NYC band Sleep Maps issue poignant protest video via Consequence of Sound, release debut album

Click image above to watch video

New York City band Sleep Maps premiere a new video from their debut album today via Consequence of Sound. The clip, for album closer "Last Future" is especially poignant in light of this week's May Day protests as well as in generally considering the power of organized revolt. Watch video HERE. 

Sleep Maps' heavy, psychedelic, droning and rhythmic catharsis fills the quartet's retro-futurism inspired concept album, Fiction Makes The Future which is available this week by download and on limited edition CD.

The Onion AV Club profiled the band in this month's Loud column with the album track "Men Against The Stars" which originally premiered via Prefix Mag: stream/download HERE. Stream/download the full album HERE.

Sleep Maps is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Ben Kaplan, who performed all of the instruments on Fiction Makes The Future. The band has since expanded to a full 4-piece lineup, playing its aggressive yet atmospheric songs live with poignant visual projections. The band first formed in Los Angeles, before Kaplan picked up a moved to NYC, recording the album on his own prior to finding musicians suited to the task. 

A reaction to the present world and a vision of a lost future, Fiction Makes the Future brings the listener back in time to imagine a reality that might have been. Set against a backdrop of ambient synthscapes, crushing guitar builds and explosive drumming, the album tries to make sense of man's deep seated desire to know his future. Disembodied voices from luminaries of many ages intermingle with echoing guitar leads, soaked in the reverb of outer space, and distorted bass lines that rumble in the low end like the jets of an Apollo spacecraft, blurring the line between traditional post-rock and a new kind of sci-fi instrumental rock.

Fiction Makes The Future was recorded in the woods of Delaware over 3 weeks in October 2011. The 5-song, 40-plus minute album was produced, performed and mixed by Ben Kaplan. It is available on limited edition CD and download as of May 1st, 2012.

SLEEP MAPS LIVE:

05/09   Brooklyn, NY @ Trash Bar

Artist: Sleep Maps

Album: Fiction Makes The Future

Label: Lost Future Music

Release Date: May 1st, 2012

01. Men Against The Stars (MP3)

02. The Eternal Wanderer

03. Forbidden Light

04. A Greater Fire

05. Last Future (VIDEO)

On the Web:

www.sleepmaps.com

facebook.com/sleepmapsmusic

Chicago "sultry dirge" duo Redgrave premiere track from forthcoming debut, announce Midwest tour dates

Click image above to watch video

"A scorching new band... they play howling hard rock with undercurrents of doom and blues." ­-- Chicago Reader

"Sultry dirges"  -- Time Out Chicago 

"Imagine Alison Mosshart’s fiery howl mixed with Led Zeppelin’s demonic undertones pulled out of the noisiest depths of Daydream Nation and you can get a sense of what the Chicago duo Redgrave brings to the table." -- Consequence of Sound

Chicago duo Redgrave premiere the first single from their forthcoming debut today at Consequence of Sound. The cleverly titled barnstorming track "Dick Moves" is available to stream/download HERE. 

In anticipation of their Lovitt Records 5-song debut, National Act the band plays a series of Midwestern shows this month. Please see complete dates below.

Watch a live in-studio performance video HERE shot at the band's first ever live show. 

Vocalist/guitarist Angie Mead and drummer Stephen Howard generate a massive sound thanks to Mead's powerful, soaring voice and sludgy open tunings backed by Howard's refined rhythmic stomp. Redgrave's songs have the sort of smoldering intensity shared by PJ Harvey and Led Zeppelin alike that is hard to categorize, but immediately easy to feel. The duo's forthcoming EP, National Act was recorded by revered engineer Greg Norman (Russian Circles, Pelican) and will be available in June via Lovitt Records. 

Mead started writing and recording Redgrave songs in marathon stretches beginning August 2010 from her home in Chicago after furniture was moved into storage and replaced with recording equipment, drums and guitars. She sent these demos to Chicago musician Stephen Howard, whose work she'd admired as guitarist and drummer in Pinebender. A working musician since the age of 13, Howard had grown up playing local Chicago blues clubs; his teachers included Willie Smith, John Primer and Eddie Clearwater, his classrooms in music included stages across the U.S., Europe and Africa. Mead has always played a right-handed guitar upside down -- ­ a backwards model mimicking Albert King that roughens up her playing. But through playing with Howard, she discovered a way of singing that made her voice crest above his gale-storm drumming. They've been playing together as Redgrave since January 2011.

