It should come as no surprise to fans of the Chilean trio Föllakzoid that upon meeting the legendary Jason Piercea.k.a. J. Spaceman (Spacemen 3, Spiritualized), they discovered they were kindred spirits. Föllakzoid and Spaceman’s projects share a restless drive to explore the outer limits of music, as well as an uncanny ability to lock into a groove until it infiltrates the deepest recesses of the listener’s psyche. When Föllakzoid met Spaceman backstage at a Wooden Shjips gig at London’s Electric Ballroom several years ago, they instantly became friends. For London Sessions, the Chileans and Spaceman joined forces for new, live-to-tape renditions of ‘Electric’ and ‘Earth,’ two highlights from Föllakzoid’s III. The recordings were made in a private studio in London while Föllakzoid was on tour in Europe in June 2016, and Spaceman’s contributions breathe new life into the songs.
“Jason added a very different harmonic atmosphere to the songs,” guitarist Domingo Garcia-Huidobro explained. “It somehow rearticulated the space and metric that already existed in a way the band never could.”
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This is a reintepretation of the two first tracks from III and they are completely different. The focus goes more on the rythmic section, which changes the entire perspective while keeping the spirit.
For III, the band wanted to expand their sound while building an atmosphere with mainly monochords and reiteration. After recording and mixing the album on their own at their studio at BYM Records, they partnered with German electronic maestro Atom TM to flesh out the album’s synth parts. Most of the sounds he provided were atonal electronic sounds, aiming for concrete frequencies and sampled organic glitches. (The Korg synthesizer Atom TM plays on this record was used by Kraftwerk on tour in the ’80s.)
III is a four-part minimal sound voyage in which you can hear Föllakzoid’s musical language developing into something more upbeat, obscure, and sharp, yet even simpler in terms of elements.
Sacred Bones Records will be releasing two records by the legendary singer Julee Cruise – The Voice of Love, her sophomore album which is now available on vinyl for the first time, and Three Demos, a collection of early recordings that became the classic songs for Floating Into the Night. Both releases are out August 17th. (Sacred Bones Record Society members will receive both titles automatically as the final entry in their subscription.)
Cruise fulfills a special cornerstone in the Twin Peaks universe. Her initial collaboration with David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti on Blue Velvet’s“Mysteries of Love” set into motion a chain of events that would ultimately help birth the core sonic identity of the 1990 series, all before a frame of it was ever shot. Three Demos is a new 12″ release collecting versions of “Floating,” “Falling,” and “The World Spins” from the early sessions where Cruise, Lynch, and Badalamenti collaborated. “Floating” originally began with a stunning spoken-word intro later dropped entirely from the album version. Following the success of debut album Floating Into the Night, Cruise, Lynch, and Badalamenti returned to the studio with new compositions, as well as the intent to craft previously instrumental score-based material from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and Wild at Heart into Julee Cruise songs. Cruise made a number of appearances on Twin Peaks as a singer at a local bar, and was prominently featured in both the show’s landmark pilot episode and the episode where Laura Palmer’s murderer is revealed,
The result was 1993’s final studio album The Voice of Love, which is now seeing release on vinyl for the very first time as a lavish double LP.
In 1985, Badalamenti was composing the score for David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, as well as serving as the vocal coach for the film’s star, Isabella Rossellini. A key scene in Blue Velvetwas intended to feature This Mortal Coil’s version of “Song to the Siren” written by Tim Buckley, but when the rights to the song proved prohibitively expensive, it was suggested that Badalamenti compose a pop song in the same style, with lyrics written by Lynch. Because the song required a vocalist with a haunting, ethereal voice, Badalamenti recommended Julee Cruise, who had sung in a New York theater workshop Badalamenti had produced. The result of their initial collaboration was “Mysteries of Love”, which figures prominently in Blue Velvet’s closing scenes and gained a cult following.
25 years after its initial release, Julee Cruise’s sophomore album The Voice of Love is being issued for the first time on vinyl as a deluxe 2xLP, and returning to print on CD. In 1992, after the release of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, David Lynch, Angelo Badalamenti, and Julee Cruise returned to the studio with new compositions as well as the intent to craft previously instrumental score-based material from Fire Walk With Me and Wild at Heartinto Julee Cruise songs. The result was 1993’s final studio album The Voice of Love. “In the studio, David would always say ‘[sing] like an angel, like an angel…” Cruise remembers.
Three Demos is a very unique release, featuring the very first demo recordings for songs from Julee Cruise’s initial LP with David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, Floating Into the Night.
