Fresh from a support slot with Grammy Award Winner Beck and shows with The Hot 8 Brass Band, Soulwax and Calvin Harris, the Liverpool trio are just about to complete album 3.
The bands versatility has seen them described as somewhere between Phoenix, Foster the People & Mutemath with a hint of Daft Punk & Depeche Mode thrown in, and this has seen radio support from BBC 6 music, X Radio, and Radio 2 and two hype machine number 1 Kids on Bridges are currently heading back over to America where they are going to finish work on a brand new album and have drafted in Eagles of Death Metal bass player Jennie Vee to join them on a number of tracks, along with New Orleans poet Chuck Perkins. Having previously worked with The Chemical Brothers producer Steve Dub, the new album promises to be a sonic assault! Recently The Band has been on remixing duties for Grammy Nominee Ledisi and Beating Nile Rodgers to the remix of calling all nations for INXS’s Kick 30.
Although the guys are certainly no strangers to having great guest performances on their releases, the last single ‘Say Ok’ featured New Orleans drumming legend Zigaboo Modeliste of the Meters. The band also found themselves nominated for best Alt video at the Paramount Awards in Hollywood for the single ‘Something in the Water’ a song that has recently been featured as the Footlocker advert and is set to also be featured in a new American TV show as the show’s Theme song.
The Bands Track ‘Walls’ was used in many Anti trump marches across America and they were also honoured to be the UK representatives at last year’s Special Olympics in LA performing alongside Stevie Wonder.
With excellent performances at Creamfeilds, Wickerman, Bestival and Ibiza Rocks, the future couldn’t be looking brighter for the Liverpool Band.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/KidsOnBridgesMusic
https://twitter.com/Kidsonbridges
https://www.instagram.com/kids_on_bridges/
https://soundcloud.com/kidsonbridges
https://www.youtube.com/user/kidsonbridges
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Whispering Sons – Alone (Live)
In support of their debut album ‘Image’, Belgian post-punk outfit Whispering Sons present their new live video for ‘Alone’, filmed for Belgian national TV following a roundtable on post-punk past and present. Comprised of ten tracks, their album is out now via Cleopatra Records in North America and Smile Records in Europe. Ahead of this release, the band offered a preview of their tracks ‘Stalemate’, ‘Waste’ and the album version of ‘Alone’.
Whispering Sons are Sander Hermans (synth), Fenne Kuppens (vocals), Kobe Lijnen (guitar), Sander Pelsmaekers (drums) and Tuur Vandeborne (bass). The band just wrapped up a tour with The Soft Moon, followed by a series of shows with Gang of Four and headlining a series of European live dates in support of this album.
This is the first major release for this Brussels-based outfit since their ‘Endless Party’ EP in 2015. This new release represents what the band describes as a “giant leap forward”. Together with producer Micha Volders and engineer/co-producer Bert Vliegen, the band used their time in the studio as a means to broaden their sound, enriching it with acoustic drums and a whole range of synthesizers.
This album, recorded over a period of ten days at GAM Studios in Belgium, evokes an atmosphere that is ominous and urging, while capturing the and’s live intensity. Mixed by Bert Libeert (Goose, B, Raving George – Charlotte de Witte) at Jetson Studio and mastered by Frederik Dejongh (Hooverphonic) at Jerboa Mastering, this work is tinged with angst and isolation. Lyrically these songs stem from alienation, distance and inertia.
The songs on ‘Image’ were written after the band collectively moved to Brussels in 2016. Between intense touring, they channeled their new ideas into the music found on this album. Feeding on the dynamics of the city, the tracks unveil feelings of alienation and distance. ‘Image’ is a motionless state, in which observations overshadow actions. It reflects the artificiality of things, yet still desperately clings on to ideals and obsessions, something which is also strengthened by the cover artwork, created of Flor Maesen.
Whispering Sons won Belgium’s prestigious Rock Rally in 2016, the same national contest that launched the career of dEUS. Since then they released several 7 inches – ‘Performance/Strange Identities’ (2016) and ‘White Noise’ (2017), and the ‘Endless Party’ EP. Touring extensively in Europe, they’ve developed a reputation for their animated performances.
