Tag: Mogwai

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Currently comprised of co-founding members Huw Edwards (lead vocals, guitar) and Jacob Price (synths and samplers), along with Seb Knee-Wright (guitar), Dan Comlay (bass) and Tom Higham (drums), the Leeds-based indie rock quintet KOYO‘s sound draws from several varied sources — including 90s grunge and alt rock, Edwards’ and Price’s parents’ classic rock and prog rock-heavy record collections. Although recently the band has started to incorporate a variety of electronica and post-rock such as Floating Points, JOVM mainstays Mogwai and Brian Eno‘s influential ambient soundtracks, and as a result the band expanded to a quintet to fully flesh out their sound to incorporate their expanding influences and sonic palette. Naturally, the band’s forthcoming full-length debut is slated for release later this year will reportedly mesh psych rock, prog rock and ambient electronic in a way that will remind listeners of Tame Impala, Pink Floyd, Yes and Radiohead — but with a decidedly modern turn, as you’ll hear on the atmospheric, moody and slow-burning “Tetrochromat,” the album title track off the band’s forthcoming debut, Tetrochromat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Brian Purington (guitar), Chris Hackstie (electric and pedal steel guitar), Earl Bowers (drums), James Alexander (viola), Kirk Latkas (keys) and Scott Telles (bass), the Austin TX-based prog rock sextet my education have four previously released albums — 5 Popes, Italian, Moody Dipper, Bad Vibrations, Sunrise, and A Drink for All My Friends with material off those albums being remixed by  members of Kinski, Pelican, Red Sparowes and Dalek — and the members of the band released a remastered editor of their full-length debut back in 2013. And adding to a growing profile, the band has played with a number of national and internationally recognized bands including A Place to Bury Strangers, Kinski, Bardo Pond, Dalek, The Black Angels, The Sea and Cake, Warpaint, Alexander Hacke and Algis Kizys, The Psychedelic Furs, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, This Will Destroy You, Sleepy Sun, White Denim, Radar Bros., Eluvium, Sian Alice Group, Don Caballero, Trans Am, Maserati and The Red Sparowes among others.

The Austin, TX-based septet’s forthcoming full-length effort Schiphol is reportedly influenced by the band’s relentless North American touring schedule, which they began back in 1999 and by a grueling tour across Europe in which they played 20 shows in 21 days. And as the band, along with producer Mike McCarthy, who’s best known for his work with Spoon, . . . And Know You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead and Patty Griffin, began working on the material that would comprisgggge Schiphol, the band began recognizing that a series of themes would seem to repeatedly come up with their latest mat rial — expressing feelings of paranoia, longing, fear, the desperate desire to escape and an overwhelming sense of statelessness, of being on the road and forgetting where you were from or what home was like. Schiphol‘s latest single “Open Marriages” is a moody and cinematic track in which shimmering guitar chords, an angular and propulsive bass and an expansive sound structure familiar to Remember Remember,  Mogwai and others.

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Indie Rock, All-Star Side-Project’s Orchestral Interpretation of Their Noisy, Debut Material

While expanding upon the sound of their most famous primary projects, the band finds each member of the band sonically pushing themselves and crossing as many creative barriers as possible. Interestingly, the project’s soon-to-be released effort, Orchestral Variations is an album of orchestral and instrumental interpretations of the material off Minor Victories’ debut album. The concept, as the band’s Justin Lockey explained to the folks at VICE THUMP began with Lockey “fucking around” but as he progressed, it felt increasingly valid because it presented the songs and harmonies in a completely different light — revealing a stunning beauty underneath the vitriol. In press note Lockey explains that Orchestral Variations’ latest single “Give Up The Ghost” is an orchestral arrangement on the original song. On the full band album, the song begins with an enormous bit of fuzz and vitriol; however, the Orchestral Variation version has Lockey stripping the arrangement down to Rachel Goswell’s vocal melody, which was buried underneath layers of guitar tracks and arena rock-like drums. “In the end, I started with marimbas . . why? Because everyone loves a marimba (if not, they ought to). I guess from my part, it’s a huge nod to Steve Reich, with some melodramatic strings woven in for good measure.” And the result, is gorgeous and soaring and melodramatic composition that sounds as though it should be part of a movie soundtrack while capturing the mood of harried commuters rushing to and fro.

