I’m not sure if anyone but Föllakzoid would have the guts to make an album like I. Every track on the album – guitar, synths, drums, vocals, and bass – was recorded in isolation. This is the first time the band haven’t recorded an album all together and in one take for each track. They then gave all of these elements to their producer, Atom TM, who hadn’t heard any of them before, and told him to arrange the elements in whatever order or time length he wanted. As a result, the album is a wild experiment that is a collaborative effort and yet order brought out of chaos.
The album is just four tracks, “I,” “II,” “III,” and “IIII.” They alternate between seventeen and thirteen minutes in length. The first is like a synth wave dreamscape that includes a neon-lit highway and roadside ramen bars. It blends so seamlessly in to “II” that you’ve taken an offramp from that synth wave highway into an industrial park that builds androids before you’ve realized it.
There’s a slight break before “III,” which is not unlike pulling over at one of those ramen bars and getting out of your hover-car to stretch, double check the power source on your laser gun, and scan the horizon for bounty hunter drones before heading inside to order a bowl of soup and a green tea. As the track grows over the next few minutes, you look up at the mirror behind the bar and see the reflection of hunter drone lights in the far distance approaching your location. You might have time to finish the soup and tea, but not much. The ramen is far better than you expected, and might be the last meal you have for a day. Is it worth the risk of being caught, or killed?
In “IIII,” the hunter drones are scanning the ramen bar for traces of your DNA and heat signature while you’re driving, but not too quickly, through an industrial area to camouflage your hover car’s thermal image among all the heat put out by the plants churning out recycled metal. The drones follow your trail to the factories, soon setting up a wide perimeter around it. You ditch the hover car and head out on foot, immediately gaining the notice of unsavory characters in faux-leather coats (Real leather is a luxury only afforded by the elite.) who wonder if you’re the cause of the drone perimeter around their neighborhood. Some wonder if there’s a hefty price on your head. Some look ready to collect. You know someone at the protein mill who might be able to hide you, but…is that an Ultra Corporation helicopter landing nearby? They’re the ones who hired you to find her, but why are they unloading corporate gunmen? The situation has gone from bad to worse. Action is imminent.
I is a stunning record, both in its sound and how it was made. The way it melds so many solo elements into a creepy, trippy, hypnotic landscape is nothing short of astounding.
[‘No Dice’] sounds like heaven and hell locked in an arm wrestle, jockeying for attention.” – Stereogum Blanck Mass – the solo electronic project of Scotland-based musician Benjamin John Power – shares the final pre-release single / video, “Love Is a Parasite,” from his forthcoming album, Animated Violence Mild, out August 16th on Sacred Bones. The video, directed by Craig Murray, reflects the track’s chaotic energy, and depicts scenes of a commercial shoot that takes an absurd turn. “I wanted to speak to Craig Murray about making the ‘…Parasite’ video as his work definitely bridges that gap between the grotesque and the beautiful that I am so keen on,” says Power. “Presenting the darker theme of global mass consumerism whilst poking fun at the ’80s and starring a Drag Queen overseeing chaos wasn’t going to be an easy task but he nailed it.”
“It was great to be asked by Ben to work on this which instantly led us to bizarrely mirrored ideas… I decided to set the film in 1983 as a nod to Cronenberg and in order to do that everything from the costumes to the shooting and post production needed to fit,” says Murray. “I have a deep nostalgia with this time period and its video formats, so to honour it we shot on a transmission feed which we glitched by plugging and unplugging the cable. I find emulated effects offensive.”
Animated Violence Mild is Power’s fourth full-length as Blanck Mass, and his most emotionally direct statement yet. The album was written throughout 2018, at Power’s studio outside of Edinburgh. These eight tracks are the diary of a year of work steeped in honing craft, self-discovery, and grief – the latter of which reared its head at the final hurdle of producing this record and created a whole separate narrative: grief, both for what Power has lost personally, but also in a global sense, for what we as a species have lost and handed over to our blood-sucking counterpart, consumerism, only to be ravaged by it. Watch “Love Is a Parasite” Video – https://youtu.be/pmMY35HlTAo
“In every way — from the making of it, to the words, to how I feel moving forward, this record is about owning up to your darkest side, finding the capacity for new love and trusting change even when you feel like a stranger.” — Angel Olsen
Angel Olsen will release her fourth full-length album, All Mirrors, on October 4th via Jagjaguwar. Olsen’s bold and unexpected All Mirrors comes over three years after the release of MY WOMAN, a top 10 critically praised album of 2016. In conjunction with today’s announcement, Olsen unveils the title track and its video, directed by Ashley Connor and conceived by Olsen.
