Romancer is a four-piece Ambient Punk-Rock band that comes from Kitchener Ontario, Canada. Combined with members with incredible musical talents, Romancer has one goal; to bring the fans a sound that toes the line between soft intimacy and explosive aggressiveness.
Currently, this bunch of humble guys is ramping up to the release of their new project “honeybee” – their second and latest release as Romancer. “Honeybee is our most lyrically honest, and experimental release to date. I am so proud of us this time around, and I can say with confidence that we’ve all reached into the depths of our musicality and creativity to bring out the best in each other and this record” says Romancer lead vocalist/guitarist Adam Horrocks. The band released their debut EP “As We Both Close in on the Water” last year on June 10, 2016.
Shortly after the band released the record, it quickly gained the likes of fans in numerous markets across Canada, USA, Europe, Mexico, and Japan. Their track “Fireworks” had been featured on a compilation CD that was released via LA punk label Wiretap Records shortly after the release of their debut LP. FFO: Jimmy Eat World, Alexisonfire, Brand New & Moneen, this is surely one well-written and engaging record, and will stimulate from beginning to end.
Frequently touring, the band’s fanbase keeps growing in current and new markets. 2017 is set for the release of “honeybee,” a new music video and two tours, one being through eastern Canada.
Romancer is Nathan Cumber, Ben Abu Halaga-Dilgert, Adam Horrocks and Riley O’Donnell.
LINKS:
https://www.romancerband.com
https://www.facebook.com/RomancerBand
https://twitter.com/romancerband
https://www.instagram.com/romancerband
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Klammer – Being Boiled
Klammer is a band with, not only a rich history in music but an even richer knowledge of music. They not only know what works, they are what works. And this is none more present than in their new single titled ‘Being Boiled’. With a thick beat, wonderfully decadent guitars, and the rich deep and pound vocals of Paul (Poss) Strickland leading the way, ‘Being Boiled’ is that special drive and sonic assault that give a rush of adrenaline to the brain while staying steady enough to remain in your mind long after that initial listen. We have a brilliant anthem for the summer.
‘Being Boiled’ was released on June 3rd, 2019, on all digital platforms, including Bandcamp and their official store (more links below).
About Klammer
Hailing from Leeds, Klammer draws on the members’ shared love for all things angular, dark, loud and melodic. Previously described as the love child of XTC and Gang Of Four, they offer an enticing contemporary twist on the post-punk attitude, blending elements of goth rock, punk rock, and darkwave, all with dark pop sensibilities. You’ll find plenty of hooks and dark and edgy broodiness coursing through their sound.Formed by UK Producer Steve Whitfield (The Cure/The Mission/Jane Weaver) in 2014, they have already released 3 albums to great critical acclaim, with last years ‘You Have Been Processed’ receiving fantastic reviews across the board. The singles ‘Modern God’ and ‘Spiral Girl’ off the album, both received airplay on 6 Music.
Having consistently played up and down the country both as a headline act and in support of some big-name bands (including The Skids, The Undertones, Richie Ramone, Chameleons Vox, Penetration, and The Membranes), they have also played at Rebellion for the last two years and The Great British Alternative Festival. Klammer is intent on consolidating their position as one of the country’s finest live Post Punk acts.
LINKS:
https://www.klammer.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/klammerband
https://twitter.com/klammerband
https://klammerband.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/klammer
https://www.instagram.com/klammerband
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsOn5ov6NDaBtgdf-iA3LqQ/videos
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/klammer/id579352463
https://open.spotify.com/artist/25buSKBb5QaT31p8vKpxTV?si=JCDN3D5nQniIo0y71ASqAA -
The Membranes – A Strange Perfume
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 favourites, 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.
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.
LINKS:
http://www.themembranes.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/themembranes
https://www.twitter.com/membranes1
https://www.instagram/themembranes
https://membranes.bandcamp.com -
Luis Mojica – City Friends
Confessional singer-songwriter Luis Mojica has released his new single ‘City Friends’. Earlier, he announced his new album ‘How A Stranger Is Made’, to be released in early October, while teasing the first single ‘The Ranger’.
This album features production from Mercury Prize-winning producers David Baron (Bat For Lashes, Peter Murphy, Lenny Kravitz, The Lumineers) and Simone Felice (The Lumineers, Bat For Lashes, Dan Mangan) and mixing by three-time Grammy award-winning producer Justin Guip (Levon Helm).
