New Selections — BARNETT+COLOCCIA, Dave Harrington Group, The Coathangers, Mörglbl, Dylan Henner, Good Fuck, Black Taffy

The first full week of 2019 is at a close, so please enjoy this first batch of sounds. 

BARNETT+COLOCCIA: "Copperworks"
(via Rarely Unable / SIGE Records / Soundcloud)

Via Rarely Unable:

Barnett + Coloccia is the musical collaboration between Faith Coloccia (Mamiffer, Mára and recently vocals on Jóhann Jóhannsson's Mandy soundtrack) and Alex Barnett (Oakeater, Champagne Mirrors).

Each record begins the same, with a reunion of two good friends catching up on life changes, new ideas on existence, magical occurrences, and difficult experiences. The ideas in the reunions between Faith and Alex plant the conceptual seeds for each song. The music itself takes influence from cinematic soundtracks, 20th century classical and early electronic music.

The project is a true collaboration in the sense that the songs never end up as one person's vision, rather they end up somewhere new, where the whole is a strange extension beyond the sum of the parts.

Recorded over three days by Nicholas Wilbur at Anacortes Unknown. Randall Dunn's production helped to realise each song as a space in time event.

With two previous albums released by the Blackest Ever Black label, B+C continue their singular approach on SIGE with VLF their third outing into the unknown, which shall see release on 22nd February 2019.

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Dave Harrington Group: "Well"

(via Clandestine Label Services / Yeggs Records / Bandcamp)

Via Clandestine Label Services:

Today multi-instrumentalist and producer Dave Harrington announced his second full-length album with his project Dave Harrington Group titled Pure Imagination, No Country. The album will be released on February 1st 2019 on CD/LP/Digital courtesy of Yeggs Records, and is available for pre-order through Bandcamp.

With the announcement Harrington shared the album opener "Well" (listen on Spotify, Bandcamp), a 2-minute glimpse into the album's spirit of improvisation and composition through psych rock, jazz and electronic music — all at once, in equal measure.

From their 2014 EP and 2016's Become Alive, Dave Harrington Group have received acclaim from The 405, Drowned In Sound, Noisey, NPR, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and many more. Yet with the help of Will Shore (TMBOY, Francis Harris, Uzupis), Andrew Fox (Visuals), Samer Ghadry, and multi-instrumentalist Lars Horntveth (Jaga Jazzist), Pure Imagination, No Country showcases the most focused distillation of Harrington's collaborative musical framework, which he notes as being inspired by Miles Davis's innovative "electric years."

Harrington will celebrate the release with select shows including a date in Los Angeles, CA at Zebulon and a special five night residency in Brooklyn, NY at Threes, which will feature a rotating lineup of guest players (including Brian Chase, Joe Russo, Kenny Wollesen, Stuart Bogie, Yuka C. Honda, Shahzad Ismaily, Greg Fox, Jeremy Gustin, Spencer Zahn and more).

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The Coathangers: "Bimbo"

(via Stereo Sanctity / Suicide Squeeze Records / YouTube)

Via Stereo Sanctity:

Today we’re excited to announce the latest work from Atlanta's three-woman riot, The Coathangers. New album The Devil You Know is due out on March 8th via Suicide Squeeze Records.

For 12 years The Coathangers have been building an infallible reputation for chaotic punk rock and visceral live shows, but this sixth LP is a record that captures their established takes on vitriolic punk, playful house-party anthems, and heart-worn ballads and melds them all, revealing a new level of songwriting and nuance.

Today they share the album’s opening track and accompanying video, "Bimbo", with guitarist/vocalist Julia Kugel saying: "'Bimbo' is a bittersweet note on love, self preservation, and letting go. It came together naturally and was one of the easiest songs to be written for the new record. It tells two sides of the story but still feels uplifting and positive. An acceptance of things the way they are."

She continues: "The video was shot on our last European tour by us and our fellow road warrior Mackenzie Sutch. We spend a large part of our lives on the road and it felt right to make the first video off the new record a small documentation of that. Tour is bittersweet as well. It can be dreamy and harsh at the same time. Shot mostly in Spain and Portugal, the video for 'Bimbo' is a lovely memory of a complex emotional and physical journey. The video was edited by our good friend Nacho Montero from Madrid."

