(((((OPENmind/SATURATEDbrain)))))

Wednesday, 19 September 2018

AU BOUT DE MES LÈVRES / YUBARI GOGO exclusive premeire

AU BOUT DE MES LÈVRES
+
YUBARI GOGO

'Split'
exclusive album premiere

If Gabriel from Le Blast Records, Lonely Animals, Commuovere, La Nausée and, in this case, Au Bout De Mes Lèvres, asks me to premiere something they've worked on, I'm generally salivating before even hearing the material because his track record is flawless. I am very proud to exclusively premiere this killer split cassette between Quebec's AU BOUT DE MES LÈVRES and Greece's YUBARI GOGO that releases on Missed Out Records, Le Blast Records and Callous Records. Here is some quick info about the physicals, all of which have alternate artwork:

Missed Out Records

25x mustard with black splatter

Le Blast Records

15x hand-painted, yellow/black/blue/green mix, hand-numbered + printed lyric insert, housed in a cardboard sleeve

Callous Records

10x hand painted yellow/black/brown + printed lyric insert

(2018) AU BOUT DE MES LÈVRES - #1 - "Des ouvertures battantes" (from 'Yubari Gogo' split)

Holy shit, this is awesome. Right out of the gate the mashing of Daïtro with Commuovere gets applause from this fella, but once the Swedish twinkles come in at 1:20 I'm out of my chair giving a standing ovation, for my love of Via Fondo and Trachimbrod is well known.

(2018) AU BOUT DE MES LÈVRES - #2 - "Nos corps d'écailles" (from 'Yubari Gogo' split)

Spacey, twinkly and screamy from the get-go, this is French screamo worship at it's best. It's only 1:44 in length but it'll leave you craving for more of that lush, serene yet still chaotic hardcore.

(2018) YUBARI GOGO - #3 - "φόβος-ομορφιά" (from 'Au Bout De Mes Lèvres' split)

This is an intro that is damp, eerie piano with film dialogue. Unsettling and very cool.

(2018) YUBARI GOGO - #4 - "ένα παιδί μετράει τα κάγκελα pt.I" (from 'Au Bout De Mes Lèvres' split)

Woah nelly, that's some heavy shit. Bridging the gap between Virginia On Duty and Minaret, in two minutes this manages to blast through screamy black-metal and dark hardcore, balancing it all with some ambiance.

(2018) YUBARI GOGO - #5 - "ένα παιδία μετράει τα κάγκελα pt.II" (from 'Au Bout De Mes Lèvres' split)

Perhaps a tad less chaotic than it's predecessor, this conclusion is vaguely reminiscent of the Ef'il material on the 4-way split 12" with Massa Nera, Thisismenotthinkingofyou and Yo Sbraito. It also gives off vibes of Genghis Tron and ['selvə], leaving me wanting to check out everything else they've done.

ADDITIONAL LINKS & WHATNOT

AU BOUT DE MES LÈVRES
ffo: Daïtro, Elände and Commuovere
Bandcamp
Facebook

YUBARI GOGO
ffo: Entzauberung, Minaret and Hex Lariat
Bandcamp
Facebook

CALLOUS RECORDS

MISSED OUT RECORDS

LE BLAST RECORDS

Tuesday, 18 September 2018

GIRL ARM

Band: GIRL ARM

Genres: Punk / Rock / Math Rock / Noise Rock / Experimental
Related artists: Hey Predator, Big Knife Little Knife and Gary's House.
Country: Montréal, Québec CANADA
Years Active: 2011-present
Song: "Crimean Crimes"
Album: "Outside Language"
Year: 2012
For fans of: Campbell Trio, Stop It!!, Hercules Hercules, North Of America, Maps And Atlases, Ahleuchatistas, Q And Not U, Native, At The Drive In, The Paper Chase, (early) Lucertulus, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, The Mark Inside, Hot Hot Heat, For The Mathematics, Tokyo Police Club, Life In Vacuum, The Smiths, Joy Division and No Knife.

Label(s): Self Released

This post's artist is from the September 2018 Mix. This is track #1.

You can download: the September 2018 Mix#9 right here or get the new October 2018 Mix#10 here.

Earlier this year I did a podcast with my friend Miggy at their place in Vancouver...and it was all lost in a shit USB transfer. It was a good podcast, but in it Miggy blew my mind more than any other co-host, and floored with "Crimean Crimes" by our local GIRL ARM. I remember thinking halfway through that I was listening to a mixture of Cursive and The Paper Chase but then the song picked up and got hella dancey, yelly, kinda North Of America meets At The Drive In, and it just plain blew my socks off. It's six months later and I'm still smitten, fer science's sake.

