Prince has a new record coming out on called Art OfficialAge on September 30. He will also release an album with Third Eye Girl called
Plectrum Electrum on the same date.
June Brides have got a new single coming out. You can get
the digital single Tuesday and the 7” preorders are being taken now from
Slumberland Records.
White Laces will be putting out their first single from the
new album real soon.
Here we go...
This is the first album put out by Flowers. They have put
out a quite a few EPs and singles before this. I have talked a bout a few of
them. It is not officially out until the 9th of September but I got
my copy a week and a half early. It will be available on LP, CD and DL that I
am aware of. The LP is only fifteen bucks, very reasonable. I preordered my
copy and it came on a beautiful bold pink with white swirl. It also came with a
download card but I can’t use it until the release date. So, in order to get
this review done I digitally recorded it. It sounds pretty good except for the
static pop that I couldn’t get rid of when I scrubbed the audio. The songs over
all are absolutely beautiful but there isn’t much variation in the music. I
think that what I am saying is that it seems like all of the songs are similar
in style. This is of course only my first few listens so the album may just
grow on me.
There are already a couple of singles released from this
album digitally. The first of the two is called Young. This is the lead track
from the album. It is a great moderate rocker to start the album off right. It
has a quick bass drum beat to start the song off with electric guitar playing
chords that ring out perfectly. The vocals are so pretty. Her voice reminds me
of a beautiful pink sunset that is rich and deep in color. As the song
progresses there are strings added in the background giving the song a fullness
that matches her vocals. the end of the song is just as minimalistic as the
opening with piano taking the place of the electric guitar giving her vocals a
fragile feel.
Joanna is the other single that has been put out so far. The
drums on this one have the right quick pace like Young does. The guitar work
has a fun jangle feel to it. Her vocals are a bit fragile through the whole
song. I think that this one is a bit more fun simply because the vocalist makes
her voice jump through hoops in the scale with fun highs and lows in the
chorus. This track is just the three members of the band playing, no extras. It
makes the song rawer than the first single.
I would like to add that the last track, Stuck, on the album
is super sweet and minimalistic. It is just the vocalist and her bass guitar.
It is a creative bass line that works so well with her vocals. The bass not
only plays notes but also keeps the beat with percussive notes. This is
probably my favorite track on the album.
This is a great album that I have been very excited about
for a while. I am very happy that I finally have a copy in my hot hands.
This compilation was just released. I got my copy this week.
If you got the physical album you were supposed to get a limited poster and a
set of pins. I did not get the pins in my package but it was shipped from over
seas in a weak outer sleeve to save on cost I am sure. I am actually glad that
I did not get the pins because they probably would have damaged the record in
transit. For those who preordered the physical record you were also supposed to
get some extra tracks on the download, three of them to be exact. I ended up
only getting two extra tracks and only one of them was on the labels list of
tracks web page. Not that these extra tracks really meant anything to me. The
only reason that I got the album was because Echo Lake had contributed a track.
I really like Echo Lake and have been waiting for something new to be released.
This is the first new music that I have heard from them since their debut
album, Wild Peace, in 2011.
Echo Lake contributed a song called This Year and is the
song that is being pushed as a single on the internet. It is a very melodic
song with double tracked female vocals that have heavy echo and reverb on them.
Giving me the feel of cotton candy laced with string steel, almost hard to bite
but still very beautiful. The guitar is sweet too, just the right amount of
distortion. The solo guitar part is like candy floss too. The unexpected part
is when the harmonica comes in during the break. It comes off very light and
fits the song well. The rhythm section, drums and bass, are easy to overlook.
They do their job well and that is all that is really needed I guess. The song
works so well that I can’t wait to hear more from the group. I hope it will be
in the near future.
I Know You So Well is done by The History Of Apple Pie. I
had never heard of the group before this song and am pleasantly surprised. The
song is smooth and reminds me of the groups from the mid 90s alternative groups
fronted by girls. It is boring as most of those acts were in the 90s though.
They make use of the sounds but make the song so much more interesting. They
also take from the shoegaze movement from the late 80s that I like so much.
This may be why I like the song so much. It has a mellow smooth sound but still
could be played very loud to get all new sounds.
The group Parlour put the song Slow Down on the album. It is
a hard hitting track that reminds me of the Go-Go’s if they had been a part of
the alternative music in the 90s. It is a really fun track that has a great
beat. The vocals are multi-tracked and harmonized giving the vocals something
special. It is a great track that I am happy to have heard.
You can hear all of the songs on the record at the Marshall Teller soundcloud page.
You can hear all of the songs on the record at the Marshall Teller soundcloud page.
I got this album as a freebie when I bought the The Late
Virginia Summers (TLVS) cassette from Harding Street Assembly Lab. They for got
to send me the TLVS cassette and as an apology they sent me the three cassette
combo pack. I wasn’t going to say no. Of the two extra cassettes this one was
the one that struck me the most. The cassette came in a silk screened sack that
had in it the cassette, a sticker and a unmarked CD in a white slipcase. The CD
is supposed to be a mix-disc that is one track but many tracks from different
artists mixed like it was a radio show or something. There are no commercials
or anything just music mixed with no breaks. The plastic on the cassette is a
smoky clear with a red metallic sheet underneath. It is pretty for a cassette.
The cassette came with a download card but it didn’t seem to work when I tried
it. So I recorded the cassette to digital myself. I found that there were three
extra tracks. I think that the echoes on the end of side A were just to fill
out the end of the tape. These same echoes happen just before the extra track
called Stickers. The echoes don’t actually have a name so I labeled them Echoes
1 and 2. The music on the tape is very atmospheric but the drumming is
excellent and makes the album stand out from other atmospheric albums that I
have heard. No track specifically stands out above the rest though as this is
an album that I would probably put on while I was reading a book. It is just
something to have in the background. I think that is the way it was designed
though.
That is all I have for now...
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