Jonny Pierce (The Drums) Premieres New Song
Kitsuné Maison preps to release the 15th edition of their long running and much loved compilation series on October 21, 2013. Jam-packed with interesting faces, irresistible choruses, & inspired melodies from both new names and old. Continuing their world wide quest as a forward thinking fashion house / record label Kitsuné continues to push bigger names like Two Door Cinema Club, Is Tropical, Citizens! but always take a step back when it comes to the newest edition to their compilation family. Hitting on originality and quality above all else, this edition Kitsuné offers music from the likes of Portland, Years & Years, Jonny Pierce (of The Drums), Techniques, The Swiss, Chelam, and more.
Various Artists
Kitsune Maison Compilation 15
Out October 21, 2013
Tracklist:
Antimatter People “Only Ark”
Go Wolf “Voices”
Jake Bullit “Moonshine”
Jonny Pierce “Home”
Chela “Romanticise”
Horixon “Lifeline (feat. Robert Owens)”
Portland “Deezy Daisy (Oliver Nelson Remix)”
The Swiss “Kiss To Kiss (Amtrac Remix)”
Techniques “Switch (Adelaide Remix)”
Years & Years “Traps”
NONONO “Scared”
Dillon Cooper “State of Elevation”
Denita And Sene “Casanova”
David Harks “Sirens”
Kilo Kish “Goldmine”
The Wytches “Summer Again” Bonus Track
Kitsuné Maison preps to release the 15th edition of their long running and much loved compilation series on October 21, 2013. Jam-packed with interesting faces, irresistible choruses, & inspired melodies from both new names and old. Continuing their world wide quest as a forward thinking fashion house / record label Kitsuné continues to push bigger names like Two Door Cinema Club, Is Tropical, Citizens! but always take a step back when it comes to the newest edition to their compilation family. Hitting on originality and quality above all else, this edition Kitsuné offers music from the likes of Portland, Years & Years, Jonny Pierce (of The Drums), Techniques, The Swiss, Chelam, and more.
Various Artists
Kitsune Maison Compilation 15
Out October 21, 2013
Tracklist:
Antimatter People “Only Ark”
Go Wolf “Voices”
Jake Bullit “Moonshine”
Jonny Pierce “Home”
Chela “Romanticise”
Horixon “Lifeline (feat. Robert Owens)”
Portland “Deezy Daisy (Oliver Nelson Remix)”
The Swiss “Kiss To Kiss (Amtrac Remix)”
Techniques “Switch (Adelaide Remix)”
Years & Years “Traps”
NONONO “Scared”
Dillon Cooper “State of Elevation”
Denita And Sene “Casanova”
David Harks “Sirens”
Kilo Kish “Goldmine”
The Wytches “Summer Again” Bonus Track
Andreas From ‘Holograms’ Chats With Northerntransmission
We chatted with Andreas Lagerström, the affable frontman for the Swedish band ‘Holograms’. The band’s latest album Forever is now out on Captured Tracks.
NT: Your latest album, Forever, has been described by some writers as dangerous. It’s not often you hear that kind of thing about an album. What’s your take on that?
AL: I don’t think it’s dangerous. I actually think the record is a bit on the romantic side. Our music truly does have a romantic element to it. We don’t try to sound dangerous. I think we try to have a bit of intensity when we write. I find it funny that someone would actually describe the album as dangerous (lol). In my opinion, the core of our music is probably more influenced by pop music than anything else.
NT: The band has really made great sacrifices to make albums, including leaving jobs, moving around. Do you feel like your in a good place?
AL: It’s really paid off in a personal way. Holograms never set out in the beginning to do things on this level. When we signed our record deal, we knew that we were really fortunate. The band has really enjoyed it so far. We really have no regrets.
NT: Why did you guys want to move in a different direction on this album?
AL: I think we really wanted the first album to sound the way that Forever does. Some of the songs on the first album sound familiar to the ones on Forever, that was the direction we wanted for the whole record. On the new album, we had more time and a bit more experience. The last album we really didn’t have as much time or money. This time when we went into the studio in Stockholm, it was much easier. We really knew what we wanted to do.
NT: Your music is influenced by post-rock and punk. What was the scene like where you grew up in Sweden?
AL: When I was a teenager, I really looked up to The Helicopters. When we started Holograms, we really didn’t have very many peers or inspirations. We really wanted to do something different musically. It was very difficult in the beginning.
NT: Sweden has had a long love affair with garage and punk, where does it all come from?
AL: That’s a good question. Punk, garage, and metal too have been popular for so many years. It has definitely changed a bit though. I think the biggest thing today is Indie electronica; it really is huge. Guitar-based bands these days aren’t as popular for some reason.
NT: For the fans that don’t speak Swedish, tell us about the song “Attestupa” and it’s meaning.
AL: It’s an old legend or myth in Nordic countries. It’s a big cliff where old family members go and kill themselves. They go there when they feel they are no longer useful. The inspiration behind the song is about not feeling useful. I guess that kind of simplifies it (lol).
NT: Many Swedish bands sing in English and speak without much of an accent. How young are you when you start learning the language?
AL: We start studying English in the first grade. Another reason is, we watch quite a bit of American television, so we get exposed to so much of the language. Also, we don’t dub any of the shows into Swedish, so that is also how we learn quite a bit.
NT: Which five albums are still influencing you today?
AL:
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
Death In June – Nada
Brodeur Daniel – Forever
Modern English – