Contre Jour - One Night At The Station

  

  Contre Jour is a french band which started playing in 2009. The band includes Roxy (vocals), Christof (bass guitar), Greguy Leodocard (keyboards) and Manu (Guitar).

  Their first album called « One night at the station », which is a self-product project and was released in January 2010, combining many influences from the 80′s and the 90′s, offers a punchy sound between Post-punk and New wave.

 Their influences include Joy Division, The Chameleons, Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Cure. 

 Official site
 My space 

 Tracklisting :
01. Hourglass
02. À contre Jour
03. The chosen One
04. Grey House
05. Vladilen
06. Lies
07. One Night at the Station
08. Tension
09. This Feeling
10. Decay
11. A Recklessness
12. The Travelling 

 mediafire

  This self-produced debut album of 12 songs can produce for itself a darkly romantic world in your head and offers the dawning of the dark seasons suitable for lonely dark hours or parties.

Lorelle Meets The Obsolete - On Welfare

  Lorelle Meets the Obsolete is a psych band from Guadalajara, Mexico. Their debut, On Welfare, was released on May 24th of 2011 via Captcha Records.

   The Mexican duo sear their way through a heady mix of shoegaze and psychedelia that wobbles when you think it's going to run straight into the foam and scorches just when you're least expecting it to catch fire. The band has a way of wrapping the two genres (and the edges of quite a few more) around their guitar strings and pulling them tight into knots, only to have those same knots disappear in a puff of black smoke. Their On Welfare album is a perfect soundtrack to humid rains, streaked with heat and swelled with the promise of relief.

Official site

Lorelle Meets The Obsolete - These Days from Jaime Martínez on Vimeo.

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Adventure - Lesser Known (2011)

   Adventure is yet another contemporary act infatuated with the epic sound of 80s electronica. The Baltimore based musician behind Lesser Known, Benny Boeldt, uses a palette of sounds and beats to recreate and expand upon the indulgent atmospherics that groups like OMD and Visage came up with the first time round.

   The opening track, 'Song 1', sounds like an instrumental remix of New Order's 'Bizarre Love Triangle', and this is soon followed by 'Smoke and Mirrors' and "Fools Paradise".  Boeldt creates a lush sound that is melodramatic, urban, melancholic and rapturous; In short, Boeldt is a musician, a technician and a post-modern romantic.

   At its best, Lesser Known crescendos to create a big sound using melodic hooks, electronic strings, samples and simple vocals.

   For some people this kind of music will sound derivative and nostalgic, but it's not really as simple as that. Although the template may be very similar to 80s electronica, the schematic has changed and Lesser Known does sound like the next generation of synth-pop.

01. Open Door

02. Feels Like Heaven

03. Smoke and Mirrors

04. Fool’s Paradise

05. Rio

06. Lights Out

07. Relax the Mind

08. Another world

09. Electric Eel

10. Meadows

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The Frozen Autumn - Chirality (2011) & Discography

  

  The Frozen Autumn is an Italian darkwave band, formed in May 1993, characterized by a blend of melancholic vocals, atmospheric gothic-wave and 1980s-style electropop.

  The Frozen Autumn started life as the solo project of Diego Merletto, founded after several years of involvement with various darkwave groups in Turin. The singer, keyboardist and synth programmer employed the talents of guitarist Claudio Brosio during early studio sessions and live performances, then in 1995 the first album, Pale Awakening, was released under the German Weisser Herbst Produktion label. The album was well-received by gothic-wave/dark-romantic fans across Europe, and in 1997 the follow-up was released, Fragments of Memories, this time by Milan-based Eibon records.

   In 1998 Merletto co-founded a side-project called Static Movement with Arianna, who provided guest vocals on the title-track from Fragments of Memories. The duo composed together for six months and in March 1999 the album Visionary Landscapes was released. The musical style of Static Movement was not dissimilar to The Frozen Autumn, however with only electronic instruments being used, the result was a more synthetic coldwave sound. The partnership proved fruitful for both parties and so Arianna became a permanent fixture in The Frozen Autumn line-up, Static Movement remaining their "concept research project".

 

  After 18 months working on The Frozen Autumn's third album, Emotional Screening Device was released in April 2002 and hailed as the group's best album to date. They decided to leave Eibon Records in 2003 and, while contemplating offers coming in from both Italian and foreign labels, spent over two years on the next album. Is Anybody There? was finally released in September 2005 by the Argentinean label Twilight Records and German label Pandaimonium through Xymox Control.

