalhaus
14/11 – Copenhagen, Ideal Bar
16/11 – Berlin, Marie-Antoinette
17/11 – Brussels, Witloof Bar
20/11 – Paris, Boule Noire
21/11 – Brighton, Patterns
22/11 – Bristol, Fleece
24/11 – Manchester, The Soup Kitchen
25/11 – Glasgow, Room 2
26/11 – Dublin, The Workmans Club
28/11 – Leeds, Belgrave Music Hall
29/11 – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
03/12 – London, Village Underground

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Hive Mind PR.]

Madeline Kenney’s new single is a “Superficial Conversation” with us, her ex, and herself.

In the quiet surrounding the pandemic, Madeline Kenney made sonic sketches in the basement studio she shared with her then-partner. She arranged phrases that called her—the sharp knife of a synth cutting a path along a blooming arpeggio, drums stuttering firm and tight. Working this way, she amassed a collection of songs she had no particular aims for. Some formed her 2021 EP Summer Quarter, others languished.

But in 2022, Kenney’s partner left suddenly and without warning, plunging her into the solitary act of untangling what happened. In the wake of her ensuing depression, she revisited these songs and found in them something prescient. She’d already laid the foundation for A New Reality Mind, her fourth LP (due out July 28th via Carpark Records) which she is announcing today with the album’s first single “Superficial Conversation,” alongside the track’s self-directed video.

WATCH
Madeline Kenney’s “Superficial Conversation” video on
YouTube

That her relationship’s end came without warning is only half true, though. The warnings were in the feelings and fears that inspired Kenney’s critically-acclaimed third album, Sucker’s Lunch (2020), which was co-produced by Jenn Wasner (Flock of Dimes) and centered around the idea of flinging oneself freely into the seemingly-assured destruction of new love, come what may.

If sonically Sucker’s Lunch was letting yourself be pulled into the warm bath of a good story, A New Reality Mind reflects the harsh light of truth coming to break the spell. But as sobering as morning light can be, there’s brilliance to it, too. To see in the clarity of day is a gift. A revolution.

This is Kenney’s most expansive work, while also her most solitary. Produced and recorded alone in her basement, these songs are manifestations of what it feels like to be transformed by pain. Textures collide and collude; sonic ornaments emerge and dissipate capriciously; saxophones soar untamed. There’s a propulsive power in the album, and there’s also acceptance, self-forgiveness, and a willingness to move forward into life, with all its ways of making a sucker of you. “That way of living, I’m over it,” Kenney declares of the habits that hold her back on “Superficial Conversation.” “I do not need to be reminded of what I did,” she assures, the song opening wide and beaming, like a smile expanding to taste a new breath of air.

“‘Superficial Conversation’ is my way of looking back at the ways I shrunk myself or ignored my own needs in favor of the needs and desires of others,” Kenney explains. “While I wish I had acted differently, I want to be kind and forgiving to my past self and be able to grow and move forward with more power and love.

I wanted the video to show a forced transformation, from the inside and out. Jess Bozzo’s choreography really captured what I wanted to evoke; a painful change that becomes a pretty joyous opening with room for desire and play.“

A New Reality Mind Will be released on Carpark Records on July 28th. It is available for pre-order/pre-save HERE.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Tom at Hive Mind PR.]

Review: Ladytron – Time’s Arrow

Returning with their first full-length album in four years, Ladytron are back with their distinctive style of electro-pop music with Time’s Arrow – an album that, like most of their catalogue, hypnotizes you into an altered state and also makes you want to dance at the same time.

“City of Angels” might be about Los Angeles, but it seems more about a city inhabited by beings of light to which Ladytron can readily travel through their use of heavenly synths, electronic beats, and ghost-like vocals. “Faces come from yesterday and arrive tomorrow,” sing Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo on “Faces” – a song about how people drift in and out of our lives and how we struggle at times to remember them. “Misery Remember Me” is flat-out beautiful with soaring synths and vocals that sounds like they’re bouncing up from a canyon at sunset.

On “Flight from Ankor,” Aroyo sings above shimmering synths about waking from a dream and realizing that the life around her is just as incredible as the dream. “I hear whispers on the wire,” Marnie sings on “We Never Went Away,” a dreamy reassurance to their fans that is a little bittersweet now since one of the band’s founding members, Reuben Wu, left the band earlier this year to focus on his photography and fine art. “The Night” brings the pop to their electro-pop with snappy beats that melt into “The Dreamers,” a darker synthwave track that might have you folding up an origami unicorn.