Redgrave released a 2-song 7" in Fall 2011 on Lovitt Records. Tim Rutili of Califone/Red Red Meat fame lends his guitar prowess to the track "Gone To Wither" on the single, with art design by David Yow of The Jesus Lizard. It was produced by Stephen Howard, recorded and mixed by Greg Norman at his studio in Chicago. Lovitt will issue National Act on 12" vinyl and download on June 12th, 2012. 

REDGRAVE LIVE:

May  26    Chicago, IL @ Quenchers 

June 09    Chicago, IL @ Martyrs

June 13    Chicago, IL @ The Whistler (record release show)

June 22    Dubuque, IA @ The Lift

June 23    Clive, IA @ Bombay Bicycle Club

June 29    Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall (w/ Pelican, Anatomy of Habit)

Artist: Redgrave

Album: National Act

Label: Lovitt Records

Release Date: June 12th, 2012

01. Dick Moves (MP3)

02. Custom A (VIDEO)

03. Assault Song

04. Lik-M-Aid

05. Taunt

On the Web:

redgravemusic.com

facebook.com/redgravemusic

www.lovitt.com

Marriages (3/5 of Red Sparowes) release debut today, stream full album at Spinner.com

Click image above to watch video

"If first impressions are everything, Marriages are in great shape... A muscular, beautifully marbled slab of mood-rock that sounds like a band about to howl." -- SPIN Magazine

"The dark, moody effort is hypnotic and occasionally experimental, employing vocals against heavy backdrops in a way that's a big left-hand turn from their other band." -- RCRD LBL

Red Sparowes offshoot band Marriages issue their debut today via Sargent House. The complete 6-song release, Kitsune can be heard all this week at Spinner.com. Full album stream HERE. 

SPIN.com recently premiered the track "Ride In My Place" which is available to download/stream HERE. Watch a video teaser for Kitsune featuring the band at work in the studio HERE. And, live in-studio videos of three songs recorded for Violitionist Sessions are available HERE. 

Marriages is a new band comprised of Red Sparowes members Emma Ruth Rundle (vocals, guitar), Greg Burns (bass, synthesizer) and David Clifford (drums). Their sound is a singularly sensual kind of heavy, dramatic rock, but perhaps the most stark contrast to their other band, Marriages employs vocals in their songs. Their music is also considerably darker and more experimental, drawn from a wide range of styles and ideas. Emma’s breathy, understated delivery provides a focal point – the eye of the proverbial storm. A haunting presence, as elusive as it is alluring, her voice is a shore upon which waves of overdriven bass, thunderous drums, and cosmic guitars and synths swell and crash. 

Kitsune is their 6-song debut release, a short introduction of an album whose undeniably epic proportions suggest massive things to come. Recorded with the formidable Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Red Sparowes, Tool) at the controls, Kitsune presents a collection of poignant, emotionally-charged tracks that wriggle free of easy classification. The comparisons are diverse; Cocteau Twins and Zola Jesus would appear to be as influential as Boris and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The songs came together quickly as the band wrote and played their first shows in November 2011 and wrapped recording in January 2012. 