These early versions are fascinating glimpses into the genesis of what became Floating Into the Night and the minimal key ingredients that made the material alchemize. An early version of the album opener “Floating” originally began with a stunning spoken-word intro later dropped entirely from the album version. A revelation in their overarching simplicity, the three-song collection is devoid of the LP’s additional arrangement flourishes, and yet still manages to present the same emotional depth charge with only voice, synthesizer and lyric
Norwegian experimentalist Jenny Hval has unveiled a new song ‘Spells’, the captivating lead track from her upcoming EP collection The Long Sleep. Replete with pulsing electronic grooves, ‘Spells’ conjures a dreamy soundscape of heart-tugging pianos, playful saxophones and Hval’s weightless vocals. Wading into balearic dance-pop territory, the song’s cascading melodies cast listeners adrift in whirlpools of sound as the artist cryptically sings
“You are your own disco ball hovering above you, like a comforting reminder that not even you belong to you.” The intoxicating track follows Hval’s winning recent collaboration with fellow Norwegian artist Lindstrøm‘Bungl (Like A Ghost)’, listen to ‘Spells’ .
Vive la Void, a new project from Sanae Yamada, co-founder and keyboardist of Moon Duo. The self-titled album comes out on May 4th. Yamada wrote and recorded Vive la Void over roughly a two-year period, during windows of downtime in Moon Duo’s substantial touring and recording schedule. The dense, shape-shifting atmospheres of the seven songs grew out of late-night basement experiments in the layering of synthesizer tracks, a process that also led to meditations on the changeable nature of memory and perception.
The result is an undulating blend of ethereal swirl, low end thrumming, and electric crackle, buoyed by Yamada’s understated but captivating vocal melodies and her striking lyrics. Released on the Sacred Bones Records .
Amen Dunes (aka the project of New York-based Damon McMahon)has shared the video for his new single Blue Rose, taken from upcoming long player Freedom which is out on the 30th March.
The song is a teenage clarion call born from McMahon’s growing up with an unpredictable father, his fighting back with music, drugs and fantasy, and his eventual escape from it all via one of the many identities, that of a musician.
“Freedom” took three. The first iteration of the album was recorded in 2016 following a year of writing in Lisbon and NYC, but it was scrapped completely. Uncertain how to move forward, McMahon brought in a powerful set of collaborators and old friends, and began anew. Along with his core band members, including Parker Kindred (Antony & The Johnsons, Jeff Buckley) on drums, came Chris Coady (Beach House) as producer and Delicate Steve on guitars. This is the first Amen Dunes record that looks back to the electronic influences of McMahon’s youth with the aid of revered underground producer Panoram from Rome. McMahon discovered Panoram’s music in a shop in London and became enamored. Following this the two became friends and here Panoram finds his place as a significant, if subtle, contributor to the record.
The bulk of the songs were recorded at the famed Electric Lady Studios in NYC (home of Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC, D’Angelo), and finished at the similarly legendary Sunset Sound in L.A., where McMahon, Nick Zinner, and session bass player extraordinaire Gus Seyffert (Beck, Bedouine) fleshed out the recordings.
On the surface, Freedom is a reflection on growing up, childhood friends who ended up in prison or worse, male identity, McMahon’s father, and his mother, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the beginning of recording.
The Soft Moon‘s career has been something of a slow reveal. The gradual evolution from Luis Vasquez’s humbler, dreamier darkwave origins into a fully blown post-punk doom machine is akin to watching an eerie fog dissipate,It turns out the seething monster inside The Soft Moon has only grown hungrier. Criminal, Vasquez’s fourth full-length, is the heaviest he’s ever sounded, a twitchy, tormented network of pretty hate machines. Each of its 10 tracks is built on punchy full-band arrangements, the once-subtle synth-grooves of the past now usurped by furious, mechanized drum patterns and gut-churning fuzz basslines. It still sounds like The Soft Moon, but a version of the band that sounds more dangerous and tortured than before, bolstered by some of the most direct and anguished lyrics of Vasquez’s career. “I’m learning about myself and it’s kind of freaky,” he said , reflecting on the darkness he channels. “I’m kind of messed up, you know?”