On her vulnerable new album, All Mirrors, Olsen takes an introspective deep dive towards internal destinations and revelations. In the process of making this album, she found a new sound and voice, a blast of fury mixed with hard won self-acceptance. All Mirrors gets its claws into you on both micro and macro levels. Of course, there’s that singular vibrato, always so very close — seemingly simple, cooed phrases expand into massive ideas about the inability to love and universal loneliness. And then suddenly — huge string arrangements and bellowing synth swells emerge, propelling the apocalyptic tenor.
In creating All Mirrors, Olsen initially planned to work on a dual record release — a set of raw and real solo songs and a full band version of the same songs — both to be released at once. She recorded the solo version with producer Michael Harris in Anacortes, Washington. There, she was determined to keep it bare bones in order to contrast with the not yet recorded full band record. Soon after that was completed, she began work on the more ambitious, fleshed out version with producer John Congleton, with whom she collaborated on 2014’s breakout Burn Your Fire for No Witness, arranger Jherek Bischoff, multi-instrumentalist/arranger/pre-producer Ben Babbitt, and a 14-piece orchestra.
While remaking the album with full production and new collaborators, Olsen developed a new relationship with control, and as she got further into the process, she realized she “needed to separate these two records and release All Mirrors in its heaviest form. . . It was impossible for me to deny how powerful and surprising the songs had become. The truth is that I may have never allowed this much sonic change in the first place had I not already made an account of the same songs in their purest form.”
Over heavy synth and oscillating percussion, lead single “All Mirrors” navigates between the perception of what one wants to see and reality. “I chose this one as the title because I liked the theme: the theme of how we are all mirrors to and for each other,” says Olsen. “Even if that is not all of it, there is always an element of projection in what we’d like to see in people and scenarios and in the way we see ourselves in those scenarios, with those people.”
The Jagjaguwar limited and exclusive All Mirrors bundle includes the album on opaque aquamarine vinyl and the All Mirrors 7” on silver with black splatter vinyl. The 7” includes two versions of the album’s title track: “All Mirrors” album version and “We Are All Mirrors” solo version.
As previously announced, the All Mirrors tour kicks off on October 28th. A full European leg has been added. All dates are below. Watch Angel Olsen’s “All Mirrors” Video – https://youtu.be/Jjt698Zv5jQ
All Mirrors Tracklist: 1. Lark 2. All Mirrors 3. Too Easy 4. New Love Cassette 5. Spring 6. What It Is 7. Impasse 8. Tonight 9. Summer 10. Endgame 11. Chance
So far, the winner of Most Intriguing Album Cover of 2019 goes to Ladytron (Mira Aroyo, Daniel Hunt, Helen Marnie, Reuben Wu) for their new, self-titled album. A young couple runs from a luxury car left abandoned on a road toward a raging forest fire. They are willingly, gleefully running toward chaos, fury, and death. If that doesn’t sum up the cultural zeitgeists for many people in the U.S. and the U.K., I don’t know what does.
Ladytron’s new album is their first new material in seven years. They’ve seen the change in the world’s political atmosphere, the further embrace of technology that is advertised as a communication tool but only drives us into our own literal and metaphorical cocoons, the Brexit vote, the 2016 U.S. presidential election, mass shootings, bombings, hurricanes, civil wars, genocides, and more things that keep us awake at night. They’ve responded with an album of searing electro and haunting hooks.
Opening with “Until the Fire,” the vintage synths and slightly spooky double vocals us Ladytron fans love immediately swirl around you as Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo sing about the power and danger of desire. “The Island” is a lush synthwave track that has bright chords that hide a bit of menace (i.e., The last line of the song is “We are savages.”).
