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*Silver Lining Drops 10/4/10 on Muti Music; Massive Run of Fall Tour Dates Also Announced*
Los Angeles’ MiM0SA has made a distinct mark on the West Coast sound in the past two years and has become one of the top West Coast exports. This young producer’s energy whilst performing is magnetic; the word has spread fast and MiM0SA has recently shared the stage with the likes Benga, Skream, Rusko, Glitch Mob, Pretty Lights, Bassnectar and Flying Lotus, playing shows across the US and festivals like Coachella, Symbiosis Gathering, Burning Man, Decibel Festival and of course, gracing the stage at the now-legendary Low End Theory in Los Angeles. MiM0SA brings an energy that is as fierce as it is friendly, taking listeners and audiences on journeys through urban chaos and ecstasy. His new mini-LP Silver Lining is dropping October 4th, 2010 on SF based Muti Music.
MiM0SA’s production expertise has been in high demand and collaborations with Marines Parade’s Panty Raid have been featured on Mary Anne Hobbs‘ BBC radio show. His past releases “Flux For Life” (which cracked the iTunes Top 10 dance music chart) & “Hostilis” have shown an ability to move effortlessly between Dubstep and Experimental Hip Hop. Most recently, the Your Love EP begun to showcase a new level of skill and confidence as well. MiM0SA also partners with producer Sleepyhead for the collaborative project Sexytime as well. He’s been releasing on Muti Music for the past three years, and will be touring extensively throughout the fall.
Today marks the beginning of Kyle Andrews mania on the web with the debut of his world record breaking video for “You Always Make Me Smile” premiering on the front page of YouTube this morning. With 120,000 balloons and 4000 people, the video sought to set a new Guinness world record for largest water balloon fight.
Kyle Andrews’ new EP, KANGAROO, is out today on Elephant Lady Records. The songwriter has enjoyed a recent abundance of interest and new fans with the placement of his jaunty tune “You Always Make Me Smile” playing an integral part of Holiday Inn’s “Stay You” advertising campaign. Airing heavily on international television and online, there are many different versions of the ad with all of them using “You Always Make Me Smile” as the central theme throughout each commercial. The single (available now) is a taste of the warm, summery pop on his new six-song EP.
Like all of Kyle’s work, KANGAROO is addictively catchy with measured doses of pulsing synths and drum machines, but it belies an endearing homespun sweetness that stands out among DIY songwriters/producers. Recorded entirely in his bedroom, KANGAROO is Andrews’ fifth release following a string of other successful, self-produced full-lengths and EPs. Kyle made his mark in 2006 with his first full-length, Amos in Ohio. NPR syndicated station WXPN dubbed it “instantly memorable…packed with infectious hooks” and Kyle promptly answered the praise the following year with a seven song EP entitled Find Love, Let Go. NPR had high praise for his 2009 release Real Blasty describing it as “…an upbeat album for sad people who just want to dance…Andrews pulls it off by pairing his angst with bright electro-pop rhythms and irresistible hooks.”
Kyle Andrews will hit the road this fall in support of KANGAROO and has shared the stage with The Submarines, The Morning Benders, Josh Rouse and Peter Bjorn and John in the past. His live show is full of energy and not to be missed – a first round of fall dates have been announced and more dates will be revealed soon.
UPCOMING SHOWS
Aug 31 – New York, NY @ Cake Shop Sept 1 – Baltimore, MD @ Cyclops Sept 2 – Philadelphia, PA @ Manhattan Room Sept 3 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge (sponsored by Lighting 100 WRLT) Sept 4 – Nashville, TN @ Grimey’s (in-store performance) Sept 4 – Chattanooga, TN @ JJ’s Bohemia Sept 8 – Louisville, KY @ TBD Sept 9 – Bloomington, IN @ 902’s Sept 10 – Chicago, IL @ Mayne Stage Sept 11 – Evansville, IN @ Duck Inn Sept 24 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle Oct 1 – Nashville, TN @ Next Big Nashville Oct 20 – New York, NY @ CMJ
“an addictively catchy EP bursting with synths, drum machines and Kyle’s forgiving vocals, Kangaroo will hook you on your first listen.” Filter Magazine
“A caffeine-riddled energetic blast full of feel-good pop songwriting.” Redefine Magazine
“Kyle Andrews’ most recent release proves that angry isn’t always the answer. The album is six tracks long and combine together to form a genuine pick-me-up.” Stereo Subversion
The Brooklyn indie-rock, dream-pop trio Kordan are set to release their anticipated first full-length album this October. Their shoegazey-electro textures take cue from the guitar drones of late 80s/early 90s groups like Ride or Swervedriver and are driven by propulsive, post-punk rhythms and synths of earlier Factory/Mute releases. More contemporarily, think a more melancholy, darker (but still dancey) flipside to the upbeat indie pop of The Drums. Don’t sleep!