Album opener "Ride in My Place" sets the tone, immediately revealing the undulating, reverb-cloaked darkness at the band’s core. Sounding not unlike PJ Harvey fronting an overdriven rendition of Pink Floyd’s "Echoes", the fittingly-titled song arrives as a fully-formed companion piece for expansive landscapes, perhaps traversing the vastness of the American west.  Hardly overstaying its welcome, the track soon gives way to "Body of Shade", whose cryptic “My body gone forever…” lyric suggests a sort of transcendence echoed in the music itself -- Clifford’s steady backbeat, the tense rhythm and the swirling interplay of synth and cascading guitars recalling the finer moments of The Verve’s early recordings. Opening with a celestial keyboard loop and quickly gaining weight, third track "Ten Tiny Fingers" builds upon a heavy dirge-like rhythm punctuated by Rundle’s vocals, which by now clearly occupy a place among esteemed peers such as label mates Chelsea Wolfe and Lisa Papineau. The song’s cryptic, claustrophobic lyrics, contrasted with a loose (but by no means less thunderous) atmosphere and sense of impending collapse bring to mind The Cure, circa Pornography. The next track, "Pelt", is borne from the decaying remnants of "Ten Tiny Fingers". A menacingly hypnotic three-minute meditation on minimalist doom, it serves as the perfect introduction to the distorted, bass-driven hard rock and wailing psychedelia of instrumental track "White Shape". Seven-minute closer "Part the Dark Again" is a song whose cinematic scope recalls precisely the kind of grandiosity Red Sparowes are synonymous with, taken to its logical extreme. The impassioned, struggling-against-the-odds sentiment of the vocals (“Part the darkness in my heart”, “Don’t say it’s nothing…”, etc.) takes things over the top emotionally, culminating in a soaring, melancholic riff that grinds to a halt far earlier than you’d expect. Throughout, Rundle unassumingly steps to the forefront, showcasing her unique talents as a guitarist often overlooked within Red Sparowes' three guitar onslaught. 

Kitsune is an exciting debut release from a band well aware of their potential, harnessing the skills to fulfill it. Marriages are an expansive, visionary development, a unique combination of elements, a sound signposting the path ahead… Kitsune is available on LP, CD and download via Sargent House as of May 1st, 2012. 

Artist: Marriages 

Album: Kitsune

Label: Sargent House

Release date: May 1st, 2012

Track list:

01. Ride In My Place (MP3) (VIDEO) 

02. Body of Shade (VIDEO)

03. Ten Tiny Fingers (MP3) 

04. Pelt 

05. White Shape (VIDEO)

06. Part The Dark Again 

On the Web:

marriagesband.com

www.facebook.com/MarriagesBand

Hi-res photos, album art, bio and more:

http://sargenthouse.com/marriages_assets.html

  

Ed Schrader's Music Beat launch tour with Future Islands, full U.S. headlining dates in July

"Ed Schrader has built a wildman reputation for mixing shirtless, Mark Stewart-style post-punk free-association with completely unhinged tom-tom bashing - and, starkly, pretty much nothing else. In a too-quick 20-minutes, Jazz Mind recalls Neurosis, Swans, Big Black, the Death Set and pretty much the unfiltered, primordial joy of pounding on shit." -- SPIN

"Schrader's voice alternates between a low, Ian Curtis-esque bellow and a frenetic bark that recalls Andy Falkous of McClusky and Future of the Left. In other words, this is aggressive music, even in its quieter moments." -- Pop Matters

Baltimore duo Ed Schrader's Music Beat launch an East Coast tour today supporting their hometown synth-pop pals Future Islands. ESMB will then return to the road for extensive headlining dates beginning in July. Those shows will be announced soon, please see current dates below.

The duo recently premiered a second track from their new full length via SPIN Magazine. The hushed-yet-propulsive and eminently hummable song "My Mind Is Broken" is available to download/stream HERE. 

Pitchfork also recently premiered the frenetic and incisive song "When I'm in a Car", featuring guest guitarist Randy Randall of No Age. It's an urgent blast of vitriol clocking in at a blazing one-minute and 14-seconds. Download/stream HERE. 

Previously better known as a partner in Dan Deacon's Wham City collective and performing solo with just voice and a floor tom, Ed Schrader has recently made inroads with ESMB by teaming up with bassist Devlin Rice and touring with Future Islands and Dan Deacon in the last year. 

Watch a powerful 10-minute live video HERE. Check out videos of individual songs below.

Jazz Mind opens with the snarling fury of "Sermon", driven by Schrader's high-pitched wail over early-Swans style primal drumming and blurting bass. Turning on a dime, "Gem Asylum" is a sparse and compelling lullaby of delicately chanted vocals and hypnotic bass notes reminiscent of Chairs Missing era Wire. Elsewhere, when ESMB strips down the noise on "My Mind is Broken", "Air Show" and "Can't Stop Eating Sugar", there remains an icy intensity hearkening to Joy Division. Meanwhile, "Rats" and "Gas Station Attendant" explode with a rage and raw simplicity that's rare in an era of unlimited access to audio gloss. Jazz Mind is perhaps the closest one can come to inventive, unbridled emotion. 

