Gnoomes, the Russian outfit who blend a potent mix of psychedelic stargaze, kraut techno and kosmiche pop return with a brand new album, MU! their third for Rocket Recordings.
Since the release of their last album Tschak! the three piece has turned into a quartet with synth player Masha Piankova joining the band. And it was the success of their tours in the UK and Europe that subconsciously created a template and tone for where the band would go next with this new album; to capture that surging drive and throbbing assault of their pulverising live shows. “We decided to make this record more live and less electronic,” Sasha, singer and guitarist from Gnoomes said. “We were thinking about how to make it sound more dynamic.” Masha’s introduction was a key one, with her replacing Sasha on synth bass whilst he moved over to second guitar to add a fuller and more impactful sonic crunch.
MU! has been part recorded in the same old soviet radio station where the band recorded Tschak! part in a professional studio and then part at home. This was to ensure the best capture of Gnoomes live assault. The results brim with a magnitude and sense of coherence that belies some of the environment it was created in. Fuzz-driven guitars shift in engulfing waves, resembling shoegaze giants at their most ferocious, whilst elsewhere layered vocals stack on top of one another, weaving between pristine melody and augmented discordance. Whilst the glacial electronics and coldwave tendencies that soaked much of their previous album may be more absent here, this record pulses with an electronic tinge that bubbles more subtly under the surface of immersive guitars.
It’s all change for Pinkshinyultrablast. The shoegaze group are titans of the Russian underground, but vocalist Lyubov recently moving to Los Angeles, the band have been exploring new ways of composing and collaborating. Partnered with a line-up refinement, the new material sees Pinkshinyultrablast go down a more electronic path while experimenting with new sounds. It’s reported the rest of the band have now settled in Los Angeles, the band’ style has undergone a line up refinement, including an emboldened use of electronics.
New album ‘Miserable Miracles’ arrives on May 4th via Club AC30, and they’ve arranged a full UK tour to coincide. The latest track ‘Dance AM’ is a bold departure from their previous material, while remaining recognisable as their work. Electronic-driven and with searing guitar lines, it’s digitally enhanced shoegaze which peers endlessly into the future.
Pinkshinyultrablast are Lyubov – vocals, Rustam – synths and electronics and Roman – guitars.
Originally hailing from a city more synonymous with the State Conservatory than a gang of shoegaze addicts, Pinkshinyultrablast have nevertheless seen great critical and commercial success since their debut album Everything Else Matters and follow-up Grandfeathered. They’ve been compared to bands such as Lush but this is no mere throwback tribute – due to their sharp, icy electronics and ability to subvert the genre, bringing something new to the table. They possess not only the spirit of late 80s/early 90s British bands like Cocteau Twins, but also machine-made sounds of the same era from Sabres Of Paradise or Global Communication, not to mention wider vibrations like Cluster, Popul Vuh, Terry Riley and Philip Glass.
The trio’s third album, Miserable Miracles, is out on 4th May via premiere shoegaze ambassadors Club AC30 (UK) and Shelflife (USA). The band have also announced an extensive UK tour to coincide with this and the 10 year anniversary of their very first show, and very kindly talked us through the ideas behind the new record.
Dance AM
Lyubov: This song opens our third full length and marks us moving in a new direction with sound and production and in some way music genres. For one of the most upbeat and fast-paced songs of the LP we also feel like it’s one of the album’s most lyrical.
Roman: Since the last album we are geographically away from each other and the change in locations has led to us moving in new directions musically too. The sound and its production we feel has progressed. For those people who look to genres, we are maybe in a different one too now. Lyrically expressive, this is one of the albums most upbeat and fast-paced tracks and an introduction to Miserable Miracles.
Triangles
Lyubov: We revisited the early years of making music as a band with this song and drew from the early inspiration with krautrock we had. It’s nice to play with this genre once again. After listening back to the final version also felt like a tribute to Stereolab in some way.
Roman: For this track, we had a chance to revisit the early years of how we made music. We spent it together as a band and drew on some of our personal earliest inspirations, It certainly touched on krautrock and some of the less known tracks in that musical space too. We found this a super refreshing approach and cared less about recent musical trends and went old school. When the track was done and we listened back to the finished version it also felt like a tribute to Stereolab in some way, a band that influence far more bands than the casual listener probably realises.
Find Your Saint
Lyubov: The first song we started working on from the album. We all had a strong vision early on of what this song should be like and have had quite a bit of back and forths about it. This is a result of a close collaboration and is also one of the singer’s personal favourites.
Roman: One of the favourites of Lyubov, the lead singer, this was the first song we started working on from the album after a small break post-Grandfeathered. We all had a strong vision early on of what this song should be like and had quite a bit of back and forth about it. It was worth it to come up with something we are all so happy with. The main melody of a chorus came to Rustam whilst he was in a bus so he just switched on a laptop and made a fast sketch and it evolved from there. This is a result of a close collaboration and the long gestation period hopefully shows how much care went into it. The video for this was a lot moodier than what had come before, channelling our inner Lynch!
