Lebanon Hanover are among the most beloved protagonists of Fabrika. After three extremely successful, home-recorded Vinyls on Fabrika and CDs on Dead Scarlet, here now the eagerly expected fourth regular album. This is the FIRST Lebanon Hanover album to be recorded in a professional studio EVER – ‘Besides the Abyss’ thus marks the culmination of an extraordinarily creative period of almost three years. This album reflects a process of musical maturing and self-knowledge, though inward-looking and intimate, it has no difficulties entering deep into the emotional world of the listener.
Dominated by the voice of Larissa Iceglass, which embraces us like an unknown warmth coming straight from the blackest abyss, the elegance of the guitar parts, the sad bass and synthesizer melodies, the poetic tenderness of the lyrics, this album is of a unique hopeful but gloomy romantic. ‘’Besides the abyss’’ is gorgeous and timeless. Lebanon Hanover hold the key to our soul as we all ‘’walk a path of failures and of heights’’. Their way of giving new breath to old structures, of ex- pressing a universal emotion, is almost addictive and we consider ourselves lucky not having to live long without their music.
The album consists of ten all new recordings. It has been written and performed by Larissa Iceglass and William Maybelline in Athens, from May 2014. For the first time a guest musician enters the studios with Lebanon Hanover, contributing for the track “Moor’’ the most sorrow-filled saxophone you’ve ever heard. Chris Manolitsis, a legendary Greek producer - famous for countless albums he recorded since the early 80s - is the man behind the production, mixing and mastering, giving a decisive final touch, intensifying these tracks exactly the way he did it with his productions since the early 80s. An edition of 1000 Vinyls is now underway and we expect this first edition to be sold out as fast as the first Vinyl editions of previous 3 albums! The Vinyl comes with a unique album cover, lyrics and a free download code in flac and mp3 format.
Youth Code’s latest release, A Place To Stand, is an expression of rage that could only come from Los Angeles. Perfectly capturing the frustration and claustrophobia of the early 80s LA hardcore scene but re-appropriating that aggression and melding it to the strict, pounding electronics of classic industrial. Recorded by Josh Eustis (Nine Inch Nails, Telefon Tel Aviv, Sons of Magdalene), Side A of A Place to Stand features four new Youth Code tracks that showcase the band exploring an evolved sense of melodic synth work and more varied tempos than anything they have released to date. From the pure adrenal rush of opening track, “Consumed By Guilt” and the Wax Trax-esque dance floor anthem “To Burn Your World” to the lush synthscape melodies of “For I Am Cursed” You can hear Ryan George and Sara Taylor perfectly balancing respect for their elders whilst creating something that’s uniquely their own. Rounding out the Youth Code originals on Side A, “A Litany (A Place To Stand)” figuratively stands out, as it is a spoken-word diatribe on society that encapsulates the feeling of the entire record.
Side B of A Place to Stand collects four remixes of earlier Youth Code tracks, from artists as diverse as Corrections House’s Sanford Parker, Sub Pop signed avant rap crew Clipping., industrial / EBM mainstays God Module & the dark and minimal techno mastermind, Silent Servant.
What makes A Place to Stand exceptional is Youth Code’s ability to coax raw, organic emotion out of cold, primitive synths. A trait that stems from the band’s peculiar genesis. Born in 2012 out of a Los Angeles bedroom, Youth Code is the creation of Sara Taylor and Ryan George. The band made their spontaneous live debut at LA-based record store Vacation Vinyl's employee showcase. Word of the incendiary live performance quickly spread and was followed by release of the well-circulated, coveted, Demonstrational Cassette which saw the band hone their semi-improvised initial set into something altogether more muscular and lean.
Soon after, Youth Code was invited to release a limited edition 7 inch single with the legendary Genesis P-Orridge's label, Angry Love Productions. The single quickly sold out and saw the band receive praise from industrial heavyweights including Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly. Shortly after the single’s release, the band signed on with label DAIS to release their 2013 self-titled full length, which was met with widespread critical praise from outlets as far ranging as Pitchfork and MetalSucks.