Jazz Mind is available on LP, CD and Download via Load Records, released March 20th, 2012. 

ED SCHRADER'S MUSIC BEAT LIVE:

04/25  York, PA @ The Depot *

04/26  Middletown, CT @ Eclectic House (Wesleyan) *

04/27  Providence, RI @ AS220 *

04/28  Boston, MA @ Paradise *

04/29  Portland, ME @ Space *

04/30  Quebec City, QC @ Le Cercle *

05/01  Montreal, QC @ Il Motore *

05/02  Ottawa, ON @ Mavericks *

05/03  Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern *

05/04  Rochester, NY @ Bug Jar *

05/05  Albany, NY @ Valentine's *

05/06  Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church *

* w/ Future Islands 

Artist: Ed Schrader's Music Beat

Album: Jazz Mind

Label: Load Records

Release Date: March 20, 2012

01. Sermon

02. Gem Asylum

03. Traveling

04. Right

05. Do The Maneuver 

06. Rats (VIDEO)

07. My Mind Is Broken (MP3) (VIDEO)

08. When I'm In A Car (MP3)

09. Air Show

10. Can't Stop Eating Sugar (VIDEO)

11. Gas Station Attendant

On the Web:

www.facebook.com/pages/Ed-Schraders-Music-Beat

www.loadrecords.com
edschradersmusicbeat.bandcamp.com

Zorch multi-instrumentalist Shmu posts first track from solo debut via Consequence of Sound

Click image above to watch video

Sam Chown, drummer/singer/multi-instrumentalist in Austin's hyper-kinetic duo Zorch premieres the first song from his forthcoming solo debut under the moniker Shmu today. The track, "House of Stares" is available at Consequence of Sound to stream/download HERE. 

"House of Stares" showcases a much more subdued and dare we say "pop" side of the musician's talents seldom heard in Zorch. Throughout, Shmu's album Discipline/Communication is a melodic exploration into combinations of pop, shoegaze, glitch, psych and experimental rock into a cohesive and original whole spread across the disc's 16-tracks. 

Chown wrote, produced, recorded and performed all instruments on the album. Discipline/Communication will be available June 5th on CD and download via Grand Theft Zamboni Records.

Artist: Shmu

Album: Discipline/Communication

Label: Grand Theft Zamboni Records

Release Date: June 5, 2012

01. Impressions

02. House of Stares (MP3) (VIDEO)

03. Backwoods

04. Directions

05. Crazy #107

06. Shadowgames

07. Happiness

08. Peaceful Swan

09. Vanitos

10. &hearts

11. Heads Will Fall

12. Floatin' Oculus

13. Turpentine

14. Fester

15. Dangerous Passion

16. Pool Party (Place 4 Us)

On the Web:

www.shmusix.com

shmu.bandcamp.com

www.facebook.com/shmusix

Ed Schrader's Music Beat premiere "churning post-punk mood piece" via SPIN.com, tour with Future Islands

"Ed Schrader has built a wildman reputation for mixing shirtless, Mark Stewart-style post-punk free-association with completely unhinged tom-tom bashing - and, starkly, pretty much nothing else. In a too-quick 20-minutes, Jazz Mind recalls Neurosis, Swans, Big Black, the Death Set and pretty much the unfiltered, primordial joy of pounding on shit." -- SPIN

"Schrader's voice alternates between a low, Ian Curtis-esque bellow and a frenetic bark that recalls Andy Falkous of McClusky and Future of the Left. In other words, this is aggressive music, even in its quieter moments." -- Pop Matters

Baltimore duo Ed Schrader's Music Beat premiere a second track from their new full length today via SPIN Magazine. The hushed-yet-propulsive and eminently hummable song "My Mind Is Broken" is available to download/stream HERE. 

Following a hometown album release party this weekend, ESMB hits the road yet again with Baltimore synth-pop faves Future Islands for an East Coast tour. See complete dates below. 

