Dustin Wong premieres video for ‘Diagonally Talking Echo’ and launches dreams contest

12 January 2012

Dustin Wong – Diagonally Talking Echo

Hawaiian-born guitarist Dustin Wong announced recently the release of his second album Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadows Leads. The album is due out on February 20th in the UK and February 21st in North America and you can pre-order it now via Thrill Jockey.

To coincide with the new album release, the guitarist launched the project “Say Your Dream, Create Your Sound”. For this project Wong is asking fans to get involved by sending a written narration or recording of their dreams and uploading them onto his Soundcloud page. After picking some dreams, Wong will interpret them via sound. The result will start to be posted from February 20th onwards.
Wong explained how the “Say Your Dream, Create Your Sound” project started:

“I thought it would be a really neat idea to be able to contribute some of my music to people’s dreams. Not only would it be a good challenge but it would also be a very loose nonverbal way of interpreting a dream. By reflecting the mood of what the dream is, it could bring something out of the dream that the dreamer never noticed, like a glaze that brings out the colors of a painting. Whenever I went to sleep over at my best friend’s home, when I was about 4 or 5 years old, his mom would put on books on tape to put us to sleep. I don’t remember the story and I didn’t really pay attention to them at the time. Now when I think back at it, it was a peripheral thing, a textural narrative to the sleeping experience. It was extremely relaxing and comforting. It probably does have something to do with the time of childhood. Maybe its about an innocence that I’m trying to remember.”

Wong has also just premiered the video for ‘Diagonally Talking Echo’, the closing track from the upcoming album. The video was done by him and you can watch below.

Stream the brand new single by Blackbird Blackbird

12 January 2012

Blackbird Blackbird - New Leaf

Blackbird Blackbird is the moniker used by Mikey S. Maramag who operates from San Francisco. He has only been putting out records since early 2010 but at a prolific rate with a full length album and several EPs released already.

It looks like 2012 will be another prosperous year for Blackbird Blackbird who dropped a brand new single a few hours ago on his soundcloud. ‘New Leaf’ is an uplifting track infused with tropical vibes.

Stream it below.

Man Forever signs to Thrill Jockey

11 January 2012

Man Forever - Man ForeverMan Forever is the drum ensemble formed in 2010 by John Colpitts (aka Kid Millions), better know as Oneida’s drummer and founding member. The Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and writer founded Man Forever to perform his experimental drum compositions. He was inspired by the New York classical band Fireworks Ensemble’s performance of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music.
Here’s what John Colpitts wrote about how the project came to be:

“A few months ago I went to see Fireworks Ensemble perform Metal Machine Music, I read the liner notes for the show, listened to the original record and learned how the piece was originally recorded and discovered Ulrich Krieger’s transcription process. During the performance I was inspired to record an album right away. A conversation I’d had a year or so ago with Brian Chase (from the YYYs) about just intonation tuning with drums popped into my head and I realized I could do something with acoustic drums inspired by the “noise” of electric instruments. I visualized a monolithic recording that would utilize the rich tonality of carefully tuned acoustic drums, played powerfully and multi-tracked at different speeds onto the Ocropolis (Oneida’s Brooklyn Studio) 16 track 1” tape machine. I asked Brian Chase to come to the studio and help me tune my drums so I could capture my ambition for the piece. Richard Hoffman (Sightings) added some bass to the final mix. The tempo is something like 180BPM. The piece moves fast at an almost imperceptible rhythm. It feels overwhelming and fluctuates constantly.”

Man Forever’s self-titled debut album was released on June 22th 2010 via Secretly Canadian vinyl-only imprint St. Ives. Last year Man Forever followed up this first effort with the release of the Learned Helplessness in Rats LP also on St. Ives.  (September 6th).

Today Thrill Jockey announced the addition of Man Forever to their roster and we can already start to eagerly anticipate a new release.

You can stream below Learned Helplessness in Rats performed live.

Listen to a new track by Giraffage and grab a free download

10 January 2012

Giraffage - With You

Charlie Yin is the man behind Giraffage who self-released his debut LP Comfort last year (November 17th 2011). You can stream and name your price to download the album via bandcamp.

The San Francisco based multi-instrumentalist/ producer shared today a brand new track entitled ‘With You’. You can grab a free download on his soundcloud‘s page.
Giraffage described ‘With You’ as “Frolicking through fields with the one that you love on an overcast day.”

‘With You’ is dreamy and beautiful, listen to it below.

Black Dice announce new album and give away new track

09 January 2012

Black Dice - Mr.Impossible

Brooklyn based experimental art noise outfit Black Dice announced today the release of their much anticipated sixth full-length album. Mr. Impossible will be released on Domino imprint Ribbon Music on April 10th In the US and a day earlier in the rest of the world.

The label press release says the album “combines 15 years of collaboration into one explosive electronic breakout monster mash. Over the course of their career Black Dice have refined a compositional palate that is entirely their own. Inspired by the banged up punk gallery art ethos of Men’s Recovery Project, The Seeds and their own live shows Black Dice have arrived with the creation of Mr. Impossible.”

Mr. Impossible will be available digitally, on CD and LP formats. It also comes in a special edition of hand-numbered screen printed LP version limited to 350 copies. You can pre-order it now here.

To celebrate the forthcoming album, Black Dice are giving away the first single ‘Pigs’. Download it free here and watch below the video for the same track directed by the band.

Black Dice are teasing with a tour, more details should be announced soon.