Everyone has a story, an experience, an encounter that they carry with them, be it joyous or burdening. Contending takes these marks from the past to shape the foundation of their music; their story. A faith-based metalcore band out of Culpeper, Virginia, Contending lashes out with energy, passion, and musical complexity. Contending carries a mission – to bring awareness to the painful reality of PTSD, depression, and suicide, of which many of the band members have struggled with. Contending wishes to take these painful experiences and put them to music, not just as a means of expression, but also to help those who have similar challenges by being a voice in the silence. We don’t know your pain, but we know pain; You’re not alone.
“Awake. For a moment, time is unexpectedly frozen, like the grass during an early fall daybreak; the fog of my memory holds of the darkness of reality. Is this real or is this fake? The beauty of fog is solitude – its gentle embrace is carelessly there for my own sake.”
Contending – Silence of it All
LINKS:
http://www.contendingband.com
https://www.facebook.com/contendingband
https://www.instagram.com/contendingband
https://twitter.com/contendingband
https://open.spotify.com/artist/455zLYJBwQ39r85DiIzH5I
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Your 33 Black Angels – Hott Funn
Your 33 Black Angels (a.k.a. Y33BA) has announced their new album ‘Eternities I’, which is their seventh long-play to date, to be released in early May. Ahead of that, they are previewing the lead track ‘Hott Funn’.
Recorded over three years and more than 60 studio days with endless mixes in the making, ‘Eternities I’ is 13 tracks that are built to stand as the culmination of Y33BA’s labors.
Based out of New York City, Y33BA is a long-running noise-pop freakshow. This genre-defying project has its own stamp of dark pop, electro-paisley new wave space rock, with a dose of crunk bass and rhythm. They produce elegant vibrant melodies with strange, novel sounds. This is the New Age underground for the End Times.
How do a group that has danced around sensibilities and sounds refresh the template? More cutting-edge instruments and riskier, avant-garde pop songs than ever. Imagine Madchester, and imagine dream pop meets Aphex Twin. Imagine the bastard child of Arthur Russell, Rain Parade and Rza and add original 21st century sound design and guitar webs.
This is a radical, angry, watermark record. Designed to embrace and rattle against the times. Combining haute popcraft with touches of the undercurrents of our lives–acid house, Paisley Underground, synth wave, field recordings, minimal electronica and epic RAWK.
As well, the Y33BA wordsmiths have always been equal part poetry fans as lyricists, so the Poesia Concreta of Augusto de Campos or Guillaume Apollonaire may have as much influence as wonderful lyricists like Neil Hannon, Bjork or Serge Gainsbourg. Breaking rhythms and broken meter match the polarized sounds from start to finish.
Formed in 2003, Y33BA debuted with the album ‘Lonely Street’ in 2007, which was a vinyl-only limited edition. Once the initial pressings sold out, Y33BA released the album on CD and digitally. They followed up with ‘Tales of my Pop-Rock Love Life’ (2008), ‘Pagan Princess’ (2009), ‘Songs from the Near Bleak Future’ (Optical Sounds, 2010), ‘Moon and Morning Star’ ( Optical Sounds, 2012) and ‘Glamour’ (2015).
In that time, they have played over 500 shows across Europe and North America, sharing the stage with some rather fine acts during recent tours. The Monochrome Set selected Y33BA as the direct support act for its first New York City show in 30 years. La Femme, The Veldt and Dyr Faser have toured or shared many nights with the group. The band has also played with King Tuff, Blitzen Trapper, Suuns, Six Organs of Admittance, Blonde Elvis, B-17 and We Melt Chocolate.
The video for ‘Hott Funn’ was made by Richie of Vinyl Villains. “Richie is a mysterious Bushwick programmer that doesn’t leave his loft til the light has disappeared and the day has turned to dark. He is part vampire, part design whiz. He has invented an automated animation program that turns songs into aliens, furry creatures, whatever the sound seems to suggest. Obviously, Your 33 Black Angels has a very alien sound, but he might have horses singing to Neil Young, vegan cupcakes singing Fiona Apple, dolphins singing Supergrass, etc. Richie is so ineffable and distant, we don’t even know his last name. All we know is he commands legions of aliens, faeries, and elves. Literally, that’s what he does!”
Y33BA ‘Eternities I’ is slated for release on May 7 and will be available across digital stores and streaming platforms. It can also be pre-ordered via Bandcamp. The band’s album release show will take place on May 10 at Alphaville in Brooklyn.
