Vertikal", the new studio album from Swedish "art rockers" CULT OF LUNA. "Vertikal" marks a much‐anticipated return for the band after five years spent cultivating the ideas and directing the influences that have helped form a concept for the album. Distilled throughout are themes of machinery, repetition and clear, linear structures honed to the visual imagery of Fritz Lang's classic expressionist science fiction film "Metropolis".
The music broods, builds and boils as you may expect from CULT OF LUNA, but never overcomplicates itself or veers from its intentions; it is arguably their finest and most cohesive piece of work to date. Commented the band: "Before we started writing, we were keen to find a theme that in a very direct way could be shown through the music, and we hope to have achieved this.
We developed clear structures — very linear, refusing to over complicate the writing process "We realize fans have been waiting for what seems like an age for us ! to return to the live arena properly, but we were not keen on playing shows before we had the new material ready.
There have been changes, and we wanted to come back on our own terms with something completely new. It is very important for us to transpose the idea of a new album into the live setting, to not tread water, and to include the fans in what we’ve been working on; you will be hearing this very soon." CULT OF LUNA will return to the live arena for a full European tour, with a new set of dates just announced in April and May in addition to the previously announced period around the album's release in January and February. There are U.S. dates being planned and the band intend to tour further in late 2013.
Montreal's Suuns spent the winter and spring of 2012 writing and recording Images du Futur.
Their sessions were concurrent with the Quebec student protests that started in February of 2012 and continued through September of this year. Set against a backdrop lead singer Ben
Shemie calls "a climate of excitement, hope and frustration," Suuns aimed for an expansion of the musical ideas on their critically accalimed first record, Zeroes, QC.
Images du Futur builds upon the intensity of their debut, but often does so through new textures and subtler dynamic maneuvering. Album standout "Edie's Dream" begins with a single bass
line repeated from which layers build & rise — first drums, then a wash of white noise; echoes of guitar, then chanted vocals. The song's clever shifts are jazz-touched and delicate, almost subliminal. It all makes for a stark, skeletal boogie — more an astral projection than a song.
"Edie's Dream" exemplifies the restraint of which Suuns is capable and works to make the unhinged moments all the more devastating.
Lauded by Pitchfork and NME — the former saying "few bands this young are operating on quite this scale, and fewer still have the brass-- and the patience-- to pull off a big, glitzy,
complex record like Zeroes QC," and the latter declaring them 2011's Best New Band — Suuns have deepened their approach, using minimalist techniques to create maximalist works.
Produced once again by Jace Lasek from Besnard Lakes, Images blasts out of the gate with "Powers of Ten," laying out a sort of manifesto for the record in the very first lines: "Got it
together/I read in the paper/all of theses strangers/stranger and stranger.../No, no, no, no, how you try and remember/how all of these pieces/all fit together." Shemie says of the process, "As a
band we were trying to look at our music from further and further away, seeing more details in the picture as we expanded the landscape."
Suuns is Ben Shemie,Max Henry, Liam O'Neill and Joseph Yarmush.
True Zebra had a great year: Nominated for best alternative song at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, memorable performance at Bimfest, a Fantastique Night with Ike Yard, an unforgettable day at the biggest Student Party: “Studay” and amazing reviews! + Writing and recording the follow-up to the critically acclaimed debut album!
Thank you organizers and audiences your response was above expectations on these new songs!
“The new album is coming along and is sounding amazing. More extremes, more movement and I’m very happy
with the new songs and the reaction it already generated during the live performances” - Kevin Strauwen
2013 will bring a new era and starts off with True Zebra performing at one of the leading concert venues
in Belgium: The Ancienne Belgique (AB). Together with headliner Vive La Fête we will make friday january 18
a party night to remember!
The Awakening is a 2011 British horror film directed by Nick Murphy, starring Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, and Imelda Staunton.
Synopsis:
1921: England. Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) is a published author on supernatural hoaxes who works with the police to expose charlatans and debunk supernatural phenomena, having begun her foray into her profession upon the death of her lover in World War I. Upon a visit from Robert Malory (Dominic West), a teacher from a boarding school with the request to investigate the recent death of a student and how it is related to sightings of a ghost of a child, she travels to the school hoping to explain the sightings and the death. The ghostly sightings are at first thought to be a prank played by one of the boys at the school. But of course that's only the beginning.....
This now already British classic is now in the theatres.
Sweden's rocking electro behemoth Agent Side Grinder burst onto the scene in 2008 with their eponymous debut album. The music was an uncompromising, never-heard blend of industrial, post-punk, old style EBM and electro topped with the apocalyptic crooning of singer Kristoffer Grip.
On their second album "Irish Recording Tape", the band developed their musical style further. The songs were maybe more accessible, but the typical elements were intact: drilling industrial sounds, hypnotic synth sequences, feverish vocals and post-punk influenced bass lines. To quote Vice Magazine Germany: "...one of the few bands, which is actually in a position to deal with the legacy of Joy Division". The interest in the band resulted in three European tours and an invitation to support genre forefathers Suicide.
In recent years, Agent Side Grinder has moved towards a bigger and more textured sound. This is evident on their latest work "Hardware". On this record, ASG once again steps into their musical time-machine, has a rendezvous with old masters such as Kraftwerk, Einsturzende Neubaten and Depeche Mode and invite them all on a reckless, rhythmic journey into a bleak future.
This weekend, on Sunday January 13th, they will perform @ Poppodium 013, Tilburg, NL.
