Initially conceived by Chrisy, Lorcan, and Richy as a songwriting project – self-releasing two homespun LP’s and receiving airplay from BBC Radio 2 courtesy of Mark Radcliffe. Following a few singles with Liverpool’s Eighties Vinyl Records (The La’s/The Stairs/The Sand Band), 2016 saw Dave and Jules complete the lineup, evolving into a fully fledged live band.
An EP later that year was followed by a third self-titled LP, produced by long time collaborator Paul Den Heyer and mastered by Nick McCabe (The Verve), released in 2018 on Deltasonic Records (The Coral/The Zutons). This LP received a glowing 4 Star review in Mojo Magazine and featured on the Steve Lamacq BBC Radio 6 playlist with the single ‘By The By’.
Golden Repair is the band’s fourth LP & the first to be released by Mai 68 Records. Formed from sprawling jams during soundchecks & rehearsals, lyrics & harmonies worked out during long van journeys whilst on tour with US Alt-rock stalwarts Buffalo Tom, the result is a record that is more than the sum of its parts; five friends as a collective, playing in a room, together.
In order to capture this vibe effectively, the band decided to record live at Faktory Studios, standing in a circle facing each other was key. You can hear it in every note of the album; no mixing out creaks & coughs, with just the right amount of bleed. Recorded beautifully by Simon Jones (The Verve), the final mixes from longtime collaborator Paul Den Heyer sound exactly like the band envisaged, a moment in time captured like a sonic photograph.
‘Nowhere Near an Ocean’ started as an enveloping riff thrown out on the fly, the band easing into a groove & crashing into simultaneous changes on the day in the studio. It was quickly committed to tape in a couple of takes with improvised lyrics & instinctive harmonies. Proof that the first idea is often the best idea.
‘Where You Gonna Go’ is the first Sunstack Jones track to feature a three-part harmony, devised on a long drive to Holland for a festival performance & introducing a new dynamic to the band.
The two singles preceding the LP release introduce the recurring lyrical themes visited throughout the album. Living in the here & now rather than being caught up in nostalgia for times that have passed, yet longing to be far away from the unavoidable frustration & anger of living in an unfair & unjust society.
LINKS
http://www.sunstackjones.com
https://www.facebook.com/SunstackJones
https://sunstackjones.bandcamp.com
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Atmosphere – Drown feat. Cashinova, The Lioness & deM atlaS
The last time we checked in with Slug and Ant was on 2016’s Fishing Blues, the latest chapter in a string of albums showcasing the pair’s evolution from tortured hedonists into settled-down dads making kicked-back rap records. It would have been nice to carry on thinking they were finally at well-earned peace after two decades of extensively documented trials and tribulations. But just because your corner of the globe is peaceful, that doesn’t mean that the rest of the world stops turning.
It’s a different place than it was two years ago, and the seventh Atmosphere album, Mi Vida Local, reflects the ways in which the world–and Atmosphere’s place in it–have changed. The idyllic domesticity of the past few records has morphed into anxiety over keeping loved ones safe during turbulent times. Instead of bragging about backstage misadventures it’s about grappling with mortality. The easygoing collaboration between Ant and Slug has started to feel more like the life-or-death intimacy of two men trapped together on a lifeboat.
At times it’s a heavy album (“I might be the last generation of grandparents,” goes a key line from “Virgo”), but it’s far from grim. There are jokes being cracked, joints getting smoked, a little trash talking and beefing here and there–after all, it’s still a rap record.
And Atmosphere’s never sounded better.
As the name implies, Mi Vida Local is intensely focused on the place it was created–the southside of Minneapolis–where Slug and Ant work tirelessly in their “beautiful basements”, refining their sound without interruption. (Although a handful of friends from the Minneapolis hip-hop community showed up to contribute.) A year of one-on-one collaboration resulting in an album that matches complex subject matter with equally deep beats–ones that show a clear lineage back to the psychedelic funk landmarks from an earlier era where America was going through a post-utopian hangover, and prove that there won’t ever be a time where boom-bap beats don’t sound perfectly of the moment.
Mi Vida Local might be the best album Atmosphere’s ever made. It’s definitely the one they needed to make right now, and one listeners need to hear just as urgently. If it’s sometimes an album about how the fight to find happiness never really ends–even after you get the house and the kids and the artistic freedom to make dad-rap records–it’s also about discovering that there’s happiness to be found just in fighting.
Video Credits:
Director / DP / Editor – Tomas Aksamit
Producer / AD – Kelan McQuinn
AC – Bryce Wandling
Art Director – Jen Sonibare
Gaffer – Jacob Velander
PA – Lucas LangleyLINKS:
https://rse.lnk.to/MiVidaLocal
https://rhymesayers.com/artists/atmosphere
https://www.facebook.com/Atmosphere
https://twitter.com/atmosphere
https://www.instagram.com/atmosphere -
Greystone Canyon – In These Shoes
In the 70s and 80s, Australia gave the world great hard rock/metal acts like AC/DC and Rose Tattoo. Now, joining those Aussie giants of rock are Greystone Canyon. The name Greystone Canyon is inspired by the freedom of wide open landscapes, something Australia and America very much have in common.
