Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper

  Paul Julian Banks is an English American musician, best known as the lead singer, lyricist and guitarist of the rock band Interpol. He is also a solo artist under the name Julian Plenti. As a singer, Banks' voice lies in the baritone range. 
  Banks released a solo album under the name Julian Plenti on 4 August 2009 entitled Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper. Banks claims to have multiple solo projects and monikers in mind. He released a five song EP entitled Julian Plenti Lives... on 26 June 2012. His second full-length studio album, Banks was announced on 6 August 2012 and will be released on 22 October 2012.
  As of August 15th, 2012, it would appear that Banks laid to rest the use of the alter-ego, "Julian Plenti" as on the official site of InterpolNYC, the name is referred to as "ditched". 
  Also, the domain URL for the Julian Plenti website is as of this time deactivated and all mentions of the character removed from Banks' official Twitter account.

   Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper (2009) 
  Julian Plenti Lives... (2012) 
  Banks (2012) 

Piano Magic - Ovations

 Piano Magic is a musical collective formed in the summer of 1996 by Glen Johnson, Dominic Chennell, and Dick Rance in London, England. 

  Their sound has been described as ambient pop, post-rock, indietronica, coldwave, dark wave and ghostrock.

   While the most recent releases have seen them operating with a traditional band format, they originally started their career with the intention to base their recordings around their small nucleus and whoever else would like to contribute. 

   Glen Johnson is the only remaining band member from the original trio.

  Ovations is their 10th album and features guest appearances by Brendan Perry and Peter Ulrich of Dead Can Dance. 

  Perry sings on The Nightmare Goes On and You Never Loved This City, whilst Ulrich adds percussion and hammered dulcimer to March Of The Atheists, A Fond Farewell and La Cobardía de los Toreros. This album finds Piano Magic at their most confident, melodic and unabashed, merging early 80’s coldwave electronics with Eastern European acoustic instrumentation. 

  The opening prowl of “The Nightmare Goes On” is a key indicator of the overall trajectory of Ovations. With commanding guest lead vocals from Dead Can Dance’s Brendan Perry, intoning Johnson’s funereal prose over washes of synths, exotic strings and almost African rhythms, the long-player feels like a much more successful attempt to capture the true ‘80s 4AD spirit that the ensemble strained a little hard to reach on 2002’s collaborator-heavy Writers Without Homes.  With Johnson back to the singing fore, the thicker rhythmic mélange hits with even greater force on the ensuing Moroccan-vibed “March Of The Atheists” and the skittering electro-beats-driven “On Edge”. 
   The more minimalist, Details Not Recorded-like, “A Fond Farewell” brings a serene momentary breathing space before “The Blue Hour” and “Recovery Position” crash in with towering waves of Robin Guthrie guitars put through Modern English amplifiers.

  
  Before proceedings slide too close to unadulterated ‘80s noire retrophilia, the wordless “La Cobardía De Los Toreros” chimes in with an Eastern European baroque eloquence that might not sound out of place on Beirut’s Gulag Orkestar. Following this refreshing interlude, a second Perry-sung track, the elegantly-orchestrated “You Never Loved This City”, glides in with unapologetically lovelorn Tindersticks-style grace and gravitas.  The somewhat automatic New Order-referencing of “The Faint Horizon” consequently feels a little anaemic in its wake. 
  However, the closing “Exit” more than makes up for it, with squelchy Kraftwerk electronics and a Vini Reilly guitar figure enveloping an elegiac duet between Johnson and regular golden-toned Piano Magic chanteuse, Angèle David Guillou.

  Like its predecessor, the impressive Ovations provides no linear entry-point into the labyrinthine world of Piano Magic. Yet, it undoubtedly finds Glen Johnson and co. regaining a stronger sense of collective purpose; reinforcing the belief that the group still has plenty of reasons and room to exist alongside its members extra-curricular roaming, for a little while longer at least. 

Longtime fans will love it unreservedly.

  A fantastic album, Highly recommended!

Tracks:
1. The Nightmare Goes On
2. March of the Atheists
3. On Edge
4. A Fond Farewell
5. The Blue Hour
6. Recovery Position
7. La Cobardia De Los Toreros
8. You Never Loved This City
9. The Faint Horizon
10. Exit

 Pianon Magic - Ovations 2009

Piano Magic official site 

A Place to Bury Strangers - Onwards to the Wall EP (2012)

   A Place to Bury Strangers are a power trio with a heavy, atmospheric wall of sound-influenced blend of psychedelic rock, shoegaze and space rock.  They have been affectionately lauded as New York City’s “loudest band” by various indie reviewers and bloggers throughout the course of their live music career, as well as “the most ear-shatteringly loud garage/shoegaze band you’ll ever hear” by The Washington Post. The New York Times applauded their revival of “the ominous, feedback-drenched drones of the 1980s”

  Onwards to the Wall is a brief, visceral 16-minute noise jam. APTBS have carved a commendable name for themselves in the abrasive rock scene alongside contemporaries HEALTH and The Horrors, they certainly prove here that they haven’t run out of ideas yet.

