Hatched in Arizona and with wings affixed in California, Satellite Ravens is as close to a one-man band as you can get without the spectacle of someone with cymbals strapped to their knees and an array of whistles around their neck. The creator is a multi-instrumentalist, Carson Rohde; his vehicle, the many-headed psychedelic funk gull, Satellite Ravens; the album, a mind-expanding zoo of colorful characters from this world and beyond, from yesterday and tomorrow. The hippy vibes are back for a new generation and lift-off is available any time you’re ready.
With Rohdes’ behemoth-like bass guitar skills very much to the fore, “The Equinox” has the shuffling, staggering drums of the 90’s Madchester scene, but with the Day-Glo smarts of US bands like MGMT and early Flaming Lips. From the swooning joy of Suffocated, with its Ween-esque mischievousness to the pseudo-mystical Chili Peppers dream-funk of Encircled, each track builds into an ever-expanding universe, twisting back on itself and latching onto new rhythms, writhing gleefully as it morphs into an entirely new animal. If Space Rock to you is Hawkwind or Spacemen 3, think again – this is the real sound of the cosmos: playful; intriguing but also joyful.
Rather like the deliberately distressed Yes-like album cover, Satellite Ravens have their tongue somewhat in their cheek, but this belies their huge musical talent and often intriguing lyrical content. With elements of jazz, classical, funk, 80s rock and 90s underground psych, this is an album which grows in magnificence with each subsequent listen. Prepare to follow Satellite Ravens in orbit.
LINKS:
https://soundcloud.com/satellite_ravens
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4DWM8jTdcf2wyyWt3a7SzV
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuJAay056LCLnCks9ua9Duw?view_as=subscriber
https://www.facebook.com/satellite.ravens
https://twitter.com/satelliteravens
https://www.instagram.com/satellite.ravens
https://satelliteravens.com
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ToBy – 90’s Babies
Toby Season Volume 1 is a reflection of ToBy and Aleksander Vinter’s experience in the public domain as artists and equally, as humans. As such, “90’s Babies” acts as the perfect bridge into the world ToBy lyrically unfolds for listeners, track-by-track in Toby Season Volume 1; a project entirely composed in the few months ToBy has lived in Los Angeles full-time. “90’s Babies” lends itself to the idea of people being so distracted by their phones that have an ‘in real life’ conversation with anyone anymore is impossible.
ToBy says of the single: “When coming up with the ’90’s Babies’ concept we took a long hard look at the ideas of storytelling outlined in Joseph Cambell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces. We wanted to create a universe spearheaded by the version of ToBy that acts as the “zero to hero” type, ambling through life until he comes face-to-face with powers beyond his understanding. The choice to go 3D in the music video came from studying different styles of art that both Aleks and I grew up with; namely anime and mecha tv shows and comic books. ’90’s Babies’ was the first song we had ever worked on together (2 or 3 years ago), so it felt right to give it the spotlight as the single for the upcoming mixtape.”
ToBy concludes: “My sense of humor and Aleks’ artistic intuition collides together in what we feel like is poised to be one of the most interesting videos to come out in the modern rap scene.”
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more information on ToBy’s upcoming mixtape.
LINKS:
http://tobyseason.com
https://twitter.com/official_toby
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialToByMusic
https://soundcloud.com/officialtobymusic -
Darto – No Self
Darto has released the new creepy video for ‘No-Self’. Darto is Gordon De Los Santos, Gregory Flores, Candace Harter, Nicholas Merz. ‘Human Giving’ was recorded by Darto between September 2015 and January 2016 in a cabin in Cle Elum, WA and their home in Seattle. The ‘Follow Up / Hush’ 7″ was written, performed and recorded by Darto and Wand at Comp-ny in Burbank, CA in April 2017. It was engineered and recorded by Be Hussey. Both releases were mixed by Cory Hanson at Comp-ny and mastered by JJ Golden at Golden Mastering in Ventura, CA.
“We smashed together in Los Angeles and wrote these two songs; repurposed lyrics we wrote in the studio together. A lot of people got to sing who had never sung on a record before,” says Cory Hanson of WAND. “All in all, this was a successful collaboration I think. The spirit of both bands made it onto the tape together, intact. We ate breakfast burritos the next morning, then Darto flew away. I went to go to the beach but our car died in Topanga Canyon”.
Aagoo Records is home to vinyl releases by Xiu Xiu, Lucky Dragons, The Use with Rachel Mason, Philippe Petit and more. ‘Human Giving’ can now be ordered in physical format from Aagoo Records’ website and digitally via Darto’s Bandcamp.
LINKS:
http://www.lifewithdarto.com
http://www.facebook.com/Dartowa
http://darto.bandcamp.com
http://soundcloud.com/decouth
http://dartowa.blogspot.com -
Twilight Fields – When I Saw You
“Our Time Is Now” is the third album of original music by Twilight Fields of North Bay, Ontario, Canada. This is the song-based project of Allister Thompson (known in ambient music circles as The Gateless Gate).
Twilight Fields’ music is very much a throwback to the spiritually intense days of “big music” when bands like The Waterboys, The Church, and Big Country weren’t ashamed to try to make philosophical statements with their music.
This particular album mainly deals lyrically with the importance of and our need for unconditional love to navigate sorrow and loss in an increasingly confused world, whether it’s love between partners, siblings, parent and child, or human and other beings and the natural world.
It combines elements of the gentle psychedelia of late sixties/early seventies Beach Boys with influences from Kiwi and Aussie pop (The Go-Betweens, Crowded House), the smarter end of Brit-pop (James, Doves), and classic seventies singer-songwriters, along with sonic touches from post-punk, psych, post-rock, shoegaze, dream pop and progressive rock.
The album contains a cover of The Moody Blues’ 1986 classic “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere” that mixes the mellotronic style of early Moodies with a hint of shoegaze.
About Twilight Fields
Twilight Fields is from Northern Canada and makes “ambient rock” with influences from progressive rock, ambient, dream-pop, psych-folk, and shoegaze. This music asks big questions about life and loss. Look for party-rock elsewhere.LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/twilightfields
http://twilightfields.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/tfieldsband