“In our case, it’s never simple.” José González is describing the entire process – writing, recording, life – that went into the creation of Junip, the upcoming, self-titled album from the band he fronts alongside drummer Elias Araya and keyboardist Tobias Winterkorn, due for release on 22 of April 2013 on City Slang. “All the ups and downs were very ‘Junip,’” he adds, “so titling it with our name seemed appropriately iconic. It’s truly a band album.”
The distinction is important in Junip’s case, whose evolution has been a long, strange trip, indeed. The group actually formed in 1998 in Gothenburg, Sweden, but Junip didn’t actually release its acclaimed first album, Fields, until 2010. That delay stemmed largely from the success of González as a solo artist. The renowned singer-songwriter found international acceptance with his individual albums, 2003’s Veneer and 2007’s In Our Nature, which went on to sell over a million albums worldwide; audiences were captivated by the stark combination of González’s uniquely haunting voice and sinuous acoustic guitar on hits like “Crosses”and “Down The Line,” and distinctive interpretations of covers like The Knife’s “Heartbeats.”They were startled and beguiled, then, by hearing González in Junip’s band context, and one with such a propulsive, experimental bent: sprawling away from the stark folk aesthetic of González’s solo efforts, Fields teemed with driving motorik rhythms, psychedelic atmosphere, and dense synth textures.
Junip avoided the protracted evolution of Fields, however, and as a result resounds with immediacy. “With Junip, and this album in particular, it’s not the kind of stuff that ends up on my solo recordings,”González notes. After touring extensively in the wake of Fields, Araya, González, Winterkorn found themselves gelling as a unit like never before, able to access uncharted new sounds and emotions with newfound fluidity. “We’d press ‘record’ when we started jamming, and end up with a pretty complete song structure when we finished,” González explains.
Just as with the first album, Junip was recorded in the trio’s rehearsal space over the course of a year, self-produced by the band with help from Don Alsterberg (sound guru to artists like Soundtrack of Our Lives, International Noise Conspiracy, and Graveyard). The song “Villain” proved to be a breakthrough for Junip, with a tribal garage-rock stomp, fuzzed-out analog bassline, and electro-pop synths contrasted by a spooky, subtly sinister vocal. According to González, “Villain” represents “the sound of us not constraining ourselves. We weren’t concerned about noise, or being too distorted or musically correct. It was more about vibe, or feeling – it didn’t matter what we did, as long as it felt good.”
Just as Fieldspushed boundaries and expectations, Junipexpands the stylistic palette yet again with unexpected juxtapositions. “We’re somewhere between a German jazz band and an African pop band,” González cracks. As such, infectious album opener (and first single) “Line of Fire” layers Beatlesque melody on top of a hypnotic groove that splits the difference between flamenco syncopation and krautrock repetition, González’s heartfelt vocal cresting with emotion as the track builds towards a symphonic climax.“Baton” also introduces González’s infectious newfound whistling technique, where he creates hooks literally out of thin air. “I’ve been doing the whistle thing a lot,” he says. “I bought these expensive Neumann mics, and noticed if you whistle into them, they give off a slight distortion; there’s something about the overtones and coloration hitting the root that gives it a Brazilian vibe. It’s a nice way to find melodies – you get the pure melody and nothing else.” “Your Call,” meanwhile, proves a total departure – a synthesized pop-disco confection suggesting the union of Hot Chip and Human League, its infectious drum-machine handclaps and exuberant singsong chorus belying a melancholy sentiment (“It’s your life, it’s your call/Stand up, or enjoy your fall”). “It felt like trying on new clothes when we first listened to it – it took a while to get comfortable with it, but now I like it a lot,” González says.
Junip’s powerful instrumental interplay, meanwhile, reveals itself throughout: having nimble players to react to pushes González’s picking to raggedly virtuosic sublimity on tracks like “Suddenly,”where he hybrids the singular pocket of Western African guitar music into his own sound. “When José first showed us the idea for ‘Suddenly’ on guitar, Elias and I were blown away,” says Winterkorn. “It’s so beautiful – it sounds like improvisation, but it’s not.” “I stepped out of my comfort zone in that song,”González confirms – not just musically, but lyrically as well, due to its uncharacteristically uplifting message (“Found myself in deep dark thoughts/When suddenly there was you”). “I always felt like it would be nice to write a song free of any negative subjects or thoughts,” González says. “It’s a song that you’d feel okay playing to your baby, or at a wedding.”