“I only came here for the view,” they sing to begin “Tower of Glass” – a song about not throwing stones, physical and verbal, at others. “Far from Home” sounds like “classic” Ladytron, if that’s even a proper term. The synths on it sound like they were dug out of Giorgio Moroder’s basement. “Paper Highways” brings out their love of krautrock, not to mention industrial goth.
“The Animals” is a haunting but toe-tapping song about war, racism, and the insanity of it all. “We are more like you than the ones than the ones that you view,” they sing. “Run” has processed beats that would make John Carpenter jealous and mysterious lyrics like, “Stop looking at me with a gun in your hand.” “Deadzone” has sharp-as-a-knife beats and even deadlier synth stabs and chords throughout it.
“Figurine” moves with an urgency that gets you moving right away and builds to a great rush. The synth bass on “You’ve Changed” is outstanding. I’m willing to bet the title refers to not only a particular person, but also the general public who seem to have lost their collective mind (i.e., “You’ve changed. What were you thinking?”). This song has probably been remixed by dozens of synthwave DJ’s by now to tear up dance floors, as it should.
“Horrorscope” is plain enough to understand. Again, just look at the album cover. The future is full of bad things if we don’t turn around now (“…across the hemispheres, and now it’s always near.”). “The Mountain” builds from a far echo to a state of soaring psychedelic synth bliss. “Tomorrow Is Another Day” is almost relaxing chillwave and would fit on a make-out playlist as long as you want a bit of intrigue while you’re getting your groove on with someone.
It’s a nice return for Ladytron. Synthwave is making a big comeback, and it’s good to see Ladytron taking the reins and shaking us out of our 24-hour news cycle-induced funk.
Italy’s Thrown Down Bones(Dave Gali and Francesco Vanni) fully embrace their love of breakbeat, house, rave, and dance music on their newest album – Two. Mixing synths with effects pedals, electronic drums, and touches of industrial guitars, TDB gets you moving from the outset and don’t let up until the LP ends.
The thumping beats and chugging bass that open the album and “First Follower” bring to mind some of Depeche Mode‘s darker tracks, and the pulsing, laser gun-like synths take us into sci-fi anime realms. The stunning “We Are Drugs” is your favorite industrial dance track of the year. The heavy but sharp bass line alone is worth the album’s purchase price.
The guitars on “Slow Violence” sound like an orchestrated saw mill (in a good way) while the synths bring a well-balanced light to the track. “NO-FI” is dark wave meets future noir dance music. It’s so slick that it might cause you to slip if you’re walking while listening to it.
You will love “Golovkin” if you were ever part of the 1990’s rave culture. It’s like stepping out of a strobe light-emblazoned time machine shaped like a pacifier. TBD clearly isn’t screwing around by this point and are staking their claim as one of the premiere electro dance track artists of Europe (if not worldwide). “Is This Us” keeps the amps at eleven by upping the distortion and the impact of the beats.
The backward-sounding bass on “Known Unknown” immediately intrigues you, and then the John Carpenter-like keyboard rhythms get you moving (or running from a Blade Runner, vampire, alien, or ninjas). By the time we get to the closer, “Zero Day Exploit,” you are deep in the Matrix with images of computer code, flying cars, robot soldiers, and android pole dancers flashing through your head.
Two is one of the most exciting records I’ve heard all year. It grabs you in the first few moments and holds on like a tandem skydiver until the end.
Keep your mind open.
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International experimental musicians Exploded View (Annika Henderson hailing from Berlin and Hugo Quezada and Martin Thulin from Mexico City) explore themes of punishment and isolation (physical, mental, social) on their new album Obey.
They open with the instrumental “Lullaby,” which could be the opening theme to a Mario Bava movie, and then slide into the sultry “Open Road,” which could be the opening theme to David Lynch’s next movie. Henderson’s voice hypnotizes you within moments and Quezada and Thulin’s instrumentation ranges from weird lounge jazz to dreamwave. “Dark Stains” brings in krautrock bass and synths while Henderson sings about lost time and a lover’s deceptions.
“What would you do if your love was gone tomorrow and you never found the words to say?” Henderson asks on the haunting synthwave track “Gone Tomorrow,” in which Exploded View implores us to not wait and not to be afraid to find love. The unsettling title track is about obeying not only laws but also the unwritten rules of society (both in the flesh and online) which can get you ostracized if you don’t tow the line. Henderson’s voice seems to be on the outside of the song, like she’s being punished for not conforming. I can’t help but think of another filmmaker when hearing this track – John Carpenter. It seems to flow out of his film They Live.