“The writing process was done with an open heart,” says Kugel. “Everything that came before had to go away. Whatever hang-up, whatever thing we were holding onto, it had to go away. And we started there, at ground zero.” This may sound like the band was going through some Hüsker Dü-level personal drama, but the reality is less gritty and salacious. The individual members had merely become entrenched in their way of doing things. Kugel excelled at the melodic pop songs. Drummer/vocalist Stephanie Luke belted out the gritty rock tunes. Bassist/vocalist Meredith Franco drove the post-punk and no-wave angles of the band. With each album, you could hear the individual songwriters honing their style. But with ‘The Devil You Know’, it feels like we’re hearing the first Coathangers record written as a true unit. There’s a newfound discipline, depth, and dimension, like each member learned how to imbue their bandmates’ songs with their own personal touch.

Inspired and emboldened by their experience recording previous LP Nosebleed Weekend, the band returned to Valentine Recording Studios in Laurel Canyon with Nic Jodoin, who pushed them into increasingly layered and lush sonic territories. The album title stems from an old adage whispered at a friend’s wedding; we settle when we’re afraid of the unknown. It’s a theme that runs through every song on the album, and even though the band insists they were writing songs about other peoples’ pain, they acknowledge that the old saying applies to their band as well. We get comfortable, we get scared, and we refuse to change. But with The Devil You Know, The Coathangers lost their fear, and that allowed them to shed the baggage of the past. “Why are we living in these cells we built for ourselves?” Kugel asks. “That’s been the great thing about this record. It’s been honest and confrontational… but not in a shitty way.”

Suicide Squeeze Records is proud to release The Devil You Know to the world on March 8, 2019 on CD, a limited run of 300 cassettes, digital formats, and an initial pressing of 3,000 LPs with 500 copies on MAYDAY colour vinyl, 500 on LUCKY DEVIL colour vinyl, and 2000 on BITTERSWEET colour vinyl. The vinyl version includes foil on the cover of the LP jacket, a printed inner sleeve, and a download card.

The Devil You Know will be released on March 9th via Suicide Squeeze and is available to pre-order here.

Tour dates:
FRI JAN 25 - Calgary AB, Big Winter Classic
WED FEB 20 - Santa Ana, CA, Marty’s On Newport
THU FEB 21 - Los Angeles, CA, Teragram Ballroom
FRI FEB 22 - Long Beach, CA, Alex’s Bar
SAT FEB 23 - San Francisco, CA, Independent*
SUN FEB 24 - Reno, NV, Holland Project*
TUE FEB 26 - Bend, OR, Volcanic Lounge*
WED FEB 27 - Portland, OR, Mississippi Studios*
THU FEB 28 - Seattle, WA, Neumos*
FRI MAR 1 - Bellingham, WA, Shakedown*
SAT MAR 2 - Vancouver, BC, Imperial
TUE MAR 5 - Spokane, WA, The Bartlett*
WED MAR 6 - Boise, ID, Olympic*
THU MAR 7 - Salt Lake City, UT, Kilby Court*
SAT MAR 9 - San Diego, CA, Casbah*
THU APR 4 - Birmingham, AB, Saturn
FRI APR 5 - Nashville, TN, Exit/In
SAT APR 6 - St. Louis, MO, Old Rock House
SUN APR 7 - Kansas City, MO, recordBar
MON APR 8 - Minneapolis, MN, Turf Club
TUE APR 9 - Chicago, IL, Empty Bottle
THU APR 11 - Detroit, MI, El Club
FRI APR 12 - Cleveland, OH, Grog Shop
SAT APR 13 - Toronto, ON, The Horseshoe
SUN APR 14 - Montreal, QC, Let Ritz
MON APR 15 - Boston, MA, Great Scott
WED APR 17 - Asbury Park, NJ, Asbury Lanes
THU APR 18 - New York, NY, Music Hall of Williamsburg
FRI APR 19 - Washington, DC, DC9
SAT APR 20 - Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts

