Search:shadow

***
Solitary shadows.
Taking their last breaths
in the fading fire.
Lust and lavish beatings,
slipping away slowly.
***

Such Ferocious Beauty is vintage Cowboy Junkies and another dimension from the lo-fi Canadian band comprised of, well, family. A tangle of sonic textures, Beauty is a rumination on aging, losing parents, facing mortality and creating space for one"s life in the midst of the ruin that comes from merely living. "Mike has never shied away from the darker, harder and sometimes uglier realities of our human condition," Margo Timmins explains of the band"s singular focus, "nor has he shied from its beauty. Thankfully, with one comes the other." Cowboy Junkies are an alternative country and folk rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1985 by Alan Anton (bassist), Michael Timmins (songwriter, guitarist), Peter Timmins (drummer) and Margo Timmins (vocalist). The band gained wide recognition with their second studio album, The Trinity Session (1988), recorded in 1987 at Toronto"s Church of the Holy Trinity. Their sound, again using the ambisonic microphone, and their mix of blues, country, folk, rock and jazz earned them both critical attention and a strong fan base. Cowboy Junkies have gone on to record 16 studio albums and five live albums.

Ralph Alessis vierte Veröffentlichung als Bandleader für ECM folgt auf eine einzigartige Albumserie, die von The New York Times bis The Guardian ausschließlich mit Lob überschüttet wurde. Die britische Zeitung pries Ralphs vorherige Aufnahme Imaginary Friends (2019) für die ”elegante Balance aus ergreifenden, verspielten Originalkompositionen und apart forschender Improvisation” und erklärte es zu ”seinem bisher besten Album”. It’s Always Now strotzt jedoch nur so vor Argumenten, dass es einen neuen Anwärter auf
diesen Titel gibt. Auf seinem neuen Album ist Alessis einzigartiger Ton so geschmeidig, durchdringend und präsent wie eh und je, umgeben von einer neu zusammengestellten Quartettbesetzung – Pianist Florian Weber, Bänz Oester am Bass und Schlagzeuger Gerry Hemingway – die mit einem sechsten Sinn durch die eigenwillig swingenden Kompositionen des Trompeters navigiert. Das Album ist nicht nur eine Fortsetzung der Arbeit Alessis, sondern rückt auch Florians Entwicklung bei ECM – es ist bereits sein viertes Album
für das Label – in den Fokus. Seine individuelle harmonische Herangehensweise an den Tasten ist in der Rolle des Sideman ebenso ausgeprägt wie als Bandleader auf seinen eigenen Einspielungen, und sein tiefes Gespür für den Puls von Alessis Kompositionen bereichert diese Session. Das Album wurde von Manfred Eicher produziert.

Tigercub return with their highly anticipated new album The Perfume Of Decay via Loosegroove Records (the label co-founded by Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard). With The Perfume of Decay — Tigercub' third record of nocturnal, hard-hitting rock, as well as their first full-length release for Loosegroove Records — frontman Jamie Hall draws the curtains shut and embraces a moody, melancholic sound that's every bit as cinematic as Hollywood itself. It's an album about counterpoint and opposites, stacked with songs that contrast overdriven guitars with whispered vocals, tight grooves with shoegazing swells of noise, sonic experimentation with sharp songwriting. For a band that's always trafficked in drama and dynamics, The Perfume of Decay marks Tigercub's strongest release to date.

Yumi Zouma release a special one off coloured vinyl (colour in colour red), a cover version album of Oasis seminal album (What's the Story) Morning Glory reimagined by Yumi Zouma - first time pressed on vinyl for retail. On bands own imprint.

In a world of endless, bottomless content, to find something that stands out from the crowd is a rare thing. But it’s something that 7ebra manage without breaking a sweat. Based in Malmö, twin sisters Inez and Ella Johansson deal in sparkling indie-rock that’s pretty without being soft, sweet without losing its edge and catchy without being cheap. With Inez on guitar and vocals and Ella on keys, organ and Mellotron, their minimal set-up makes a virtue of simplicity – with a sliver of guitar fuzz, and organ lines snaking around stark, striking vocals, augmented by shivering harmonies, they don’t need a lot to make music that’s colourful, kaleidoscopic, and effortlessly original.

