ILLUSION OF SAFETY started in Chicago almost 30 years ago with their vision of dark & morbid atmospheric industrial music and soon became one of the inventors of what was then called 'Ambient Industrial', the marriage of these two very different styles & approaches.
Since then, IOS never failed to surprise their listeners, going through many musical changes with various live members using elements of improvisation, electro-acoustic music,sound collages, sublime drones (especially in the 90's before it became a well-known notion) and noise (and only imagine that JIM O'ROURKE started his career as the 19-year old live guitarist of ILLUSION OF SAFETY!).
Drone Records are very happy IOS (at this time mastermind DANIEL BURKE only) recorded pieces for our special concept 10" series that again mark a very unexpected change: SWEET DREAMS is an almost 'psychedelic' record, using many incredible acousmatic sounds deriving from field recordings, instrumental sources (such as acoustic guitars) and synths, which build together repetitive pulsing patterns & hypno-loops that suck you in.
But IOS wouldn't be IOS if it weren't for surprising breaks, cut-ups, crackling sounds and other interferences.... To us, this sounds like 70's psych-space tunes transformed by today's experimental & compositional consciousness..
Three pieces, 22+ mins, mastered by THOMAS DIMUZIO, 500 copies pressed on beautiful & unique 3-colour (green, blue & white) vinyl & with artwork by Berlin-based designer TILMANN BENNINGHAUS.
Also out on Drone Records: MIND-02: DRONE-MIND//MIND-DRONE Vol. 2 LP
This LP-series from Drone Records is dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds. A kind of continuation of the Drone 7"-series but on a more user-friendly format. Each LP features four artists from the international drone-scene and is limited to 500 copies and pressed on four different vinyl-colours.
Each LP artwork will feature paintings by British painter PETE GREENING. This series shows the various sides of todays experimental drone-music. The title symbolizes the interaction between sound of the Eternal and our psyche and raises questions: Can Drones (or sound per se) be regarded as "intelligent"? Does every mind produce a Drone? Isn't it possible that any organic or non-organic entity produces a Drone?
Drone Music is seen as more than a mere 'music style', it expresses an approach to perceive & understand the world. DRONE-MIND and MIND-DRONE build a circle of diverse inter-relations. The Drone as a metaphor for everything that vibrates, that releases energy -
Moji Moji are a post-rock/electronica treat from Argentina who are releasing their second album as a CD on Oxide Tones.
The band is a one man show, which you will hardly believe when listening to the album.
The next release on Str8Line Records is a double cd box set named "Terres Neuves"
TERRES NEUVES is a project conceived by French photographer Jérôme Sevrette. Based on 25 serial colour Polaroid, about thirty musicians, songwriters & writers were asked to bring their music, poetic and
literary vision inspired from these pictures. The result will be a collection of original music and texts in a sized-vinyl album opening into three parts.A hybrid and complete collector's item both portfolio, book and record.
cd1 :
BLOOD ON THE SNARE
ASWEFALL
BRUNO GREEN
FREDERIC TRUONG
TUE LOUP
KRAMIES
ME Vs YOU
ULAN BATOR
SIEBEN
COMPLOT
BAND OF GHOSTS
Morthen Vlad Art
JULIENGB
IAMBWOOL
LES MARQUISES
RICHARD PINHAS
cd2:
A SINGER MUST DIE
AND ALSO THE TREES
THAT SUMMER
GD LUXXE
PASCALE LE BERRE
19 NEW PROJECT
PRESS GANG METROPOL
MOKROÏE
A SECOND OF JUNE
OLIVIER MELLANO
RENAUD-GABRIEL PION
ELLIS ISLAND SOUND
MECHANISM FOR PEOPLE
SIBELIAN
LES FRAGMENTS DE LA NUIT
FRANTIC
For the text part:
Unpublished texts from the authors :
AMINE BOUCEKKINE
MARIE MOOR
XAVIER PLUMAS
DANIELLE ROBERT-GUEDON
Oxide Tones has another Post Rock treat for you all. Monsters Build Mean Robots are one of the brights starts on the UK scene and are releasing a 5 track album as a CD.