The idea of darkness leading to great art is an old cliché, but in Vasquez’s case, it’s one that sticks. He plays that darkness like an instrument, his manipulation of atmosphere and menace essentially virtuosic. The pounding rhythm of lead single “Burn” reflect a more corporeal, full-band sound for The Soft Moon, though the intensely—if seductively—unsettling ambiance remains. Vasquez chants “I can’t control myself” against a snakelike bassline that climbs and snaps back, always on the verge of breaking. Yet its chorus is one of the catchiest moments in The Soft Moon’s entire discography—a moment of tortured triumph that stacks up to vintage Nine Inch Nails. There’s a similarly wretched groove to “Choke,” its carbon-monoxide-poisoned bassline juxtaposed in perfect balance with its freak-funk industrial beat.
Deeper cuts only lead to deeper wounds. In the woozy psychedelia of “Give Something,” Vasquez hints at a potentially destructive codependency as he sings, ”I don’t want to lose my mind, that’s why I keep you so close.” It could be drugs he’s reaching for, or it could be sex, but there’s every reason to believe that it’s only a temporary salve. Over a robotic synth march on “Like A Father,” his patriarchal-directed rage festers: ”This hate is a problem… something’s got to give.” And when Vasquez gives a screeching reading of the title phrase in the driving goth rock of “Born Like This,” it sounds like a fatalistic acceptance that nurture can’t overcome one’s fucked-up nature.
Good vibes are in short supply on Criminal, and frankly they’d probably just get in the way. There’s no celebrating on Criminal, just gnashing and brooding, manifested in the form of some of The Soft Moon’s most urgent, intense material.
From ‘Criminal,’ out February 2nd, 2018 on Sacred Bones Records.
Here is the second track from The Men’s upcoming long player Drift, and it stands in sharp contrast to the synth-driven dance floor stomper Maybe I’m Crazy .
This time, Rose on Top of the World is much more akin to a pastoral, paisley filled, psychedelic jam that is closer to the Silver Jews than Ministry. The Men were formed in 2008, in Brooklyn, NY. Since then, they’ve released 5 LPs, 6 EPs, and 8 tapes. They’ve played basements, dive bars, theaters, parking lots, big festivals, small festivals, and a boat. A lot of different people have come in out of this band over the years. They’re still ridin’ on.
The great thing is that, in it’s own way, it is just as good. Vocalist and guitarist Nick Chiericozzi said that the track,“came out of a Spanish guitar lick, a radar weather map, a poem and maybe a few other things. It has a good title; one that creates a definite mental image but could really be about anything.”
From ‘Drift,’ out March 2, 2018 on Sacred Bones Records.
Amen Dunes (aka the project of New York-based Damon McMahon) will release his fifth album, Freedom, on 30 March via Sacred Bones Records.
Amen Dunes last released an album in 2014. The album was called Love . The tune below is called “Miki Dora” . Here’s what McMahon has to say about the track.
“Miki Dora was arguably the most gifted and innovative surfer of his generation and the foremost opponent of surfing’s commercialization. He was also a lifelong criminal and retrograde: a true embodiment of the distorted male psyche. He was a living contradiction; both a symbol of free-living and inspiration, and of the false heroics American culture has always celebrated. With lyrics of regret and redemption at the end of one’s youth, the song is about Dora, and McMahon, but ultimately it is a reflection on all manifestations of mythical heroic maleness and its illusions.”
On the surface, Freedom is a reflection on growing up, childhood friends who ended up in prison or worse, male identity, McMahon’s father, and his mother, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the beginning of recording. The characters that populate the musical world of the album are a colourful mix of reality and fantasy. Each character portrait is a representation of McMahon, of masculinity, and of his past.The lead single “Miki Dora”, and its accompanying video, which features 17-year old Boomer Feith with McMahon appearing as both the story’s narrator and its subject.
Of the track, McMahon says, “Miki Dora was arguably the most gifted and innovative surfer of his generation and the foremost opponent of surfing’s commercialization. He was also a lifelong criminal and retrograde: a true embodiment of the distorted male psyche. He was a living contradiction; both a symbol of free-living and inspiration, and of the false heroics American culture has always celebrated. With lyrics of regret and redemption at the end of one’s youth, the song is about Dora, and McMahon, but ultimately it is a reflection on all manifestations of mythical heroic maleness and its illusions.”
On every record, Damon McMahon’s project has transformed continuously, and Freedom is its boldest leap yet. On the surface, the album is a reflection on growing up, childhood friends who ended up in prison or worse, male identity, McMahon’s father, and his mother, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the beginning of recording. The themes are darker than on previous Amen Dunes albums, but it’s a darkness sublimated through grooves. The music, as a response or even a solution to the darkness, is tough and joyous, rhythmic and danceable. The album comes out March 30th.
