Blues Control premiere video for ‘Opium Den/Fade to Blue’

Blues Control - Opium Den / Fade to Blue

Blues Control‘s fourth album Valley Tangents, released last June via Drag City, was one of our Album Picks of the Year. The duo of Russ Waterhouse and Lea Cho have premiered a fittingly stunning and haunting video for a cut lifted from Valley Tangents, ‘Opium Den/Fade to Blue’, made by new media and performance artist Kathy Rose. Watch it below.

If you’re lucky to be in the US in the next couple of months, Blues Control are likely to be playing in a town near you. Check all their tour dates here.

Mouse On Mars give away unreleased track from the Wow sessions

Mouse On Mars

Last year saw German avant-garde electronic veterans Mouse On Mars drop two releases. In February the duo of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma released their 10th studio album Parastrophics. They followed it in November with another album, Wow, which features collaborations with Vietnamese visual and performance artist Dao Anh Khanh and Argentinian punk rock band Las Kellies.
The pair are now offering a bonus cut from the Wow sessions as a free download. According to Mouse On Mars, this previously unreleased track was not included in Wow “because it would have blown the whole album away”. It will blow you away too.

Suuns unveil self-directed video for ‘Edie’s Dream’

Suuns - Edie's Dream

Suuns‘ second album, Images Du Futur, will see the light of day on March 5h via Secretly Canadian. Like their 2010 debut Zeroes, QC, Images Du Futur was also produced by The Besnard Lakes’ Jace Lasek.

The Montreal band, comprising Ben Shemie, Max Henry, Liam O’Neill and Joseph Yarmush, have previously released the lead single, ‘Edie’s Dream’, and they have just unveiled an accompanying video for the track. Directed by themselves, the video was filmed in the Quebec woods where Suuns spent some time writing and recording the forthcoming album. Here’s what the foursome said about ‘Edie’s Dream’.

“At first, ‘Edie’s Dream’ started as a kind of nightmare, with burial themes and the cold and lonely woods. But gradually, it melted into a kind of bittersweet daydream. Edie is stunning, she is family to the band and at only 13, she carries herself with the poise and confidence of someone who understands the music, understands the cold, understands dreaming and its different layers.”

Check out the video below.

Huntronik drop self-titled debut album

Formed a couple of years ago in Brooklyn, Huntronik is the project of Greg Hunt, John Taggart and Stephen Harms, based out of Brooklyn. Originally a duo with drums and synths/guitar, they turned into a power trio with the addition of a bass player.

Earlier this month, the electronic rockers released their self-titled debut album. The effort is available to stream and download for free or on a pay-what-you-want basis on their bandcamp. Here’s the electrifying opening and closing tracks from the album, ‘Rabies’ and ‘Paradigm Shift’. Enjoy.


Piano Interrupted sign to Denovali and re-release debut album

Piano Interrupted have recently signed to Denovali Records, who will re-release the quartet’s debut album Two By Four in April. This release, which includes bonus material, will precede a new full-length album, due out in October.

Piano Interrupted, originally the duo of London-based pianist and composer Tom Hodge and French electronic producer Franz Kirmann, turned into an improvising quartet with the addition of Eric Young on percussion and Greg Hall on cello. “The project blends their respective disciplines of film composition and piano on the one hand and organic electronica on the other”, says the press release, resulting in a musical blend of “post-classical and ambient, where organic electronic beats pulse over intricate sonic textures and unusual time signatures, where contemplative moments contrast with elaborative and complex melodies.”

Two By Four saw Piano Interrupted sharing mastering duties with Nils Frahm in Berlin. Speaking about it, Tom and Franz said “we wanted to finish the record with someone we felt close to in terms of sensibility and who is not only a technician but a great musician and artist- we knew it would give a extra special coherence to the record.”

Here’s a couple of magnificent cuts from Two By Four to entice you, ‘Hobi’ and ‘Son of PI’.


The Besnard Lakes announce new album and stream first single

Canadian indie rockers The Besnard Lakes have announced the release of their fourth full-length album entitled Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO. The follow-up to their 2010′s The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night is due out on April 2nd via Jagjaguwar.
The forthcoming record was produced, recorded and mixed by the quartet’s own founding members Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, and mastered by Greg Calbi. Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO features guest contributions from Moonface’s Spencer Krug and Mike Bigelow, The Barr Brothers’ Sarah Page, Monica Guenter and the Fifth String Liberation Singers’ Choir.

According the issued press release, “the story of the album unfolds its introspection on the endurance of the human spirit during prophetic times as told by a spy or two, maybe more.”

Coinciding with the album’s announcement, The Besnard Lakes are previewing the first single ‘People of the Sticks’. Listen to it below.