*= with SadGirl

http://www.suicidesqueeze.net/
http://thecoathangers.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thecoathangers/
https://www.facebook.com/TheCoathangersATL
https://twitter.com/thecoathangers

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Mörglbl: "2 Flics Amis Amish"

(via Earsplit PR / The Laser's Edge & Free Electric Sound / YouTube)

Via Earsplit PR:

Laser's Edge imprint Free Electric Sound has posted "2 Flics Amis Amish," the lead single from MÖRGLBL's impending seventh album, The Story Of Scott Rötti. The long-running French progressive instrumental jazz metal fusion trio has just celebrated their 20th anniversary and has big plans for the new year in support of the new album.

Often described as Primus meets Steve Vai or The Beatles meet Pantera, MÖRGLBL's output veers toward the crazy, mixing substantial metal riffs with subtle jazz harmonies, deep pocket grooves, and their trademark goofball humor. Through two decades of performing and touring internationally and reaping well-earned critical acclaim from journalists around the globe on their six full-length albums, MÖRGLBL is an incredibly unique and creative musical force which transcends genre barriers and commands the attention of anybody into forward-thinking music with a lighthearted appeal.

MÖRGLBL's The Story Of Scott Rötti was recorded at The Beat Factory during the Summer of 2018, mixed by Enzo D'Agostino at Elia Studio, mastered by Mobo at Conkrete Studio, and completed with artwork by Pierre Bernard and Peter Puke.

Stream the opening track and first single from The Story Of Scott Rötti, "2 Flics Amis Amish,"and preorder the album RIGHT HERE.

The Story Of Scott Rötti will see release on CD and all digital platforms through Free Electric Sound on February 1st. Watch for new audio and video previews from the album to be issued in the coming days, and expect new tour dates to be announced shortly.

Led by guitarist Christophe Godin and bassist Ivan Rougny, MÖRGLBL gained an international following with the release of their first two albums in 1997 and 1998. Years of constant touring required the band take a break. By 2007 MÖRGLBL released Grötesk which drove their popularity all over the globe - particularly in the US - and was invited to perform at Europe's famous Frank Zappa tribute festival, Zappanale.

MÖRGLBL shifted in late 2007, when drummer Aurélien Ouzoulias joined the band and kicked them into high gear, ultimately resulting in 2009's highly acclaimed Jazz For The Deaf. 2008 saw MÖRGLBL become the smash surprise of NEARfest X, America's largest progressive rock music festival, where the stunned audience gave a standing ovation and cheered through a double encore. Intensive touring throughout Europe, Russia, China, and the US followed right through 2012's Brutal Romance album. Along the way, they shared the stage with the likes of Liquid Tension Experiment, Panzerballet, Freak Kitchen, Echoline, and Umphrey's McGee.

Three years since the 2015 Free Electric Sound release of Tea Time For Pünks and having performed more than one hundred shows all around the world, MÖRGLBL celebrated twenty years of rocking the planet with their progressive jazz metal in 2018. A twentieth anniversary live DVD has been recorded and is pending release in 2019. While awaiting the DVD's release, and while continuing to tour in support of Tea Time For Pünks, the band composed and recorded their seventh album, The Story Of Scott Rötti. With eleven new songs, the album showcases the band's most achieved material to date, basing all the ingredients that have made the trio one of the most exciting combos of the genre.

http://morglblmusic.com
https://twitter.com/morglbl
https://www.instagram.com/godin_christophe
https://www.facebook.com/M%C3%B6rglbl-229471253757086
http://www.lasersedgegroup.com
http://www.facebook.com/TheLasersEdge
http://www.twitter.com/thelasersedge

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Dylan Henner: "Marie Slept With Her Shoes On (Single Edit)"

(via Phantom Limb / Soundcloud)

Via Phantom Limb:

After releasing diverse records in 2018, from Hekla's haunting theremin based debut album Á, to New Optimism's joyous experimental pop of Amazon to LeFrak, Phantom Limb's first release of 2019 will be from the secretive newcomer Dylan Henner - who describes his work as "bliss-out ambient".