The duo recently premiered the frenetic and incisive song "When I'm in a Car", featuring guest guitarist Randy Randall of No Age. It's an urgent blast of vitriol clocking in at a blazing one-minute and 14-seconds. Download/stream HERE. 

Previously better known as a partner in Dan Deacon's Wham City collective and performing solo with just voice and a floor tom, Ed Schrader has recently made inroads with ESMB by teaming up with bassist Devlin Rice and touring with Future Islands and Dan Deacon in the last year. 

Watch a powerful 10-minute live video HERE. Check out videos of individual songs below.

Jazz Mind opens with the snarling fury of "Sermon", driven by Schrader's high-pitched wail over early-Swans style primal drumming and blurting bass. Turning on a dime, "Gem Asylum" is a sparse and compelling lullaby of delicately chanted vocals and hypnotic bass notes reminiscent of Chairs Missing era Wire. Elsewhere, when ESMB strips down the noise on "My Mind is Broken", "Air Show" and "Can't Stop Eating Sugar", there remains an icy intensity hearkening to Joy Division. Meanwhile, "Rats" and "Gas Station Attendant" explode with a rage and raw simplicity that's rare in an era of unlimited access to audio gloss. Jazz Mind is perhaps the closest one can come to inventive, unbridled emotion. 

Jazz Mind is available on LP, CD and Download via Load Records, released March 20th, 2012. 

ED SCHRADER'S MUSIC BEAT LIVE:

04/14  Baltimore, MD @ Floristree (album release party)

04/25  York, PA @ The Depot *

04/26  Middletown, CT @ Eclectic House (Wesleyan) *

04/27  Providence, RI @ AS220 *

04/28  Boston, MA @ Paradise *

04/29  Portland, ME @ Space *

04/30  Quebec City, QC @ Le Cercle *

05/01  Montreal, QC @ Il Motore *

05/02  Ottawa, ON @ Mavericks *

05/03  Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern *

05/04  Rochester, NY @ Bug Jar *

05/05  Albany, NY @ Valentine's *

05/06  Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church *

* w/ Future Islands 

Artist: Ed Schrader's Music Beat

Album: Jazz Mind

Label: Load Records

Release Date: March 20, 2012

01. Sermon

02. Gem Asylum

03. Traveling

04. Right

05. Do The Maneuver 

06. Rats (VIDEO)

07. My Mind Is Broken (MP3) (VIDEO)

08. When I'm In A Car (MP3)

09. Air Show

10. Can't Stop Eating Sugar (VIDEO)

11. Gas Station Attendant

On the Web:

www.facebook.com/pages/Ed-Schraders-Music-Beat

www.loadrecords.com

Marriages (3/5 of Red Sparowes) premiere new song via SPIN.com

Click image above to watch video

Red Sparowes offshoot band Marriages premiere a new song from their forthcoming debut today courtesy of SPIN.com. The track "Ride In My Place" is culled from their new recording, Kitsune and is available to download/stream HERE. 

Back in February, Marriages released the first track, "Ten Tiny Fingers" which is available to download/stream HERE. Watch a video teaser for Kitsune featuring the band at work in the studio HERE.

Marriages is a new band comprised of Red Sparowes members Emma Ruth Rundle (vocals, guitar), Greg Burns (bass, synthesizer) and David Clifford (drums). Their sound is a singularly sensual kind of heavy, dramatic rock, but perhaps the most stark contrast to their other band, Marriages employs vocals in their songs. Their music is also considerably darker and more experimental, drawn from a wide range of styles and ideas. Emma’s breathy, understated delivery provides a focal point – the eye of the proverbial storm. A haunting presence, as elusive as it is alluring, her voice is a shore upon which waves of overdriven bass, thunderous drums, and cosmic guitars and synths swell and crash. 

Kitsune is their 6-song debut release, a short introduction of an album whose undeniably epic proportions suggest massive things to come. Recorded with the formidable Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Red Sparowes, Tool) at the controls, Kitsune presents a collection of poignant, emotionally-charged tracks that wriggle free of easy classification. The comparisons are diverse; Cocteau Twins and Zola Jesus would appear to be as influential as Boris and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The songs came together quickly as the band wrote and played their first shows in November 2011 and wrapped recording in January 2012. 