Sifting through traces of quantum universes, Kordan find the lush textures, pulsating beats, and somber melodies that they use to project dreams of bleak, dismal cities in a holographic future. But just below this mournful atmosphere there is also flicker of energy, like one of those cities is slowly flickering back on after a blackout. Lumines- cent synths build on scratchy guitars and the electricity of the city finally rushes back on.
Arthur (vocals/guitar), Liz (vocals/synth), and Gabo (bass) emerged from the vibrant rave and indie rock scenes in Puerto Rico during the early 2000s. After different stints found them in different parts of the US, the trio converged in Brooklyn. Together again, they began to fuse an electro glint and a shoegaze murk, and thus forged Kordan.
In the fall of 2008, Cut Copy heard the band’s songs and chose Kordan as an opening act on their North American tour, taking them through Minneapolis, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, and back to New York City. In the summer of 2009 Kordan released their demo recordings as the Fantasy Nation EP, garner- ing critical acclaim from Filter, Jezebel, and Oh My Rockness, among others. The debut release heralded Kordan’s aural world, tinged by futuristic visions and Japanese street culture. The following autumn months saw Kordan playing a CMJ showcase and shows in New York City, including opening for The Drums and The Mary Onettes. They have also brought their sonic influences to other bands, having done remixes for ZAZA and The Delta Mirror.
The Longing, their first full-length album, expands the dystopian city they built on Fantasy Nation, making way for a full-fledged love story in a hazy metropolis circa the year 2036. Somewhere in a bleak, run-down Tokyo neighborhood, someone drifts through the crowds, holograms, and faded neon to reunite with a loved one he hasn’t seen in years. In this vast metropolis of millions, loneliness has become his prison. The longing he has felt for her and the memories of what could have become have become his only reality.
“They have created a cerebral gesture, an atmospheric ride through Tokyo’s cityscape.” -Jezebel Music
“Fantasy Nation is one of the most memo- rable debut releases of the year, and listening to it shows why Cut Copy demanded Kordan to be their opening act last year after hearing the songs on this EP.” – Obscure Sounds
“If you like any of that old shoe-gaze Britpop stuff, then Kordan has a stronger than fight- ing chance to become a part of your listening life.” – Oh My Rockness
This week, the anticipated stateside import of the French Grammy nominated debut from France’s Revolver was finally released. To celebrate the release week of Music For A While, Revolver have rolled out a handful of new goodies. Filter Magazine premiered the recently recorded video cover of “Nevertheless” by 1930’s pop jazz talebearers The Mills Brothers, while early demo versions of album cuts “Do You Have A Gun?” and “Luke, Mike & John” were also unveiled. The band is preparing for their US debut at the OohLaLA Festival in Los Angeles on October 1st alongside other French acts such as Sebastien Tellier, The Gotan Project, Kavinsky, and more.
Music For A While was recorded in Paris’s Studio Pigalle. Revolver Producer Julien Delfaud (Phoenix, Herman Dune), helped Revolver hone their fantastically eclectic and century-skipping ideas, as well as gave the band the ability to recall the sunshine harmonies of Simon & Garfunkel and the Beach Boys, both of whom the band has always loved. Revolver’s melodies can be traced to 16th century songwriters and 17th century British Baroque composers, as well. Each of these styles defined the popular melodic and harmonic structures of their respective generations, and Revolver offers us a modern take blending each of these pop histories.
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“It’s all very Nordic, and awfully pleasing – the kind of adult pop that Air were promising us with their first album, before they were sidetracked.” The Guardian UK
“Husky Rescue’s first two albums were packed with potential. Ship of Light is the album on which the Helsinki band realise it, raising their game, adding a new level of pop accessibility and threatening to move beyond their cult status to charm a wider audience.” The Sunday Times
“With softly grained melodies and the accomplished orchestration we come to expect from the Scandinavians, this is therefore a nocturnal winter treat from Husky Rescue. They offer so much more than your standard chill out fare, with songs that burn brightly in the darkness, and with words that can freeze you to the bone or, more likely, offer warmth in the coldness of winter.” MusicOMH.com
Husky Rescue is composer Marko Nyberg communicating a world of magic, beauty, spiritual awareness, and the idea of a hopeful sect sharing a common world-view to his listeners. This “sect” of course being the group itself, a collective of close friends as much as musicians. The Finnish band’s third album on Catskills Records, Ship of Light, will be released in October 2010 in the US.