“Sargasso Sea” sounds exactly like you think it should: Floating synths, seagull calls, bubbling bass, and siren vocals. “California” is possibly a callback to “City of Angels,” and is a song about how the state is a mix of luxury, mystery, and misery. The title track ends the album and has a bold, almost off-Broadway brashness to it with its thudding percussion and swaggering vocals.

Time’s Arrow is a nice return for Ladytron, whose synthwave seduction is always welcome.

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Sorry Girls conjure up “Sorcery” on their new single.

With their new album ‘Bravo!‘ due June 2nd via Arbutus, Montreal duo Sorry Girls, made up of Heather Foster Kirkpatrick and Dylan Konrad Obront, are today sharing their new single “Sorcery“.

On the new track, the band said “‘Sorcery’ is a song that evokes the feeling of the absurdity of a chance encounter, the luck of love and mystery of this dance, the feeling of looking up at the stars with awe, wonder and fear with an awareness that amidst all the pain and fear in the world there is always the acorn of love from which everything is born. ‘Sorcery’ is like taking a shower in shimmering synths, pumped up drums, catchy melodies and stacked vocals/vocoders.”

Listen to “Sorcery” here: https://youtu.be/fgRhcNY48hM

Sorry Girls have danced out of the darkness into the light. Since forming in 2015, the Montreal duo of Heather Foster Kirkpatrick and Dylan Konrad Obront transformed an eerie, dreamlike sound into lush, pleasure seeking pop. Expanding upon their debut album, Deborah, which Pitchfork described as “more John Hughes than David Lynch,”the band’s deftly arranged sophomore LP, Bravo!, sings to the back rows of the stadium, drawing listeners inward with a newfound focus on personal lyrics.

“These songs are all about self-acceptance, self-affirmation, personal freedom, and letting go,” says Kirkpatrick. “There are a lot of lyrics about the creative process itself, identity shaping, and how those things intertwine.”

The duo first became friends while studying at Concordia and dipping their toes into the Montreal music scene, though neither had played in bands before Sorry Girls. Kirkpatrick says their first songs were guided by “a sense of discovery,” and that by “not trying to make something concrete,” they continue to thrive without goals. After working with TOPS’ David Carriere on their debut, Sorry Girls linked up with Braids drummer Austin Tufts, who played on the songs of Bravo! and pulled double duty as its mixing engineer.Another first-time collaborator was fellow Arbutus Records artist Mitch Davis, whose saxophone shimmers throughout the album.

Ironically, Obront and Kirkpatrick came together in the songwriting process by physically splitting themselves apart. After touring with Devon Welsh in 2019, the duo lived together during the beginning of the pandemic, yet only reignited a creative spark after moving into their own apartments. “We’ve always made our demos separately, with Dylan writing an instrumental and then me singing over it,” explains Kirkpatrick. “This time we made a conscious effort to write and record the album together from the ground up.” Despite the fact that each contributing musician was recorded on their lonesome – either in their homes, or at Braids’ Toute Garnie studio – Sorry Girls have never sounded more like a live band.

With each subsequent release, Sorry Girls’ influences have evolved alongside their music. The duo’s 2016 debut EP, Awesome Secrets, was inspired by classic artists such as Fleetwood Mac, Roy Orbison, or Twin Peakscomposer Angelo Badalamenti, obscuring timeless melodies in a hazy fog of synths. Bravo! builds upon these reference points and brings them into the present, with influences ranging from Carole King to Perfume Genius. The dramatic sound of “Sorcery” borrows a few tricks from Talk Talk, while “The Exiles” is Sorry Girls’ attempt at a Springsteen anthem, complete with their own Clarence Clemons.

For “Enough Is Enough”, Kirkpatrick cites an unlikely inspiration: Shania Twain. “We just wanted to make a country breakup song, and this is what came out,” she says. Propelled by a slinky disco groove, “Prettier Things” contains similarly empowering subject matter. “It’s another breakup song that’s about honesty, not lying to yourself, and hiding behind prettier truths,” says Kirkpatrick. “You can allow yourself to move onto better things, if that’s what you need.”

The album delves most directly into its theme of self-discovery on first single “Breathe,” a meditative song about slowing down in order to move forward. “That song is about the feeling of freedom and getting to know yourself on a deeper level,” concludes Kirkpatrick. “It’s about releasing limiting beliefs and how those chase you for your whole life before you can move onto a new path. In the end, Bravo! is an album about celebration and fun.”