Okay so the ultimate GIRL ARM experience is had with their debut, 8-track album titled 'Outside Language'. Opener "Jetsons" gets things started jarring, awkward and dancey, all things North Of America. Even the tradeoff vocals are that drunken, warbling indie rock yell that the East Coasters were known for, this time gettin' busted out in Montréal. "Year of the Walrus" is even more disjointed and angular, while the very short noise interlude "Molto Erotico" follows. And that brings us to, hoooooly fuck, "Crimean Crimes" aka one of the best songs I've heard in a very, very long time. Obvious comparisons can be made again to North Of America, Campbell Trio, At The Drive In, early Stop It!!, Q And Not U, Native and Hercules Hercules, but the first 1:56 is a quirky, instrumental intro that leads to a complete stop before the song snags you by the jugular. They start by injecting a potent guitar lead directly into the call and response vocals that are yelled back and forth as the song swings around in fantastically sassy and confident math-rock. As this section closes the guitar slowly leads the rest of the band into a slow-but-major groove that is littered with spoken/yelled vocals (very At The Drive In) before reverting back to angular, danceable punk. Are we done here? Fuck no, cuz at 3:36 the vocals and drums count in a snazzy start/stop, or dare I say breakdown? I dunno, it's awesome, just like this entire track. "Disappears" is quite playful and more melodic than most of their work and is the precursor to another sick jam titled, funnily enough, "Jacques Tits". This thing is catchy as fuck, jazzy and boasts one of a time change transition, first at 1:50 and then to its epic math-rock climax at 2:09. "Elephants" is a cool, mathy, jarring, indie rock tune that is another banger while closer "Health and Safety" has some Life In Vacuum vibes before the noise outro. Jesus I love this record.

After their 2012 debut I find I can't get into their sound nearly as much. They calmed down a lot on the mathy guitars and back and forth yellin', as this record is more on the weird side. 'Trading Cities' opens with the blown out and abrasive "Her Hands", a very chaotic and loud take on noise-rock. Sandwiched in the middle is the title track "Trading Cities" which sounds like the bridge connecting this EP to the first LP, although the guitars definitely take on some weirder styles and tones, giving it a drugged out Tokyo Police Club and The Mark Inside feel. Closer "Bad Tax Advice" is the bridge from this transition-era to their upcoming 2018 LP, so it's much more rock-oriented and more straightforward in structure and light on the ears.

In 2015 they released 'Spoilers', a two-track EP. The first is titled "Eleanor Bigsby" and is a bit of a mindfuck, weaving in and out of different parts, genres, rhythms and vocal stylings, the best of which take place from about 1:00 to 1:30. The other song here is "The Soft Rich", a beep-boop driven song that opens like a group of computers making music. Things coagulate by the 40-second mark the song starts to figure itself out after the first minute.

I just listened to the first two tracks from 2018's LP 'Cell Death', as they are the only songs available to listen to. Both are much more stripped down and basic. Gone are the manic vocals, writhing rhythm section and mathy structures, and in their place are 80s goth influence, monotonous singing and a raw, punk sound not unlike Joy Division. Apparently 'Cell Death' was to be released on June 15th but bandcamp still has just the two songs (as of September 18th, at least). After speaking with the band I was informed that they have a release show at Casa del Popolo with Joint Custody and Chiffres on October 11th, 2018.

So yeah, jam 'Outside Language' if you dare, cuz you may not be able to stop.

________________________________________

DISCOGRAPHY

2012 - Outside Language digitalLP (stream/donate/download here)

2014 - Trading Cities 7"EP (stream/donate/download here)

2015 - Spoilers digitalEP (stream/donate/download here)

2018 - Cell Death cassetteLP (stream two songs here)

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(2012) GIRL ARM - "Crimean Crimes" (from 'Outside Language')

(2012) GIRL ARM - "Jacques Tits" (from 'Outside Language')

(2012) GIRL ARM - "Jetsons" (from 'Outside Language')

(2014) GIRL ARM - "Trading Cities" (from 'Trading Cities')

(2015) GIRL ARM - "Eleanor Bigsby" (from 'Spoilers')

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GIRL ARM additional links

Bandcamp

Facebook

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Sunday, 16 September 2018

INFANT ISLAND

Band: INFANT ISLAND

Genres: Punk / Post-Rock / Hardcore / Post-Hardcore / Emo / Screamo / Skramz / Ambient / Shoegaze / Experimental
Related artists: Sonnet, Maidenhair and smallhands.
Country: Fredericksburg, Virginia U.S.A.
Years Active: 2016-present
Song: "A Preoccupation"
Album: "Infant Island"
Year: 2018
For fans of: Respire, Trachimbrod, The Spirit Of Versailles, Vi Som Älskade Varandra Så Mycket, Love/Lust, Locktender, LKTDOV, And Always, Brighter Arrows, ...Who Calls So Loud, Funeral Diner, City Of Caterpillar, Suffocate For Fuck Sake and Angel Eyes aka PROPER SCREAMO.

