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4/26/2024
Billy Idol's 'Rebel Yell' 40th Anniv reissue out today; Idol performs at Empire State Building 4/30, debuts never-before-heard "Best Way Out Of Here," sets Canadian tour
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Christine and the Queens Shares "rentrer chez moi"
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Maria Chiara Argirò's new album 'Closer,' out today on Innovative Leisure. Shares new video "Time"
Maria Chiara Argirò Releases New Album Closer
Today via Innovative Leisure - Listen / Share
Shares Official Music Video “Time” - Watch / Share
Maria Chiara Argirò’s Closer is an album to get lost in. The rising electronic luminary and classically trained pianist presents a journey of self-exploration, and a manifestation of her profound connection with music. Rooted in an indescribable feeling that compelled her to create, the album transcends boundaries and tranverses the spectrum of electronic music with unparalleled depth and clarity. On the album, Maria says:
“It is about a feeling, a dreamlike feeling in motion, a feeling that we cannot describe, a dream I’m sort of walking through. Emotions/dreams/feelings that sometimes you can just imagine, a dreamlike world where we walk through to get to the core of ourselves a bit more, even if things are completely undefined and blurry. While working on the music there was this strong feeling - at times blurry and at times more defined - of getting, with every single note, closer and closer to the person I want to be. Free. Curious and consequently Aware, Connected and Closer to the people I love. There is so much noise in this world, I think being direct, gentle, light, open and connected is the key.”
Argirò has been a central figure in the UK electronic, jazz and classical worlds since she moved to London from Rome over a decade ago. A skilled pianist since childhood, she’s collaborated with everyone from These New Puritans to Jono McCleery to Jamie Leeming alongside output with Moonfish. Closer comes as the follow up to her stunning electronic jazz-fusion record Forest City, which received widespread critical acclaim across the globe and earned her fanship from Four Tet and Gilles Peterson, with the latter describing her music as “absolutely crazy good”.
The result of this journey, both sonic and personal, can be keenly felt on Closer. While it is definitely not a concept album, the record does mirror the path of inner self-exploration that Argirò has been on. Albeit moving in unpredictable ways, as it traverses the spectrum of electronic music spanning ambient to dance music, while also retaining light touches of jazz with a leaning towards experimental pop via Argirò’s more central and up-front vocals.
Closer sees its release today via Innovative Leisure alongside a new official video for album centerpiece “Time”. The live performance was filmed at The Cross London (King's Cross) and was directed by frequent collaborator Raoul Paulet.
Photo By Dimitris Lambridis
Maria Chiara Argirò Live Dates:
Apr 25: London, UK - The Lower Third (Record Release Party)
May 17: Gemini Festival, Bologna
July 13: Gaeta Festival, Italy
Sep 17: Berlin, DE - Gretchen
Sep 18 - 21: Hamburg, DE - Reeperbahn Festival
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Full Of Hell Release Monumental LP ‘Coagulated Bliss,’ Share Video for “Fractured Bonds to Mecca”
Full Of Hell Release Monumental New LP Coagulated Bliss Share Video for “Fractured Bonds to Mecca”
See the band on tour in North America— now through May 19th.
"the strongest, most focused songwriting from the band yet" Bandcamp
"'pop' structure only makes this band’s grindy, metallic fury sound even heavier" BrooklynVegan
"This is art as function, and Full of Hell have become masters of this glorious talent, arming their instruments, samplers, and drum machines to chisel into your nerves." Consequence
Photo by: Zachary Jones. | Hi-res here.
Full of Hell burst forth with incredible force from Ocean City, Maryland, 15 years ago. Over five full-lengths, five collaborative full-lengths, and countless splits, EPs, singles, and noise compilations, they’ve evolved at extraordinary speed, their music becoming more complicated and technical without ever slowing down or losing its soul. Everything on a Full of Hell album feels like a blur: smears of guitar, harsh noise shaken like gravel in a bag, singer Dylan Walker’s snarl and bite carrying him into outer space or into the core of the earth. They’re coiled, interlocking, impossible to penetrate, and they move with alarming speed. They have now reached terminal velocity.