Interestingly, as Lockey explains in press notes, the video was shot by his brother James while they had a day off in Berlin and it features an incredibly simple concept — the band’s Rachel Goswell riding the Berlin metro with enormous headphones on, sitting next to her fellow commuters. And as the train travels you see the Goswell and her fellow commuters sitting next to her, lost in their thoughts and daydreaming; at points the motion of the train or the length of their day has someone close their eyes and nod off; at other points, people get off at their various stops; people and train stops rush by. If it wasn’t so relatively clean, it would look and feel as though you were riding the subway in New York.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Earlier this year, I wrote about the South Devon, UK-based shoegaze/dream pop/indie rock duo Matthew and Me. And with the previous release of singles such as “Patterns” and “Kitsune,” the duo received a reputation across their native UK for a sound that seemed to draw from the likes of Sigur Ros and Mogwai, and as a result, the duo received airplay on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 6, XFM, and they’ve made appearances at some of Britain’s largest festivals including  including Field Day, Somersault, Port Eliot, and Glastonbury. Now “Joy,” the single I wrote about at the time, was a slow-burning and expansive song that began with a lengthy, delicate and hazy introduction in which Board’s aching falsetto was paired with shimmering and swirling guitar chords and gently padded drumming — with each individual chord feeling as though it were painter’s brushstroke adding color and texture in a fashion that was reminiscent of both the aforementioned Sigur Ros and A Storm in Heaven-era The Verve.

“Silver,” the is the duo’s latest single and the first single off their forthcoming EP Startpoint, which is slated for a November 18, 2016 release through Beatnik Creative Records. Recorded between their home studio, Deep Litter Studios and Startpoint Studios, and was produced by Chris Bond, who has worked with Ben Howard and Eliza Shaddad. Interestingly, the single  is an sparse and atmospheric song in which shimmering guitar chords, swirling and soaring electronics, and a steady backbeat are paired with Board’s plaintive and aching falsetto to craft a song that sounds reminiscent of Death Cab for Cutie‘s Narrow Stairs — but with an anthemic hook.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Over the past 15 years, singer/songwriter and musician Jordan Geiger has developed a reputation for being incredibly prolific — he’s been a member of several renowned indie rock acts including Shearwater, The Appleseed Cast, Des Ark and Minus Story, and he’s released three albums with his solo recording project Hospital Ships. Geiger’s fourth full-length Hospital Ships effort, The Past is Not a Flood is slated for a March 11, 2016 release through Graveface Records, and the album features a myriad number of Austin, TX-based collaborators including longtime friend, Swans‘ Thor Harris — and is Geiger’s sixth album with renowned producer John Congleton, best known for his work with St. Vincent, The Walkmen, Modest Mouse and others.

Thematically speaking, The Past is Not a Flood reportedly draws from Geiger’s own battles with mental illness, anxiety and depression, which will arguably make his fourth full-length album his most personal one to date. The album’s first single “You and I” possesses a gorgeous painterly quality as layers of twisting and turning piano chords undulating and chiming percussion and ominously ambient electronics are slowly added like brushstrokes upon a canvas — and then they’re paired with Geiger’s achingly tender vocals expressing vulnerability, shame, regret and confusion over a dysfunctional and fucked up relationship that’s at an impasse. While sonically bearing a resemblance to Amnesiac-era Radiohead, Remember Remember and Mogwai‘s most recent ambient experiments “You and I” manages to feel like a lingering and anxious fever dream.

 

 

 

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

With the release of their debut effort, Everything Is Not Going To Be Okay, the Washington, DC-based trio of Black Clouds quickly developed a reputation for a quasi-nihilistic post rock sound and aesthetic. And interestingly enough, the […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Sinosa Micik, lead vocalist; Bobby Tamkin, drummer producer and songwriter, who was previously a member of the Warlocks; Devin Johnson, guitarist; Lisa Fendelander, keyboardist; Kyle Hines, bassist; and the recently recruited Derek Muro on […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Sinosa Micik, lead vocalist; Bobby Tamkin, drummer producer and songwriter, who was previously a member of the Warlocks; Devin Johnson, guitarist; Lisa Fendelander, keyboardist; Kyle Hines, bassist; and recently recruited Derek Muro on […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Glow and Behold, the London-based Yuck’s sophomore album was critically well-received. And while playing sold out venues across the US and in their native London, the band stopped in the studio to record an EP […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Over the past decade, producer/mixer D. James Goodwin has done rather innovative work with the likes of Kaki King, Murder by Death, Norah Jones, the Bravery and DEVO. But last year, Goodwin began working on and recording a bunch of songs […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Over the past decade, producer/mixer D. James Goodwin has done rather innovative work with the likes of Kaki King, Murder by Death, Norah Jones, the Bravery and DEVO. But last year, Goodwin began working on […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Kurt Vile and Robert Robinson were initially introduced to each other back in 2001 by a mutual friend because they have the same birthday – January 3, 1980. And by the next year, both Robinson […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

January 21st will mark the Stateside release of Rave Tapes, the eighth full-length effort from the Glasglow Scotland-based Mogwai. “Remurdered” is the first single from the forthcoming album and it reveals a band that continually makes […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Canal + TV series, Les Revenants is adapted from the eponymous Robin Campillo-directed film of the same name. The series like the movie is set in an isolated, French mountain village where the locals have been disturbed after children […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Mute Records and Spoon Records recently announced that they will be releasing a 5 LP Box set of legendary German rock band CAN‘s Lost Tapes on 180g vinyl. But like many other box sets, there’s a rather […]