Pre-order album here: https://found.ee/sorrygirls

See Sorry Girls live:
01-09 | Montreal, QC | L’escogriffe
02-09 | Brooklyn, NY | Baby’s All Right
08-09 | Detroit, MI | UFO Factory
09-09 | Chicago, IL | Golden Dagger
10-09 | Minneapolis, MN | Underground Music Venue
15-09 | Vancouver, BC | The Cobalt
18-09 | Seattle, WA | Madame Lou’s
22-09 | Los Angeles, CA | Moroccan Lounge
24-09 | San Diego, CA | Soda Bar
06-10 | Toronto, ON | Monarch Tavern
Tickets: https://arbutusrecords.com/pages/tour-dates

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]

Eddie Chacon releases title track from upcoming album – “Sundown.”

Today, Eddie Chacon presents his new single/video, “Sundown,” from his forthcoming record Sundown, out March 31st via Stones Throw. The “Sundown” video, which documents the process of recording the album, was shot at 64 Sound Studios in Northeast LA by Brandon Bloom. Appearing in the video is John Carroll Kirby — who produced, co-wrote, and played keys on Sundown — as well as Logan Hone (flute and saxophones), Elizabeth Lea (trombone), Will Logan (drums), and David Leach (percussion). Following a string of previously shared singles — “Holy Hell,” “Step By Step” and “Comes And Goes” — “Sundown” is a song about “being humbled by how little time we have on this earth.” Only now, Chacon says, at his age (59) does he have the life experience and quiet confidence to sing about such a subject.

WATCH EDDIE CHACON’S “SUNDOWN” VIDEO

As one half of the duo Charles & Eddie, whose hit single “Would I Lie To You” was a chart-topper heard around the world, Eddie was a bona fide pop star. He deserted the music business following the band’s stratospheric success. Meeting John Carroll Kirby in 2019 was the catalyst for Eddie’s return to music, and together they made 2020’s Pleasure, Joy and Happiness. The album was intended as a swan song, but eddie felt reinvigorated by its word-of-mouth success. He says, “Sundown is the follow-up I never thought I would get to make.”

This month, Eddie Chacon heads out to Australia and New Zealand, followed by a headline show with John Carroll Kirby at Los Angeles’ Lodge Room and a series of shows in the UK and Europe. Full dates are listed below.

PRE-ORDER SUNDOWN

WATCH THE “HOLY HELL” VIDEO
WATCH THE “COMES AND GOES” VIDEO
WATCH THE “STEP BY STEP” VIDEO

EDDIE CHACON TOUR DATES
Sat. Mar. 18 – Auckland, NZ @ Beacon Festival *
Sat. Mar. 25 – Melbourne, AU @ Collingwood Yards *
Wed. Mar. 29 – Melbourne, AU @ Music Room (DJ Set)
Fri. Mar. 31 – Melbourne, AU @ The Night Cat (LP Launch) *
Sat. Apr. 1 – Sydney, AU @ The Ace Hotel *
Tue. Apr. 4 – Sydney, AU @ Phoenix Park *
Fri. Apr. 7 – Bali, ID @ Potato Head Beach Club *
Wed. Apr. 19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room *
Tue. May 16 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
Wed. May 17 – London, UK @ KOKO
Thu. May 18 – Manchester, UK @ Band on the Wall
Sun. May 21 – Berlin, DE @ Frannz
Thu. May 25 – Dublin, IE @ Sugar Club
Sun. May 28 – London, UK @ Gala Festival *

* w/ John Carroll Kirby

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Nuovo Testamento release new album, “Love Lines,” and tour dates.

Press Photo By Yvette Aispuro & Silvia Polmonari

Los Angeles / Bologna based trio, Nuovo Testamento, has taken over dance floors with their uniquely dark Italo disco-flavored pop hits in just a few years. Following the release of the coldwave cult hit Exposure EP back in 2019 (Avant! Records), their acclaimed full-length New Earth exploded onto the scene with its graceful 1980s-influenced club elements, contagious rhythms and a powerful punch of synth-pop. The release was widely considered across genres to be one of 2021’s best underground albums of the year.

Today they return with the release of their highly anticipated second LP, Love Lines, on which Nuovo Testamento continue to explore the light, the dark and exultant personal power in what will undoubtedly become an instant dance classic.

Love Lines is an album about proof of life and the joy of survival. Vibrant with Italo disco and Hi-NRG celebration, the record invokes a sense of motion in an often stagnant time and place. Inside the eight new tracks, rich synthesizers and driving percussion testify to the need for movement, connection and autonomy.

