Following their recent success of Salamander, Arrow Films will continue to house quality international crime thriller shows from various European territories and beyond, under their newly launched sub-label ‘Noir’.
Having already seen massive success with their Bafta winning series The Bridge, The Killing and Borgen, Arrow Films are thrilled to announce the release of Inspector De Luca, an exciting crime series which will mark the first Italian TV show to be released by the new ‘Noir’ label, an off-shoot of the popular Nordic Noir imprint that will house non-Nordic originating crime thriller series.
Having been aired in the prime-time Saturday night slot on BBC 4 during March and early April the series comes to DVD in the UK on 14th April 2014.
Between 1938 and 1948, from the height of Italy’s Fascist regime to the end of the tumultuous post-war period, Chief Detective De Luca investigates and solves crimes in the City of Bologna and along the Adriatic coast. With little or no regard for those in power, whoever they happen to be, his solitary, uncompromising character often lands him in trouble, but his respect is reserved for truth and justice alone.
In the four TV movies of the series “Unauthorised Investigation”, “Carte Blanche”, “Murky Summer” and “Goose Way” - each taken from a novel by best-selling mystery writer Carlo Lucarelli – Chief Detective De Luca always ultimately gets to the bottom of his cases, though what he finds often leaves a bitter aftertaste.
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What starts of as a classic synth-pop song continues in the landscape of The Jesus And Mary Chain. The song is co-produced with Stephan Groth from Apoptygma Berzerk and together they place the sound of the band in the pop/alternative-rock sphere. A place they are clearly comfortable.
The Funeral is the first in line of a number of singles from the norwegian band The Pussyclub, and a full-length album might arrive om the shelves by the end of 2014. Singer and songwriter, Jon Martens Holm, has brought along his experiences from previous bands, such as View, Icon of Coil and CCV, and perfected the mix of pop, electronica and alternative rock.
The song is released on their own labell (Velvet Electra) and distributed though DIY WIMP. It is mastered at Bohus Sound Recording Studio by Dragan Tanaskovic.
Dédales is the second LP from Opera Mort following a debut for the inhouse label of the sadly defunct Parisian record shop Bimbo Tower. The project is an ongoing collaboration between Jo Tanz and Laurent Gerard, two figures from France’s contemporary avant garde underground; Jo with his Tanzprocesz label and Laurent with his Élg project (Élg’s ‘Mil Pluton’ album appeared on Alter in 2012).
They also form two thirds of the trio Reines D’Angleterre with the legendary French artist Ghedalia Tazartés who will be returning to live performance later in 2014. The 8 tracks on Dédales were edited down from a series of improvised live takes of abstract and other-worldy electronics, shifting the Opera Mort sound into more focussed territory and creating a musical language that’s uniquely singular and a direct result of their close collaborative relationship. The album is set to be released on April 14th, 2014 and you can stream a track from the record below.
Brussels-based Orphan Swords is a duo between Yannick Franck aka Räum, sound experimentalist & founder of Idiosyncratics label and Maze, producer & Bozar Electronic Arts Festival curator. Previously described as "industrial-slanted techno" or "new school industrial" by XLR8R or The Quietus, Orphan Swords' music results of the collision between Räum & Maze's widely different influences, including techno, noise or cold wave.
Orphan Swords has been recently remixed by SHXCXCHCXSH, Dwellings, Paul Purgas (Emptyset) and Exoteric Continent and collaborated with Ike Yard's Stuart Argabright.
"... in the realm of acts like Sandwell District and Richie Hawtin's digressive and hypnotizing Plastikman moniker." XLR8R
"Their debut EP, DANTALION/RAUM is a slow-building, intricately-layered exploration of heavily processed synths, voices, tape loops, feedbacks, drones and beats. Each track on the EP builds to a staggering crescendo of ear-shattering, gritty noise and techno-driven beats."
ORPHAN SWORDS
Risk In A New Age
dsr099
Out May 5.