Adding vocals to an "indie-like" Post Rock blend, fans and friends of eaststrikewest will love this release.
These are the forthcoming releases on Pelagic Records
THE SHAKING SENSATIONS "Start Stop Worrying" CD/LP
Start Stop Worrying is the second full-length album by the Danish instrumental rock group The Shaking Sensations. Three years after the release of an EP entitled This Is Your Hellfire Religion, and 2 years after the release of critically acclaimed debut album East of Youth, the band now delivers their most mature output to date with their 2nd album, Start Stop Worrying.
During 4 extensive European tours in the past 2 years, the band has shared stage with acts such as Caspian, Black Math Horseman, And So I Watched You From Afar, Gifts From Enola and Russian Circles.
The Shaking Sensations have expanded the classic rock constellation by addition of a second drummer, allowing the band to develop a unique approach to the rhythm section and a fresh and unconventional take on instrumental rock music. Start Stop Worrying showcases the courage of a young band to explore new approaches to music and sound, which clearly sets them apart from many of their peers within an over- saturated genre of music.
On their second album, the band have gone for a more straight-forward approach to sound, as well as songwriting. Start Stop Worrying is more upbeat, more aggressive and somehow less naïve sounding than previous efforts, whilst maintaining its melancholic essence and emotional depth.
The band originated almost 10 years ago in the windy outskirts of Denmark, and after different personal constellations and exploration of different musical territories, the current five-piece line up emerged. By touring relentlessly, the band - brothers by heart, only two of them by blood – has developed into an intense live act.
Start Stop Worrying was recorded live in Copenhagen Studios, downtown Copenhagen, in late September 2012, then mixed and produced by Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Russian Circles, Caspian) in Seattle. Matt's personal appreciation and involvement with the tracks he was mixing has resulted in him laying down additional synths and piano parts on the compositions, adding new layers and depth to the album. The record has been mastered by danish Emil Thomsen (Efterklang, Slaraffenland). The artwork will consist of handcrafted illustrations by Danish artist Dorthe Naomi, which will be cut in linoleum and then silk-screen printed for the vinyl version of the album.
The Shaking Sensations are the next band to follow in the footsteps of great Danish independent music culture, incarnated by bands such as Efterklang, Slaraffenland and Lis Er Stille.
Release date: March 22, 2013
Website: www.shakingsensations.com
KRUGER "333" 10" Vinyl EP
Kruger. Humble in triumph since 2001.
When a band is more than a decade of age, the tradition is to give numbers instead of writing down epic poetry on their music, right?
Well, regarding Kruger, here we go : 12 years of existence ; 4 albums ; around 350 shows throughout Europe ; probably 50'000 km touring between Prague and Sheffield (if you don't count Canada) ; 1 tour overseas (if you do count Canada) ; 3 Hellfests, 1 Roadburn, 1 Montreux Jazz, 1 Transmusicales, 1 Dour festival, 1 Paléo, 1 Brutal Assault ; live audiences ranging from a minimum of 2 people (still working on breaking that record) to a maximum of 2'500 (working on that one too).
If we had to give names, it'd be Listenable Records, Roadburn Records and Pelagic for labels ; Unsane, Gojira, Knut, Year of No Light, Latitudes, Deftones, Hacride, Bossk (find the intruder) when it comes to stage mates ; Breach, Entombed, Neurosis or Tool as acknowledged influences. And Raph, Margo, Blaise, Reno and (newly) Raul as the names of the five Swiss dudes still delivering uncompromising, intense, inventive yet shellacking noise-metal-punk songs.
After a few months spent to raise the kids, earn real money, find a reliable second guitar guy and write new music, KRUGER are back with new material : a gorgeous very-limited-handnumbered-collector-coloured 10'' vinyl containing two brand new songs, along with a new video clip.
Two songs only, kidding me ? Nope. Swiss quality, not quantity – and this should be enough to put the Lausanne-based noisemongers back in the post-metal panorama they contributed to shape. Shows are planned through Europe in the spring of 2013, including an appearance at PELAGIC FEST in Berlin on May 10th...