Henner's intriguing debut EP A Reason for Living comprises of multiple parts - a nostalgic analogue-synth backbone inspired by Jon Hassell, Popol Vuh and Brian Eno; strange new-age orchestration that touches on the organic midi of Geinoh Yamashirogumi; a love of American minimalism and its polyrhythms; noisey drones in the style of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma or Grouper; field recordings from across various cultures and environments - he's a new artist with high ambition...

A Reason for Living will be released digitally on February 22, listen to 'Marie Slept With Her Shoes On' here and below, a track taken from the EP.

The record was largely formed over Henner's travels in his day-job as a photographer's assistant. Exploring with a handheld analogue synth and a field recorder ("no laptop!") across India, the Middle East, Morocco, the Americas, South East Asia and Australia, much of the album's conceptual framework existed long before the songs themselves, inspired by local music and ambient sound. Henner then took this bank of starting places back home to flesh out completed pieces. "The fundamental theme woven through the record is the universality of life", Henner writes. "Though societies and cultures and conventions and customs vary a great deal across the world, at the inescapable core is the state of humanness. I wanted to dig into that core and see how it feels without the rest attached." 

Musically, the fundamental core of A Reason for Living is rooted in its ruminative spareness. Opener 'I Had to Wash The Shirt I Lost' marries empty space with resonant, shuddering synthesis, and then disappears back into the darkness as if it itself had been a dream. It is followed by 'The Beach Was Covered In Coral', which journeys Reichian percussion through a slowly-evolving multitude of reverb responses, punctuated with zither and major-chord choral hits. Crucially, the record is far from joyless; not as straight-faced as "ambient music" often is. Laughter, happiness and innocence flourish through the field recordings. The chanting vocal-percussion of 'Marie Fell Asleep With Her Shoes On' brims with sweet euphoria.

Unforthcoming on biographical details ("I prefer the music to speak for itself"), Henner contacted Phantom Limb through his friendship with Berlin-based producer Eomac.

Track listing:
1. I Had To Wash The Shirt I Lost
2. The Beach Was Covered In Coral
3. Marie Fell Asleep With Her Shoes On
4. Angels Made A Ring Around Them

The artwork for the EP was created by Henner himself, based on Native American folk art, and highly representative of the dreamy unreality of his music - a ghostly, quasi-spiritual structure floats in empty space while words and details echo around.

A Reason for Living will be available on all digital formats. Pre-order the EP from Bandcamp HERE.

www.hennerdylan.xyz
www.phantom-limb.co.uk

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Good Fuck: "Secret Meetings"

(via Force Field PR / Joyful Noise Recordings / YouTube) 

Via Force Field PR:

Tim Kinsella and Jenny Pulse are Good Fuck. Today the duo announces its first ever tour, supporting El Ten Eleven. The band will also perform songs from some of Kinsella's other projects, including Joan of Arc, as part of their set each night.

The only constant in Joan of Arc’s long career is that it has continued to evolve, sometimes gradually over years, and occasionally suddenly. Joan of Arc will be winding down after this tour as the members all concentrate on other projects. These shows will be a unique one-time experience; Tim Kinsella weaving together some of the band’s earliest material that he hasn’t played in years, along with an introduction to his new duo Good Fuck, whose debut record comes out February 22 on Joyful Noise Records.

Bio:
Tim Kinsella and Jenny Pulse have consummated their love on disc. The result is Good Fuck, an erotic exploration of experimental literary techniques and adventurous electronic beats.

Seeking an intimate creative environment to develop their musical concepts, Kinsella and Pulse journeyed deep into isolation. “We packed the car and drove 13 hours to The Millay Colony in upstate New York: an artist’s colony in The Berkshires, miles down a private road, next to 100,000 acres of national forest,” Kinsella shares.

On arrival, the couple devised a unique artistic process to work from, Kinsella describes it as a “collaborative conscious alignment.” The most unique aspect of this creative method involves the writing of the album’s lyrics. “We agreed on 12 books we thought most relevant and came up with various systems to collapse and collage them into each other in different combinations,” Kinsella says. That list included titles ranging from Don Quixote to The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. Drawing from this source material, Kinsella and Pulse employed a sort-of literary mash-up, scrambling content and structure into a thoroughly new product. “We might take the form of an Eskimo genesis myth, but use words from Anaïs Nin,” Kinsella explains.