Mojica’s new long-play is intimate and empathic – a beautiful tapestry of piano-driven songs that quite intimately express his healing journey through shamanism, sexuality, trauma and ecstatic joy.
“I wrote this song while walking in NYC’s East Village. The St. Mark’s bookstore had just closed, my favorite tree in Washington Square Park was severed in half, and all around me, my beloved neighborhood was changing so rapidly. I walked around feeling so much loss and, this song became a container for me to pour all kinds of loss I had experienced into it. The loss of friendships, lovers, cities, cultures, the identity of self. I finished the song years after leaving the city for Woodstock, NY. You can hear a duality in the track: a somber, lonely piano and vocals against an upbeat drum and then a full-on ecstatic sounding chorus. It was my way of celebrating the loss, gentrification, and the betrayal – in hindsight. It all brought me to a new life that was much better for me. So I became grateful for the forced growth and transformation,” says Luis Mojica.
“I asked 25 of my friends in Woodstock, NY to each lip-sync one line from the song to create a diverse cast of individuals threaded together with the same sentiment: “I lost something”. The song, originally about NYC, became an anthem for us in Woodstock as we’ve experienced so much change in class, culture, and business. Woodstock is quickly evolving and that old, messy, timeless wild that attracted us to the area is disappearing. I shot the video at the last dive bar, now closed and abandoned, that graced Woodstock’s main street. The video features all locals of Woodstock, most of them my dearest friends, as an almost anthropological project to preserve and document this fading era of people and place”.
‘How A Stranger Is Made’ follows up Mojica’s first studio album ‘Wholesome’, released on August 2016 after two years of touring with the avant-garde cello band Rasputina. He toured this album, which features his unique style of live looped beatboxing and rich vocal harmonies, both as support for Rasputina and as a headliner. The album’s limited pressing sold out quite quickly and now is only available digitally.
A pianist and vocalist now based in Woodstock, New York, Mojica began developing his unique musical style in the crowded apartments and crumbling theaters of NYC’s East Village. In 2012, he moved upstate to the mountains of the Hudson Valley, where he’s become renowned for both his holistic healing work, as well as his musical compositions.
Piano-based, his songs blend his 3+ octave vocal range to create choir-like textures, as well as utilizing unusual character voices and harmonies that explore androgyny, spirituality, and unorthodox male identity. Mojica’s music and sound esthetic is inspired by Leonard Cohen, Tori Amos, Patti Smith, Joanna Newsom, and Kate Bush.
The scenario, filming, and direction for this video were all handled by Mojica himself. Video editing was performed by Joel Patterson at Mountaintop Studios in Petersburgh, NY. The accompanying video was written, filmed and directed by Kelly Merchant with editing and compositing by Fredo Viola. Merchant also took the photo for the cover artwork, while Viola designed it.
SOURCE: Official Bio
“Perfect for those who enjoy the visceral sound of Bjork, the hypnotic vocals of Thom Yorke and looking for something new in the scene”
– Music Existence“Mojica’s music requires refined aesthetics and discernment and is damn near a new wrinkle in the sonic territory”
– Mark S. Tucker“Convincing delivery, it seems he is speaking right to the listener in the same way Tori Amos, Devendra Banhart, Kate Bush and Ani DiFranco manage to. His muse has obviously led him into some deeply personal, vulnerable places. Through his music, Mojica radiates creative joy, making this a thoroughly enjoyable listen”
– Big Takeover Magazine“Luis Mojica’s vocals really are an instrument unto themselves and the pinnacle of what makes this album a jewel among the thistles”
– Band Blurb“The harmonies are exceptional. From the opera style to the beatboxing. I haven’t been this impressed this much with vocal harmonies since I heard Fleet Foxes”
– No More Division“Mojica’s voice is an instrument in itself; it soars as he sings and his beats are like bullets puncturing through the track”
– MookychicLINKS:
http://www.luismojica.com
https://www.facebook.com/luismojicamusic
https://luismojica.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/luis.mojica.music
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl-Z3peOvHwczSYyv4J-IVA/videos
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/luis-mojica/763703531
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0kqaE6tmzfgC4hk6CKXlr7