7ebra debuted in 2022 with the double-single “I Have A Lot To Say”/ “If I Ask Her”, two helpings of psych-tinged, street-smart rock and roll, and the music scene around them wasn’t slow to notice. They opened for the Future Islands and the Dandy Warhols, were picked out by Apple Music’s Matt Wilkinson as a Hidden Gem of 2022 and were booked for prestigious showcases SXSW and Eurosonic. With a packed schedule of shows across Europe and the UK already planned for 2023, their world looks set to get a lot bigger – something that their debut album Bird Hour makes certain. The record is a warm, elegant introduction to the sound 7ebra have crafted. The songs are full of personality and character, but also retain a little bit of enigma, a sense of keeping something secret to themselves. To unwrap that elusiveness is a daunting task, but one the listener can’t resist leaping into.

Ella and Inez’s parents played in bands as they were growing up, so picking up music was a natural thing for them. The origins of 7ebra start with Inez whiling away the hours playing guitar in her bedroom. “I learned by playing covers by myself in my room”, she says. “Ella didn’t do that as much, but we sometimes played and sang together, country songs”. Eventually she would start writing her own. Ella wasn’t involved originally (“we did play together a few times”, she says, “and it just went to shit laughs. We fought a lot”), and Inez was originally reluctant: “I was a bit unsure whether I wanted to be in a band with my sister. Because you get clumped together all the time, when you’re twins”. But Ella was keen to join, and eventually persuaded Inez to let her join for a show. It went – so well that producer Tore Johansson (The Cardigans, Franz Ferdinand), saw it and asked if they’d like to record with him. That changed things, says Ella: “It made us think there might be something in this music”. As a duo, 7ebra were in flight. “In the end, it’s kind of a nice thing too being sisters in a band”, Inez says. “It doesn’t bother me anymore. It just made sense to play together”.

On the album that they eventually came up with, the talent that caught Johansson’s eye is immediately obvious. Opener “Secretly Bad” has a way of walking along your nerves, an eerie echo of a hymn in Inez’s vocal backed by a swirl of woozy blend of guitars and organ. That’s followed up by “I Like To Pretend”, an easily charming song that has a sleepy brightness about it, like morning sunlight breaking through a window. They take a couple of different genres for a whirl on Bird Hour – they’re tense and snappy on “If I Ask Her”, breezy and cocky on “Lighter Better”, and there’s even a couple of droplets of blues and folk in the mix, in the raw intensity of the emotions in the slower songs, the vulnerability and aching of songs like “Lean” and “Stripey Horsey”. The record has a way of sweeping you along in its mood and tones, fuelled in part by the band’s use of repetition, sometimes fast and fevered, sometimes crawling and hypnotic. The duo’s musical input blends perfectly, with Inez’s guitar and vocals forming the core, and Ella drawing in the detail with keys, organ, and harmonies, to really bring out the vivid nature of the songs. Indie rock that’s melodic and sweet, but with enough shadow mixed in to make it really compelling.

On Bird Hour, what strikes you first about 7ebra’s sound is how fully formed it is, how much they’ve carved out their own sonic territory, perfected by trial and error in the studio with Johansson. “Tore wanted us to try everything possible”, says Ella. “We had moments where things weren’t working. But that was necessary in order to find the good stuff”. 7ebra’s signature might be found in the deft way they deal with emotion – unafraid of being open, but a little too clever to make things too clear cut: “You can’t take yourself that seriously. It’s too emotional to take it seriously, to start hating yourself. But at the same time, it is quite serious”, says Ella. Another trademark is the simplicity – a 7ebra song has just enough to make it work, and nothing more. “I think it was important for me that our voices were at the centre of the songs”, says Inez, “that all the little melodies have their place, and don’t get overwhelmed. With lyrics, I sometimes come up with something, and just feel ‘there’s no need to add more to this’. Sometimes a line works by itself. You don’t have to add a bunch of lyrics”. Finally, the album’s themes are ones that will resonate with most people that have set foot on this planet. “I guess it’s about trying to understand yourself, in relation to others. Just life. ‘Why am I not good at this, why is this thing happening to me, why is this thing so hard, why am I so stupid?’”, laughs Ella.