Album opener "Ride in My Place" sets the tone, immediately revealing the undulating, reverb-cloaked darkness at the band’s core. Sounding not unlike PJ Harvey fronting an overdriven rendition of Pink Floyd’s "Echoes", the fittingly-titled song arrives as a fully-formed companion piece for expansive landscapes, perhaps traversing the vastness of the American west.  Hardly overstaying its welcome, the track soon gives way to "Body of Shade", whose cryptic “My body gone forever…” lyric suggests a sort of transcendence echoed in the music itself -- Clifford’s steady backbeat, the tense rhythm and the swirling interplay of synth and cascading guitars recalling the finer moments of The Verve’s early recordings. Opening with a celestial keyboard loop and quickly gaining weight, third track "Ten Tiny Fingers" builds upon a heavy dirge-like rhythm punctuated by Rundle’s vocals, which by now clearly occupy a place among esteemed peers such as Chelsea Wolfe and label mate Lisa Papineau. The song’s cryptic, claustrophobic lyrics, contrasted with a loose (but by no means less thunderous) atmosphere and sense of impending collapse bring to mind The Cure, circa Pornography. The next track, "Pelt", is borne from the decaying remnants of "Ten Tiny Fingers". A menacingly hypnotic three-minute meditation on minimalist doom, it serves as the perfect introduction to the distorted, bass-driven hard rock and wailing psychedelia of instrumental track "White Shape". Seven-minute closer "Part the Dark Again" is a song whose cinematic scope recalls precisely the kind of grandiosity Red Sparowes are synonymous with, taken to its logical extreme. The impassioned, struggling-against-the-odds sentiment of the vocals (“Part the darkness in my heart”, “Don’t say it’s nothing…”, etc.) takes things over the top emotionally, culminating in a soaring, melancholic riff that grinds to a halt far earlier than you’d expect. Throughout, Rundle unassumingly steps to the forefront, showcasing her unique talents as a guitarist often overlooked within Red Sparowes' three guitar onslaught. 

Kitsune is an exciting debut release from a band well aware of their potential, harnessing the skills to fulfill it. Marriages are an expansive, visionary development, a unique combination of elements, a sound signposting the path ahead… Kitsune will be available on LP, CD and download via Sargent House on May 1st, 2012. 

Artist: Marriages 

Album: Kitsune

Label: Sargent House

Release date: May 1st, 2012

Track list:

01. Ride In My Place (MP3)

02. Body of Shade 

03. Ten Tiny Fingers (MP3) 

04. Pelt 

05. White Shape 

06. Part The Dark Again 

On the Web:

marriagesband.com

www.facebook.com/MarriagesBand

Hi-res photos, album art, bio and more:

http://sargenthouse.com/marriages_assets.html

  

British trio Nedry release sophomore album today

Click image above to watch video

"With their dreamy electronic loops and darker industrial undertones, London dub-rockers Nedry fall somewhere in between Beach House and The Knife. Their 2010 LP, Condors, was a masterful expression of what dubstep can sound like when in the right hands." -- Consequence of Sound

"A futuristic sonic collage of dreamy glitch-folk, shimmering electronica and weapons-grade Dubstep percussion... Feels like a futuristic step forward from Radiohead's In Rainbows or Portishead's Third." Four stars -- Uncut

"When a band is as good, as versatile and as daring as Nedry, you hope the wider world will stand up and take notice." -- Huw Stephens - BBC Radio One 

London UK's dark electronic trio Nedry release their sophomore album In A Dim Light today via

Monotreme Records. A video clip for recent single "Violaceae" is available to stream HERE courtesy of Consequence of Sound. 

Also, two tracks, the eerily sinister "Float" and surrealistically soaring "Post Six" are available to stream/download HERE.

Drawing on the gothic undertones of David Lynch - and at points, absorbing T.S. Eliot’s ‘Four Quartets’, vocalist Ayu Okakita revels in ruminations urging acceptance of the shadows; to permit the darkness to settle around her.