Label(s): Self Released / Zegema Beach Records / Middle Man Records / Dingleberry Records / Conditions Records

This post's artist is from the September 2018 Mix. This is track #7.

You can download: the September 2018 Mix#9 right here or get the new October 2018 Mix#10 here.

Sometime in early summer 2018 I received a message from Alexander Rudenshiold, the guitarist for Fredericksburg's INFANT ISLAND. Essentially, they asked if I could help release their debut 12" record. I jammed it twice and enjoyed it, but I was strapped for cash and wasn't in love...yet. A few weeks went by and I jammed it more and more. And then some more. Guess what? MORE. MORE AND MORE AND MORE. Okay, you get the idea. So I contacted Alexander and said that I couldn't commit to a 12" but could do an exclusive run of tapes for them, because goddammit I'd come around and then some.

So what the heck do they sound like? And wait...they're not from Richmond? Well they don't sound like your typical Richmond band, so I guess it makes sense. INFANT ISLAND do a much slower, lo-fi, epic and driving take on screamy post-hardcore with ambient, shoegaze leanings. In 2016 they released a hard to find cassette 'split with Maidenhair', housing a demo version of "Broken Pieces" and a 10-minute, very quiet, instrumental jam called "II".

Now that I think about it, Alex first contacted me in 2017 when they were looking to release and promote their tape and lathe 10" 'split with smallhands'. This also contains two tracks, both sounding more fleshed out and better recorded, including the demo version of "Diminish" and a track titled "Fall Into Their Hell" which is just a shortened demo of "Fall" from the LP.

In early 2018 the band released a digital single titled 'Where There is Ruin', which really solidified the style that the band was going for, even though this is actually a track written early on in the band's career and later revisited and recorded. It's over six and a half minutes in length and opens with a lengthy and eerie intro with guitars soaked in reverb which revert to clean picking alongside screaming by the two-minute mark. By 2:32 everything comes together, sounding not unlike (I would imagine) the sounds that would emanate from a screamo cathedral, as there is a dark, gothy feel to it all, and I love it.

I spoke to Shawn Decker from Middle Man Records who was heading up the 12" before I decided against joining and they very accurately described INFANT ISLAND's full length 'Infant Island' as The Spirit Of Versailles meets Respire, and a more apt description I could not make...except maybe slathering on some Sore Eyelids/Trachimbrod shoegaze to give it that nice, final shine. There are seven jams and the first is "Small Differences", a pretty short and basic intro track with waves of feedback, crashing drums, thunderous, rolling bass and throat-wrenching screams. "Replenish" follows and moves Daniel's vocals to the forefront as well as includes some backup screams from Alex. When combined with the frantic nature of the instrumentals this definitely comes across as the most urgent song on the record and perhaps the most "screamo" sounding one because of it. "Broken Pieces" is where this LP goes from very good to great, as the swing in this song in undeniably groovy, and when coupled with those anguished shrieks I'm in goddamn heaven (check in at 54 seconds and 1:35 for that ridiculousness). Also, that climax at 2:40 is ace. "Fall" closes side A and continues with guitar progressions that hook right into my brain and pump serotonin like Barney injecting beer into his veins. Seriously when the band meets up with their collective parts and crash together it's like the big moments in Indian Summer, Funeral Diner, City Of Caterpillar - all those great bands that made their music massive. Side B starts off with the shortest song on the record, "Diminish". It's a very screamy number that does a heck of a lot in just its 1:41 time allotment, leading into the two longest (and best) songs on the album. The next track begins slow yet dense, creating a serene and ambient atmosphere not unlike newer Locktender material, which builds for 1:40 before the speed doubles. Now, this track, "A Preoccupation", is, simply put, my quintessential INFANT ISLAND jam, and the catalyst to a sentence with a heck of a lot of commas, holy shit. But seriously, just ask my wife how animated I get when driving the van and the guitar loops back around to melt my goddamned life at 2:12 and again at 3:10. One of the highlights of 2018 for me without a doubt. Closer "Further" was first premiered on Sophie's Floorboard in July, and I guess is therefore the single. It's also the longest, deepest and most fleshed out track on the entire record. Yep, this thing has it all: sweet instrumental passages, layers of reverb, shoegaze elements, shrieking, dual vocals, swings that transcend time, epic climaxes, etc. So, in conclusion, you can plainly see that I am smitten with INFANT ISLAND, it just took me a few goes, was all.

Lastly, it sounds like we might hear more new INFANT ISLAND in late 2018 or early 2019 by way of split. But...I've already said too much...

________________________________________

DISCOGRAPHY

2016 - Maidenhair split cassetteEP

2017 - smallhands split cassette/10"EP (stream/donate/download here)

2018 - Infant Island cassette/12"LP (stream/donate/download here)
2018 - Where There is Ruin digital single (stream/donate/download here)

________________________________________

(2018) INFANT ISLAND - "A Preoccupation" (from 'Infant Island')