“A delight of jangling guitars, spacey-sweet vocals, and electronic squiggles, a psych record rooted in beat-pop and experimentalism”
– Village Voice (on ‘Glamour’)“One of this year’s treasures… is worth the hunt for its pop-wise rattle (Pavement with a case of the Strokes) and singer Josh Westfal’s resemblance, in dry, frank voice and cautious optimism, to another local institution: Lou Reed on the Velvet Underground’s fourth album, Loaded”
– Rolling Stone (On ‘Lonely Street’)“This is dark electric frenzied New Wave space-rock, blasting by like a fiery and unexpected sonic guest, clearly defying genres and interacting with cosmic messengers”
– Big Takeover Magazine“Retro-leaning, though hardly flower pop fetishists… pacey keyboard textures and groove-oriented arrangements, while their penchant for laid-back Daniel Johnston vocals and warbly lo-fi riffs more closely resembles the classic college rock of Pavement and Built to Spill”
– NOW Toronto (On ‘Songs from the Near Bleak Future’)“Your 33 Black Angels are known for frenetic, unpredictable shows. the interlocking guitars sometimes surged into what seemed like an eternal groove”
– Washington Post (live review)LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/your33blackangels
https://y33ba.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/y33ba
https://www.instagram.com/y33ba
https://soundcloud.com/y33ba
https://itunes.apple.com/bn/artist/your-33-black-angels/271047566 -
Beauty in Chaos – Storm (ft. Ashton Nyte)
LA-based Beauty in Chaos has announced the debut album ‘Finding Beauty in Chaos’. Born of frustration and creativity, this is an audio assemblage curated by LA-based guitarist Michael Ciravolo and produced by Michael Rozon. This colossal work is previewed by the lead single ‘Storm’ featuring Ashton Nyte (The Awakening, MGT).
The debut album ‘Finding Beauty in Chaos’ features numerous luminaries in the music world, both as co-writers and performers. Apart from Ashton Nyte, these include Wayne Hussey (The Mission), Simon Gallup (The Cure), Robin Zander (Cheap Trick), Al Jourgensen (Ministry), Pete Parada (The Offspring), dUg Pinnick (Kings X), ICE-T (Body Count), Michael Aston (Gene Loves Jezebel), Michael Anthony (Van Halen), Dirk Doucette (Gene Loves Jezebel), Pando (A Flock of Seagulls), Evi Vine (Evi Vine), Betsy Martin (Caterwaul / Purr Machine), Marc Danzeisen (The Riverdogs), Kevin Kipnis (Purr Machine / Kommunity FK), Rudy Matchinga (Red Scare), Johnny Indovina (Human Drama), and Tish Ciravolo (Stun Gun).
“I look at this as an evolving entity that I am the ‘curator’. For this album, ‘Finding Beauty in Chaos’, I am the only guitarist and no keyboards are used, but you will hear loads of textures created from guitars and effect pedals. This is a convergence of textures and styles that I envisioned blossoming,” says Michael Ciravolo.
“Assembling, or in some cases, disassembling beautiful soundscapes, melodies, and chords, while injecting harsh bursts of sonics … or visa versa. Light in the dark, dark in the light is the contrast that helps in realizing the goal of creating something musical that is also very visual and cinematic.”
Originally from New Orleans and now based in Los Angeles, Michael Ciravolo has played guitar in Human Drama for the past 30 years, most recently on ‘Broken Songs for Broken People’ (2017). Perhaps best known as President of Schecter Guitar Research, he has also played live and recorded with Michael Ashton’s Gene Loves Jezebel since 1998, along with Tish Ciravolo (wife and founder of Daisy Rock Guitars).
The lead track ‘Storm’ was co-written with and features vocals by Ashton Nyte, who also collaborates on another two tracks on this album. This, like many of the tracks on this album, features layers of alternative rock bliss, crowned by powerful and penetrating vocals.
‘Storm’ is about seeking a light in the proverbial dark, destructive, and a tediously distracting world we find ourselves in. “And the storm can wait, wait outside for another sacrifice”.
“I sat down with the intent to write something that would encompass all elements of what I wanted this record to be … a mixture of beauty via chords and textures with an interjection of a little chaos and brashness” says Ciravolo.
Originally from South Africa, Ashton Nyte is a pioneer of alternative music in his home country. The frontman of The Awakening, he recently collaborated with Mark Gemini Thwaite (Peter Murphy, The Mission) on MGT’s debut solo album, not a surprising collaboration considering The Awakening’s extensive touring experience with The Mission.