“It was inspired by our love for the old western films and the images these films conjure. The vast plains, endless horizons, the freedom, and heck, Greystone Canyon is one hell of a cool name for rock/ metal band!” says vocalist /guitarist Darren Cherry.
Greystone Canyon released their debut album “While The Wheels Still Turn” on March 9, 2018, in Europe, U.S.A, and Canada through Rockshots Records and on Hellfire Records in Australia on March 12, 2018.
“While The Wheels Still Turn” was tracked at the splendidly named Goatsound Studios in Melbourne, Australia, and then mixed in Canada, making ‘the album a real rock n’ roll frequent flyer. Mixing duties were undertaken by none other than Grammy-nominated producer and legend Glen Robinson, who had engineered, mixed and produced equally legendary acts like Annihilator, Queensryche, and Voivod.
Inspired by legends like Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Megadeth and King Diamond, “While The Wheels Still Turn” is an album that could not only sit well beside the works of those legends, but with the current tsunami of all things the 70s and 80s inspired, Greystone Canyon is in the right place at the right time. We are traveling back to the future and they are the soundtrack!
As vocalist/guitarist, Darren Cherry proudly states.
“We really wanted to make an album similar to old Ozzy Osbourne record where songs like ‘I don’t know’ and ‘Goodbye To Romance’ can sit comfortably. This is music from the heart and soul!”
LINKS:
http://www.rockshots.eu
https://www.facebook.com/greystonecanyon
http://bit.ly/GreystoneCanyon_AMAZON -
Astrobal – Australasie (ft. Laetitia Sadier)
French electronic producer Astrobal has announced his forthcoming ‘Memories of Stars’ EP via German label Karaoke Kalk, combining psychedelic soundings with a soft pop. He is already previewing the lead track ‘Australasie ft. Laetitia Sadier’. The accompanying video was produced by Patrice Curtillat (a.k.a. Poborsk), whose fantastic illustrations flow over the geography of Australasia, as clouds of drones and satellites float in the sky, before inevitably diving in a kaleidoscope from where one emerges on stellar landscapes, where colors and hybrid forms blossom like mechanical insects.
Astrobal is the solo project of Emmanuel (Emma) Mario, who burst onto the scene in his native France through collaborations and production work with some of the country’s most cutting-edge artists, including Laetitia Sadier, Arnaud Fleurent-Didier, Holden, Institut, Monade, Hyperclean. and Iko Chérie. It is no coincidence that the Stereolab songstress should feature on ‘Australasie’, as Emma Mario’s work as a producer and drummer for Laetitia Sadier has left an enduring legacy, rendering some of the most singular work from the iconic French chanteuse.
Mario has produced several Laetitia Sadier albums ‘The Trip’ (2010) and ‘Something Shines’ (2014), as well as the latest ‘Find Me Finding You’ album from Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble, all three albums released through Drag City. He’s been extremely busy this year, touring as part of the Ensemble and sometimes even opening the show as Astrobal.
“Our blood runs hydrous with the seas/The essence of oceans spills through our veins.” Laetitia Sadier matter-of-factly unfurls these words on the opening track and they prove prescient. Astrobal’s wispy, French-accented vocals intermix with Sadier’s enchanting voice as she delivers spiritual and scientific information about the universe as if engaged in a shamanic incantation.
“Emmanuel became a long-time collaborator and he’s very good at working with other people, but there was also a desire to do his own stuff. He was kind of doing it before he started working on this project, but then I guess he found his focus and made this incredible piece of work,” says Laetitia Sadier.
“From one track to another, you’re transported to very different countries, but it’s also very familiar to Emmanuel, and I find that to be a real strength: to have such a variety of different styles, but still be familiar and to have some similarity. He reaches really far out to find certain tracks and to bring them back to a whole.”
The album is aqueous, each track a slow wave building, with clean lines and fluid form. Symphonic strings and ethereal ambient washes are married to buzzing synths and Astrobal’s crisp, crackling drums. Though eclectic, Astrobal presents a cohesive vision, with the guiding principles of texture and fluidity uniting the disparate threads. Astrobal creates a universe one can swim around in – from start to finish, the particular mood always beholden to the vibe. One leaves his dream world having lived a unique experience laced with sonic and solar dreamy.
Karaoke Kalk was founded by Thorsten Lütz in 1997. By releasing music that bridges several electronic genres, including minimal, ambient, and techno, this niche label is helping to define the sound of contemporary pop.
Karaoke Kalk has put out records by Bill Wells, Hauschka, Toulouse Low Trax, and many others. Karaoke Kalk also co-released Astrobal’s debut full-length album ‘Australasie’ with LA-based Plug Research in June of this year.
LINKS:
http://www.astrobal.com
http://www.facebook.com/Astrobalwaves
http://twitter.com/astrobalwaves
http://soundcloud.com/lesfraisessauvages
http://www.instagram.com/astrobal
http://astrobal.bandcamp.com
http://astrobalwaves.tumblr.com
http://open.spotify.com/artist/4CWXZeuMIFCkejorIIbny6