That Iron Taste by Marika Hackman

by Honeybear - 04 March 2013

Very rarely there is a new artist with an ineffable quality that instantly registers strongly enough to make it seem obvious that they are on an unavoidable course towards doing some fantastic things. More scarce still is the artist that lives up to that initial impression.

With only one single and an ep of cover songs, strong as they may be, the jury was still out on Marika Hackman until the recent release of her first true album, That Iron Taste, and I’m more than pleased at the result, I feel like my hunch was steadfastly affirmed.

Opening at a jaunty pace that may cloak the darkness of the lyrics, though ultimately optimistic, “Bath Is Black” is fitting introduction to the Marika Hackman’s song-writting style. It’s this quality I value most in her songs: There is a constant self-assurance amongst much darkness.

Along with this release comes a video for “Cannibal”. On more than one occasion has someone mentioned “The Shining” while watching this video (and without fail how disgusting is it), but it is done in quite a beautiful way. Of the 7,000 views on YouTube, I can only guess at how many of them I am responsible for.

Closing out the album is the song that first caught my attention last summer, “You Come Down”. Seems she may appreciate cyclical themes as much as I do. I’ve been less than reserved about my appreciation and I feel it is a bit superfluous to suggest you give it a listen yourself but – you really should.

Honeybear (Aaron Meyer) is the founder of the blog Mouser at heymouser.com, updated every weekday with new music from great experimental-pop, dream-pop, folk, and electronic artists as well as alt-comedy.

Parenthetical Girls unveil video for ‘A Note To Self’

04 March 2013

Privilege (Abridged) is the latest LP from Portland’s Parenthetical Girls, out now in the US via Marriage Records and released today in the UK and Europe via Splendour Records. Originally released as a five-part EP series between 2010-12, the extravagant outfit led by Zac Pennington condensed the original 21 songs from the five EP’s to a remastered and remixed 12-track album.
“Privilege retains the group’s signature ambitions-visceral intimacy, camp austerity, lurid eloquence-while confidently embracing the perfect pop pastiche their previous records only alluded to”, as the album’s blurb says. “Privilege is a cascade of grim particulars and gallows humour-an unflinching treatise on privilege, indiscretion, betrayal, sex and class politics, failure, and resignation.”

Last week Parenthetical Girls unveiled a video to accompany ‘A Note To Self’. Here’s what Zac Pennington said about the video:

“A winking homage to the works of performance artists like Vito Acconci, Marina Abramovic, Chris Burden, and Bas Jan Ader, “A Note To Self” uses obsolete, era-appropriate video technology to painstakingly recreate the awkward, incidental, and ridiculously fetishized aesthetics of late 60s, early 70s performance art documentation. It’s supposed to make you feel that way.”

Check it out below.

Little Tybee set to release third full-length album in April

03 March 2013

Atlanta based five-piece Little Tybee will drop their third full-length album, For Distant Viewing, on April 9th via Paper Garden Records.

Taking their name from an island off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, Little Tybee’s make music “that amalgamates jazz-like virtuosity, symphonic scope, and hook-laden folk into something focussed and distinctly original”, as the press release explains.

Little Tybee have already teased the album with its glorious title track, for which the quintet’s own mastermind Brock Scott filmed and edited a stunning video, featuring breathtaking footage shot all over the US whilst on tour.

To entice you even further, the band are releasing a one-shot visual accompaniment for every song on For Distant Viewing. All of the videos feature a television showing a live waveform of the song. Keep an eye on these here, where you can already check the visualizer for a couple of tracks from the upcoming album.
Now let yourself go and contemplate the magical world of ‘For Distant Viewing’.

Jerusalem In My Heart share new taste from forthcoming debut album

01 March 2013

With just over a couple of weeks to go for Jerusalem In My Heart to drop their debut full-length album Mo7it Al-Mo7it, the Montreal based performance collective dropped another single from the upcoming album. We had previously heard the thrilling first taste ‘Yudaghdegh el-ra3ey walal-ghanam’, and now the outfit of Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, Jérémie Regnier and Malena Szlam Salazarof shared the album’s arresting opener ‘Koll lil-mali7ati fi al-khimar al-aswadi’, which translates into “Speak of the Woman in the Black Robe”.
Listen to it below and watch out for the release of Mo7it Al-Mo7it on March 19th via Constellation Records.

Sexmob announce first new album in seven years

27 February 2013

Sexmob have not released an album in 7 long years, but they have become an institution of the experimental jazz scene of New York, impregnating it with fun for the better part of the last 17 years. Lucky for us, Sexmob have revealed a new album is on the way. Cinema, Circus & Spaghetti (Sexmob Plays Fellini: The Music of Nino Rota) is a cinematic tribute that sees Sexmob re-imagining the music of Nino Rota who composed and inspired the surrealist films of celebrated Italian director Federico Fellini.

“Seeing the films was my first exposure to this music. I grew up in Berkeley, and we always had art-movie houses, so we’d go see Fellini films”, explained founding member, bandleader and slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein. “But then what happened is I was 19 years old and I went to my friend’s house, and he said, ‘Check out this record!’ It was Hal Willner’s Nino Rota tribute, and I was like, ‘Wow! Look who’s on it?’ And it’s Carla Bley, Steve Lacy, Jaki Byard. It’s Bill Frisell’s first recording. It’s Wynton Marsalis’ first recording. And then Blondie is on it. Not the full band, but Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. And both of us were just getting our minds blown. We’re like, ‘Wow! What is this? Who is this guy?’ And of course the music was super memorable, and the very idea was just so unbelievable and audacious and cool. It was what we’d all been waiting for.”

Cinema, Circus & Spaghetti (Sexmob Plays Fellini: The Music Of Nino Rota) will see the light of day on March 19 via The Royal Potato Family and can be pre-ordered now.

The first taste to emerge from Sexmob’s upcoming album is the staggering ‘Volpina (Amacord)’. Enjoy!

OOFJ drop debut album Disco To Die

25 February 2013

Disco To Die, the debut album from Los Angeles based duo OOFJ is out ~~today~~ March 26th via their own imprint Clapyouclapme and Fake Diamond. OOFJ, which stands for Orchestra of Jenno, began as the instrumental solo project of Danish multi-instrumentalist, producer and symphony scorer Jenno Bjørnkjær, with the later addition of South African audio-visual artist and singer Katherine Mills Rymer.
Recorded with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, Disco To Die is a lush pop noir affair drawing influences and inspirations from “Nico’s hypnotic gloomy 60s folk, techno’s minimalism and subtleties, Twin Peaks, the majestic symphonies of 20th century composers, and rhythms and structures equally indebted to jazz and trip-hop”, as the press release describes.
Listen to ‘Opal Skin’ and ‘Death Teeth’, the two beautiful singles off the album released previously.

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