Posts Tagged ‘Castle Face Records’

DUDS – ” Of a Nature or Degree “

Posted: November 17, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Manchester quartet Duds‘ wiry, clattering sound draws comparisons to original postpunk upstarts The Fire Engines and Joseph K, and likewise they bring a real urgency to their music. The band’s debut album, Of A Nature or Degree, will be out September 22nd via Castle Face Records, and it’s the first UK group to have a record out on John Dwyer’s label. While they don’t sound like anything else on Castle Face, they do share an electricity with groups like Oh Sees, POW!, and Running, and definitely fit in with the label’s asthetic. We’ve got the premiere of “Elastic Feel” which is a great example of the band’s nervous creative energy

Tracklist:

01. No Remark 02. Signal, Sign 03. A Different Stage 04. The Nose 05. Irregular Patterns 06. Split on Both Sides 07. Keine 08. Of Nature 09. Elastic Seal 10.Pro Tem 11. Elastic Feel 12. Reward Indifference

FLAT WORMS – ” Motorbike “

Posted: November 16, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Flat Worms really belt-sanded us with their Red Hot Sand 7” vinyl single on Volar, and we are proud as new papas to present their debut LP. They continue their ride on a buzzsaw wave of feedback-tipped riffs into the middle distance, smog choked sunset receding in the rearview, a thousand yard dead-pan surgically pinned to a high octane set of boredom energized punk pistons. One of the best albums of the year. Raging but with style, panache and tunes. Debut album of LA post-punk band featuring Will Ivy (Dream Boys, Wet Illustrated, Bridez), Justin Sullivan (Kevin Morby, The Babies) and Tim Hellman (Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Sic Alps).

Flat Worms – an ears-a-ringing missive from the end of the cul-de-sac, the mirage of direction wavering above a mid-sized American suburb at dusk, constellations bleached black by the sprawl. A little Wipers, a little Wire, and a lot of late-capitalist era anxious energy – Flat Worms scratch the itch quite nicely, we think. It’s out on Castle Face Records October 20th.

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OCS – ” Orc ” Best Albums Of 2017

Posted: November 5, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The newly shorn Oh Sees waste no time in racing headlong into nightmarish battle with the mighty ORC, and wouldn’t ya know it, they’ve clawed even farther up the ghastly peak last year’s A Weird Exits stormed so satisfyingly. The band is in tour-greased, anvil on a balance beam, gut-pleasingly heavy form, nimbly braining with equal dashes of abandon and menace on this fresh batch of bruisers and brooders, hypnotically stirred into to the cauldron of chaos you’ve come to expect from, ahem, Oh Sees. Fresh blood Paul Quattrone joins Dan Rincon to form a phalanx of interlocking double drums, alternately propelling and fleet footing shifting ground to pinion Dwyer’s cliff-face guitars to the boogie. Tim Hellman keeps it swinging like a battle-axe to the eyebrows.

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The tunes veer towards the violence of their live shows, with a few tasty swerves into other lanes…heavy to lush, groovy to stately…throughout it remains sinister in its swaggering skulk, manic in its fuzz-fried fugues…they hit all the sweet spots the heads foggily remember, and there’s plenty to sweat over if you just hopped into the sauna. Ew. More evil….more complex…more narcotic…more screech….more roar….more whisper…there’s even more Brigid. Less “Thee”, but more of everything else, it’s out on Castle Face Records

Directed and animated by Alex Theodoropulos. “Nite Expo” appears on Orc, by Oh Sees, out on Castle Face Records now.

DUDS – ” Elastic Feel “

Posted: September 17, 2017 in MUSIC
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Manchester quartet Duds‘ wiry, clattering sound draws comparisons to original postpunk upstarts like The Fire Engines and Joseph K, and likewise they bring a real urgency to their music. The band’s debut album, Of A Nature or Degree, will be out September 22nd via Castle Face Records, and it’s the first UK group to have a record out on John Dwyer’s label. While they don’t sound like anything else on Castle Face, they do share an electricity with groups like Oh Sees, POW!, and Running, and definitely fit in with the label’s asthetic. We’ve got the premiere of “Elastic Feel” which is a great example of the band’s nervous creative energy.

http://

 

KELLEY STOLZ – ” Que Aura “

Posted: August 24, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Que Aura

When  Kelley Stolz made the jump to Castle Face with his 2015 album, “In Triangle Time” he got weird. Or maybe he already was. Either way, something about the way time and space coincided meant that Stoltz made the loosest, oddest record of his long, mostly buttoned-down career as a pop craftsman. He added synths, played around with structure, and made choices he may not have in the past. For his next album on the label, 2017’s “Que Aura” he took another leap, this time a deeper dive into the sounds of his beloved ’80s. An Echo and the Bunnymen fan to the point where he recorded a version of Crocodiles,  Stoltz actually did join the Bunnymen  as their touring second guitarist.