  “I Lost You” features crushing reverb, relentless echoes, and breakbeat drum work, as Oliver Ackermann sounds morose as ever. Ackermann also contributed to the creation of the video for So Far Away, a bass-driven, claustrophobic march given added humanity with playful, off-the-cuff visuals.

  The title track’s female vocals add a much-needed dynamic to the APTBS formula, and with melodic, spindly guitar riffs and a catchy motorik/post-punk beat. “Nothing Will Surprise Me” is one of the band’s fastest tracks, while “Drill It Up” is danceable, with a chorus begging to have crowds respond to Ackermann’s tortured calls.

  With moments of breathing room and stripped melodies, APTBS continue subtle explorations of their strengths and the conflict between cacophony and harmony.

  Bandcamp

The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave

   The Raveonettes are a rock and roll duo formed in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2001. Comprising Sune Rose Wagner (guitar, instruments, vocals) and Sharin Foo (guitar and vocals), their music is characterized by close two-part vocal harmony inspired by The Everly Brothers , coupled with hard-edged electric guitar overlaid with liberal doses of noise.

  The name, The Raveonettes, is a direct reference to The Ronettes, and Buddy Holly’s song Rave On!.

  Their songs juxtapose the structural and chordal simplicity of 50s and 60s rock with intense electric instrumentation, driving beats and often dark lyrical content, similar to another of the band’s influences, The Velvet Underground. Altogether, they sound very much like a slightly more melodic version of The Jesus and Mary Chain.

  On April 4th, 2011, they released “Raven in the Grave”, a nine-track studio album with Vice Records.  It’s their 5th studio album. 

From their site bio:
“I think we have finally hit on something quite important and different for this album,” explains Sune. “This is the first Raveonettes album we’ve done which doesn’t feature the signature Raveonettes surf drumbeat. None of the tunes have any real sunshine to them. It’s all very un-Rave.”
“It has a mood of ethereal defiance” Sharin adds. “It’s dark but not bleak, like the single minded determination caused by crisis that is not quite hope but just as powerful. It’s the perfect winter soundtrack just in time for spring”.

  The album received generally positive reviews upon its release, fantastic album indeed, I liked it very much, The Raveonettes have taken what’s being described as a newer, darker trail, leaving behind the surf drum beats and guitar noise they’ve been identified with for years.  Enjoy!


 Official site

  "Let Me On Out" is probably the least commercial song on Raven In The Grave, in that respect you could refer to it as an anti-single. We really love the song. It's beautiful, haunting, loud, and dynamic. Everything a great song should be. We wanted to showcase the song in a static setting to draw the listeners attention to the raw sound." (Sune Rose Wagner, The Raveonettes)

 

1.-Recharge & Revolt
2.-War In Heaven
3.-Forget That You’re Young
4.-Apparitions
5.-Summer Moon
6.-Let Me On Out

7.-Ignite

8.-Evil Seeds

9.-My Time’s Up

The_Raveonettes_-_Raven_In_the_Grave_

The Beauty of Gemina - Iscariot Blues

  The Beauty of Gemina is a music group of the Swiss Michael Sele, which was founded in 2006.

  He's leading this project - accompanied by the musicians David Vetsch (bass) and Mac Vincens (drums) - onto the next level. 

  The band mixes elements from synth rock , dark rock  and electronic music.

  In the ten hymn-like and diversely arranged tracks the band leader seduces the listener with his dark timbre, lures hypnotically, constantly driving by powerful vocals and an unmistakable guitar play. He skilfully shuttles between melancholic intimacy and stadium sound, processing rock, wave, goth and blues influences.

   On the one hand Michael Sele reveals his habitual darkness; on the other hand he appears growingly political, proclaiming a new revolution and thus predicting an according cultural and social change of paradigms.

  The Beauty Of Gemina conceive themselves as a modern rock band orbiting close to the spirit of the age. Nonetheless, their sound knowingly eludes a clear musical categorisation.

  A distinctive voice as primary component, psychedelic guitar sounds, driving electronic devices, acoustic elements and profound lyrics peak to an arc of suspense, belt the mighty, epic-dark songs and reflect Michael Sele's atmospheric and at the same time daunting imagery output. 

  The Beauty Of Gemina with their new album Iscariot Blues are staging an opus of timeless-dark elegance, guiding their unique style to perfection. 


