Keep Shelly in Athens has released their video for the track titled ‘Neon Glare’ from their upcoming album ‘Defy Me’ out on November 12. With hints of Bowie, M83, and many other ethereal artists in their own piece of the stratosphere, Keep Shelly in Athens gives but a glimpse of things to come with a preview of their own lucid dreamscape that is as beautiful as it is dark and brooding.
This is originality at its deepest.
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LINKS:
http://www.keepshellyinathens.com
https://www.facebook.com/keepshellyinathens
https://twitter.com/keepshellyinath
https://instagram.com/keepshellyinathens
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Membranes Premiere ‘Strange Perfume’ on Jammerzine (The Week in #Indie Segment)
The Membranes are legendary. Pure and simple. But as many people know and seldom discuss, most legends tend to stay in the pocket when it comes to their new music, if they release new music at all. Not so for The Membranes’ new single and video titled ‘A Strange Perfume’. And that, to me, makes them legends. The song sounds as fresh as a new band and the video reflects the energy and creativity that The Membranes are still in abundance of. A band or artist should treat each new release as if it is their favorite newborn child. The Membranes do this and have done it, for decades. They have treated each song as it’s favorite newborn. And they’re all bastards. Brilliant!
As of June 7, ‘What Nature Gives … Nature Takes Away’ will be available on vinyl and CD, and digitally from stores such as iTunes and streaming platforms like Spotify. There is also a deluxe double vinyl ultra limited edition of 150 copies. This summer, cosmetics company Lush will release a Membranes perfume called ‘A Strange Perfume’ after the album’s opening track. In the meantime, the band will tour the UK in support of their new LP.
About The Membranes
With sixteen epic, powerful and darkly romantic songs on offer, this is The Membranes’ eighth studio album overall and the second since they reformed in 2010 when former support band My Bloody Valentine convinced them to return to the stage for the ATP festival. This album is a game changer in the tradition of Manchester bands like Joy Division.This album features appearances from vocalist Kirk Brandon (Theatre of Hate, Spear of Destiny) and 84-year-old folk singer Shirley Collins, one of England’s premier folk singers of the ’60s revival. Renowned nature TV presenter Chris Packham also contributes, as does the legendary Jordan, who practically invented the punk look in 1975. Half the tracks also feature the 20-piece BIMM Choir, offsetting a sound laden with dark drones and an atmosphere of melancholic epic power.
The album was recorded at 6DB Studio in Manchester with Ding Archer, a former band member with PJ Harvey, The Pixies and producer of the last nine albums by The Fall. John Robb wrote all the parts for the choir. This release follows up their acclaimed album ‘Dark Matter/Dark Energy’, the band’s best selling release, which received rave reviews and ample radio play on BBC 6 Music and internationally.
‘What Nature Gives… Nature Takes Away’ is about the beauty and violence of nature. This is a very diverse work with dark, brooding cinematic choir-driven songs. Imagine the sound of Hieronymus Bosch paintings to discordant wild songs about crows, demon flowers, strange perfumes, voluptuous petals, voluminous oceans, treacherous seasons and the poetry of life and death set to spooked pulsing musical pieces, ranging from epic choir-driven postpunk songs to dark dub workouts, from throbbing dirty disco dark wave pulses to grinding heavy bass-driven pieces, from apocalyptic visions to choir-driven epic swirls.
“This is the pinnacle of our long and strange journey. This album is steeped in the powerful forces of nature and an underlying emotional undertow that is dark and brooding bass driven postpunk with the epic swirl of the choir and diversity of sounds that takes you on a trip. I put my life into this album musically, lyrically and emotionally,” says John Robb.
“The Membranes was born of postpunk in the late 1970s – a time when a generation inspired by punk rock created music on their own terms. We were immersed in that scene and that world and when we reformed we picked up on those themes and ideas and the diverse fellow travelers that we were contemporaries of like Joy Division, Bauhaus, Einsturzende Neubauten, Nick Cave, PiL, Big Black, and newer bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor, Mogwai, Ulver, and Wardruna – bands who fuck with the template to create an atmosphere and mood.”
Formed in 1978 in Blackpool, The Membranes played classic bass-driven northern post-punk and were part of the same world as bands like The Fall, Sisters Of Mercy, Echo and The Bunnymen and Cabaret Voltaire, all inspired by 1977 to launch their own idiosyncratic journeys. The band released a remarkable series of records that combined their small town frustration with a love of heavy bass and distortion. This ultimately became a prime influence and the precursors to such American noiseniks as Steve Albini, Swans and Sonic Youth.
John Peel and music press favorites, a continual frenzy of releases, public acclaim and touring worldwide with national TV appearances, the band went on hiatus in 1990 until finally reforming in 2010.
The Membranes are Peter Byrchmore (guitar), Nick Brown guitar), Rob Haynes (drums), and John Robb (vocals and bass), a renowned TV and radio pundit, editor of Louder Than War, a key UK music site and national magazine, and curator of the Louder Than Words festival. In autumn, John Robb will also release ‘The Art Of Darkness’, a book on the darker side of post-punk, adding to his collection of best-selling books on punk rock.
LINKS:
http://www.themembranes.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/themembranes
https://www.twitter.com/membranes1
https://www.instagram/themembranes
https://membranes.bandcamp.com -
Jammerzine’s The Week in #Indie for 6/13/2016
This week’s episode includes the latest from KMF, Christopher Shayne, Novanta, Luna Rosa, Mark Anthony, and the Blue Soap Music Blue Soap Box Top 10 in independent tracks.