“Sleepers” is one of the best synthwave tracks of the year, with buzzsaw guitars, sunlight-bright synths, dark bass, and Henderson’s vocals calling out to you through your dreams. “Letting Go of Childhood Dreams” is about the sometimes cold nature of reality. Again, Henderson’s vocals seem distant, almost like she’s fading away as the synths drift into every corner of the room.
The catchy “Raven Raven” is probably being blasted in goth dance clubs across Europe by now. If not, it should be. It’s perfect for dark rooms, make-out sessions, late night Metro rides, and catching the eyes of a raven-haired maiden as she looks at you over a cup of jet black espresso at 2am. “Come On Honey” brings in chaotic guitars and frenetic percussion while Henderson’s vocals keep us and her bandmates grounded (but just barely). The closing track, “Rant,” is appropriately urgent. Henderson implores us one last time to embrace life, love, and beauty. “Life could be so damn simple, if you let it,” she sings.
We’re too busy obeying, however. We’re obeying advertising, 24-hour news cycles, social media, and the expectations and opinions of others and not trusting our own minds, eyes, and hearts.
Stop obeying. Start living. That’s the message of Exploded View’s Obey.
LISTEN TO EXPLODED VIEW’S “DARK STAINS,” NEW SINGLE OFF OBEY OUT SEPTEMBER 28TH VIA SACRED BONES https://youtu.be/B64K_3gkmPo
FIRST-EVER NORTH AMERICAN TOUR KICKS OFF OCTOBER 19TH
(photo credit – Exploded View)
“‘Dark Stains’ [is] a chaotic, sinister partner to their recent single ‘Sleepers’ — if that one was the sky, this is underground. A buried hunk of metal run into by a rototiller. Life! A banger!” — FADER
“’Raven Raven’ is darkly cinematic; its initial moments of creaking synthesizer and rattling floor tom unspool like a reel of degraded film, clicking and flickering images onto a looming screen. . . The pictures Exploded View offer may be grainy, but they’re just as grave and lasting.”
— Pitchfork
“‘Raven, Raven’ is a logical continuation of Exploded View, with the same beat-poet delivery from frontwoman Annika Henderson and tense kinetic energy from the instrumentalists, who sound a little like the members of Can jamming in Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Black Ark Studios.” — SPIN
“Mysterious and claustrophobically groovy” — Brooklyn Vegan
“[‘Sleepers’] glides along on an eerie synth line — at times inviting and beautiful but then always threatening to take a turn into more discomfiting directions — while Henderson’s voice settles into this place where anxiety and fear and wonder seem to coexist. It’s a strange, beautiful composition.”
— Stereogum
Exploded View, the international project of Berlin-based lyricist/vocalist Annika Henderson, and Mexico City-based multi-instrumentalists Hugo Quezada and Martin Thulin, are gearing up for the release of their second full-length album, Obey, out September 28th on Sacred Bones, and first-everNorth American tour. Previous “singles ‘Sleepers’ and ‘Raven Raven’ both showcase one of [Exploded View]’s greatest skills: luring listeners into its dreamlike songs with a strong groove, then revealing the dream is equally part nightmare” (AV Club). Now the trio present “Dark Stains,” “a song about a body who sees in themselves the errors of the past, yet flaunts behind the veils of inheritance and fails to take full responsibility for the present.” Annika described it in detail for FADER.
Leaving behind their live recording process and now a tight three-piece, Exploded View strike a special balance between precise and wild, unshackled and grounded, grooving and unhinged. The have a knack for making the esoteric feel accessible and crafting pop music out of seemingly raw consciousness. Recorded in Mexico City, the apocalyptic, yet soothing songs comprising Obey encompass all the classic dream motifs: intrigue, danger, ecstasy, hard to place, yet primordial visions, and a constant sense of movement.
If you’re like me and eager to hear Ladytron‘s upcoming album and catch them on tour for it, their 2009 release of Live at London Astoria 16.07.08 is a great morsel to tide you over until the new record’s release and subsequent tour. The show was a rescheduled gig for one that had to be cancelled a couple months earlier due to a power outage. The band’s urge to make amends with fans can be felt throughout the power of the entire set.