7ebra haven’t been around for very long – but a handful of songs and their fizzing live shows have stirred up the biggest buzz in Scandinavian music in quite a while. Their debut album justifies it all. It showcases the magic they’re capable of conjuring up, and hints at even more to come in the future. But from where they are right now, they’ve made something very special. Bird Hour takes all that promise and turns it into something concrete, in the form of one of the year’s best rock debuts.

Bound To Rise is the quietly impressive debut album from Yorkshireman Chris Brain. His songs have a gentleness and ethereality, enhanced by his softly husky, smoky vocals coupled with delicate finger-picked guitar patterns based around his alternate tunings.

The self-composed songs draw on the pastoral and the traditional, heavily centred in natural imagery featuring both as itself and as allegory. A misty ambiguity, suggestions of layered meaning and hints of multiple interpretations permeate the lyrics. And darker moods throw long shadows across this landscape.

A pre-dawn longing for the sun in title track ‘Bound To Rise’ seems to obliquely evoke springtime, primitive beliefs and lifting mood. ‘Bird Count’ is another daybreak song hinting at other, more intimate, preoccupations, “calling out your name / never to be tame”.

‘Chance To See’ celebrates the emotional significance of a relationship, and it’s easy to interpret ‘Golden Eagle’ as its flipside partner, “but you can’t choose her, she chooses you” – or maybe it’s simply a song about birdwatching. ‘Flying On Time’ continues with rare sightings paired with impressions of human air travel and distance, “she’s due tonight / just for one night / to visit our skies”.

Non-specific doubt and uncertainty edgily patrol ‘If I Could’, whilst the cheerfully pattering guitar motif of ‘Peace And Quiet’ belies an inner melancholy, and ‘Rare Find’ charmingly bookends Mary Jane Walker’s plangent violin and Simeon Walker’s subtle piano.

‘Sunday Morn’ “lays the week to rest” amongst other things but, despite the laid-back vibe, all is not sunny and “melancholy calls to greet us once more”. Brain’s songs are intriguing shifts of light and shade, and the details improve with each listen.

Coming full circle thematically, the joyous simplicity of expression in ‘Sun Song’ makes it close kin to the mighty Bright Phoebus, “the sun was born and she’s beautiful / the sun was born from the ground”. It’s an optimistic ending to an emotionally ambiguous album.

Influenced by, among others, Nick Drake, John Martyn and Joni Mitchell, it’s not hard to see where Chris Brain is coming from. More interesting is where he’s going to. Bound To Rise makes a very promising start.

In a world of endless, bottomless content, to find something that stands out from the crowd is a rare thing. But it’s something that 7ebra manage without breaking a sweat. Based in Malmö, twin sisters Inez and Ella Johansson deal in sparkling indie-rock that’s pretty without being soft, sweet without losing its edge and catchy without being cheap. With Inez on guitar and vocals and Ella on keys, organ and Mellotron, their minimal set-up makes a virtue of simplicity – with a sliver of guitar fuzz, and organ lines snaking around stark, striking vocals, augmented by shivering harmonies, they don’t need a lot to make music that’s colourful, kaleidoscopic, and effortlessly original.

7ebra debuted in 2022 with the double-single “I Have A Lot To Say”/ “If I Ask Her”, two helpings of psych-tinged, street-smart rock and roll, and the music scene around them wasn’t slow to notice. They opened for the Future Islands and the Dandy Warhols, were picked out by Apple Music’s Matt Wilkinson as a Hidden Gem of 2022 and were booked for prestigious showcases SXSW and Eurosonic. With a packed schedule of shows across Europe and the UK already planned for 2023, their world looks set to get a lot bigger – something that their debut album Bird Hour makes certain. The record is a warm, elegant introduction to the sound 7ebra have crafted. The songs are full of personality and character, but also retain a little bit of enigma, a sense of keeping something secret to themselves. To unwrap that elusiveness is a daunting task, but one the listener can’t resist leaping into.

