Lightning Bolt set to release Oblivion Hunter next month

22 August 2012

Rhode Island noise rock duo Lightning Bolt are set to release a seven-track EP  featuring lost tracks from 2008. Aptly named Oblivion Hunter, the EP drops on September 25th via Load Records.

Oblivion Hunter is “a real cool time – loose, hard and loopy”, as the label puts it. “This record is one of the few necessary things in your grim stretch of existence, played by a band with 20 years of total conviction to the destruction of your ear drums. The net is cast decidedly further this time out with North Pole square dancing colliding with shock troop whiplash, executed with the spontaneous interplay of neutrino collision.”

The EP’s opening track ‘King Candy’ has just surfaced the web and you can check it out below.

Serengeti contributes to Graveface Records’ Charity Subscription Series

22 August 2012

Graveface Records is putting out a Charity Subscription Series featuring exclusive new tracks from artists and bands like Dosh, Xiu Xiu, Mount Eerie, Mike Watt, Appleseed Cast, Shearwater and many more.

Here’s how Graveface Records explained the origin of the idea:

“The idea for the Charity series was hatched in 2010 when I lost a great amount of my stock in a flood. Many amazing folks donated loot to get me out of that hole.  I was so inspired by their generosity that I asked some musician friends to contribute to the project. Two years later and we’re ready to go. So the idea is simple: amazing bands, awesome music that’s exclusive to each release, fun colored vinyl, and most importantly, a large chunk of the profits hitting charities of each artists choosing.”

You can find out more and order the records here.

The first release of this series comes from the hands of Chicago rap experimentalist David Cohn aka Serengeti, who is also one-half of rap duo Serengeti & Polyphonic and one-third of indie trio S/S/S featuring Sufjan Stevens and Son Lux.  Serengeti teamed up with Tobacco to deliver ‘Be a Man’, available on August 28th. The profits from this release will be donated to RBI: Reviving Baseball In Inner Cities.

Here’s Serengeti’s ‘Be a Man’ featuring Tobacco. Straight after check out the sampler for the series.


Ungdomskulen announce new album and drop first taste

21 August 2012

Frode Flatland, Kristian Stockhaus and Øyvind Solheim make up Norwegian dance rock outfit Ungdomskulen.
The trio have announced the release of Secrecy, their fourth full-length, due out on September 25th.

Ungdomskulen are teasing the forthcoming album with its opening track, ‘Askefast’, which translates to “stuck due to ashes’. ‘Askefast’ is inspired by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2010, which grounded all European flights and left thousands of people stranded.
The press release describes ‘Askefast’ as a “a blitz of a song with rapid-fire percussion and an irregular beat that will keep you on your toes.”

Earlier today, the threesome premiered a fittingly frenetic video for ‘Askefast’, directed by singer and guitarist Kristian Stockhaus. Check it out below.


Lonely Drifter Karen add visuals to previously released single ‘Comet’

20 August 2012

Brussels based surrealistic pop outfit Lonely Drifter Karen released Poles, their third album, earlier this year via Crammed Discs.

Currently made up of Austrian singer and guitarist Tanja Frinta, Spanish Keyboard player Marc Melià Sobrevias and French guitarist and multi-insturmentalist Clément Marion, Lonely Drifter Karen also enlisted a bunch of percussionists for their latest album.

With space and extraterrestrial travels as the main theme, in Poles “analog electronics, Asiatic arpeggios, sliding bass-synths, sinuous guitar riffs and funky grooves abound, while Tanja Frinta’s voice is wilder, more vibrant, and seems to have acquired unsuspected new dimensions”, as the press release describes. “With these new shades and brushes, the band have painted an alternate version of their own, unmistakable world: dreamy, poetic, and slightly surreal, overflowing with those lush arrangements and irresistibly seductive melodies which have become the band’s trademark.”

The threesome did a video for ‘Comet’, the first single taken from Poles, and you can watch it below. And straight after listen to another two excellent tracks, the album’s opener ‘Three Colors Red’ and ‘Velvet Rope’.



Ela Orleans, U.S. Girls, Slim Twig and Dirty Beaches release split LP

19 August 2012

Earlier this month, ClanDestine Records have released The Statement, a four-way split LP featuring new songs by Ela Orleans, U.S. Girls, Slim Twig and Dirty Beaches.
The Statement is limited to 500 copies and can be ordered here.
‘The Season’ is one of tracks lifted from the split LP by Polish born, Glasgow based artist Ela Orleans. Listen to it below.

Ombre share new single days before debut album arrives

17 August 2012

Just over a month ago, we got introduced to Ombre, the new collaborative outfit of Julianna Barwick and Helado Negro.
They had released ‘Cara Falsa’, the gorgeous and hypnotic first taste off their debut album, Believe You Me.

‘Cara Falsa’, led by Barwick’s ethereal vocals, is now followed by a dazzling new single, ‘Vistate’, where Helado Negro takes the lead on the vocals.

We are in for a treat with Ombre’s debut album and there’s only a few days to go till it drops on August 21st via Asthmatic Kitty.
Here’s ‘Vistate’.