The ‘Image’ LP is now available everywhere, and can be ordered via Cleopatra Records on CD and also digitally via Bandcamp.
LINKS:
http://www.whisperingsons.com
https://www.facebook.com/WhisperingSons
https://whisperingsons.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/WhisperingSons
https://www.instagram.com/whisperingsons
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7AFnJzNQsK_bRA5Dwi3z9w/videos
https://soundcloud.com/whisperingsons -
Michael P Cullen – Do You Believe
A man in a suit, an old semi-acoustic guitar and a voice like sandpaper dipped in honey. Michael P Cullen tells stories of longing and regrets in a unique and textured baritone with echoes of American mid-century pulp writers, 60s Vegas cabaret, and Southern Gothic Americana. He has often been compared to Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave but his unique blend of Noir, New Wave, Stax and Northern Soul ultimately defies comparison.
The Sydney-based lounge lizard artfully marries Southern Gothic dustiness to black-sequined seediness in a way that actually reveals a true sense of class.
Monster Magnet Records (Los Angeles)True Believer is a hedonistic, lush, red velvet-curtained fragile and beautiful album. Imbued with the sexual frustration and louche ambivalence of Robert Forster from The Go-Betweens and underpinned by a Nick Cave-like gothic baritone darkness, each listen reveals more complex layers, greater humor and a melodic strength. Every song is great – flashes of Tindersticks and Leonard Cohen weaving in and out of this lounge-room lothario performing in a haze of smoke and whiskey.
Back Seat Mafia (London)Songs about regret, bitterness and a love gone sour. The vocals are a rich baritone cocktail of spoken word, singing and crooning while [Tim]Powles provides seamless, charming accompaniment on the keys and drums. It’s intoxicating. It has to be experienced.
Rip it Up Magazine (Brisbane)Inspired by the likes of Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, and Tom Waits, you nevertheless get a very Michael Cullen experience. He is strong and has a distinctive baritone vocal that weaves through the music, making this album unique, and uniquely valuable. 4.5 Stars
Sydney Morning HeraldMix a stiff drink or three, crack open a pack of cheap cigarettes (I don’t care if you smoke… you want to experience this correctly or not?), and sink in your own glorious malaise, pondering where you could have done better for yourself. Michael P Cullen & The Soul Searchers understand.
Modern Fix (Wisconsin)Musicians/Instruments:
Michael P Cullen – vocals. Guitar. bass
Tim Powles – drums, percussion, vocals (Tim is a long time member of legendary Australian band The Church)Produced by Michael P Cullen & Tim Powles
Engineered by Tim Powles and Ted Howard
Mixed by Danton Supple (Coldplay, Morrissey many others)LINKS:
http://michaelpcullen.com
https://soundcloud.com/michael-p-cullen
https://bit.ly/MichaelPCullenYouTube
https://bit.ly/michaelpcullenfacebook
https://twitter.com/m1chaelcullen -
Cellista – Look Homeward, Angel
Cellista has announced her new album ‘Transfigurations’ album, which is set to release on May 31, 2019. Ahead of this, she is previewing the song ‘Look Homeward, Angel’ featuring the lyrics and rhymes of hip hop artist DEM ONE (a.k.a. Demone Carter) and beautiful soprano vocals by Melissa Wimbish. As a stage poem, ‘Transfigurations’ is a multi-media work that includes dance, poetry, original classical compositions, noise and sound textures.
“In 2017, Transfigurations began growing out of an avant-garde performance art piece I wrote, composed, and directed called ‘Wants’. It was meant to be a response to Trump and the rapid gentrification of the Bay, and address the tragedy of the Ghost Ship fire. Wants became a 20-minute film that my regular filmmaker Jennifer Gigantino shot and edited. The ruptures feature sounds from the Internet Archive and there are lots of historical recordings and found sounds, most originating from the Bay area,” explains Cellista.
‘Transfigurations’ is a response to the world we inhabit. It is meant to allow us all, singularly and as a community, to see the ruptures that punctuate our place in the present – The ache of the Ghostship that points to greater ruptures interwoven like veins; the call to resist the deadening of our world by institutions and false power, and the violence of gentrification and displacement. Above all, for Cellista, it is a way of seeing and sharing awareness of her own impact within this shared place.