Produced by sound engineer Maurizio Baggio (Boy Harsher, The Soft Moon)with vocal recording by Riki, Love Lines is reminiscent of the work of Shep Pettibone, Chris Barbosa and serves as a reminder of the power of pop music.

Nuovo Testamento includes members of hardcore and dark punk royalty Tørsö, Horror Vacui, Crimson Scarlet and touring members of Sheer Mag. In May the trio hit the road on an extensive North American tour supporting Molchat Doma; see below for a full list of dates.

Love Lines is out today via Discoteca Italia – purchase here.

Nuovo Testamento Live Dates:

Mar 24: San Diego, CA – The Whistle Stop
Mar 26: Ft Collins, CO – The Coast
Mar 29: Milwaukee WI – X-Ray Arcade
Mar 30: Chicago, IL – Riviera Theater ~
Mar 31: Detroit, MI – St Andrews Hall ~
Apr 01: Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Hall ~
Apr 02: Montreal, QC – M Telus ~
Apr 04: Boston, MA – Roadrunner ~
Apr 06: Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer ~
Apr 07: New York, NY – Terminal 5 ~
Apr 08: Washington, DC – 9:30 Club ~
Apr 12: Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel ~
Apr 13: Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse ~
Apr 14: Orlando, FL – Plaza Live ~
Apr 15: Saint Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live ~
Apr 16: Ft Lauderdale, FL – Culture Room ~
Apr 19: Louisville, KY – Old Forester’s Paristown Hall ~
Apr 20: Nashville, TN – Eastside Bowl ~
Apr 21: St Louis, MO – The Factory ~
Apr 22: Kansas City, MO – The Truman ~
Apr 23: Oklahoma City, OK – Tower Theatre ~
Apr 25: New Orleans, LA – House of Blues ~
Apr 26: Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center ~
Apr 27: San Antonio, TX – The Aztec Theater ~
Apr 28: Austin, TX – Stubb’s Amphitheater ~
Apr 29: Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom ~
May 01: El Paso, TX – Lowbrow Palace ~
May 02: Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre ~
May 04: Denver, CO – Ogden Theater ~
May 06: Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot ~
May 09: Boise, ID – Knitting Factory Concert House ~
May 11: Vancouver, BC – Harbour Event Centre ~
May 12: Seattle, WA – Showbox Sodo ~
May 13: Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom ~
May 16: Santa Cruz, CA – Catalyst ~
May 17: San Francisco, CA – The Warfield ~
May 18: Los Angeles, CA – TBA ~
May 19: Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren ~

~ w/ Molchat Doma

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[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side.]

Rewind Review: Esquivel – Cabaret Mañana (1995)

Cabaret Mañana is an excellent collection of the space-age composer, maestro, bandleader, musician, and arranger, Juan Garcia Esquivel, who was so cool that he could just go by his last name like Karloff, Lugosi, Bowie, Kubrick, Hitchcock, and Morricone.

The compilation covers tracks from 1958 to 1967 and begins with “Mini Skirt,” which was only released in Mexico and Puerto Rico until this album was released in 1995. It’s a fun track about one of Esquivel’s favorite subjects, women, complete with wolf whistle’s and sexy piano riffs.

“Johnson Rag” blends big brass sections with singers singing “Zu-zu-zu” again and again. Esquivel was known as mixing traditional sounds with plenty of outsider stuff like nonsense lyrics just for the sound of them or putting Chinese bells in Latin music. His arrangement of Cole Porter‘s “Night and Day” sounds like it could be a Bond film theme at one point, and then bachelor pad music in the next. “El Cable” is so happy that it could probably banish rainclouds if you played it loud enough.

“Harlem Nocturne” also sounds like an action film theme, and Esquivel did write a lot of music for action TV shows (Miami Vice, The Six Million Dollar Man, and The A-Team among them). “Mucha Muchacha” is one of two tracks on the compilation, the other being “Estrellita,” that are from his Latin-Esque album. Esquivel was so committed to capturing stereo sound on that album that he divided his orchestra in half and had them play simultaneously in separate studios while he and another conductor worked together via closed-circuit television.

Yeah, that was the kind of work ethic he had.

“Time on My Hands” reminds me of some of Ennio Morricone‘s work with its ticking clock setting a constant beat while a slightly sorrowful trumpet plays in another room. “Malagueña” transports you to an exotic desert land on another planet. His take on “Sentimental Journey” is a blast and loaded with his trademarks of space-pop sound, flirting whistles, and those lovely ladies singing “zu-zu-zu.”