  Merletto has since been working on his video art which has in recent years become an integral part of the band's live shows, while in addition to playing concerts all over Europe and collaborating with various artists, the duo have (as of October 2006) begun the process of reprinting The Frozen Autumn's back catalogue. In 2009, "Pale Awakening", "Fragments of Memories" and "Visionary Landscapes" were re-printed through Twilight Records. At the same, The Frozen Autumn announced that Ashes is no longer their official fan club. In September 2009, a new official forum was created.
 

   In December 2009, The Frozen Autumn published in their Facebook a "Manifesto against music killers", stating their position on music sharing over the Internet. In the same article they pointed out that they were exploited by someone who they thought as a good friend.

   In October 2010, four new songs from a new single: "Rallentears" will be performed live. The song is on their new label, Calembour Records, as a forerunner of their next album, called Chirality is released in November 2011.

  

  Discography

• Pale Awakening (1995) - reprint in 2009
• Fragments of Memories (1997) - reprint in 2009
• Visionary Landscapes (1999) - From Diego and Arianna's side-project, Static Movement - reprint in 2009
• The Pale Collection (2000) - Re-printed version of Pale Awakening including a remix of This Time and one new recording.
• Emotional Screening Device (2002)
• Is Anybody There? (2005)
• Chirality (2011)

 Official site

 The Frozen Autumn - Chirality (2011)

01 Before the storm

02 Sideral solitude

03 Chirality

04 Breathtaking beauty

05 So brave

06 The Exile

07 Victory

08 Rallentears

09 In the golden air

10 The last train

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Rallentears (EP 2010)

01 Rallentears

02 So Brave

03 The Last Train

04 Wait For Nothing (Froxy Vox Version)

Is Anybody There (2005)

01 Evening Falls

02 Faceless Names

03 Ashes

04 Polar Plateau

05 Static Cold

06 Oblivion

07 Venetian Blinds

08 Guardian Angel

09 Concavo - Convex

10 Citywards

11 Ashes (Clan Of Xymox Remix)

12 Polar Plateau (Dust Of Basement Remix)

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 Emotional Screening Device (2002)

01 Second Sight

02 Silence Is Talking

03 When You Are Sad

04 Wintertag

05 Is Everything Real

06 Precious Lives

07 Emotional Screening Device

08 Verdancy Price

09 Sperm Like Honey

10 Freon Heart Fayence Mind

11 Second Sight

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The Pale Collection (2000)

01 This Time (electro mix)

02 Bio Vital

The Pale Collection

Fragments Of Memories (1997)

01 The Echo of My Lies

02 There's No Time to Recall

03 Dusk Is Like a Dagger

04 Winter (Reprise)

05 Don't Cry for Me

06 Chimney's Song

07 Painted Girls

08 Fragments Of Memories

09 I'm Coming From Nowhere

10 The Forgotten Frontier

Fragments of Memories

Pale Awakening (1995)

01 Pale Awakening (Intro)

02 Again

03 Winter

04 Another Tear

05 Onyria

06 This Time (80's song)

07 In The Nightime

08 Wait For Nothing

09 Scent of Innocence

10 When The Dreams Become Memories

Pale Awakening

Mint Julep - Save Your Season (2011)

   Formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2007, Mint Julep is the husband-and-wife team of Keith and Hollie Kenniff. Subsequently relocating to Portland, Oregon, the duo cut a limited release album, Songs About Snow, in 2008 – effectively a trial run for further recording in their home studio, the fruit of which is a sublime follow-up, Save Your Season, released by Village Green in August 2011.

  Hallmarked by Hollie’s seductive, dreamy vocals and a succession of memorably soaring choruses, all of it etched with Keith’s vivid, glinting keyboards, towering guitars and miscellaneous instrumental hooks, Mint Julep make lustrous modern pop music that is wistful and mellifluous yet simultaneously powerful, even epic – equal parts shoegazing romanticism and cool, Kraftwerkian polish. 

  Their songs seem instantly familiar, like old musical friends, a ’classicism’ offset by the freshness and luminosity they exude as they usher you on a breathless ride through the sunlit uplands of electronic indie-rock.
 