“Suddenly” is the album’s exception, however. The intimate beauty of the music on Junipoften contrasts with a surprisingly dark melancholia, commencing with the very first lines heard on the album. “What would you do/If it all came back to you/Each crest of each wave/ bright as lightning/What would you say/If you had to leave today/Leave everything behind/Even though, for once, you’re shining”:so go the opening lyrics to “Line of Fire,” suggesting an existential crisis or journey that plays out over the course of the remaining nine songs. “It’s about growing up and taking responsibility in that moment when all of a sudden your life changes, you’re in a new situation,” González says. “Your ideals are challenged, and you have to think things through from a new angle.”
There’s a reflexive temptation to read that mood as influenced by events in González’s personal life. “There’s a tendency to ask these questions when there may not be answers,” González says. “That’s, in fact, the theme to “Beginnings,’ whereas ‘Line of Fire’ is more about taking responsibility and doing what you can to change your life in a new situation.”For González, the words aren’t meant to be specific, but meant to “make you feel something, and create an emotion. Stuff I think about is more about human nature in general: songs are about love and death – not necessarily relationships, really. There’s a high ambition to reach deep emotions, and I tend to write about these topics.” For him, the key topic remains redemption – “those life-changing moments that shake people up, which unite all the themes. It’s ultimately about how the grass will grow after snow melts away: finding that hopeful feeling between the lines, that’s what the whole record is about.”
Apparat, aka Sascha Ring, announces the release of “Krieg und Frieden (Music for Theatre)”, and album of music based on Sebastian Hartmann’s theatre production of Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
Sebastian Hartmann is considered one of the big innovators of contemporary German theatre, and asked Ring to contribute to this mammoth project, which was commissioned by the renowned German arts festival Ruhrfestspiele in Recklinghausen.
During the first meetings with Hartmann it became clear that there was no script or anything comparable, Hartmann instead develops the whole text with the entire ensemble. After time spent with Tolstoy’s original text Ring returned to Germany and spent four weeks in an old abandoned factory building and rehearsed with the whole 30-piece ensemble. Says Ring, “This is anything but conventional theatre. It’s a free space, where a bunch of freaks can go wild. It starts with the lights and stops with the actual actors. At night, we worked on the music in the empty hall. It was kind of magical.”
Featuring artwork by Tilo Baumgärtel, whose work forms part of the theatre production, Krieg und Frieden was recorded with Philipp Timm (cello) and Christoph Hartmann (violin), who form part of Apparat’s live band.
The project was intended to be over with the last performance of the play, a release was never planned, but they found they hadn't fully exhausted the potential of the songs yet. “Because it evolved out of a process, and transformed all the time, there’s always been a certain freshness to it.” explains Ring.
Beautiful motifs only popped up for seconds before they faded again in the performance so the trio decided to give it a try, went into a studio and drifted, meandered through their musical achievements: “In the studio the material got another twist, became a real piece of music. I took the recordings with me, wherever I was – at home, at a hotel room, in an airplane, and straightened it up. I decided to not go completely crazy about the editing, I didn’t want the music to become demanding. Every record tends to become mere work at some point. Euphoria then turns into the feeling that you are standing in the middle of a huge construction site. I actively wanted to avoid this feeling this.”
For Apparat, aka Berlin-based Sascha Ring, experiments in sound are strongly linked to exploring emotions. Over the course of seven album releases he has developed a multifarious, emotional universe. From early works, such as “Multifunktionsebene“ (2001) and “Duplex“ (2003), which took the abstractness out of electronic music and introduced a new spectrum of feelings beyond electronics’ well-tested modes, through collaborations with Ellen Alien (Orchestra of Bubbles) and Modeselektor (as Moderat), Apparat is always in transition. In 2010 he founded the Apparat Band and opened himself to a new sonic cosmos that culminated into “The Devil’s Walk” (2010), his first release on Mute.