Engineered by longtime collaborator Maryam Qudus and Grammy-winner Nahuel Bronzini, ‘Transfigurations’ features original compositions and arrangements by Cellista and also involves Bay area composers Peter Colclasure, Nick Vasallo and Be’eri Moalem with his piano quintet Tzeva Adom. The album also features the original poetry of Aubrey Ferreira, narrated by DEM ONE. The movements are composed and curated in a suite-like manner with genres ranging from thrash metal, noise, hip-hop, and classical music.
Cellista is an American experimental cellist and multidisciplinary artist. Her penchant for performing music in unconventional spaces and her devotion to collaborating with artists across media and genres disrupts the world of the classical performing arts. Cellista traverses the walls between disciplines and the borders between spectator and audience. She etches out her own niche through her performances of captivating theatrical recitals by interweaving film, text, and dance. Her work is deeply rooted in her musicological studies of Olivier Messiaen and the French Surrealists.
Cellista’s sound brims with a dissidence informed by her classical foundation and her want to tear that very foundation apart. It explores the sounds of her immediate community through sound collages and music curated to augment that community. Similarly, it explores the meeting point of musical borders and gives testimony to the fragile ecosystem of the San Francisco Bay Area that sits alongside the rest of the world in an increasingly vulgar epoch.
As an experimental cellist, performance artist and artistic director of the interdisciplinary performing arts group Juxtapositions, Cellista is known for her collaborations with artists across various media, as well as her self-produced stage poems (live performances staged in unconventional spaces that incorporate elements of music, theater, improvisation and visual art across a range of genres including pop, hip-hop, classical and more).
Her interdisciplinary exhibit ‘The End of Time’ premiered alongside internationally renowned visual artist Barron Storey’s solo exhibit ‘Quartet’ at the Anno Domini art gallery in San Jose, California. The dual exhibition, created in tribute to French composer Olivier Messiaen’s seminal chamber work ‘The Quartet for the End of Time’, was met with critical acclaim.
Cellista has worked with Grammy-nominated artist Tanya Donelly, producer John Vanderslice, Troyboi, Don McLean, Casey Crescenzo, Van Dyke Parks, and Pam the Funkstress. She recently joined soprano Carla Canales for Hear Her Song, a project that promotes women’s voices through original compositions by female composers. Under the musical direction of Kurt Crowley (Broadway’s Hamilton), her playing was praised.
Cellista’s debut 2016 full-length album ‘Finding San Jose’ was engineered by Maryam Qudus (Doe Eye). The album and its subsequent release as the soundtrack for an interdisciplinary ballet directed and produced by Cellista received favorable reviews.
“Transfigurations’ will be released on May 31, 2019, both digitally and on CD. Digital releases will be available on Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon and all major online stores. The CDs, which come with a full-length book and download code, will be available for purchase on Bandcamp and at shows.
In a region known for disrupting the status quo, Cellista is celebrating the legacy of the original disruptors
– Andrew Gilbert, San Jose Mercury NewsCellista is a classically-trained, punk rock spirited girl with the charm and elegance to defy the stereotype that classical music isn’t cool
– Belle FoundationBuilt on a classical foundation, her music is beautifully avant-garde yet accessible enough to touch one’s sensitivities and create intrigue surrounding her music, her world-view, her all-encompassing vision – elegantly combining sound, space, and dance in an impactful way and the meshed field of wonderment connecting them
– Big Takeover MagazineMore than just a cellist
– Nathan Zanon, Content MagazineShe gave me quotes to put around the emptiness. She gave me context. And subtext. And reflex-tions of what has now filled the void
– Gary Singh, journalist, poet, Steinbeck FellowAn overall brilliant gem. True to her “pastiche” curatorial style, this inclusion and collaboration with other creatives is what makes a captivating and mesmerizing listening experience
– Cherri Lakey, KQEDLINKS:
http://www.cellista.net
https://www.facebook.com/cellista.music
https://twitter.com/xcellistax
https://www.instagram.com/xcellistax
https://www.soundcloud.com/xcellistax
https://cellista.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/xcellistax/videos
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3sZ132TtThqqirlRB9BjFp