  Mint Julep was designed as a conscious departure from Keith’s previous, ambient-orientated projects. “When Hollie and I set out to do something, I wanted to find some way to incorporate her vocals into a slightly different style, rather than just write similar material to my solo work and lay her vocals over top”, he says. “I had the need to write something that had some distorted guitars, loud drums and was a little bolder than what I had previously done. We messed around with a track one night (which became ‘Stay’) and it was a fun process, so we just kept writing more songs so we could do a project together.”

   Soon a working pattern emerged, with Keith composing music around Hollie’s lyrics or making tracks which Hollie would then add to. “It just developed after a lot of trial and error, and after a while the material started to plateau and began to sound like an album…”

A Pennsylvannian by birth, Keith Kenniff is an honors graduate of Boston’s esteemed Berklee College of Music, best known as the brains behind dulcet ambient/electronic practitioners Helios and the fingers on the ivories of post-classical piano minimalists Goldmund (the latter’s music once described by no less an authority than Ryuichi Sakamoto as “…so, so, so beautiful…”).

  A succession of albums under those aliases has made Kenniff the darling of discerning critics and his music has also been widely used in film, television and advertising, not least on the soundtrack to Harmony Korine’s 2007 comedy-drama Mister Lonely and the trailer for the 2009 Academy Award-nominated Revolutionary Road, directed by Sam Mendes.

   Originally from Ohio, singer Hollie Kenniff maintains dual US/Canadian citizenship, having spent part of her life in Ontario. Aside from Mint Julep, she has collaborated on several additional musical endeavors in tandem with husband Keith, including a children’s music project, Meadows (inspired by the couple’s young son), whose debut longplayer was recently released, and an ambient diversion under their own names. An album of the latter, A Deep and Dreamless Sleep, is slated for later in the year.

Mint Julep’s ultra-rare Songs About Snow debut is also set to live again in the near future, remixed, remastered and with additional tracks.

 by David Sheppard. July, 2011.

Mint Julep Official site

 Tracklist

---------

01. Chasing the Wind Catching the Shadows

02. Aviary

03. Days Gone By

04. Save Your Season

05. To the Sea

06. Cherry Radio

07. No Letting Go

08. Stay

09. Time Is Distance

10. Why Don't We

Mint Julep - Save Your Season

The Do - Both Ways Open Jaws (2011)

  The Dø is a folk/pop band formed in 2007 comprising Dan Levy and Olivia Bouyssou Merilahti from Paris, France and Helsinki, Finland respectively. Their name apparently derives from the first note in the C-major scale. 

  The Dø’s music can be classified as diverse, incorporating many different genres and styles, including avant-garde noise, hip-hop and classical music. Thus the music could be said to fit into the freak folk-genre. The band’s debut record was called A Mouthful and was released within Europe in 2008. A Mouthful was released in April, 2010, in U.S. by Six Degrees.

  In 2011 they released Both Ways Open Jaws under the same record label.

The Do Official

  01 – Dust It Off
 02 – Gonna Be Sick
 03 – The Wicket & The Blind
 04 – Too Insistent
 05 – Bohemian Dances
 06 – Smash Them All (Night Visitors)
 07 – Leo Leo
 08 – B.W.O.J.
 09 – Slippery Slope
 10 – The Calendar
 11 – Was It a Dream
 12 – Quake, Moutain, Quake
 13 – Moon Mermaids



  The Do - Both Ways Open Jaws

Patrick Wolf - Together

  Patrick Wolf is an English singer-songwriter from London. Wolf mixes electronics and samples with a wide range of instruments including viola, keyboards, ukulele, and percussion, all of which he plays himself to form a fusion of jazz, folk and electronic music.

   He began experimenting with sound and four-track recording at the age of 11, eventually building an arsenal of instruments that included junk-shop organs and a home-built theremin.

  

  At the age of 14 he joined the pop-art collective Minty, a venture that caught the eyes and ears of Fat Cat Records, which went on to supply the youth with a computer and mixing tools for aid in his newfound audio experimentation. He left home at the age of 16 and formed Maison Crimineaux with his friend Fanny, which eventually found its way to France where the noisy duo played a show attended by electronic maestro Kristian Robinson (aka Capitol K), who went on to release Wolf’s lauded 2003 debut. With Lycanthropy reaching number 39 in the NME’s top LPs of the year, as well as receiving critical acclaim throughout Europe and America, Wolf decided to study composition at the Trinity College Music Conservatoire.

