A Sweeping Curve of Sound

AntiMusic talks with Anthony Gonzalez about the new M83 album “Saturdays = Youth” (released 4/15 on Mute).

“If the doomy synthetic romance of his earlier work hinted at a fetish for Eighties goth staples such as Sisters of Mercy and The Cure, this album’s chiming astro-pop finds Gonzalez taking a stroll on the sunnier side of the decade. Main influences for the album are English bands such as Tears For Fears and Cocteau Twins, as well as classic John Hughes teen movies such as “The Breakfast Club” and “Sixteen Candles” (The red-haired Molly Ringwald look-alike on the cover is no mistake).”

Erik Davis sings the praises of Horses Brawl.

“Much user praise was heaped on Horses Brawl’s first self-titled album, and so I sampled and bit. The group, which hails from the rural fenlands of East Anglia, is one of the more unclassifiable acts I’ve stumbled across recently. It’s like early music performed in some punk club in, I dunno, Serbia. Baroque tunes and medieval peasant stomps are cut with Balkan filigrees and modern folk guitar stylings, set to ferocious and sometimes mournful rhythms, and played with urgency and tang. So yes, the woman, Laura Cannell, does play  cumhorns and recorders, and if that’s your cut-off for twee I guess I understand. But her recorders are double barreled, like shotguns, and they sound like ‘em. The first song on the album is called “Mofo.””

Pitchfork reports that Leonard Cohen is going to tour (and release a new album) in 2008.

“A Led Zeppelin reunion is great and all, but what if your interest in the music of the 1960s and 70s runs not in the direction of riffs and stomps but rather toward quieter waters. What of baritone vocals? What of steadily strummed acoustic guitars? What of poetry and references to fellatio received on an unmade bed in the Chelsea Hotel? Fear not, gentle-music lover. Leonard Cohen has you covered. According to a post on the elderly songwriter’s official forum (via Mojo’s blog), “Leonard Cohen will be touring with his band in Canada and [the] U.S. in May and in Europe in the summer. More details will be announced in February.” This tour will be Cohen’s first in 15 years, according to Mojo. The blog also mentions a new Leonard Cohen album due out later this year. “

Unto Ashes is in the studio, and plans a new album in the “late Summer or early  Autumn”.

“Winter’s inspiration is upon us. We are pleased to report that we have been writing new songs and recording tracks. It has been a wonderfully prolific time, and we are very pleased with some of the enchanting madrigal folksongs that have enveloped us like an early morning mist. Furthermore, we find ourselves hopelessly infected by an unusually wide variety of curious melodies and rhythms; the viruses include oriental, medieval and military strains, and we look forward to passing them on to you. “

In a final note, White Magic has posted a live video clip from their December performance at  the Music Hall of Williamsburg, and you can catch a live performance and interview with AKACOD on WMBR, here (Scroll down to ‘PIPELINE” Jan 22, 8pm).

That is all I have for now, have a great day.

May I present the recently released title track/video from Nick Cave and the Bad Seed’s forthcoming “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!”.

“Ever since I can remember hearing the Lazarus story back in church, I was always disturbed and worried by it. We are all in awe of the great miracle but I couldn’t help but wonder about Lazarus himself and how he actually felt about it. I’ve taken him and stuck him in New York, circa 1977 - when you could still have sex without feeling as if you were committing suicide, when Studio 54 was up and running - and he’s having difficulty coming to terms with it. Lazarus takes one look around and just wants to go back to where he was sleeping quite peacefully. It reminds me of the Gary Gilmore story - being released into society and not knowing how to deal with it and wanting to go back into prison - but I was especially thinking about Harry Houdini who spent a lot of his life trying to debunk the spiritualists who were cashing in on grieving people because he believed there was nothing going on beyond the grave. He was the second greatest escapologist and Lazarus was the greatest. And I wanted to create a kind of vehicle for Houdini to speak to us if he so desires from beyond the grave.”  - Nick Cave

Links: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on the Hype Machine, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on MySpace

Popular German synthpop band Wolfsheim have officially split according to Side-Line news.

“It’s official now, after the rumours the last few weeks, Wolfsheim’s Markus Reinhardt has now officially announced that they will split up. In fact Reinhardt dumped Peter Heppner from the Strange Ways Records signed act and will continue alone with a new singer. The reason for the Wolfsheim mayhem and silence since their 2003 release “Casting Shadows” can be found in a difference in vision on the future of Wolfsheim which was increasingly jeopardized by singer Peter Heppner’s solo ambitions.”