Lyubov: An intermission on the album, though the conclusion for side A of the LP.
Roman: What started out as a mellow breaking point in the album has ended up being two of our manager’s favourite tracks. He has compared them to Brian Eno, though that is a lofty accolade so they are not our words, ha!. The likes of Brian Eno are obviously great influences as they are for many musicians. This originally was just a part of a jam Rustam played on a Fender Rhodes into pedals and several guitar amps, we were so surprised of sound that we took a small part of this jam into the album.
Earth And Elsewhere
Lyubov: A gateway into the second part of the album.
Roman: Following on from ‘Blue Hour’ this starts off the second half of the album. A record very much designed to be able to be dipped into and consumed as a whole too. Sequentially there was a lot of thought put into the way the album segues and in this digital streaming age, we encourage people to listen through as a whole. The cinematic qualities of both this and ‘Blue Hour’ are sounds we would love to explore further especially with original scores and soundtracks how the likes of Mogwai have managed to combine the two. This track has some crazy Stereolab kind of chords progression and has some cyberpunk anime feeling, Ghost in the Shell or something like this
Taleidoscope
Lyubov: The song that probably points the most to our interest and continuous exploration of the obscure J-pop of the 1980s. Also a nod to our mutual appreciation of the Japanese artist Chiemi Manabe.
Roman: This is our take on disco style music almost without the guitar involved. If we had to point to one artist that this song is our most mutual appreciation of, it would be Chiemi Manabe.
We are on a mission to continually explore our fervent interest in obscure Japanese music of the 1980’s and our song titles have not hidden that fact across this and previous releases. We realise a band dream of playing in Tokyo, two nights in June of this year, and are looking forward to exploring even more of the sounds and culture whilst we were there, dreams do sometimes come true.
In The Hanging Gardens
Lyubov: At times having a slightly darker and more anxious tone than the rest of the songs on the album, this song manifests our exploration of different ways of vocals – instrument interaction and song dynamics. From parts of acapella to a vocals/keyboards dialogue, to a mix that’s densely layered up, we were looking for new ways to play with different parts and textures of the song.
Roman: This was the song that stands out to us at times of having a slightly darker and more anxious tone than the rest of the songs on the album. The fact that the likes of Andy Bell of Ride and Kurt Feldman from the Depreciation Guild chose to remix it is great too.
Eray
Lyubov: This song was the last one we wrote for the album and is named after our keyboardist Rustam’s recently born son Eray.
Roman: It is the last song to have been recorded and a chance for us to be in a contemplative but ultimately upbeat place. To say more words detracts from what we feel is a beautiful thing!
Looming
Lyubov: Further experimenting with the mix, here we contrasted an overall light and airy sound with the distorted choruses, clashing the different sides of the spectrum against each other and trying to see what comes of that.
Roman: We close the album out with a bang and a chance to be experimental within our new found musical happy place. Whilst further experimenting with the mix, here we contrasted an overall light and airy sound with the distorted choruses, clashing the different sides of the spectrum against each other and trying to see what comes of that. This is probably the only song on the album that was born from guitar ideas we found among our practice space recordings.
Miserable Miracles is out on 4th May via Club AC30.
Hailing from Perm, in Russia, the trio known as Gnoomes have an alluring, mysterious sound owing much to ’70s krautrock, heavy psych, and prog. The band’s new album, Tschak!, will be released 10th March via RocketRecordings (home of Goat, GNOD and others). Though the band’s music is definitely trippy, on this album they played it straight. Literally. Say Gnoomes:
“Our vocalist has been almost taken into the Russian Army, while some of us were caught by the police for being high, and the court sentenced [the members] to five days in prison and one year of visiting a narcologist every month. So we haven’t had an opportunity to use psychedelics during the recording process. It was a challenge for us to find the legal ways to make psych music without it, but we thought that it’s not so bad, we could find the best way in daily life and simple things that surrounded us.
After releasing the exquisite Everything Else Matters last year, Russian group Pinkshinyultrablast return with Grandfeathered. A very prog rock return from the band with a mixture of twinkling guitar harmonies in a much heavier approach. They have named their style “thunder pop,” and on the basis of this 11 track album, you would have to agree.check out these live tracks.
Typically then, the Russian 5-piece hurtled through their first 3 songs uninterrupted before anyone could blink, retaining an unwavering energy throughout a blistering set. Equal parts shoegaze, post-rock and math-rock, the music had the crowd happily hypnotised from the beginning, with angelic lead vocals piercing through thick layers of guitar and synth, undercut by taut, expressive bass lines.
The band took the radiant sound of their studio work to a stadium-sized level, commanding an inventive live set-up that included more effects pedals than I could count. Their set went by as quickly as it arrived, leaving the crowd suitably spaced-out and desperate for more.