There’s audible chemistry in Good Fuck’s sound; Kinsella’s extensive history in genre-pushing rock and roll (Joan of Arc, Cap’n Jazz) is strikingly complimented by Pulse’s fresh ear for minimalist electro sounds. Kinsella and Pulse achieved complete artistic symbiosis in composing Good Fuck’s music. “To a large degree we don't even know who programmed what beat, and who programmed what synth line,” Kinsella reflects.

Kinsella says he and Pulse were “stunned” by the results of their collaboration, but their process wasn’t perfect. “Of course there were snags, technological and psychological. And of course we threw a good amount away. But what was left was not the result of trying to write songs, but the effortless evidence of what emerged when we got clear in our intentions and then just let it out,” Kinsella recalls.

But listeners won’t notice Kinsella’s perceived imperfections, the album’s eerie synth soundscapes and chanted vocals flow effortlessly from track to track. The music of Good Fuck melds the sensual with the cryptic, the erotic with the esoteric. Good Fuck reminds us that experimental music doesn’t necessarily need to be caustic or harsh, it can exist comfortably in the groove of a seductive electronic beat.

TOUR DATES:

1/11 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
1/17 - Dallas, TX - Dada*
1/18 - Austin, TX - Empire*
1/19 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall*
1/20 - New Orleans, LA - Gasa Gasa
1/22 - Gainesville, FL - High Dive*
1/23 - Jacksonville, FL - Jackrabbits*
1/24 - Orlando, FL - The Social*
1/25 - Tampa, FL - Crowbar*
1/26 - Atlanta, GA - Aisle 5*
1/28 - Columbia, SC - New Brookland Tavern*
1/29 - Charlotte, NC - The Milestone Club*
1/30 - Asheville, NC - The Grey Eagle*
1/31 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle*
2/1 - Charlottesville, VA - The Southern*
2/2 - Washington DC - Union Stage*
2/5 - Lancaster, PA - Lizard Lounge
2/6 - Philadelphia, PA - The Fillmore*
2/7 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg*
2/8 - Portland, ME - Port City Music Hall*
2/9 - Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair*
2/10 - Rochester, NY - The Bug Jar
2/11 - Hamilton, ON - Casbah

* = w/ El Ten Eleven

GOOD FUCK LINKS:
Instagram
Facebook

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Black Taffy: "Lantern Flies in Mist"

(via Julian T. Schoen / Leaving Records / YouTube)

Via Julian T. Schoen

Black Taffy - "Lantern Flies In Mist"
(YouTube // Spotify // Apple Music)

Happy 2019 Everybody!!

Kicking things off this year is a brand new LP from Dallas producer Donovan Jones, better known as Black Taffy, who's got his Elder Mantis LP dropping February 15th on LEAVING Records.

You may remember rumblings from Black Taffy back in 2018, the song "Geraldine," which is also included on this LP, got some Spring shine when it originally dropped.

Mr. Jones is a composer & performer whose current focus lies in pairing ambient music with big bass and percussion.

The first born son of Pentecostal music ministers, Donovan grew up witnessing the power music has to induce trance and encourage spiritual awakening.

Eventually drawing parallels between Christianity, voodoo, and the occult, Mr. Jones left the former to immerse himself in the latter.

Sometimes performing with only Vibraphone and cassette decks, he frequently employs the use of tape loops and other antiquated mediums to create pillowy worlds of wow and flutter.

Elder Mantis is the culmination of Black Taffy's works thus far. At twelve tracks, it is a meditative and soothing listen, synthesizing the heavy warmth of deep bass with the melodic hum of harps and other stringed instruments.

Pre-Order

Black Taffy
(Bandcamp // Instagram)

LEAVING Records
(Site // Soundcloud // Facebook // Twitter // Bandcamp)

Sincerely,

Letters From A Tapehead