   The results of that endeavor can be heard on his 2005 release Wind in the Wires, a dark collection of moody British folk and chamber pop with a chilly laptop sheen.

        

   Wolf released his third album, and the first on a major label, The Magic Position, in February 2007. He has been busy promoting it with a successful concert tour in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia.

   Wolf’s fifth album, Lupercalia, is released on 20 June 2011 by Hideout, a subsidiary of Mercury Records. Songfacts explains that the album title refers to the Lupercalia festival, which is was an ancient fertility and love festival that the ancient Romans celebrated between February 13-15, and was the predecessor to Valentine’s Day.

  Along­side ‘The City’, one of the best of these is ‘Together’ a majes­tic slow-burner that builds grad­u­ally over pul­sat­ing synths.

  Fol­low­ing the ani­ma­tion cre­ated for ‘The Fal­cons’, ‘Together’ has also been given the video treat­ment and you can watch it below. The track will also fea­ture on Patrick’s Bru­malia EP.

Patrick Wolf official

Enjoy!!

Lupercalia

Minks - By The Hedge (2011)

   "In April of 2010 Captured Tracks released a 7" single by an unknown new york band called Minks. On the date of release, few people knew any information about the musicians behind the music. Most writers and listeners assumed that it was a one man bedroom music project, like many other artists on the label, and were confused even more when six musicians appeared on stage to perform songs at the first Minks concert. 

  The first single, titled "Funeral Song" was quickly praised by music journalists and publications like Pitchfork, Stereogum, and Fader. Fader said that it sounded like "If Robert Smith gave birth to a baby, and the baby was actually a cassette of Cure demos that had a lot more staying power than actual Cure demos." Seasons changed, and MINKS returned with a follow up 7" single titled "Ophelia," which continued to shadow people's minds with curious thoughts and open ears.

  The uniqueness of these early singles showed the ability to balance the feelings of joy and sadness, as well as a door to past and present worlds. 
  For these songs were less about the songs themselves, but the ability to make you feel a certain emotion when listening to them. No element alone would stand out, but as a whole, the swirling waves of sound which Pitchfork would describe as "all texture and drift," would drive you away to a nostalgic place in your mind.

  With the release of "By The Hedge," MINKS further the ability to make you feel eternal autumn.

  
   Frontman and songwriter Sean Kilfoyle's ability to capture the raincoat grey Boston mornings of his youth, have the desire to make you feel like you are listening to a dream while awake and standing in the pouring rain. put on your raincoat and enjoy the splendor."

Tracklist: 

1. Kusmi
2. Out of Tune
3. Life at Dusk
4. Indian Ocean
5. Funeral Song
6. Our Ritual
7. Cemetary Rain
8. Bruises
9. Boys Run Wild
10. Ophelia
11. Juniper
12. Arboretum Dogs

Minks - By the Hedge 

Xeno & Oaklander - Sets & Lights (2011)

  Xeno and Oaklander is a minimal wave/synth duo from Brooklyn, New York, comprising Sean McBride and Miss Liz Wendelbo. They began writing music in 2004 and they record their songs live in their studio and play analogue synthesizers and instruments exclusively.

  Discography:

- Vigils (2006) (Xanten)

- Saracen (2009) (Wierd Records)

- Sentinelle (2009) (Wierd Records)

- Sets & Lights (2011) (Wierd Records)

  The new video for “The Staircase,” by the synth pop group Xeno & Oaklander, epitomizes the cool aesthetic of the underground minimal electronics movement. 

   The video has the quality of a Xerox, reproduced over and over, blown out and dark, and induces a sense of something lost. 

  Taryn Waldman of Boxmotion, who directed the “The Staircase,” and Patrick Stroub, its cinematographer, make references to Roman Polanski’s film “Repulsion,” as a slip of a woman, Xeno (Wendelbo), climbs the stairs of a claustrophobic 19th-century Brooklyn tenement building, seemingly unaware that the object of her affection and of her voyeurism, Oaklander (McBride), is right next to her.

http://xenoandoaklander.com/

Tracklist:
1. Sets & Lights
2. Untitled*
3. Years Before
4. Corrupt
5. Blue
6. Italy*
7. Autumn’s Edge
8. The Staircase
9. Desert Rose
10. Open Walls

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