Ella and Inez’s parents played in bands as they were growing up, so picking up music was a natural thing for them. The origins of 7ebra start with Inez whiling away the hours playing guitar in her bedroom. “I learned by playing covers by myself in my room”, she says. “Ella didn’t do that as much, but we sometimes played and sang together, country songs”. Eventually she would start writing her own. Ella wasn’t involved originally (“we did play together a few times”, she says, “and it just went to shit laughs. We fought a lot”), and Inez was originally reluctant: “I was a bit unsure whether I wanted to be in a band with my sister. Because you get clumped together all the time, when you’re twins”. But Ella was keen to join, and eventually persuaded Inez to let her join for a show. It went – so well that producer Tore Johansson (The Cardigans, Franz Ferdinand), saw it and asked if they’d like to record with him. That changed things, says Ella: “It made us think there might be something in this music”. As a duo, 7ebra were in flight. “In the end, it’s kind of a nice thing too being sisters in a band”, Inez says. “It doesn’t bother me anymore. It just made sense to play together”.

On the album that they eventually came up with, the talent that caught Johansson’s eye is immediately obvious. Opener “Secretly Bad” has a way of walking along your nerves, an eerie echo of a hymn in Inez’s vocal backed by a swirl of woozy blend of guitars and organ. That’s followed up by “I Like To Pretend”, an easily charming song that has a sleepy brightness about it, like morning sunlight breaking through a window. They take a couple of different genres for a whirl on Bird Hour – they’re tense and snappy on “If I Ask Her”, breezy and cocky on “Lighter Better”, and there’s even a couple of droplets of blues and folk in the mix, in the raw intensity of the emotions in the slower songs, the vulnerability and aching of songs like “Lean” and “Stripey Horsey”. The record has a way of sweeping you along in its mood and tones, fuelled in part by the band’s use of repetition, sometimes fast and fevered, sometimes crawling and hypnotic. The duo’s musical input blends perfectly, with Inez’s guitar and vocals forming the core, and Ella drawing in the detail with keys, organ, and harmonies, to really bring out the vivid nature of the songs. Indie rock that’s melodic and sweet, but with enough shadow mixed in to make it really compelling.

On Bird Hour, what strikes you first about 7ebra’s sound is how fully formed it is, how much they’ve carved out their own sonic territory, perfected by trial and error in the studio with Johansson. “Tore wanted us to try everything possible”, says Ella. “We had moments where things weren’t working. But that was necessary in order to find the good stuff”. 7ebra’s signature might be found in the deft way they deal with emotion – unafraid of being open, but a little too clever to make things too clear cut: “You can’t take yourself that seriously. It’s too emotional to take it seriously, to start hating yourself. But at the same time, it is quite serious”, says Ella. Another trademark is the simplicity – a 7ebra song has just enough to make it work, and nothing more. “I think it was important for me that our voices were at the centre of the songs”, says Inez, “that all the little melodies have their place, and don’t get overwhelmed. With lyrics, I sometimes come up with something, and just feel ‘there’s no need to add more to this’. Sometimes a line works by itself. You don’t have to add a bunch of lyrics”. Finally, the album’s themes are ones that will resonate with most people that have set foot on this planet. “I guess it’s about trying to understand yourself, in relation to others. Just life. ‘Why am I not good at this, why is this thing happening to me, why is this thing so hard, why am I so stupid?’”, laughs Ella.

7ebra haven’t been around for very long – but a handful of songs and their fizzing live shows have stirred up the biggest buzz in Scandinavian music in quite a while. Their debut album justifies it all. It showcases the magic they’re capable of conjuring up, and hints at even more to come in the future. But from where they are right now, they’ve made something very special. Bird Hour takes all that promise and turns it into something concrete, in the form of one of the year’s best rock debuts.

In einer Ära, die darauf ausgelegt ist, das Individuum niederzuschlagen und zu schwächen, ist "Black Flame Eternal" ein Album, das Stärke, Ermächtigung und totalen Widerstand repräsentiert. Angesichts des zunehmenden Drucks, sich im modernen gesellschaftlichen Tribalismus zu engagieren, beschwört Cloak mit Album Nummer drei eine spirituelle Rebellion, die jenseits von Gut und Böse existiert. Während Cloak gegen gesellschaftliche Konventionen wüten, umarmt das Quartett aus Atlanta die rebellischen und altbewährten Traditionen des Heavy Metal.