“Storm is the first song Michael and I wrote together and it happened rather effortlessly. Musically and lyrically, the artistic synergy was perfect… it felt like it was made for my voice and instantly inspired lyrics and vocal melodies we are both proud of. Michael has a wonderful sense of mood and melody and his songs are a lush landscape for me to add what I do best, in a very fluid, natural way,” says Ashton Nyte.
This record was mostly recorded and fully mixed at Ciravolo’s SAINTinLA Studio by Michael Rozon, who Ciravolo says “is a world-class engineer, mixer, producer, and musician, who pushed me to give my better-than-best on every note. A true sound alchemist, he encouraged me to explore the sounds and textures in my mind.”
In addition to the full version of ‘Storm’, which is now available in streaming, excerpts from three tracks off the album can already be previewed on the Beauty in Chaos website. These include ‘Man of Faith’ (featuring Wayne Hussey and Simon Gallup), ‘Finding Beauty in Chaos’ (featuring Ashton Nyte), and ‘I Will Follow You’ (featuring Evi Vine).
LINKS:
https://www.beautyinchaosmusic.com
https://www.beautyinchaosmusic.com/bic-blog
https://www.facebook.com/beautyinchaosmusic
https://www.instagram.com/beauty.inchaos
https://twitter.com/MichaelCiravolo
https://soundcloud.com/33-3-music-collective
https://beautyinchaos.bandcamp.com -
Rodney Cromwell – Comrades
British indietronica synthpop artist Rodney Cromwell has announced his forthcoming new ‘Rodney’s English Disco’ EP, his first collection of all new material in three years. Previewed by the song ‘Comrades’, which also features a 12″ extended dance mix by electronica act Vieon, the new EP will be available on 7″ vinyl, CD and digitally via London-based Happy Robots Records.
Where the debut album ‘Age of Anxiety’ by Rodney Cromwell (real name Adam Cresswell) drew on personal demons, on this new EP, social and political tribulations in the UK inspired these wry songs of woe. ‘Comrades’ is a robotic turbocharged rebel song for the twitter generation. ‘Barbed Wire’ is a song from across the barricades of the supermarket checkout. ‘Technocrats’ is a song for our illusory robot masters. ‘Dreamland’ is a breakup song for someone who just wants to go back to bed and pretend none of this ever happened. Sonically, this music sits between Kraftwerk, Pye Corner Audio and the Best of Divine.
Rodney Cromwell’s evocative synthpop looks to the proto-electronica of the 70’s and 80’s to construct a twisted soundtrack for the post-truth world. The instrumentation of the new EP has been kept intentionally minimal with its drum sounds taken entirely from a vintage Boss DR-55 drum machine and with a self-imposed limit on the amount of hissy analog gear used in its making. Melody and dark humor combine with simple motorik rhythms, soaring bass lines and the bleeps of retro synths, all within a lo-fi pop aesthetic.
Cromwell’s sound has been compared to the analog electronica of Kraftwerk, Section 25 and the ‘retro-futurists’ of Ghostbox Records. His miserablism and dark humor have been compared to that of The Cure and John Grant.
Rodney Cromwell’s debut album and subsequent EPs found crossover appeal, gaining Cromwell coverage from the likes of NME, Electronic Sound Mag, Huffington Post and Steve Lamacq and Gideon Coe on BBC 6 Music and on Spain’s national RNE3. At the end of 2015, Rodney Cromwell featured in 25 ‘Best of’ lists and was named ‘Most Promising New Act’ by The Electricity Club. ‘Barry Was an Arms Dealer’ featured in the 2015 Official Festive 50.
The video for ‘Comrades’ was produced by Dariy Karyakin, who has produced for David Lynch pet fave Nocturne Blue, has been praised by 6-time Emmy Winner Dutch Rall, and has earned various awards and honors. The sleeve artwork is by Latvian photographer Jelena Osmolovska, whose distinctive gritty post-Soviet fantasy aesthetic compliments the sound of this record.
Along with four original tracks by Rodney Cromwell, the EP features remixes by Rémi Parson, Vieon, Pattern Language and the debut release by Alice Hubble (Arthur & Martha, Mass Datura).
‘Rodney’s English Disco’ EP will be released on May 25 and available on red 7” vinyl, CD and digitally. Distributed by Cargo, this album is already available for pre-order via the Happy Robots Records store or Bandcamp. Catch Rodney Cromwell on tour in May.
LINKS:
http://www.facebook.com/happyrobotsrecords
http://twitter.com/robot_rocker
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_ZvCbaApGUVuQA7m7jaJtg/videos
http://soundcloud.com/happy-robots
http://rodneycromwell.bandcamp.com