Wolfsheim

The band hasn’t released an album since 2003’s critically acclaimed “Casting Shadows”, and I find it hard to envision the band without the unique vocal stylings of Peter Heppner, who is launching a solo career in 2008.

“Peter Heppner, the frontman of the German synthpop outfit Wolfsheim, will release a first solo-album later in 2008 through Warner Music Germany. The news was announced by the official Peter Heppner fanclub on December 24th, when the website went officially online. For Heppner it will be the first time he goes completely solo after having collaborated with such artists as Girl Under Glass, Umbra Et Imago, Joachim Witt, Schiller, Goethes Erben, Alice II, Paul van Dyk, Milu & Kim Sanders and with Jose Alvarez Brill. “

Markus Reinhardt has already written several songs for a new Wolfsheim album, and is now looking for a new lead singer. Will Wolfsheim without Heppner be like the horrid Echo and The Bunnymen period sans lead singer Ian McCulloch? Or will the project come back stronger than ever like the post-Joy Division New Order?

Side-Line reports that veteran darkwave act Arcana will be releasing their new album “Raspail” on Feb. 29th.

“The Swedish neoclassical band Arcana is about to release their newest album “Raspail” on Kalinkaland Records. Described as ‘a meeting between the old and the new’ you can expect a sound that takes bit from the band’s entire catalogue. Formed in 1994 the band was originally signed to the Cold Meat Industry label. The original band consisted of founder Peter Bjärgö (then Peter Pettersson) and vocalist Ida Bengtsson. Since 2002, Arcana has changed line-up and now consists of Peter Bjärgö, Stefan Eriksson, Ann-Mari Thim, Ia Bjärgö and Mattias Borgh. Since 2006, Arcana is signed to Kalinkaland Records in Germany.”

There is no word yet if Arcana’s “Raspail” will receive American distribution through Projekt records, as their 2005 release “Le Serpent Rouge” did.

Interview with Daemonia Nymphe (it’s in Greek, so you’ll have to use Babelfish).

“[Daemonia Nymphe] was born in Athens, a city where contact with the ancient monuments is a part of everyday routine for her residents.”

Erik Davis sings the praises of Early Music.

“I recently asked Jay Babcock about writing a post for the Arthur blog about some early music records that have been rocking my world lately. He declined, saying that “it’s just too Ren Faire and geeky goofy, Comic Convention nerd costume filksinging stuff. Doesn’t travel well.” I totally understand where the man is coming from, and yet it still puzzles me that listeners attracted to acoustic psychedelia, exotic ethno instruments, Appalachian balladry, forest folk, and esoteric singer-songwriter stuff—i.e., people like me—don’t go in for the great stuff packing the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque bins.”

Slashdot posters debunk the superiority of analog vinyl over digital CDs.

“Certainly, some very well-made pressings can sound outstanding, even better than digital in a few cases. But the poorer signal-to-noise ratio, essentially unavoidable surface wear, and the distortion introduced by the medium, on balance, make digital a better choice when the highest quality audio is needed. One thing records do have going for them is that they tend to be mastered, counterintuitively, with a wider dynamic range than contemporary CDs. Of course, this is a product of human decisions, not the media, and the optimal solution to this is simply to abandon the current practice of excessive compression and limiting on CDs, as they offer a greater potential for dynamic range than records.”

The Deli SF reviews Death of A Party.

“In true Death of a Party fashion, the songs are full of adrenaline and gothic glam, yet this time around are less eerie and more accessible. “Sympathy for Miss Veronica” digs its hooks into you and doesn’t let go for the whole three minutes and six seconds while “The Ballad of Johnny” will have you stomping and dancing. On Red Meadows, Death of a Party are serving up their post-punk shaken, not stirred. ”

Klaxons are making noise in the U.S.A.

“We just wanted to sing about fantasy and nowhere,” said Jamie Reynolds, the Klaxons’ hulking bassist and chief theoretician. “The only thing that ties everything together on our record is that every single song is about nowhere and there’s no physical representation of anything. It’s all imaginary, it’s all fantasy and it’s all conjecture. … That was the goal – not to have something that you could see or hear or touch or smell.

Key 64 posts a tribute to Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge.

“Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, born Jacqueline Breyer in 1969, passed away Tuesday 9th October 2007. Lady Jaye and her partner Genesis Breyer P-Orridge spent the past several years living an “art as life project” sometimes called “Breaking Sex.” The couple altered their own appearances to look more and more like each other, forming a third ” pandrogenous” entity they called Breyer P-Orridge.”

That is all I have for now. Have a good day.