Celestial Shore : Pals

Brooklyn's Celestial Shore release a 7" through Double Denim Records on 5th July. West Coast harmonies meet frentic Dirty Projectors-a-like post-jazz-rock on A side 'Pals' although the dreamy B-side 'Maps' is the real choice pick.

Celestial Shore - Pals / Place Aux Dames 7"

More at doubledenimrecords.com.

Special Benny @ Kick The Plug

More live action!



More at kicktheplug.wordpress.com.

Golden Ages : Be Cool/Everything Will Be Alright

Falling somewhere impossibly blissful between the experimental side of Animal Collective and the accessible side of Fuck Buttons is Philadelphia's Golden Ages. An LP 'Tradition' is released in the spring but for now here are the singles 'Be Cool' and 'Everything Will Be Alright' to get excited about. Very excited.

MP3:
'Be Cool'
'Everything Will Be Alright'



'Tradition' will be released on Deerhaus soon.

The Second Release On Proper Songs Is By Special Benny

Available on digital in November, 'Air Filter' is the first track from Special Benny's exceptional debut album 'Toys' out in Spring '010.



propersongs.net/label

DJ Food : One Man's Weird Is Another Man's World

News of the forthcoming DJ Food EP was announced today along with the quite fantastic artwork by 2000AD artist Henry Flint. 'One Man's Weird Is Another Man's World' is released on 6th July, here's what they say about the tracks.

'The Illectrik Hoax' features Nathaniel Pearn aka Natural Self aka one half of The Broken Keys in a role he's not normally known for - vocalist. Kev approached him after hearing an uncredited vocalist on two Broken Keys tracks which turned out to be Nathaniel's first forays into singing.

'extract from Stolen Moments' is the first of several variations on a theme that will run through the forthcoming album of the same name. Co-written with PC and seeing the light of day in remixed form after being shelved at the last minute for the Kaleidoscope album.

'All Covered In Darkness Part 1' hosts guest appearances - in sample form - from two artists previously associated with DJ Food. Ken Nordine should need no introduction, he provides the verses whilst the harmonies of The Dragons fill the choruses. The good Dr. Rubberfunk joins in on drums to glue the whole thing together and then freq's out on Part 2 as things get heavy.

'A Trick Of The Ear' A 13 and half minute polyrhythmic percussion epic mixed by ex Tortoise member Bundy K Brown who also provides a remix with an epic title to match. Headphone music based on circular rhythms aimed at the head rather than the feet.

'Colours Beyond Colours' Meditations on colours from far out in space, looking back through the Kaleidoscope.

Teeth Mountain : Q&A

Instrumental trance-rock behemoth Teeth Mountain beam us The Answers (and a photograph) direct from their tour bus, which appears to be somewhere on the outer reaches of reality.

PS. Tell everyone a bit about yourselves.
Kate is dreaming in the hammock at the back of the bus. Greg Fox is reading Cosmic Trigger volume III and wondering what I'm doing. Greg St. Pierre is drifting out on his video zone for tonite. Max is listening to a portable CD player, I can't tell if it has anti-skip or not, lets hope for his sake it does. Andrew Burt is checking out maps and researching Birmingham, Alabama where we're headed now, he's a human compass. Bernie is eating chips, now and forever. I (Justin) just fixed my sunglasses with some duct tape and sticks, so far so good, but when we hit bumps they get sort of fucked.

PS. How's the tour going with Dan Deacon and Future Islands?
Dan, Future Islands, Chester, Steff, Mabson, Bennyventure, Ray Roy, Denny Dagger and the bus/eagle ager guys all make for a serious crew. We've been burning through cities. Our bus is sketchy, but this dude Jeff rules it. Right now we're in the south and heading west to the best tacos in the world.

PS. How did you all meet and start playing together?
We met in clown town and started jamming under the space titty? We wrote the whole back story about 1989 Denton, Texas, the Manic Messiahs, Kings Club backroom, time travel, super Vacations, Quantum leap baltimore mid 90s shit and then the kool bus internet fuzzed out and my netzone got fucked. Family of Love.

PS. What are some of the influences of your sound?
All of existence and non existence, which are not separate things. The effect that vibration has on air molecules, and how those effected molecules can influence the nervous system of a gathered group of entities. Conquering the Black Iron Prison, breaking out of the rigid logic of Aristotle, deafening the chalice of groups who meet in secret and plot our transformation into a slave consciousness. The milky way galaxy is our home, Earth is where we currently "are" in "time" and "space". The taco that can be told is not the eternal taco.

PS. Give us a top five of something.
Top 5 things:
1 - "Taco zone"
2 - "Joose Bros"
3 - "Dick Zoz"
4 - "Powder them nuss"
5 - "Titty Head"

Top 4 awesome things about the bus we're currently on:
1 - Hammocks
2 - runs on veggie oil
3 - has Internet. Alabama --> London digi connection, wifi world order
4 - kicthen (Grateful Dead poster, igloo, kombucha bucket)

Top 3 show playlist moments:
1 - All of Philly singing along to Sublime - "Santeria"
2 - All of Philly singing along to System of a Down "Chop Suey"
3 - The lady in Knoxville yelling at us to start because "this song sucks"

Top 2 theoretical bands:
1 - Bases Loaded
2 - Grind Staph

Top 1 end of show song played by Mabson:
1 - Seal "Kiss from a Rose"

At the moment Juno seems to be the easiest place to buy 'Teeth Mountain' on vinyl or MP3.