Release date: April, 2013
Website: www.kruger.ch
Lo! "Monstrorum Historia" CD/LP
After their critically acclaimed debut album Look and Behold (Pelagic Records 2011), Lo!, hailing from Sydney, Australia, are now back with their second album Monstrorum Historia... and it really is a monster of an album, an angry beast spitting nails and fire in every direction. One of the refreshing things about this band is the way they weave different styles of music into their own, heavy garment: there are plenty of faster parts, relentlessly driven by heavy-hitting drummer Adrian Griffin's extraordinary playing, but there are also slow, doomy, atmospheric passages that suck the listener into Lo!'s dark cosmos. There are anthemic metal riffs, but there is also the energy of the more abrasive side of hardcore in their songs, represented by bands like Cursed or Black Breath...
“Lo! have come to remind you of glorious times, times when Mastodon were using samples of Jurassic Park to kick off their records”, Metal Hammer (UK) wrote about Look and Behold, and Big Cheese added: “this gang of Australian brawlers sound like Beecher and Converge going at it in a cage match... sludgy hardcore hasn't sounded this good in ages!”
Good things are lined up at the band's horizon: after a very active year 2012 in Australia, including shows with Russian Circles, Doomriders, Eye Hate God, Burning Love and The Ocean, Lo! are finally coming over to Europe this spring – to support Cult of Luna and The Ocean on their upcoming tour. Lo! have also been confirmed for a performance at Roadburn and Impetus Festivals in April. Make sure to check them out live, as they are truly a sight to behold on stage!
The monochrome artwork perfectly represents the spirit of Monstrorum Historia. It comes in a nice CD digipak printed with mat finish on rough cardboard; and on vinyl with a 2-folded silk-screened print including silver colour and heavy 180 gram black vinyl.
Release date: April 19, 2013
THE OLD WIND "Feast On Your Gone" CD/LP
From the darkest parts of Northern Sweden, THE OLD WIND blows... raw and cold, just like its origin and heritage. This constellation of 5 is a new project incepted, after years of absence from the live-scene, by Tomas Liljedahl, former vocalist of the legendary BREACH, who must be counted as one of the most visionary and influential bands of the past 2 decades - a band without whom none of all these newer sub-genres of heavy music that have the word ?post“ in them, would exist.
Tomas wrote and recorded every instrument on Feast On Your Gone all by himself: ?TOW started growing in my mind when I was in need of theraphy. I´ve had a couple of really dark years, and I needed to project the hard times through something... and I found that writing words and music were the best way to get these demons out of my system“, comments Liljedahl.
Originally incepted as a studio project, Liljedahl soon realized that these rough, abrasive songs needed to be performed live, with a real band. And so he teamed up with his former BREACH band mates Niklas Quintana (guitar) and Kristian Andersson (bass guitar), added drummer Karl Daniel Liden to the lineup and asked Robin Staps of Pelagic Records & The Ocean to join on 3rd guitar. ?BREACH was probably THE one most important band for me ever, period. So when Tomas asked me to join his new band, I felt honored of course. The prospect of playing some shows with these guys in the future is very exciting, to say the least“, comments Staps.
Make no mistake about it, Feast On Your Gone is a vile, cold, ugly record. ?Lyrically, the album embraces deep and dark primal thoughts and emotions that i have and feel, like hate, possession, addiction, grief, makeing amends with myself... and those thoughts and feelings create images, and these images forge words and sounds“, says Liljedahl.
This album is the first sign of life of a band which consists of old veterans of the European heavy music scene – still, a juvenile band that has not yet played a single live show! “Rehearsals are scheduled for May 2013, and everyone of us is really pumped to get this going”, says Liljedahl.
Feast On Your Gone will be released on both CD (digipak) and vinyl formats. The vinyl version comes on clear vinyl and with hand silk-screened cover art; printed on thick 650 gram cardboard that is as rough as the music.
Release date: April 26, 2013
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Theoldwind