Husky Rescue started their international career in 2004 with style. Their debut “Country Falls” introduced the pop-savvy and compositional stylings of Marko Nyberg, the Helsinki-based ensemble’s primus motor. Essential to the Husky Rescue sound was also Reeta-Leena Korhola on vocals, delivering each line with remarkable intensity and emotion. The cinematic sceneries found on the debut were further expanded on 2006’s “Ghost is Not Real”.
After releasing and touring the first two Husky albums, Nyberg at first didn’t have a clear-cut blueprint for the evolution of the band’s sound. But learning about a reported UFO sighting near his home just outside central Helsinki further turned his interest towards nature, thus propelling a new wave of inspiration. He sees hope and beauty in the Northern surroundings, and embarking on a solitary songwriting trip to Lapland early on in the process was a crucial decision in the making of Ship of Light.
Another important feature of the album’s strikingly innovative sound is the use of instrumentation that Nyberg feels a personal connection to. One of his tools-of-the-trade is the rare Memorymoog, an organ-like instrument yielding a sound like no other. Nyberg remembers longing after one in childhood, and he stumbled upon one before starting on the third Husky album. His Memorymoog sound of choice on the recording sessions was number 74, coincidentally also his year of birth.
Opening up a new chapter in the Husky Rescue saga, Ship of Light sounds familiar yet strikingly fresh and unique to those who’ve discovered the band during their first two albums. The current edition of Husky Rescue occupies its space more actively, getting under the listeners’ skin in a style reminiscent of an aural representation of postmodern film noir. More intense in ambience, the album also comes across as more communal in terms of the band’s mutual communication. Indeed, they recorded bits an pieces of it at remote cottages and the like, prompting Nyberg to call the ensemble “a contemporary musical congregation”.
Cuts such as the first single ‘We Shall Burn Bright’ stand as ample evidence of this. They are sonically rich and filled with the class A musical handicraft evident on every ounce of the album. The songs each sit comfortably within the framework, while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of the frame they’re working in.
The Husky Rescue sound mk3 is live, inviting the listener into aural adventures not easily pinpointed at any one location, genre, or scene. The imagined open spaces coming through from the music could as well be in Finland, Norway or Nevada.
Ship of Light is about a transition into something better. Marko Nyberg and his trusty Huskies recorded the album’s opening soundscape “First Call” in the middle of a forest on a dark autumn night, using wooden flakes on a string. This ancient sound instrument is used traditionally to keep evil spirits away, and the Husky songsmith sees a strong thematical connection here.
Furthermore, Ship of Light is a celebration of old school musical craftsmanship at work. As the Swedish studio engineer Niklas Flyckt fittingly pointed out to Nyberg when mixing tracks on the album, “your drums sound shit but you know it”. Why aim for something sterile when you can make it life-like?
Welcome, come on in, sit down, be at ease. I want to take you back – back, back, back into the mists of time, when Margaret Thatcher was still – just – in power, Nelson Mandela had just been released from prison, the World Cup was won not by Germany but by West Germany and a man called Tim Berners-Lee published a formal proposal for something esoteric called the World Wide Web. And two young DJ/producers, fresh from their success with the likes of household names such as Yazz and Lisa Stansfield as well as in their own right, returned from a tour of Japan sick of major label bullsh*t and decided to set up on their own. These two fresh-faced young men, Jon More and Matt Black, collectively known as Coldcut, made NINJA TUNE.
Twenty years! Twenty fu*king years!? That’s a long time for anything, but for an independent record label it’s aeons. So yes, we are going to make a fuss. Yes, we are going to celebrate. But this will not be a tired cash-in, a festival of re-tread or an orgy of old. NO! We are focussing on new material, new newness.
This week’s Ninja Tune XX giveaway comes from one of the key artists of Ninja’s recent history, and of electronic music as a whole. Kevin Martin has been making and performing music for a long time, and under various guises. Having released feverishly acclaimed albums through Aphex Twin’s Rephlex imprint in the past, Ninja signed The Bug in 2007, to much excitement within the label. His debut Ninja full length, ‘London Zoo’, was everything we’d hoped it would be. Chiming with the formative dubstep movement that Martin had himself influenced, it drew together his mastery of electronica, dancehall and dub into a record that was as furious and fiery as it was infectious in its melody and bass.