British bass music clings to few modern regulations. As grey areas become inviting, zones of conflict are transformed into fertile new ground. Nedry are dictating a path that recognizes no genre, no structures, no rules. Ripping progressive dance culture out of the bedroom producers’ smoke stained confines and planting it resolutely on the live stage, Matt Parker and Chris Amblin utilize MPC, laptops, guitars and synths to create a deep, thoughtful musical space.

Nedry are a trio who are dissolving the distance between this cutting edge and hungry audience. Splicing a band aesthetic with the ‘heads down and thumbs up’ bass craft of the UK, they gift the faceless revolution of dark music an inviting visage within which we can all dwell.

The dazzling fusion of electronica, instrumental rock, dubstep rhythms and hauntingly beautiful vocals of their 2010 debut album Condors saw them tipped for greatness by BBC Radio One, The Guardian, Uncut and Q Magazine. In the past two years, Nedry has performed at the Roskilde, Sonar and SXSW festivals, XFM and BBC sessions and tours with 65daysofstatic, Maps & Atlases and These New Puritans. 

Nedry started performing, producing and recording in summer 2008. In a short amount of time they've made waves on the UK electronic music scene, sharing stages with the likes of Pivot (Warp), Maps (MUTE), The Gaslamp Killer (Brainfeeder) and Daedelus (Ninja Tune). Nedry have steadily gathered critical acclaim since the self-released SZ EP and Condors album in 2010, and In A Dim Light sees the band poised for the bright lights. 

In A Dim Light will be available worldwide March 12, 2012 (March 13th in North America) on Monotreme Records. Available on CD and digital formats and as a 180 gm vinyl edition of 500 on black (200 copies) or white (300 copies) vinyl with a free CD of the album and a free 12" x 24" poster.

Artist: Nedry

Album: In A Dim Light 

Label: Monotreme Records

Release Date: March 13, 2012

01. I Would Rather Explode

02. Post Six (MP3)

03. Violaceae (VIDEO)

04. Havana Nights

05. Dusk Till Dawn

06. Float (MP3)

07. Land Leviathan

08. TMA

09. here.now.here

10. Home

Artist: Nedry

Album: Dusk Till Dawn 

Label: Monotreme Records

Release Date: March 14, 2011

01. Dusk Till Dawn (VIDEO)

02. Dusk TIll Dawn (CAPAC remix)

On the Web:

http://www.nedrymakesmusic.com/

www.facebook.com/nedrymakesmusic

http://monotremerecords.com

Nedry are available for interviews. For more information, contact Dave Clifford at dave@usthemgroup.com 

NYC post-metal band Sleep Maps premiere first track from forthcoming album via Prefix Mag

Click image above to watch album teaser video

New York City post-metal band Sleep Maps premiere the first track from their forthcoming album today via Prefix Mag. The song "Men Against The Stars" is culled from the quartet's retro-futurism inspired concept album, Fiction Makes The Future and is available to stream/download HERE. Check out an album teaser video HERE. 

Sleep Maps play a handful of New York area shows this spring before embarking on a more extensive tour in support of the album. Please see current dates below. 

Sleep Maps is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Ben Kaplan, who performed all of the instruments on Fiction Makes The Future. The band has since expanded to a full 4-piece lineup, playing its aggressive yet atmospheric songs live with poignant visual projections. The band first formed in Los Angeles, before Kaplan picked up a moved to NYC, recording the album on his own prior to finding musicians suited to the task.

A reaction to the present world and a vision of a lost future, Fiction Makes the Future brings the listener back in time to imagine a reality that might have been. Set against a backdrop of ambient synthscapes, crushing guitar builds and explosive drumming, the album tries to make sense of man’s deep seated desire to know his future. Disembodied voices from luminaries of many ages intermingle with echoing guitar leads, soaked in the reverb of outer space, and distorted bass lines that rumble in the low end like the jets of an Apollo spacecraft, blurring the line between traditional post-rock and a new kind of sci-fi instrumental rock.

Fiction Makes The Future was recorded in the woods of Delaware over 3 weeks in October 2011. The 5-song, 40-plus minute album was produced, performed and mixed by Ben Kaplan. It will be available on limited edition CD and Download May 1st, 2012.

