Peripheral Minimal is proud to present the début physical album by mysterious French act 'Mad Masks'
'Mad Masks' originate from the French Alps, and consist of members 'Zio Voodoo' and 'Dominique Stela'. The band started in 2013 to record music inspired by dark soundtracks.
Their sound is a mélange of slowly moving atmospheric heavily processed guitar and looping continuous drum-machine, with darkly Gothic overtones. Think of early recordings on cult UK label 4AD, combined with chilling post-punk dirges, and you'd be halfway there. 'Mad Masks', are a genre onto themselves perhaps, as direct categorisation would be near impossible. The accompanying videos to their tracks are from obscure or forgotten Horror films from the 1960s / 70s, occultism, religious fanaticism and fantastical mythical creatures feature heavily, betraying their influences. The album is sure to find itself becoming a cult classic and a must-have for anyone into unsettling and uneasy music.
The album is limited to 200 copies housed in a jewel-case and comes with two badges. Artwork by Oleg Galay of Other Voices. Mastered by Martin Bowes @ The Cage
"It sounds dark, wrong-headed and threatening - sometimes gracefully" - Klangwelt
Music video for the track "Ghost" by Femme Fatality. This song appears on the 2015 release 'Stranger', which is currently available on music digital music platforms
Over the past few years a musical admiration between Chet Faker and Marcus Marr grew that culminated in a four-day sojourn in Marr’s South London studio this year. Over the binge four-day recording session four songs were written, as the two discovered that Marr’s powerful punchy dance production perfectly balanced Faker’s soulful vocals. The result is the 4-track EP Work, out December 4 via Faker’s own label, Detail Records. The intergalactic funk tinged first single “The Trouble With Us” is available now digitally, and can be heard via Soundcloud. Marr is also set to open for Faker on a select number of U.S. dates this winter, including a New Year’s Eve show at San Francisco’s Mezzanine.
South London-based DJ Marcus Marr has been releasing acclaimed records via DFA Records over the last few years, including “Brown Sauce,” named to Pitchfork’s Tracks earlier this year, and “The Music,” named one of the “Best Dance Tracks of 2013” by SPIN. A regular at Berlin’s notorious nightclub Berghain, the lifelong music obsessive's first encounters with dance music were acid house records which augmented his vinyl collection of rock and soul, and attending all night parties under Brixton's St Matthews church. Traveling to the south of England to watch DJ Harvey play a lengthy set, he saw the kind of power a DJ can wield over a willing crowd.
An artist of considerable range, Chet Faker writes, performs and records all of his own music, giving it a warm, intimate feel with a solid groove structure. His critically acclaimed album Built On Glass was released in the spring of 2014, and was widely welcomed by music fans internationally. He’s gone on to perform sold out shows on five continents including three nights at New York’s Terminal 5 and stand-out performances at Coachella, Lollapalooza, Primavera and Glastonbury.
And how does a relationship between a London-based DJ and Brooklyn-based Australian producer blossom? Twitter, obviously. Notes Marr, “Nick posted my song on Twitter. I messaged him and said thanks and a conversation started - all nerdy stuff about recording processes. Pretty soon we started exchanging song ideas in voice memos. He then suggested maybe we try and do something together.”
On the recording process, Marr adds “It was a real thrill as the songs came together. As far as working out lyrics and music the guy is super-talented. He writes all his lyrics in his black book and he loves his pen. Actually, Nick, I was rummaging through a drawer in my studio the other day and I found your special pen - do you want it back, mate?"
The new LP of Singapore Sling, Psych Fuck, is out on such a perfect day: Friday the 13th of November.
Drowned In Sound has described their legacy as being "at the forefront of the new psychedelic explosion long before its current wave of popularity went stratospheric" and they are cited as an influence by many of the bands operating in the scene today.
"A soundtrack for the future prequels to either Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs" according to Pop Matters.
"A monomaniacal Shoegaze band" as described by Pitchfork after seeing them live.
Perhaps the best depiction comes from Exclaim!: "it’s been said that if you play a Beach Boys LP at 45 rpm you’ll hear the Ramones. It’s also been said that if you play the Ramones through distortion at three-quarters speed you’ll hear the Jesus & Mary Chain. Somewhere in these convoluted revolutions and references you’ll hear Icelandic sextet Singapore Sling.”
Scrolling through the myriads of pages of some of the finest Psych bloggers around planet Earth you will probably find hundreds of l0-fi addicted Psych & Roll emulators, but there is only one original Henrik Björnsson, a man who, in the last fifteen years, never got tired of pushing forward his unique and explosive combination of shambolic Cramps-style rituals, Suicide inspired apocalyptic neon landscapes and devilish cacophonies a la White Light White Heat.
In 2006 they were one of the few privileged contributors to "Silver Monk Time", a tribute to The Monks and a soundtrack to their documentary, among artists such as Jon Spencer, Psychic TV, The Fall, Solex, Mouse On Mars and Alan Vega.
After 2011, nearly four years in silence, in which Henrik mainly worked on his other project, the Dead Skeletons. Now Singapore Sling are back with a twin release. The "Tower Of Foronicity", released in November last year, and this new little gem, "Psych Fuck", which is more of an evil twin, rather than a comrade to the previous album.
The whole live set by the female fronted goth metal act Lovelorn Dolls at the tumultuous (some say even legendary) Eurorock 2015 Festival has been added on YouTube.
And that's not all. The tracks from this set have also been included in the band’s brand new EP “Happy Valentine” – available now – which besides the 7-track live set also holds 6 other tracks, different versions of the song “Happy Valentine”. Included is an unplugged ghost-piano version which the Brussels based act recorded together with Maja Marcucci.
Next to that 4 different artists collaborated with the duo to create 4 remixed versions, starting with the band’s own producer Maxx of Italy’s Helalyn Flowers, the UK dark techno club DJ Simon Carter, Belgian electro pioneer Jean-Marc Lederman (The Weathermen, Ghost & Writer, …) - who made a very attractive minimal rework - and Restriction 9.
The full EP is out now on Bandcamp, iTunes, etc. for immediate download or via streaming on Spotify, Apple Music,...
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkGt3vkFZtrF2uajhiw9jIP0R20F4I9Rm