Pinkshinyultrablast have a new single available titled ‘Kiddy Pool Dreams’ due Out on Club AC30 on October 2nd
“A quiet riot of ethereal vocals and lustrous guitars. Pinkshinyultrablast a valid insight into young modern Russia via the early-90s Thames Valley.“Beautifully toned, unconventionally fast, a gutsy effort that makes a big impression” A complex but sumptuous confluence of mathy basslines and waves of melodic ecstasy.
“euphoric and latitudinous shoegaze” ,equal parts shoegaze and electronic art pop.
Hot on the success of their debut album ‘Everything Else Matters’ Pinkshinyultrablast, a five-piece band from Saint-Petersburg in Russia, The band take their name from an Astrobrite album, an act who were, according to the band, instrumental in how they “researched spaces between ambient, heavy guitar and pop music” .The spaces are what stand out, the production creates a dream-like affair, while space to breathe and reflect on the beauty of the music is accommodated. There is sparseness to the album that in turn gives spaciousness, even expansiveness.
‘Kiddie Pool Dreams is indicative of a forthcoming album full of even more melodic gems and shimmering shoegaze – euphoric with spectral guitars, its sharp edged pop has a radiant charm. To celebrate the release of ‘Kiddy Pool Dreams’ the band will be embarking on a full UK tour on the dates below.
Pinkshinyultrablast are Igor – bass, Lyubov – vocals, Sergey – drums, Rustam – synths and electronics and Roman – guitars.
Pinkshinyultrablast, are a five-piece band from Saint-Petersburg in Russia. Hailing from a city more synonymous with the State Conservatory rather than a gang of shoegaze addicts, they’ve been compared to Lush. But this is no mere throwback tribute – due to their sharp, icy electronics and ability to subvert the genre, bringing something new to the table. They possess not only the spirit of late 80s/early 90s British bands like Ride, but also machine-made sounds of the same era from Sabres Of Paradise or Global Communication, not to mention wider vibrations like Cluster, Popul Vuh, Terry Riley and Philip Glass.
Disdain for a stagnant scene can often be a driving force of creativity; the band say of St Petersburg that, “we realized the local indie scene was totally boring and wanted to play something radically different.” That vision has been realized – this is a sound brimming with playful melody and finely-crafted songwriting. Imagine the scope of a Caribou record, fronted by Elizabeth Fraser soundtracking a grizzly Raskolnikov crime.
The band take their name from an Astrobrite album, an act who were, according to the band, instrumental in how they “researched spaces between ambient, heavy guitar and pop music.” The spaces are what stand out, the production creates a dream-like affair, while space to breathe and reflect on the beauty of the music is accommodated. There exists a sparseness to their sound, that, in turn gives spaciousness, even expansiveness. The album is full of melodic gems, rich with complexity, while underpinned with a beauty that both beguiles and entrances. Everything Else Matters evokes the spirit of bands like Slowdive and Cocteau Twins, but at the same time remaining undeniably modern.
Everything Else Matters is a co-release with Club AC30 in the UK in a limited edition of 600 copies worldwide with mp3 download. There will be unique colored vinyl per label — 300 copies on amber glitter for the US and 300 on starry sky glitter for the UK.
Pinkshinyultrablast are Igor – bass, Lyubov – vocals, Sergey – drums, Rustam – synths and electronics and Roman – guitars.
Russian band Pinkshinyultrablast formed a few years back, and this year they put out their debut album, “Everything Else Matters”, via Shelflife Records/Club AC30. Nothing on the album sounds too unfamiliar, but they bring together familiar sounds in a way we don’t often hear. It’s equal parts loud shoegaze and electronic art pop, sometimes noisy, and other times danceable. It reaches points that rock really hard, but it also has parts that are sad and pretty. If you can imagine Julia Holter forming a punk band, it sounds kind of like that.
Had to revisit this Russian Shoegazer band Pinkshinyultrablast in advent of its new album that was released late at the end of last year called “Everything Else Matters” and from the previews, its going to be a monster.
Ethereal female vocals hang over tribal beats and blazing guitars in a “Cocteau-esque” sonic haze.
there is something in every track and everything is good on this early release. Hands down the best ‘gaze’ music i’ve come across for awhile, Favorite track: Ode to Godzilla.
The album’s dreamy/post-punky penultimate track “Ravestar Supreme” was given a thumping dance remix by Cascine-signed Michigan producer RxGibbs. He cuts the vocals besides what sound like wordless “ahhhs” at the end, and makes the song pretty hard not to nod your head to. The Band are coming to Leicester and Nottingham.
Pinkshinyultrablast — 2015 Tour Dates
Apr 30th – LONDON – Village Underground
May 1st – LONDON – Shacklewell Arms
May 2nd – LEEDS – Live At Leeds Festival
May 3rd – SALFORD – St Philips Church
May 4th – LIVERPOOL – Kazimier
May 6th – CARDIFF – Clwb Ifor Bach
May 7th – BIRMINGHAM – The Temple
May 8th – NOTTINGHAM – Chameleon
May 9th – LEICESTER – Scholar Bar
May 11th – LONDON – Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen
May 13th – RAMSGATE – Ramsgate Music Hall
The Fat Angel Sings 