The Giallos Flame : Euro Slash EP

Music based on cult soundtracks appears to be very much de rigueur this month. The latest offering comes from The Giallos Flame, influenced by the sounds of 70's Italian movie soundtracks, from Goblin horror funk to Morricone psyched out giallo-jazz.

Download The Giallos Flame 'Prog Rock Mix' here.

Buy 'Euro Slash' EP from 2600 Recordings.

Remember Remember : Q&A

Anyone who's peeped the Proper Songs Last.FM scrobbler has seen its been overrun by multiple plays of Remember Remember's insanely brilliant album from last year. Head brain Graeme granted PS some words.

PS: Tell everyone a bit about yourself and what you're up to.
My name is Graeme Ronald, I'm 28 and I drink too much. I haven't bothered to shave in a number of days as I haven't in fact left the house in a number of days except to buy cigarettes and beer. Aside from this, I work by night under the pseudonym Remember Remember, righting societies wrongs through the medium of instrumental music.

PS: As a solo musician how did you approach writing the album? Was it straightforward recording it?
Despite being a solo musician I play with a band so I guess you could say that I'm not a solo musician. I deliberately attempt to keep a sense of mystery about who is actually in Remember Remember but this has mostly resulted in the people that played on the record becoming upset as everyone thinks it's just me. So to try and set the record straight, Remember Remember is a collective, the only constant member of said collective being me, but the album could not have possibly turned out the way it did without the contributions of the other players. I suppose it was fairly straightforward, I had a very clear picture in my head of how every layer of every song was going to be placed, yet there were some interesting tangents that lead to very unexpected changes.....deciding at the last minute, after every part had been recorded that some songs really needed drums, for example....the absolute opposite of everything I've ever been told about proper recording practise.

PS: You play a variety of instruments, what's your favourite/or/most unusual?
I would say that I turned my hand to a variety of instruments, not so much that I play them....i certainly wouldn't say that I've mastered any of them. My favourite instrument that I own, and probably the most unusual too, is a Mexican instrument called a Gatorra. It is, on one hand, completely useless, but on the other hand, a wonder-torch. I was given mine by a friend not realising how rare and incredible it is.....a guitar shaped drum machine / analogue synth made by a former TV Repairman called Tony Da Gatorra, constructed from old television components. It has a peace sign emblazoned on it and on closer inspection is in fact not in the shape of a guitar, but of a communist sickle.



PS: How does playing live differ to the album?
I'm actually becoming increasingly worried that the album is impossible to recreate live without a huge band. I put together an 11 piece group for the launch and it sounded tremendous, however it's not always possible to have that many people available. Sometimes I play on my own, sometimes I play with a trio of myself, Sax (James Swinburne) and Violin (Joan Sweeney), and sometimes other combinations depending on peoples availability. I enjoy that it's different every time, but for people who have only heard the album I imagine the live show might be a bit of a surprise.

PS: If 'Remember Remember' could be associated with a date other than 5th November, what would it be and why?
Oh probably my first date. Who could forget puking in the general direction of the object of your affection.

PS: Give us a Top 5 of something.
1. "Something" by The Beatles
2. "Something Else" by Sid Vicious / Eddie Cochran
3. Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" By Marc Almond and Gene Pitney
4. "Some Things Come From Nothing" By Super Furry Animals
5. Deep Blue Something



Buy the album at Rough Trade.

School Of Seven Bells : Alpinisms

Formed of ex-Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis and twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, School Of Seven Bells have been building anticipation for their debut album since first emerging in early 2007. Named after a mythological Andean pickpocket academy, the Brooklyn trio create out-there songs, led beautifully by the Deheza sisters blood-harmony, crossing ethereal folk with prog-pop and electronics. Their sound is hard to pin down and crosses many periods of time, resulting in something akin to medieval folk ballads remixed by Kevin Shields (I said it was hard to pin down). 'Alpinisms' grows in briliance with every listen.


Buy @ Amazon

School Of Seven Bells are on tour in February/March including UK dates in London, Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, Brighton and Glasgow.

AU : Verbs

'Verbs' is the recently released second album by Portland based experimental pop collective AU, fronted by Luke Wyland. Opening with a blissfully free twenty plus choir on 'All My Friends' it segues into 'Are Animals', something along the lines of a delirious prog-folk/free-jazz/deep-house hybrid, if you can stomach that amalgamation of sub-genres. As an opening salvo its quite a show of force and sets the tone for the album. The delicate balance that exists between 'Summerheat' and the all-out pop joy of 'RR vs D' is carried on into the following tracks, in turns bold and delicate, reducing down the personnel until only Wyland remains on the closing 'Sleep'. Continually intriguing and consistently odd. Great!

Download 'RR vs. D' from Aagoo's website here
Buy @ Amazon

The Alps : III

III is the first studio album (following two live albums) from far out San Francisco trio The Alps. The Alps draw on soundtracks and the most progressive - in a good way - aspects of funk, rock and folk before giving it a good old squeeze through the box marked 'weird'. Played on headphones, the peak time for this is sunrise, preferably without any sleep for a least 24 hours. It's the kinda thing NASA should have on the playlist to prepare astronauts for being shot into space. If The Verve hadn't gone rubbish after 'Northern Soul' and jetissoned Ashcroft, maybe into space, in favour of working with Kieran Hebden and chilling out *a lot*, they would've gone halfway to sounding as good as this.


The Alps - Hallucinations @ YSI
Buy @ Amazon