Happy Friday! And it’s a 3 day weekend! Make the most of your bank holiday by listening to these 5 fantastic tracks music editor Lulu has picked for you this week. Don’t forget to share the list and tweet @After_Nyne
Benjamin Verdoes – Highly Emotional
Benjamin Verdoes first gained notoriety through his eccentric and unpredictable song writing in Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, who released two records on Dead Oceans. Verdoes, a multi-instrumentalist, has spent the last five years developing as a producer and beat-maker. His most recent EP, The One & The Other continues a pattern of experimentation and curiosity. The new songs make for a clear and exciting departure from his last solo record, The Evil Eye (Brick Lane Records).
Pure Bathing Culture – Pray For Rain
Sarah Versprille & Daniel Hindman of Pure Bathing Culture explained that “the video is about someone going wherever they need to go in order to get where they’re going and sometimes this is about excess; you have be who you are and sometimes you need to chase the darkness. We’re all related, it’s all about our interactions. And we’re doing this with each other all the time. Sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. Really, how can you not be cut in two if you really, honestly look inside yourself?”
Pray For Rain is the band’s second studio album and first with producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Swans, Angel Olsen, The Walkmen) at the helm. It is a big leap forward which one can hear from the opening notes of their anthemic title track: in Hindman’s clean yet serpentine guitar lines interacting with the live rhythm section and Versprille’s lucid vocals cutting through it all. Pray for Rain is the sound of the group confidently taking a step up to the next level and finding their footing as a true band.
Halo Tora – Permanent Revolution
Halo Tora are a five piece union of progressive rock burgeoning from Glasgow, Scotland. A bond formed through years of writing and live shows supporting the likes of Jamie Lenman (Reuben) and My Vitriol as well as recently embarking on their own UK tour. The band repress nothing, by concentrating and coalescing their individual creative forces the band are able to subjugate generalised stylistic boundaries contrastively sitting somewhere between prog-rock, alt-rock and post rock. The result is a raw yet emotional album which is as dynamic as it is powerful.
Undergrünnen – Skjønne du Ingenting
In spring 2014 Per Steinar Lie (of The Low Frequency in Stereo) received a call from Haugesund prison, Norway. They needed a band to play for the inmates at very short notice or more specifically, the very next day. The only problem was that only one other member of The Low Frequency in Stereo (Ørjan Haaland) was in town. However, Pål Jackman (of Wunderkammer) had just moved back to town so Steinar Lie decided to give him a call. The next day the three of them set up their equipment at the prison, and without a single rehearsal or any clear idea of what might happen next, they performed on stage in front of the inmates of Haugesund prison and thus Undergrünnen was born.
Silverbird – Lyfe
Songwriter Tim Barr founded Silverbird after spending several years on New York’s vibrant music scene playing gigs as part of Lana Del Rey’s band, opening for The Blow, and studying and playing with Dizzy Gillespie’s pianist protegee Mike Longo. 2015 has already been incredibly busy for the band. The year started with two packed shows at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar and Black Bear, with many more shows and a tour to come. The track ‘With the Spirits’ from Surface Life was selected for the All Saints spring playlist and the song will be played in their 110 worldwide stores for three months. Tim is also featured on the packaging for Cakewalk’s Sonar Artist production software.
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