The Italian Alternative/Gothic/Post-punk Date At Midnight released its new album Songs To Fall And Forget on Manic Depression.
The album is both available on CD and digital platform. Let’s waste no words in describing them, just listen to the new song below and you’ll understand why this is a must have.
Let's face facts - in 2016 it is remarkable that there's a new Dinosaur Jr. album to go ape over. After all, the original line-up of the band (J Mascis, Lou Barlow & Murph) only recorded three full albums during their initial run in the 1980s. Everyone was gob-smacked when they reunited in 2005. Even more so when they opted to stay together, as they have for 11 years now. And with the release of Give a Glimpse Of What Yer Not (out August 5th on Jagjaguwar), this trio has released more albums in the 21st Century than they did in the 20th. It's enough to make a person take a long, thoughtful slug of maple-flavoured bourbon and thank some lucky stars.
Last night, Dinosaur Jr. gave the album's first single 'Tiny' an exclusive first performance on Later... with Jools Holland, which you can watch here. Be sure to tune in to BBC2 this Friday, May 27th, at 12.05am for an extended version of the show. Today, you can also stream the album version of 'Tiny' on Spotify, alongside a playlist of the band's greatest moments from across their 30+ year history.
Of the 11 songs presented on Give a Glimpse, nine are J's. Mascis has had so many projects going at various times - from the retro glam of Sweet Apple to the metal dunt of Witch to the ostrich-rock overload of Heavy Blanket - it’s always a little shocking he can compartmentalise well enough to keep his tunes with Dinosaur Jr. sounding so instantly recognisable. Which is not to say they're interchangeable, it's just that he has a very idiosyncratic way of structurally assembling and presenting the songs.The other two songs here were written and sung by Lou, and they're quite great as well. Although Barlow's template and palette are more mercurial and shifting (as they are with his other ongoing projects, like Sebadoh), the two here have a consonant resonance.
Having announced themselves to the world with their acclaimed self-titled debut in 2014, ARC IRIS return this summer with their second album Moon Saloon, released 19th August on Bella Union. The Providence, Rhode Island-based band have unveiled a first track from the LP.
See below.
Moon Saloon constitutes a natural progression from the first album’s whimsical explorations. Produced by the group and mixed by electronic producer David Wrench of FKA Twigs and Caribou fame, the album showcases beat-heavy melodies and textural, groove-riding rhythms. It developed from the band’s distillations of musical influences, combining traditional elements with percussive structures and dense, beguiling harmonies. In many ways this second album captures Arc Iris’ musical odyssey as a band. “It has a heavier sound, more intense,” says Arc Iris keyboardist Zach Tenorio-Miller, who makes liberal use of sampling in many of the songs. The group matches an unusual array of organic acoustic instruments with layered electronic sounds.
Lead singer and lyricist Jocie Adams, Tenorio-Miller, and drummer Ray Belli form the core of Arc Iris, all virtuosic musicians in their own right. Adams spent eight years as a key member of indie darlings The Low Anthem, effortlessly zipping from hammer dulcimer to clarinet to bass to vocals, sometimes barely pausing to take a breath. As the band members see it, “Moon Saloon” works like a song cycle that parallels the arc of Everyman’s passage through modern day dilemmas. According to Adams: “The album is meant to be cathartic. There’s an imbalance in everyone’s lives. When there’s often so much going on, we yearn for simplicity.”
The album starts with “Kaleidoscope”, mimicking a kind of fanciful stroll down the street, and ends with the title track, a delicate soliloquy in a strange, desolate landscape. The album sometimes offers a sharp counterpoint to the mean-spirited nature of current American political discourse. One example is “Paint with the Sun,” a paean to those who help others in need. Soaring over each song is Adams’ ethereal voice, often joined in close harmonies with other members of the band.
Adams wrote most of the songs during a songwriting retreat on an island in New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee several months before the recording session. For Adams, it was a week-long creative rush with no electricity, no running water, no cell phones—just a bed in a cabin and an acoustic guitar. She took her work back to Providence, where she and Tenorio-Miller worked on the songs, layering sounds, developing ideas, “transforming them into the world of Arc Iris,” Tenorio-Miller recalls.
Arc Iris have attracted fans around the world as the group’s stage performances become storied events themselves. Space domes reveal giant golden wings in flight while montages light up the backdrop with evocative images. Above all, the group’s love of music is a shared passion that comes alive with each song. As diverse as their musical interests and influences have been, the band members find avenues for producing a blend of soul-satisfying sounds that are truly their own.