The video for the first single from Freedom, “Miki Dora,” is out now.
The first LP, D.I.A., was a gnarled underground classic, recorded and played completely by McMahon in a trailer in upstate New York over the course of a month and left as is. The fourth and most recent LP Love, a record that enlisted Godspeed! You Black Emperor as both producers and backing band (along with an additional motley crew including Elias Bender Rønnenfelt of Iceage and Colin Stetson), featured songs confidently far removed from the damaged drug pop of Amen Dunes’ trailer-park origins.
Love took two years to make. Freedom took three. The first iteration of the album was recorded in 2016 following a year of writing in Lisbon and NYC, but it was scrapped completely. Uncertain how to move forward, McMahon brought in a powerful set of collaborators and old friends, and began anew. Along with his core band members, including Parker Kindred (Antony & The Johnsons, Jeff Buckley) on drums, came Chris Coady (Beach House) as producer and Delicate Steve on guitars. This is the first Amen Dunes record that looks back to the electronic influences of McMahon’s youth with the aid of revered underground musician Panoram from Rome. McMahon discovered Panoram’s music in a shop in London and became enamored. Following this the two became friends and here Panoram finds his place as a significant, if subtle, contributor to the record.
The bulk of the songs were recorded at the famed Electric Lady Studios in NYC (home of Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC, D’Angelo), and finished at the similarly legendary Sunset Sound in L.A., where McMahon, Nick Zinner, and session bass player extraordinaire Gus Seyffert (Beck, Bedouine) fleshed out the recordings.
On the surface, Freedom is a reflection on growing up, childhood friends who ended up in prison or worse.
The characters that populate the musical world of Freedom are a colourful mix of reality and fantasy: father and mother, Amen Dunes, teenage glue addicts and Parisian drug dealers, ghosts above the plains, fallen surf heroes, vampires, thugs from Naples and thugs from Houston, the emperor of Rome, Jews, Jesus, Tashtego, Perseus, even McMahon himself. Each character portrait is a representation of McMahon, of masculinity, and of his past.
The themes are darker than on previous Amen Dunes albums, but it’s a darkness sublimated through grooves. The music, as a response or even a solution to the darkness, is tough and joyous, rhythmic and danceable. The combination of a powerhouse rhythm section, Delicate Steve’s guitar prowess filtered through.
It’s a sound never heard before on an Amen Dunes record, but one that was always asking to emerge. Eleven songs span a range of emotions, from contraction to release and back again. ‘Blue Rose’ and ‘Calling Paul the Suffering’ are pure, ecstatic dance songs. ‘Skipping School’ and ‘Miki Dora’ are incantations of a mythical heroic maleness and its illusions. ‘Freedom’ and ‘Believe’ offer a street tough’s future-gospel exhalation, and the funk-grime grit of ‘L.A.’ closes the album, projecting a musical hint of things to come.
Drift is the seventh full-length by NYC rock polymaths The Men, and it marks their 10th anniversary as a band. The Men’s last album, the self-released Devil Music, was the sound of a band who had been through hell hitting reset and looking to their roots to rediscover themselves. On Drift, The Men return to their longtime label Sacred Bones Records and explore the openness that Devil Music helped them find.
The immediately evident result of that exploration is the experimental quality of much of the material on Drift. Songwriters Mark Perro and Nick Chiericozzi chase their muses down a few dozen thrilling rabbit-holes over the course of the album’s nine tracks. The songs on Drift veer in a number of directions, but notably, almost none of them feature a prominent electric guitar. The lone exception, “Killed Someone,” is a rowdy riff-rocker, worthy of the finest moments of the band’s now-classic Leave Home and Open Your Heart albums. The rest of the album drives down stranger highways. “Secret Light” is an improvisation based on an old piano riff of Perro’s. “MaybeI’m Crazy” is a synth-driven dancefloor stomper for long after last call. “Rose on Top of the World” and “When I Held You in My Arms” are paisley-hued, psyched-out jams with big, beating hearts.
We’re so stoked to announce that Brooklyn rock lifers The Men are back with their most eclectic and deeply satisfying collection of songs yet. Drift marks not only the 10th anniversary of the band, but their return to SacredBones following the self-released Devil Music. The songs on Drift veer in a number of directions, but notably, almost none of them feature a prominent electric guitar. Lead single “Maybe I’m Crazy” is a synth-driven dancefloor stomper to be played long after last call.
The Fat Angel Sings 