In 2013, Youth Code brought their brand of Industrial to audiences all over the US on supporting gigs with AFI, Nothing, The Body, Suicide Commando and a stint at SXSW that had Tucson Weekly call Youth Code the, "Best Surprise of the Festival". Regarding the SXSW performance, The LA Times added, "The band [Youth Code] is a perfect balance of muscular synth drums, white-noise analog pulses and singer Sara Taylor's defiant shrieks. It's harsh stuff, but never less than riveting to watch, and a perfect rebuttal to a festival that looks ever more like a [sic] A-list party than a place to truly hear something new. Thank God Youth Code was there to fix that at the end."
'Roburit' used to be a permissible explosive used by the coal mining industry in underground mining for booster detonations. Nowadays 'Roburit' is the brand-new and tenth album made by Stefan Chaefer and Volker Rathmann aka. 'Prager Handgriff', just in time for the band’s 25th anniversary!!! Both the explosive and the new album were produced in Witten, the hometown of Prager Handgriff. While the explosive was manufactured about 100 years ago, the album was recorded during the last year. The result is a highly explosive mixture of pulsating electronic sounds and German lyrics. And like the explosive 'Roburit' which had to be primed in order to detonate 'Prager Handgriff' strung together 14 primed and precisely timed electronic detonations on this album, ready to shake up the land with their blasts!
Two Gallants’ Adam Stephens (guitar, harmonica, keyboard and vocals) and Tyson Vogel (drums, guitar and vocals) spent one month recording We Are Undone with Karl Derfler (Tom Waits) at Panoramic House in Northern California. The title track is available as a free instant download with LP/CD album pre-orders at twogallants.com and iTunes. The new LP is their second full-length release on the label following 2012’s The Bloom and The Blight.
Stephens and Vogel started making music together at the age of 12 and began performing around San Francisco as Two Gallants in 2002, when they were both 21. Alive Records released the duo’s debut album, The Throes, in 2004 which Pitchfork said “taps into a rusty vein swollen with grief, heartache and violent desperation.” Both Two Gallants’ 2006 album What the Toll Tells and 2007 EP The Scenery of Farewell were released on Saddle Creek. The band made their first TV appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in 2008 and have played festivals around the world including Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, Latitude, Paleo, Roskilde and Perth Festival, among others.
Two Gallants will be embarking on an extensive US and European tour throughout February and March which will be reaching the UK for the below five dates:
Friday 20 February – MANCHESTER – Gorilla
Saturday 21 February – GLASGOW – King Tuts
Monday 23 February – LEEDS – Brudenell Social Club
Tuesday 24 February – BRISTOL –Thekla
Wednesday 25 February – LONDON – Islington Assembly Hall
We Are Undone will be released 2nd February on ATO Records.
Tracklisting:
1. We Are Undone
2. Incidental
3. Fools Like Us
4. Invitation To The Funeral
5. Some Trouble
6. My Man Go
7. Katy Kruelly
8. Heartbreakdown
9. Murder The Season / The Age Nocturne
10. There’s So Much I Don’t Know
When the winter will start to blur at the edges and spring is escaping from the frozen ground, Berlin hosts a small but nice festival, that became established as a constant and a must-go for enthusiasts of guitar-based Wave, Post Punk and Goth Rock over the years. Brought to life by the hometown guys of GOLDEN APES, the coming March, 21st will face the sixth edition of the DARK SPRING FESTVAL so far and like in recent years the billing results from the band's personal musical preferences and tastes, far beyond any trends, mainstream frames or aspects of profit.
Housed again by the BiNuu club (under it's former name Kato one of Berlin's most history-charged scene venues), following bands and artists will celebrate an altered form of the springtime's arrival: the German Occvlt-Goth Icons of MERCIFUL NUNS, the energized Swedish Shoegaze/Post punk outfit PRINCIPE VALIENTE, the Goth & Darkwave veterans THE LAST CRY from England, Italy's most promising Gothrock export THE STOMPCRASH and last but not least the GOLDEN APES, which as hosts wont miss the chance of completing the line-up.
The accompanying aftershow party will see the DJs Thomas Thyssen and Martin Oldgoth behind the turntable, what promises a splendid sonic mixture to shake your bones to until the dawn creeps in.