Track listing:
A1 – Haagenti
A2 – Leraikha
B1 – Vassago feat Ike Yard
B2 - Orobas
Gentle Friendly are the London-based duo of David Maurice and Richard Manber, whose penchant for circular melodies, tidal fuzz and rapid junked rhythms is delivered via an austere instrumental setup of vocals, Casio MT-40 keyboard and drums (sometimes electronic), alongside an array of tapes and electronics. Since forming in 2008, they have released a steady sequence of singular and acclaimed recordings, forging a sound that – whilst informed by a rich tapestry of influences and a particular brand of ‘Future Englishness’ - is instantly recognizable as their own.
The band released their first material in 2008, with the ‘Night Tape’ 7” appearing on indie label No Pain In Pop, whilst 2009 saw London DIY powerhouse Upset The Rhythm release their debut album ‘Ride Slow’ to critical acclaim. Uncut considered “No Age, Ponytail and Health as spiritual kin”, whilst Pitchfork even cited Clipse and Lil Wayne as influences on the band. A split 12” EP (shared with Dustin Wong) on FatCat’s Palmist imprint followed in 2011. Since then Gentle Friendly have remodelled and rebuilt their sound into a stronger beast at their home studio called Deep House, a practice space they share with other leftfield lo-fi artists, Echo Lake, Way Through and others, all of whom Gentle Friendly credit with helping to shape and influence their sound.
Building on the musical and lyrical themes of ‘Ride Slow’ and 2011's ‘Rrrrr’, ‘KAUA'I O'O A'A’ is perhaps their most coherent and assured statement to date. Drawing from an expanded palette of English originality – including the likes of Disco Inferno, Seefeel, This Heat, and Kate Bush - combined with harsh/ethereal sonic atmospheres and top 40 radio pop and R&B, Gentle Friendly have crafted a wide-eyed ode to "the sounds and feelings of a city in love and/or on fire."
According to the band, "the twelve songs on this record are about a lot of things, but they are mostly collective love songs and songs about the weather. Some of them are also about skinhead girl gangs, circular time, arson... One thing we were thinking about was translation, how music from Chicago, Detroit and elsewhere could make sense in terms of this primitive broken-down set of instruments we have - two punks in an ex-industrial building hundreds and thousands of miles away hearing those sounds and trying to make sense of it in a different way."
“Over the past year or so we recorded hundreds of fragments and sketches. We then began to re-sample the recordings we’d made, to pull them all apart and rework them again, to build things up gradually until we came to what became the final forms of songs. We always begin with the same basic setup of a Casio, tape machines and drums, and this record was about experimenting within those limits. We were also thinking about making words into sounds, and vice versa (just like the title).” They differentiate the album from previous records mainly in terms of sound: “it has a lot more texture, and a totally different focus - to us the record seems very 'song'-based, even in its strangest moments.”
Driven relentlessly forward by Manber’s bustling, frenetic beats and Maurice’s distinctive vocal phrasing - clipped, overlaid, structurally repetitive, informed by his creative writing practise - the record is a snarling, bustling, expansive sprawl. Urgent and insistent; adventurously skewed and complex whilst underpinned by strong melodic hooks, you might catch glimpses of the visceral sonic / rhythmic chaos of early Animal Collective; the fractured melodic sensibility of punk experimentalists like Wire and This Heat, or more recently Micachu & The Shapes; as well as hearing the influence of the loop-based electronics and sample-experimentation of post-rock pioneers like Disco Inferno and Seefeel or more modern dance splinter genres like juke / footwork and wonky.
The title KAUA'I O'O A'A comes from the Hawaiian bird, which was named after the eerie, echoey sound it makes and declined drastically during the 20th century following the islands’ cultivation after the arrival of Europeans. In 1981 just a single pair remained. The female was lost following Hurricane Iwa in 1982, and the sole remaining male’s hollow, haunting, flute-like calls were last heard in 1987. The band felt the title “seemed perfect for the record. It looks good and feels good to say.” The last known field recording of the species - a mating call by that last remaining male appears on ’18 Wave Crash’. “Our record is nowhere near that sad but the story seemed to resonate somehow.”
‘KAUA'I O'O A'A’ will be released on vinyl and digital formats, and will be accompanied by UK / European tour dates.
