Norwegian Arms set to release debut album in January

15 November 2012

Philadelphia’s Norwegian Arms, the duo of Brendan Mulvihill aka Keith Birthday and Eric Slick aka Dr. Awkward, have announced the release of their debut full-length album entitled Wolf Like A Stray Dog. The album arrives on January 15th via Big School Records.

Wolf Like A Stray Dog was written and documents the year spent by singer/mandolinist Brendan Mulvihill in Siberia, as the press release explains. “Upon returning from his year abroad in Tomsk, Russia, he reunited with other member Eric Slick, to flesh out these eleven introspective songs into rhythmically intricate, yet catchy folk influenced pop music. Touching upon themes like adapting to new environments, questioning one’s knowledge and perspective, and never being satisfied with what you know, one can say the album is wanderlust and curiosity, distilled and neatly packaged into sonic bursts of intense energy”.

In the words of the Norwegian Arms, Wolf Like A Stray Dog is an “ember glowing in the distance of an otherwise frozen taiga”.

The forthcoming album will be available digitally, on vinyl, CD and tape, and pre-order is now available here.

To whet your appetite, here’s the effervescent title track off Wolf Like A Stray Dog.

Björk unveils visual accompaniment to ‘Mutual Core’ off Biophilia

13 November 2012

There’s only a few days to go until Björk releases bastards, a collection of remixes of tracks from her 2011 album Biophilia, by artists and bands she loves like Matthew Herbert, Omar Souleyman, Current Value, Death Grips, Alva Noto and a few more. The album drops on Tuesday November 19th via One Little Indian.
Coinciding with it, Björk has unveiled a stunning visual accompaniment to the track ‘Mutual Core’, also off Biophilia. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles commisioned filmaker Andrew Thomas Huang to direct the video. Huang is also credited for creating the cover art for the upcoming bastards.
Now here’s the video for ‘Mutual Core’.

Hello Skinny drops self-titled debut album

12 November 2012

After a decade and a half playing with an array of illustrious bands (most recently Sons Of Kemet, Mulatu Astatke, Matthew Herbert, Eska, Finn Peters and The Owiny Sigoma Band), London based ingenious drummer, producer and composer Tom Skinner released today his monumental eponymous debut album under the moniker Hello Skinny.
Skinner adopted his moniker following a song from The Residents’ album Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen released in 1978.

Written, performed and produced by Skinner, Hello Skinny features contributions from multi-reed player Shabaka Hutchings, The Invisible’s Tom Herbert, trumpeter Byron Wallen, singer Trudie Dawn Smith and pianist Nick Ramm.
The album is punctuated by Skinner’s wide musical references, borrowing from jazz and electronics, dub and reggae and even folk.

Hello Skinny‘s track title is a stunning cover of the Residents song, you’ll be playing it again the second it ends. You can listen to it beneath and head over to Slowfoot Records to order the album.