Ob sie nun den chaotischen Geist der schwedischen Black-Metal-Vertreter Watain und Dissection beschwören, den tiefen, dunklen und sinnlichen Groove von Danzig heraufbeschwören oder die rohe Geschwindigkeit und raue Energie von Motörhead heraufbeschwören - der Einfluss der Gründerväter des Metal ist tief in der DNA von Cloak verankert. Der Charme von Cloak liegt jedoch nicht nur in der Romantik der Vergangenheit, sondern vielmehr in der Art und Weise, wie jedes dieser Genres die persönliche Identität von Cloak geprägt hat. Und mit "Black Flame Eternal" baut Cloak seinen eigenen, einzigartigen und etablierten Sound weiter aus.

FFV: Watain, Dissection, Behemoth, Rotting Christ

In einer Ära, die darauf ausgelegt ist, das Individuum niederzuschlagen und zu schwächen, ist "Black Flame Eternal" ein Album, das Stärke, Ermächtigung und totalen Widerstand repräsentiert. Angesichts des zunehmenden Drucks, sich im modernen gesellschaftlichen Tribalismus zu engagieren, beschwört Cloak mit Album Nummer drei eine spirituelle Rebellion, die jenseits von Gut und Böse existiert. Während Cloak gegen gesellschaftliche Konventionen wüten, umarmt das Quartett aus Atlanta die rebellischen und altbewährten Traditionen des Heavy Metal.

Ob sie nun den chaotischen Geist der schwedischen Black-Metal-Vertreter Watain und Dissection beschwören, den tiefen, dunklen und sinnlichen Groove von Danzig heraufbeschwören oder die rohe Geschwindigkeit und raue Energie von Motörhead heraufbeschwören - der Einfluss der Gründerväter des Metal ist tief in der DNA von Cloak verankert. Der Charme von Cloak liegt jedoch nicht nur in der Romantik der Vergangenheit, sondern vielmehr in der Art und Weise, wie jedes dieser Genres die persönliche Identität von Cloak geprägt hat. Und mit "Black Flame Eternal" baut Cloak seinen eigenen, einzigartigen und etablierten Sound weiter aus.

FFV: Watain, Dissection, Behemoth, Rotting Christ

Sometimes I sink into the dark side of life,
Lucky me to have music to pull me back into the light” Kutiman

Following on from his critically acclaimed Open LP released in October, revered polymath Kutiman returns to Siyal Music with his Dense EP. Kutiman continues to push forward with developing his sound as we see the artist creating his first ever electric leaning release. Not the only first, as the haunting vocals layered throughout are a result of Kutiman debuting his very own voice. Kutiman pulls elements from various musical inspirations, be it moody electronica, garage and 2step, modern classical music, ambient or twisted r'n'b. The outcome is a unique, cutting edge blend of emotional pitched down vocals, melodic airy pianos and glitching sound effects.

“This EP expresses emotions from a dark period that I went through. At the time I was into dark electronics and also found inspiration from Rhythm and Sound, Burial, The Blaze, Plasticman and more. The EP all started from a little "Volca" drum machine, which I hooked up and set up a mostly analogue setup around it with some synths and drum machines that enabled me to "jam" a lot of the music without the need to stop for overdubbing or editing”. Kutiman

With an illustrious career spanning over a decade, Ophir Kutiel aka Kutiman moved to Tel Aviv as a teenager to study jazz at the prestigious Rimon music college. It was during this time that he was able to immerse himself in music, with influences cited as Massive Attack, DJ Shadow, Amon Tobin and Parliament. Fast forward to 2007 and his self-titled debut album received a 8.2 rating from Pitchfork and set the precedent for what was to come. Other tastemakers to highlight over the years include; The Guardian, Billboard, The New Yorker, The Wire, Uncut and XLR8R among others. Kutiman is forever pushing boundaries with his music, and draws on a range of world influences from spiritual jazz to psychedelic funk. ‘Dense EP’ sees Kutiman adding yet another string to his musical bow, as we enter the era of electronic inspired music.