Having created their own context, Full of Hell are now able to walk around within it, to survey its terrain, to visit far corners and see who’s nearby. Their new album, Coagulated Bliss— out today on Closed Casket Activities— sounds like Full of Hell, but it’s nothing like any Full of Hell record that’s come before it. These songs are trimmer, less freighted with anxiety, more interested in opening up than speeding away. Its bile is sometimes funneled into traditional song structures. It never shies away from the extreme harsh noise, unrelenting spirit, and pitch-black sadness of previous Full of Hell records; if anything, the leanness of these songs makes them feel even heavier. Nevertheless, there are tracks here you might find yourself whistling hours after listening. It’s an extraordinary and unexpected evolution in sound for a band who made their name on rapid metamorphosis, and it’s the logical endpoint of everything Full of Hell has covered so far.
For release day, the band has shared a music video for "Fractured Bonds to Mecca." The video's concept was co-written by Full of Hell multi-instrumentalist Sam DiGristine who says the video is "...about an endless cycle of struggle, trying to find your way in a familiar place yet still feeling lost. Alienated by your loved ones and giving it all for a chance at salvation. Inspired by films such as ' The Incredible Melting Man,' 'The Holy Mountain' and 'Altered States.' The journey never ends. The cycle continues."
Dylan Walker continues, “This song is about a genetic curse. Having to live through inherited flaws and bearing witness to your own familial destruction. Lyrically, it’s very inspired by Thee Silver Mt. Zion at their darkest and most honest moments, speaking about our own inhumanity”
Written by Jared Defrees and Sammy DiGristine. | Directed by Jared Defrees and Zach Sayles.
Coagulated Bliss was written and recorded shortly after Full of Hell completed When No Birds Sang, their collaborative album with Nothing. Working with the Philadelphia shoegazers gave Full of Hell new insight into the emotional and artistic power of classic pop songwriting, and to the importance of following a song where it wants to go. “That was a good experience of learning how to find what actually services a song,” Hazard says. “Even with Roots of Earth Are Consuming My Home, even when we’ve had an extreme grindcore influence, I still wanted it to be catchy.” Walker also cites the band’s work with The Body for helping him to “recognize that there was value in pop music.” Accordingly, Coagulated Bliss features some of Full of Hell’s strongest songwriting: Gone is the frenetic flailing of Garden of Burning Apparitions and Weeping Choir; in its stead is a richer, thicker sound, one that’s considerably less ornamented—and somehow heavier than ever.
While the focus on songwriting already makes Coagulated Bliss the most grounded album in Full of Hell’s catalog, it’s also the first Full of Hell record that tries in earnest to reflect the world around it—not in some broad, monotony-of-evil way, but the everyday horrors of life in small town America. Three of the four members of the band were raised in Ocean City. Hazard and Bland still live there, while Walker is located in central Pennsylvania and bassist Samuel DiGristine relocated to Philadelphia. “The American dream is small towns,” Hazard says. “But anyone that’s grown up in a small town realizes it’s just as fucked up in a small town as it is in a big city—if not more, because it’s more condensed.”
Walker’s lyrics have always framed their suffering with what he calls “fantastical, metaphorical shit,” but on Coagulated Bliss his writing is clear and direct. The album’s title is meant partly to reflect the idea of the over-pursuit of happiness leading to misery—whether in addiction, greed, or anything else. “Your happiness is just out of reach and you don’t know why,” he says. “Too much of this bliss, you think you’ve found your endpoint, but it’s really just this small, tiny, little thing that’s going to ruin your fucking life. And that could be anything." The album’s viciousness and Walker’s clear reading of the world around him might scan as misanthropy, but it comes from a place of disappointment that’s driven by a deep love for people and life and the world. “There’s not a lot of anger, to be honest,” he says. “I’ve never felt anger when we’re playing, ever. It feels like electricity that’s built up in my body that has to get out. But I feel more profoundly sorrowful than I ever do anger.”