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Jammerzine Exclusive: An Interview with Hybrid
Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with a duo of masterclass composers and musicians that go under the moniker of Hybrid. With their new album titled ‘Black Halo’ releasing tomorrow via Distinctive Records, Hybrid are poised at just the right time to release a new album on the scale of originality and creativity as I have seen in this past year, to say the least.
Hybrid is not only a unique music project, but a pair of composers who have been in the game since the 90’s and have written music for over 30 feature films, computer games and trailers including Fifty Shades Freed, X-Men: Wolverine, Billionaire Ransom, the Fast and Furious franchise.
That culminates into the music of ‘Black Halo’ A concept album in flow and style and a soundtrack to that future set of memories you will get. You will hear me in the interview praise this album for a few reasons. Almost in a gushing manor. There is reason for this. Maybe I heard ‘Black Halo’ at just the right time. Maybe I heard it in just the right setting. To be honest, part of the reason I say this is the best album I have heard in a while was how it changed my mood and my outlook for the day with the first track and sustained that feeling, modifying it with each song, through the end. Prompting a second listen. That is what music should do. introspect, interpret, influence, and enhance. And I can say, with all honesty, that this has the potential to do the same for you. There are many layers in each song on ‘Black Halo’. Musical, emotional, and spiritual.
In today’s interview, we talk about the songwriting and creative process that defines Hybrid as well as the album itself. This is as much a good conversation as it is an informative interview. Enjoy!
About Hybrid
The sweetest musical spots are always found deep between the contrasts. Dark and light, orchestral and digital, dramatic and delicate, raw and polished, sadness and bliss. Searched for by many, discovered by few, conquered by Hybrid; it’s a creative place where any story can be told. From studio to stadiums, dancefloor bangers to symphonic film scores, the clue’s been in their name since day one.
Hybrid’s electric spark for splicing musical DNA has been evident since their first ever single in 1996; Symphony, a cult club anthem where orchestral dynamics met jungle-inspired breakbeats. 25 years, six studio albums, myriad tours and a few line-up splices later, their ever-evolving, often bass-laced,
sound remains a constant in an accelerate scene. And that same thirst for fusion they began with is now nuclear. Attuned and amplified over years of writing and performing with their full band; it’s a fine-tuned alchemy that runs deep in everything Mike and Charlotte Truman do. Be it conjuring powerful dynamic electronic productions that can tear down underground music havens like Fabric London, working on scores for Hollywood hits from Hobbs & Shaw to Hercules to Interlude In Prague or living, writing and recording in a family home with over 60 animals.
Their CV is a dizzying litany of pinch-yourself moments and accomplishments, including collaborations and credits with luminaries as far-ranging as Cypress Hill, Perry Farrell and Hooky from New Order. With band mates Stu Morgan (guitars and bass) and Simon Hanson (drums) they continue to take their art to incredible places through speakers, stage and screen. And at the heart of it all is simply this: powerful storytelling.
A deep emotional narrative runs through all Hybrid music. You can sense it in Charlotte’s stirring songwriting and vocals, you can hear it in Mike’s formidable sound design and production, you can tangibly feel it in the drama, tension and release of the arrangements. Their latest album – Black Halo – is the best example of this so far. Largely written during the turbulence of 2020, the album celebrates the perseverance and triumph of the human spirit. No matter what life throws at us, we thrive and survive. To enhance this narrative even more, and join further dots between their love of music and the big screen, they’ve created three conceptual videos with writer/novelist James Scudamore and actor Edmund Kingsley. Weaving sci-fi themes with the stark, hard-hitting reality of the 21st century, Hybrid’s visual fusion is just palpable as the music itself.
Following on from their critically acclaimed 2018 release Light Of The Fearless – an album eight years in the making which saw them execute a precision come-back with a sold out tour – Black Halo reaches for those sweet spots between the contrasts once again. Somewhere deep between organic and electronic, faith and escapism, strings and synths, drums and bass, fear and hope, it’s a place where Hybrid can tell their boldest stories so far.
A band whose electrorock influence echoed throughout the ‘90s straight up to today, Hybrid have always been on the forefront of the electronic music scene. Merging Jimi Hendrix-styled guitar riffs via guitarist/vocalist Stu Morgan into Mike’s sonic soundscapes and punctuated by drummer Simon Hanson’s meticulous rhythms, Hybrid’s music allows Charlotte’s clear and pristine vocals to float and weave effortlessly.
Originally formed in 1995 at the height of the UK-led Breakbeat Era, Hybrid became leaders of an electronic movement that encompassed a dizzying litany of pinch-yourself moments and accomplishments, including collaborations and credits with luminaries as far-ranging as Cypress Hill, Perry Farrell and Peter Hook from New Order. In their own right, Hybrid continue to take their art to incredible places through speakers, stage and screen. And at the heart of it all is simply this: powerful storytelling.
Hybrid is:
- Charlotte Truman (vocals, piano, synths, guitar)
- Mike Truman (sound design, producer)
- Stu Morgan (vocals, guitars, bass)
- Simon Hanson (drums, percussion, backing vocals).
Featured image by Steve Gullick.
LINKS:
https://www.hybridband.com
https://ffm.to/hybridblackhalo
https://hybridbanduk.bandcamp.com/album/black-halo
https://twitter.com/hybridbanduk
https://instagram.com/hybridbanduk
https://facebook.com/hybridbanduk
https://open.spotify.com/user/killcitymusic
https://www.youtube.com/hybridbanduk
https://geo.itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/hybrid/4054018?mt=1&app=music
http://soundcloud.com/hybridbanduk