SLEEP MAPS LIVE:

04/04   Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus 

04/24   New York, NY @ The Delancey - CD Release show

05/09   Brooklyn, NY @ Trash Bar

Artist: Sleep Maps

Album: Fiction Makes The Future

Label: Lost Future Music

Release Date: May 1st, 2012

01. Men Against The Stars (MP3)

02. The Eternal Wanderer

03. Forbidden Light

04. A Greater Fire

05. Last Future

On the Web:

www.sleepmaps.com

facebook.com/sleepmapsmusic

San Francisco blissful indie-pop quartet Adios Amigo premiere song via RCRD LBL, announce followup EP

"Pure California dreaming: nostalgic, jangly music that makes you feel sun-soaked and happy." -- The Deli SF Magazine 

"Happy, hopeful, celebratory music." -- NPR

"The pure indie-pop bliss of Adios Amigo occasionally dipped towards mellow Belle & Sebastian sentimentality, at other points rocking more Shins-like." -- SF Bay Guardian

"This indie pop group bolsters itself with warm, murky harmonies and lovely, listless vocals. All four instrumentalists sing on every song, and the resulting music is more akin to British Invasion-style rock than contemporary pop - three-part harmonies rather than a lead over backing vocals. Most tracks start with a tantalizingly drawn-out major seventh chord. Sometimes the musicians hover on one tonal center for an entire song, the same way a painter might obsess over a single color. They're forgiven." -- East Bay Express

San Francisco indie-pop quartet Adios Amigo today premiere the first song from their debut release via RCRD LBL while busy at work recording a followup EP. The simultaneously happy and forlorn sounding track "Debut" (listen/download HERE) is a fitting introduction to the band's masterful pop-craft.

With a critically praised five-song debut recently released, Adios Amigo is already back in the studio to capture more of the band's lithe neo-psychedelic tunes. The as yet untitled followup will be available on June 1st, 2012. Summer tour dates will follow, please see current shows below.

Adios Amigo began in the South American capital city of Santiago, Chile. It was here that singer/songwriter/guitarist Johnny Major, during his college year abroad, began writing love songs on an old, beat-up guitar for a Chilean girl whom he would go on to marry. It would be 8 years and tens of thousands of miles traveled before John would record his music and assemble a band. Adios Amigo is the culmination, and also the beginning of his musical aspirations coming to light. 

Adios Amigo, the band, was put together after completion of recordings in the Sacramento studio of engineer David Pullin (Sholi, The Soft White Sixties). All instruments were performed by Major, and the recordings would go on to become Adios Amigo's self-titled debut EP. With only songs written on acoustic guitar, and having never been played with a full band, the sound was invented through layering of guitar and vocal tracks, and the end result was a harmonious wall of sound, reminiscent of Broken Social Scene's grandiose indie rock symphony. Major's singing and writing style can be likened to Elliott Smith, his vocals delivered softly with strategic harmonies, in traditional pop song structure.

The band's debut 5 track EP is an eclectic batch of songs tied together by a pop sensibility and a calm, upbeat sentimentality. The songs are about various elements of life: love, past, present, future, and falling asleep on the couch with somebody special. There is not an unhappy note on the album. 

In the spring of 2011, Major recruited musician friends to bring his music to life in a live setting. The current lineup includes Jason Forrest (guitar, vocals), Shawn McNamara (bass guitar, vocals), and Steve Wills (drums, vocals). Johnny Major also plays drums in San Francisco based indie-folk band, Il Gato. All members of Adios Amigo reside in San Francisco, CA.  

ADIOS AMIGO LIVE:

03/28 San Francisco, CA @ Hotel Utah

04/20 San Francisco, CA @ Thee Parkside

Artist: Adios Amigo

Album: Adios Amigo

Label: Adios Amigo Music

Release Date: March 5th, 2012

01. Intro

02. Play You (VIDEO)

03. Debut (MP3)

04. Easy To Hide (VIDEO)

05. The Couch

On the Web:

adiosamigomusic.com

adiosamigo.bandcamp.com

facebook.com/adiosamigomusic

For more information, contact Dave at US/THEM group: dave@usthemgroup.com