The live album starts off with a robotic version of “Black Cat” with lead vocals in Russian. “Runaway” follows, bringing dark wave-like bass and great echoed vocals. The guitars and droning synths on “High Rise” might induce vertigo if you’re not careful while listening to it. “Ghosts” has some of my favorite Ladytron lyrics, “There’s a ghost in me who wants to say, ‘I’m sorry doesn’t mean I’m sorry.'” It’s a spooky song about relationships, quite possibly involving at least one lover who is dead.
“Seventeen” is one of my favorite Ladytron cuts, and it’s one of the most damning songs about the fashion industry ever (“They only want you when you’re seventeen. When you’re twenty-one, you’re no fun.”). The live version is thumping with synth bass. “I’m Not Scared” hits hard with bright synths blending with rock drums. “True Mathematics,” with more great Russian vocals, hits even harder. I hope they play it on their next tour, because it’s outstanding. “Season of Illusions” is a bit lighthearted, but don’t worry because “Soft Power” drops you right back into the dark with synths that sound like they’re being played in a tomb. “Playgirl” was a big hit for the London crowd, judging from their reaction when Ladytron announces it’s the next track.
“International Dateline” is practically a goth love song, and “Predict the Day” surprises you by starting with whistling and then unloading sticky synth bass and sexy beats. “Fighting in Built Up Areas” is another Russian vocal treat, and “Discotraxx” would do Giorgio Moroder proud with its slick electro dance beats. They dedicate “The Last One Standing” to everyone who was at the show that was cancelled months earlier.
They chose “Kletva,” “Burning Up,” and “Destroy Everything You Touch” for their encore. It’s a nice end to a fun show. They originally just release 100 copies of it at the show, so I’m glad they put it out for wide release. You should be, too.
Keep your mind open.
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Singer, songwriter, and electro / goth musician Zola Jesus will be playing an early set on Saturday at Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival. Her voice is something to behold, and her near-darkwave music will be jarring under the afternoon sun. There is a chance of rain, however, and that would be perfect for her somber songs. Don’t miss this one.
Keep your mind open.
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Consisting of members of the Black Angels (Alex Maas on guitar, bass, and vocals), the Earlies (John Lapham on synths), Elephant Stone(Rishi Dhir on sitar, bass, and vocals), and the Horrors (Tom Furse on synths), MIEN are a psychedelic supergroup who have been at least discussing their self-titled debut album since 2004. Now that it’s here, they (and we) can rejoice in a job well done.
Staring with the cosmic “Earth Moon,” Maas’ vocals are drenched in smoky reverb as he sings about how our beliefs can alter our reality. Where that track is a lovely stroll through a psychedelic meadow, the second cut, “Black Habit,” is downright creepy with Lapham and Furse’s synths providing a dark drone under Maas’ lyrics about addictions. “(I’m Tired of) Western Shouting” might be my favorite cut on the record. The drum beats are wicked, as are Maas’ lyrics about 24-hours news cycles, angry Internet rants, and people being proud to be rude or even bigoted. The whole band clicks on it, and it slays live.
“You Dreamt” layers on the synths and is pretty much a dark wave track (and a good one). The instrumental “Other” floats on Furse and Lapham’s synths and could’ve easily fit into the score for Blade Runner: 2049. “I feel so high,” Maas sings on “Hocus Pocus.” You might feel the same as it warps into distorted madness and heady freak-outs. Thee deep bass synths on “Ropes” fuel the urgency of Maas’ vocals about fear.
“Echolalia” is defined as mindless repetition of words or sentences as a symptom of a psychiatric disorder or as a repetition of words by a child learning to speak. Both definitions seem appropriate for the track of the same name, as it churns with an almost frantic energy and then comes to an abrupt start that surprises you. “Odessey” has brighter synths, and even female backing vocals, but they hide menace within them. The album ends with a reprise of “Earth Moon.” It’s a mellower version than the first and it creates a nice, dreamy ending to a mostly spooky record.
It’s a solid debut. MIEN are currently on their first live tour, so don’t miss them or this record.
Keep your mind open.
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