The world may be in a constant state of bitter flux, but Full of Hell have never sounded more at home in it.“We’ve shed any kind of ‘do we belong in this space, what do people expect of us,’” Walker says. “The joy is in the pursuit.” The loosening of their grip on the direction of their music has made it feel paradoxically closer to the bone. “People tend to burrow themselves so deeply into things they love,” Walker says. “It’s too much of a good thing, and it almost cheapens it.” By paring back their sound, Full of Hell aren’t just finding a new way forward: They’re proving that a little bit less of a good thing can add up to so much more.
Coagulated Bliss is out now on Closed Casket Activities and is available to order here. See Full of Hell on the road in April + May with Dying Fetus, in July at Sound & Fury Festival, and in Australia + Asia later this year.
Full of Hell, on tour:
April 26 Sayerville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom ^
April 27 Syracuse, NY @ The Song & Dance ^
April 28 Albany, NY @ Empire Live ^
April 30 Quebec City, QV @ Theatre Capitole ^
May 1 Montreal, QC @ Beanfield Theatre ^
May 2 Ottawa, ON @ The Brass Monkey ^
May 3 London, ON @ London Music Hall ^
May 4 Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre ^
May 5 Buffalo, NY @ Electric City ^
May 7 Pontiac, MI @ The Crofoot Ballroom ^
May 8 Columbus, OH @ The King of Clubs ^
May 9 Joliet, IL @ The Forge ^
May 10 Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave ^
May 12 Winnipeg, MB @ Park Theatre ^
May 13 Saskatoon, SK @ Louis ^
May 14 Edmonton, AB @ The Starlite Room ^
May 15 Calgary, AB @ The Palace Theatre ^
May 17 Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre ^
May 18 Seattle, WA @ El Corazon ^
May 19 Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater ^
July 13 + 14 Los Angeles, CA @ Exposition Park (Sound & Fury)
August 14 Brisbane @ The Zoo %
August 15 Sydney @ Mary's Underground %
August 16 Canberra @ The Baso %
August 17 Melbourne @ Stay Gold %
August 18 Adelaide @ Crown & Anchor %
August 20 Melbourne @ Make It Up Club
August 23 Christchurch @ Rolling Stone %
August 24 Wellington @ Meow %
August 25 Auckland @ Galatos %
August 27 Seoul, KR @ Club Victims
August 29 Manila, PH @ Paper Lantern QC
August 30 Singapore @ Phil Studio
August 31 Ho Chi Minh, VN @ TBA
September 1 Bangkok, TH @ Mr. Fox Live House
^ w/ Dying Fetus
% w/ Thou
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The Laughing Chimes share two new songs from new Slumberland single
The Laughing Chimes share two new songs from new Slumberland single
STREAM: "Tomorrow's 87" & "The Apologist Effigy" -
Bandcamp
The Laughing Chimes' newest double A-side single "Tomorrow's 87" is another one of the band's potent evocations of 80s & 90s college pop, spiked with tuneful mystery and a restless eye on the present and future of pop. Virtual A-side "Tomorrow's 87" borrows shards of fuzzy dream pop from the likes of Alvvays, The Jesus & Mary Chain and early Ride and blends them with the band's shimmering paisley jangle. It's a perfect complement to the hazy summer days that will come (and go!) all too soon. AA-side "The Apologist Effigy" is an elegant slice of gothic southern pop that brilliantly sidesteps mere nostalgia and, like "Tomorrow's 87," creates something fresh and bursting with possibility.
Photo by Sophia Orhea
TOUR DATES
04/26 - The Union, Athens OH
The Laughing Chimes
"Tomorrow's 87"
(Slumberland)
Street Date: April 26, 2024
Track Listing:
A: "Tomorrow's 87"
AA: "The Apologist Effigy"
AA: "The Apologist Effigy"
THE LAUGHING CHIMES LINKS:
Bandcamp
Instagram
Twitter
Slumberland Records
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