FÜR FANS VON: HEAT, Eclipse, Nestor, Hardline, Brother Firetribe
Mit ihrem neuen Album „Code Red“ schlägt die deutsche Hard Rock Band DEVICIOUS aus Karlsruhe ein neues Kapitel auf. 2017 gegründet, veröffentlichen sie nun ihr 5. Album in fünf Jahren. Nach einigen Klangexperimenten auf dem Vorgängeralbum „Black Heart“ kehren sie nun zurück zu ihren Wurzeln, zu dem, was sie am besten können. Große Arena-Melodien kombiniert mit bombastischen Chorarrangements und einer großen Produktion.
Das Album wurde von Bandleader und Songwriter Alex Frey selbst produziert und in den Mastersound Entertainment Studios in
Steinheim, Deutschland von Alexander Krull gemischt und gemastert. Er ist der Hauptakteur hinter den Bands ATROCITY und LEAVE’S EYES sondern steht auch auf der Producer- und Mastering-Liste von Bands wie ATROCITY, LEAVE’S EYES, DORO, CREMATORY, VELVET VIPER oder ZAR. Das neue Kapitel von DEVICIOUS beinhaltet auch einen neuen Sänger. Antonio Calanna verließ die Band nach dem letzten Album auf freundschaftlicher Basis, um sich auf andere Projekte zu konzentrieren. Sein Nachfolger ist niemand geringerer als der ehemalige TNT-Sänger Baol Bardot Bulsara, der bereits
auf dem „Black Heart“-Album einige Backing-Vocals gesungen hat und bei einigen Black Heart-Headliner-Shows an Bord war. Mit Baol ist die Band flexibler, da er eine breitere Bandbreite hat und alles von melodischen Balladen bis hin zu Power Metal-Melodien singen kann.

Mit „Code Red“ liefern DEVICIOUS ihr bisher kraftvollstes und ausgereiftestes Werk ab. Ein melodisches Meisterwerk mit allen DEVICIOUS-Markenzeichen.

Black Vinyl

Auf "Wages Of Sin" muss sich die neue Sängerin Angela Gossow nun zum ersten Mal einem scheinbar übermächtigen Schatten aus der Vergangenheit stellen. Schließlich ersetzt sie keinen Geringeren als Johan Liiva, der bereits vor dessen Carcass-Tagen mit Arch Enemy-Gitarrist Michael Amott in der Ur-Death-Metal-Combo Carnage zusammengespielt hatte. Dass sie diese Aufgabe so bravourös gelöst hat, ist unglaublich!Ähnlich wie 'Burning Bridges' aus dem Jahr 1999 ist 'Wages Of Sin' ein mächtiges Sperrfeuer an komplexen Riffs, das zwischen blendend brutal und atemberaubend melodisch wechselt und dabei eine Intensität beibehält, die man bei heutigen Metal-Aufnahmen nur noch selten hört. Das musikalische Können ist wie immer tadellos, wobei die Amott-Brüder einmal mehr beweisen, dass sie Meister ihres Fachs sind, wobei der Großteil ihrer Gitarrenarbeit ebenso viele Death-Metal-Obertöne aufweist, wie sie von einem traditionelleren Hard-Rock-Ansatz abgeleitet zu sein scheinen, insbesondere bei den Songarrangements, die nur selten vom Konventionellen abweichen.- Schweres 180g Vinyl als schwarze sowie farbige Version, jeweils inklusive 2-seitigem Einleger- Special Edition CD, in "PocketPac" (umweltfreundliche Verpackung) und mit 16-seitigem Booklet