‘Catch A Fire’ is a new track by The Bug and is on the Ninja Tune XX compilation and box set. It shows a fascinating development of Kevin Martin’s recent sound, alongside the trademark, irresistible production that’s made his name. This track will also feature on a brand new EP, out later in the year.
“Sharing their name with a punky Belgian girl group resembling the Donnas and one of the raunchiest Rolling Stones songs on Goats Head Soup (which was changed to the title “Star Star”), Starfucker are an indie pop/indie electro band comprised of Sexton Blake’s Josh Hodges, Junkface’s Ryan Bjornstad, and Mr. Fredrick’s Shawn Glassford. After chief songwriter Hodges returned to Portland, OR, following a four-year stint in New York City, he released two Sexton Blake records on Expunged Records with the help of Bjornstad, including Plays the Hits, a breezy but glum lo-fi album of ’80s covers. Looking to convert his musical endeavors into a more lighthearted project, Hodges recruited Glassford and formed a new group with Bjornstad. With notable live performances that featured some instrument swapping, dual drumming, and stage diving, as well as some outlandish costumes, Dylan Magierek’s attention was drawn to their set and he signed the band to Badman Recording Co. Hodges and Magierek took some of their home recordings to the Type Foundry to round out the record with some intricate layering, and in September 2008 the [Starfucker debut] album was released to the public and hailed by critics for its abundance of dance-friendly hooks.” – All Music Guide
Starfucker recorded a limited edition pink 7″ single and two short-run vinyl LP’s on the Badman label. Each piece of vinyl included tracks that were not released digitally. We are now making these five “b-sides” available as a digital only EP entitled B-Sides. The songs were recorded by Josh Hodges and Dylan Magierek (Mark Kozelek, Thao Nguyen & Portland Cello Project, Lovers) in 2008-2009 and includes a cover version of Madonna’s “Burnin’ Up.”
“Allow me to present you with my friends. Its all Southern California music here. Besides recording Wonder Wheel I, I’ve recorded and helped produce a number of local bands since 2003. Only now with a larger repertoire and network, the music has coalesced into a bright and happy zone that can’t be held back much longer. Some of these names you have heard before, some not at all; either way you will enjoy the lush collection of California dudes and dudettes.
2 songs each from: Tan Dollar, Pearl Harbor / Puro Instinct, Wonder Wheel, Cosmonauts, Muddy Flowers, Dash Jacket, Stellarphone and Moon Pearl.”
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MP3: “Figure 8″
“Lovers’ last disc, I Am the West, was one of the best albums to come out of Portland in 2009-even if its release went under the radar for a lot of people… Lovers’ next album shouldn’t catch anyone by surprise, because we’re not going to let it.” Willamette Week
Loud and proud, Portland, OR based Lovers is a band of emotional intensity and complexity. Their new album Dark Light begins with singer Carolyn Berk’s confession, “every time the music starts, I can feel my aching, shaking heart,” and from there, Lovers embark on a spiritual journey of inspired three-part harmonies, deep introspection, and next-wave humor.
Dark Light, recorded at Portland’s beloved Type Foundry studio with Badman label owner Dylan Magierek (Mark Kozelek, Thao Nguyen & Portland Cello Project, Starfucker)is the first for Berk, Ferris and Kingan together. Says Portland’s Willamette Week, the new record marks “a change in Lovers philosophy that takes the band from being a singer-songwriter’s outlet to a full-on synth-driven pop group, and it does so masterfully.” The result is an expansive sonic landscape of colorful wonder and hope, and an interactive and engaging performance that strives to leave audiences inspired. These audiences will, in fact, have the opportunity to see Lovers live this fall, with full October and November tour dates to be announced soon.
Over the years, Carolyn Berk has established her unique voice as Lovers with four acclaimed, haunted and heart-broken previous albums. Lovers (celebrated lyricist Berk, synth-programmer and performance artist Kerby Ferris, and multimedia artist and percussionist Emily Kingan) craft an intimate portrait of female friendship, sexuality, and evolution as an infinite process. The three first encountered in 2002 after Berk’s near-fatal van explosion while on tour with an earlier incarnation of the band. Emily Kingan, then on tour with classic Portland feminist hardcore band The Haggard, invited Berk to join the bill. Ferris was their roadie. Years later, Kingan organized a meeting for her two friends and future band-mates in South America, where Berk was travelling and Ferris was living at the time, performing in various experimental electronic projects in São Paulo’s thriving music scene. The result was sisterly love at second site, and prophetic premonitions of the creative collaborations to come.
Says Berk about Lovers presently: “We are like sisters. We are sisters.”