This gig seems to have unleashed something within Kelley Stoltz, and along with his trademark ’60s-inspired shaggy pop, plus side trips into space rock, warped synth pop, psych, and even some off-kilter disco. Through it all, Stoltz’s way with a hook means that no matter what sounds he dresses the songs in, they are always one sharp hook away from slicing up the speakers. Slick, keyboard-heavy tracks (“Feather Falling”) and insistent synth-driven songs (“Same Pattern”) sound just as good as the jumpy rockers (“I’m Here for Now”) and oddball pop tunes (“Walking Against the Greenlight”), and even the total left turn, the slinky disco number (“Empty Kicks”) ends up sounding really good.

Stoltz has always been a first-rate arranger and producer, but with his last couple records he really seems to have hit his stride. Que Aura is the richest, most diverse, and interesting-sounding album he’s done yet, with the songs to match.

THEE OH SEES – ” Orc “

Posted: August 24, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Oh Sees: <i>Orc</i> Review

The newly shorn Oh Sees waste no time in racing headlong into nightmarish battle with the mighty ORC, and wouldn’t ya know it, they’ve clawed even farther up the ghastly peak last year’s A Weird Exits stormed so satisfyingly. The band is in tour-greased, anvil on a balance beam, gut-pleasingly heavy form, nimbly braining with equal dashes of abandon and menace on this fresh batch of bruisers and brooders, hypnotically stirred into to the cauldron of chaos you’ve come to expect from, ahem, Oh Sees. Fresh blood Paul Quattrone joins Dan Rincon to form a phalanx of interlocking double drums, alternately propelling and fleet footing shifting ground to pinion Dwyer’s cliff-face guitars to the boogie. Tim Hellman keeps it swinging like a battle-axe to the eyebrows. The tunes veer towards the violence of their live shows, with a few tasty swerves into other lanes…heavy to lush, groovy to stately…throughout it remains sinister in its swaggering skulk, manic in its fuzz-fried fugues…they hit all the sweet spots the heads foggily remember, and there’s plenty to sweat over if you just hopped into the sauna. Ew. More evil….more complex…more narcotic…more screech….more roar….more whisper…there’s even more Brigid. Less “Thee”, but more of everything else, it’s out on Castle Face Records August 25th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq4MGB94JCo

With a band like Oh Sees (née Thee Oh Sees, née OCS, née any other variations of the name), you keep waiting for the inevitable dud to be dropped, especially with the prolific output the band has gained a reputation for. Orc marks the band’s 19th release in this project’s 20 year existence, and with it, comes another hyperbolic batch of praises and huzzahs. The record is an absolutely evil stunner from front to back, top to bottom, head to toes and everywhere in between, and whips up the same kind of radiant, strange awe that the band’s overdriven catalog has so generously perpetrated album after wicked album.

Orc is immediately manic, overdriven, and intense on the roiling opener “The Static God,” forming a pounding fist of screeching guitars that give way to a wordless chorus that pogos in stop-start guitar clangs, and continues to shape-shift and waggle in bizarre back roads of experimentation. Liberated somewhat from the jammy tendencies they explored on the likes of Castlemania and Floating Coffin, and venturing further into the loopy explorations of last year’s A Weird Exits, the band has simply decided to take cues from any twisted source they so desire, smashing it all into an approximation of a rollicking garage-rock basement party.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_2vQsGCb9M

Giving Oh Sees songs your undivided attention typically yields the best results, and with so many aural wormholes to traverse, its in your best interest to give in to the wild panorama of Dwyer’s rock ‘n’ roll vision quest.

THEE OH SEES – ” Withered Hand “

Posted: August 1, 2015 in MUSIC
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Here we have a new batch from Thee Oh Sees for your absorption – nine muscular tunes primed to pummel to. Last year’s Drop was more schizophrenic, ranging from heavy to whimsical and back – Mutilator Defeated At Last has more in common with the monolithic hugeness of Floating Coffin – with only two slight reprieves in heaviness this is a record made to be played loudly and that demands bodily sacrifice inherently. Despite the plutonium heavy feel, Thee Oh Sees continue to be omnivorous – synths and acoustic guitars expertly wind their way throughout like veins of gold through granite – any and all that stands in its way will be devoured and assimilated. This is the sound of a band doing what they do best, and it’s out on Castle Face Records May 18th.

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