The return of a masterpiece
Infacted Recordings proudly present the re-release of dark industrial electro cult album “Embracing the Unknown” by Seven Trees. Originally released on March 17th 1997, it became an instant classic on the legendary Zoth Ommog label. Hailing from Örebro, Sweden, Seven Trees was formed in 1994 and released a couple of highly acclaimed cassette releases before their first compilation appearance in 1995. In 1996 they were signed by Zoth Ommog and the following year saw the release of their one and only album so far. Intertwining the seductive aggression and depressive dark harmonies of earlier Skinny Puppy, combined with the knife-through-the-heart coldness of The Klinik, Seven Trees formed their own very unique sound; a pitch black electronic soundscape featuring seductive string arrangements while retaining a freezing atmosphere, combined with harsh haunting aggressive and subtly whispery vocals; all this featured in a production that left nothing to be asked for.
The album was licensed to Metropolis in the US and Energy Rekords in Sweden giving Seven Trees quite the break through, and paving the way for their 1997 German tour together with Mentallo & The Fixer. The album had one flaw though – it suffered from a horribly rushed really bad mastering job giving the album a flatter sound than what was intended, where the dynamics and overall experience of the album was affected in a negative way. Say no more – here we have it – the cult classic “Embracing the Unknown” meticulously remastered from the original tapes by mastering professional Tobias Ersson at SoundBitz Studios, finally giving the album the edge it should have had from the very beginning, whilst adopting new techniques to make it sound even better. Last but certainly the disc also contains 8 bonus tracks - all carefully chosen to fit this stunning Classics release.The release, entitled “Expanding the Unknown”, will be issued on 22.03.2013. Pre-orders will start shortly.
Tracklist:
1. Submission
2. Stale
3. Tearstained
4. Overload
5. Velvet Dream
6. Going Down
7. The Unknown
8. To Live Is Regret
9. Desire Slowly Bursting
10. Fallen Idols (Legends Speak Mix)
11. Screaming Within
12. Struck Down
13. Debris
14. Final Spasm
15. The Lighter Surface
16. Loss Of Breath
17. Going Down (Re-Up Take)
Factory Benelux presents a deluxe double vinyl edition of Swimming, the debut album by Belgian new wave group The Names, originally issued in June 1982.
Between 1979 and 1982 The Names recorded a string of excellent records for Factory, Factory Benelux and Les Disques du Crépuscule, all helmed by legendary producer Martin Hannett.
Recorded at Strawberry Studios in Manchester, Swimming has come to be regarded as a European cold wave classic, combining strong songwriting from Michel Sordinia and poised, tasteful delivery by guitarist Marc Deprez and keyboards player Christophe Den Tandt.
Bonus tracks include the popular singles Calcutta, Nightshift, The Astronaut and Spectators Of Life, and the band's John Peel session from February 1982, the first ever recorded by a Belgian band. The gatefold sleeve also features original artwork and poster design by Benoit Hennebert, and photographs by Marc Portée.
DUE OUT: FEBRUARY 11 2013.
| tracklist
A1 Discovery
A2 Floating World
A3 The Fire
A4 Life By The Sea
A5 White Shadows
B1 Harmony
B2 Shanghai Gesture
B3 Leave Her To Heaven
B4 Light
C1 Music For Someone
C2 Calcutta
C3 Nightshift
C4 The Astronaut
C5 Spectators Of Life
D1 Life By The Sea (Peel Session)
D2 Discovery (Peel Session)
D3 Shanghai Gesture (Peel Session)
D4 Harmony (Peel Session)
Warning, this is an attack, Warning!!!!
2/1/13 is the release date for the new Noisuf-X Album Warning. The night is silent, but you HAVE TO dance, this and no other way it'll be when WARNING rocks your ear canals. ProNoize's figure head arises all-out mercyless once again- 13 Electro/Industrial hits (including Tinnitus 2K13) know no mercy.
BE PREPARED.