 My Space

 

Tracklist: 

01. Voices Of Winter
02. Haddon Hall
03. Badlands
04. Golden Age
05. Stairs
06. Prophecy
07. Dark Revolution
08. June 2
09. Seven-Day Wonder
10. Last Night Home

 

Video from the 2011 tour

 

At The End Of The Sea(2010)

Tracklist:

01. Dark Rain

02. Obscura

03. Rumours

04. Kings Men Come

05. Sacrificed To The Gods

06. End Of All

07. Counting Tears

08. In Silence

09. A Fortune Tellers Dream

10. Black Cat Nights

11. Narcotica

12. Endless Sleep

 

A Stranger To Tears

01. Galilee Song
02. This Time
03. Psycho Flood
04. Shadow Dancer
05. Colours Of Mind
06. The Lonesome Death Of A Goth DJ
07. Heart Of A Gun
08. In Your Eyes
09. Into Black
10. One Day
11. Last Kiss
12. Narcissus
13. Simple Death
14. Tell Me Why
15. Wishful Promise
16. Essai Noir 

Diary Of A Lost

Tracklist:
01. Suicide Landscape
02. One Step To Heaven
03. Hunters
04. Kingdom Of Cancer
05. Victims Of Love
06. Forgiveness
07. Nevertime
08. Trapped
09. Monster In Me
10. Fight Song
11. Isle Of Desire
12. Lovehate
13. La Reve De L'infidele

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

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

Blacklist - Midnight Of The Century

  Blacklist is a band from Brooklyn, New York composed of Josh Strawn (vocals, guitar), Ryan Rayhill (bass), Glenn Maryansky (drums), and James Minor (guitar).

  They are one of the flagship bands of painter Pieter Schoolwerth's Wierd Records imprint. The band creates atmospheric modern rock music that has been described as "anthemic,", "darkly erotic, strangely sensual", and "brings a much-needed anomaly in NYC's music scene." 

  They are sometimes classified as part of the post punk revival, though the sound is generally more dense, sonically incorporating elements of shoegaze with coldwave. 

   Blacklist's first EP was self-released and is currently out of print.

  The Solidaire EP was then released including a cover of seminal French coldwave band Asylum Party's song "Pure Joy In My Heart." 

  The band's debut LP, Midnight of the Century, was released digitally on May 26, 2009 and on CD on July 28, 2009.It was mixed by Ed Buller and mastered by Howie Weinberg. 

  The album title is a reference to the revolutionary Victor Serge's book, Midnight In the Century.

  The lyrics to Blacklist songs often contain references to various authors, philosophers, and historical events.

Download

Kent - Isola (1997)

  Kent is a Swedish alternative rock band founded in Eskilstuna in 1990, with the name Coca-Cola Kids, later Jones & Giftet (Jones & the Poison), and Havsänglar (Angel sharks, literally Sea angels).
  The band's logo is distinctive, using a lowercase "k" and theITC Avant garde Gothic Book typeface.

  They are one of the most popular rock groups in Sweden, and describe themselves as "Sweden's biggest rock band", but are more or less unknown outside Scandinavia. 

  Kent briefly attempted an international career with English versions of the albums Isola and Hagnesta Hill and an accompanying American tour for the former, but they gave up after failing to achieve the breakthrough they had hoped for.

  The discography consists of eight studio albums(with two of them also released in English), onecompilation album, one box set, one EP, twenty-eight Swedish and six English singles. 

   Discography:

- Kent (1995)

- Verkligen (1996)

- Isola (1997)

- Hagnesta Hill (1999)

- Vapen & ammunition (2002)

- Du & jag döden (2005)

- Tillbaka till samtiden (2007)

- Röd (2009)

- En plats i solen (2010)

 

   Isola is an album released in 1997. It was followed in 1998 by an English version, for which a new song, "Velvet", was recorded. The album name comes from Ed McBains books about the 87:th police district and is a paraphrase for New York city, and Isola is mentioned in the song "Oprofessionell"/"Unprofessional".
  The album is said to have been largely influenced by Radiohead despite the difference in its sound. The ending song from the album, 747, has become a fan favourite and is usually one of the songs Kent use to close their concerts.

This is an English version "If You Were Here"

 

Download Isola

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Black Jet Radio - Dead Wine

   Black Jet Radio was born with the release of a 45rpm demo recorded by Brian Jenkins of The Sacred Broncos and Danisha Jenkins on a winter weekend in December. Tracks "Dead Wine" and "Ugly" brought to mind a Blondie meets the New York Dolls comparison with a mix of Cabaret inspired vocals, fuzz guitars, pulsing drums, driving bass, and a touch of Lowry organ. Shortly after, the band recruited Shelby Siefring of Thunderhawk to work the drums and Danielle Teagarden on bass, guitar, and vocals rounding out the lineup of Brian on guitar and bass and Danisha on lead vocals.

  In support of the new single “Dead Wine,” the band decided to enlist the help of Kasey Lee to create a music video for the track. While the track roars from the distorted guitar and bass on top of the bass drum and snare rhythm, Danisha Jenkins uses her sultriness and prowess to add hauntingly-sexy vocals to complete the track. The end result is a addictive garage-rock anthem that keeps me anxiously awaiting for the 7″ single as well as a full album in the near future. Check out the video below and head to their website below where you can listen to more Black Jet Radio.