Red Vinyl

Auf "Wages Of Sin" muss sich die neue Sängerin Angela Gossow nun zum ersten Mal einem scheinbar übermächtigen Schatten aus der Vergangenheit stellen. Schließlich ersetzt sie keinen Geringeren als Johan Liiva, der bereits vor dessen Carcass-Tagen mit Arch Enemy-Gitarrist Michael Amott in der Ur-Death-Metal-Combo Carnage zusammengespielt hatte. Dass sie diese Aufgabe so bravourös gelöst hat, ist unglaublich!Ähnlich wie 'Burning Bridges' aus dem Jahr 1999 ist 'Wages Of Sin' ein mächtiges Sperrfeuer an komplexen Riffs, das zwischen blendend brutal und atemberaubend melodisch wechselt und dabei eine Intensität beibehält, die man bei heutigen Metal-Aufnahmen nur noch selten hört. Das musikalische Können ist wie immer tadellos, wobei die Amott-Brüder einmal mehr beweisen, dass sie Meister ihres Fachs sind, wobei der Großteil ihrer Gitarrenarbeit ebenso viele Death-Metal-Obertöne aufweist, wie sie von einem traditionelleren Hard-Rock-Ansatz abgeleitet zu sein scheinen, insbesondere bei den Songarrangements, die nur selten vom Konventionellen abweichen.- Schweres 180g Vinyl als schwarze sowie farbige Version, jeweils inklusive 2-seitigem Einleger- Special Edition CD, in "PocketPac" (umweltfreundliche Verpackung) und mit 16-seitigem Booklet

Re-issue of Cate Le Bon's April 2016 album originally released on Drag City which she described as "A coalition of inescapable feelings and fabricated nonsense," . A few years prior to its release, Cate's mother unearthed her birth certificate, and admitted to her daughter that they'd had her birthday a day off for nearly three decades. That sense of misaligned reality is the guiding force on Crab Day, where Cate establishes a strange, almost Dadaist lyrical scheme to make sense-or make more nonsense-of some unnamed life rupture that's left her grasping Ltd. coloured vinyl edition!

Jimmy LaValle’s The Album Leaf has spun from solo outlet to full band and back in its nearly 25 years. His acclaimed catalog spans releases for labels such as Sub Pop, City Slang, Relapse, and others. He also composes music for film and television, scoring over 20 projects (narrative features, documentaries, and TV series) since 2009. The cinematic sensibilities of The Album Leaf were present from the beginning. His 1999 debut introduced the start of a signature sound: melodic and meditative electro-organic soundscapes constructed with guitar, percussion, Rhodes, and field recordings.

His seventh full-length LP, and first since 2016, arrives in 2023 via Vancouver’s Nettwerk Records. FUTURE FALLING finds LaValle working with an array of musicians, shaping slightly darker, more spacious, and synth-driven songs with contributions from Bat For Lashes, Kimbra, and many others.
The music registers a shade darker and more synth-driven than most moments in his acclaimed catalog, a bridge between shadowy, cerebral terrain and dreamy precision pop, where softly percussive frameworks meet shimmering sound design and emotive instrumentation.
LaValle sees the construction of FUTURE FALLING as less conventional than past work. Contributions were done remotely with a “throw everything at it” mindset, making LaValle the arranger of layers from all over: drums, synths, horns, violins, voice, and more. LaValle created a pastiche of these layers and elements; in some cases even moving vocal takes to new tracks entirely. Without the in-the-room dynamics, he had more time to experiment, adding and subtracting ad infinitum.
The album opens on “PROLOGUE,” an evocative, slow-building instrumental that rides a pattern into a symphonic sea of static. Keys and horns glide atop the rhythmic pulse of “DUST COLLECTS,” setting the contemplative scene for “AFTERGLOW,” the record’s most pop-minded performance. Here Kimbra, the Grammy-winning New Zealand singer-songwriter, renders a striking recollection of past love as percussive elements shimmer and swirl.
A plaintive piano line moves throughout “Cycles 19.9” encircled by light ambient washes, both a valley between two peaks and a powerful composition in its own right. “Future Falling” follows; with origins tracing back to 2015, the track embodies the full sonic journey LaValle has taken. All the hallmarks of The Album Leaf — melodic builds, vivid sprawl, tonal shape-shifting — assemble to a blissful finish.

For the next stretch, “Cycles” begins with a uneasy Rhodes loop that builds and erupts into a wall of texture paving its way into “Give In,” where LaValle models a movement that begins subtle and measured before curving up with skyward, percussive bursts (“Stride”) and settling back down to the album’s back-half centerpiece, “Near” featuring the acclaimed English artist Natasha Khan aka Bat For Lashes. “Do you feel me near?” she sings into a mist of widescreen synths and soothing, distant drum beats as if searching through the dark.