The percussion on “Limehouse Blues” is delightfully weird, especially when you mix it with Tiki bar guitar riffs and synths that sound like they’re drunk on margaritas. “April in Portugal” shows off Esquivel’s piano skills. “Question Mark (Que Vas a Hacer)” sounds like the opening theme of a 1960s European sex comedy. His version of “It Had to Be You” is bawdy and beautiful, suitable for night clubs and strip clubs.

“Yeyo” is snappy and a bit bratty (in a fun way). “Lullaby of Birdland” practically struts its sexy stuff down the boulevard on a hot summer day. “Flower Girl from Bordeaux” is full of bold trumpet work, jazz lounge piano, and exotic vocal sounds that create a luscious cocktail.

It’s a fun, lovely compilation from one of the best composers of the 1960s and should be heard by many.

Keep your mind open.

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Fever Ray gives us some “Kandy” on their new single.

Fever Ray and Olof Dreijer on the “Kandy” set, photo credit – Nina Andersson

Fever Ray’s Radical Romantics, out March 10th (digital/CD) and April 28th (US vinyl) onMute, is one of the most highly-anticipated albums of 2023. Today, they continue their enthralling return with “Kandy,” a new single/video which follows “What They Call Us” and “Carbon Dioxide,” “an explosive single about love and sex in a moment of climate apocalypse” (Pitchfork). The song was co-produced and co-written by Fever Ray’s Karin Dreijer and their brother and fellow member of The Knife, Olof Dreijer. This is one of the four Radical Romantics tracks Olof co-produced and co-wrote, marking the first time the siblings have produced and written music together in eight years.

Olof comments on “Kandy,” “I tried to tune in as much as possible into Fever Ray vibes and tried many different styles, or clothes as I usually say when I talk about different music production suggestions. But in the end we took out the same synthesizer, the SH101, used for The Knife track, ‘The Captain,’ and it just worked!”

The accompanying video, directed by long-time collaborator Martin Falck, re-unites Karin and Olof on stage in a homage to the now iconic video for The Knife’s “Pass This On” directed by Johan Renck.

Watch Fever Ray’s “Kandy” Video

Radical Romantics, the first new Fever Ray album since 2017’s Plunge, “carefully explores well-trod themes of love and sex but through Dreijer’s uniquely esoteric lens” (them). To be precise, Dreijer presents their struggle with the myth of love.

Fever Ray first started on Radical Romantics in fall 2019; working in the Stockholm studios built with Olof, who eventually joined in on working on the album. Other co-producers and performers include the power duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Nine Inch Nails), experimental artist and producer Vessel, Portuguese DJ and producer Nídia, Johannes Berglund, and Peder Mannerfelt and Pär Grindvik’s technicolor dance project Aasthma.

This spring, Fever Ray will embark on their first tour since 2018, the There’s No Place I’d Rather Be Tour. As Stereogum stated, “Karin Dreijer likes to stage ambitious, slightly baffling spectacles, so this should definitely be something to see.” A full list of European and North American dates can be found below. New shows have been added in Washington, D.C. and Pasadena as part of Just Like Heaven. Additionally, CHRISTEENEhas been added as support on all other US dates. Tickets are on sale now here.

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Fever Ray Tour Dates (new dates in bold)
Thu. Mar. 23 – Oslo, NE @ Sentrum Scene
Sat. Mar. 24 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA
Sun. Mar. 25 – Gothenburg, SE @ GBG Film Studios
Mon. Mar. 27 – Riga, LV @ Hanzas Perons
Tue. Mar. 28 – Tallinn, EE @ Noblessner Foundry
Thu. Mar. 30 – Warsaw, PL @ World Wide Warsaw Festival
Sat. Apr. 1 – Amsterdam, NLE @ Melkweg
Mon. Apr. 3 – Brussels, BE @ Cirque Royal
Tue. Apr. 4 – Cologne, DE @ E-Werk
Thur. Apr. 6 – Luxembourg City, LU @ Den Atelier
Fri. Apr. 7 – The Hague, NE @ Rewire Festival
Mon. May 1 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem ^
Wed. May 3 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5 *
Fri. May 5 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner *
Sun. May 7 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed *
Wed. May 10 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater *
Sat. May 13 – Pasadena, CA @ Just Like Heaven
Fri. June 30 – Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter
Sat. Aug. 19 – London, UK @ Field Day
Sat. Aug. 26 – Paris, FR @ Rock En Seine

^ = with 100 gecs & Machine Girl
* = with CHRISTEENE

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]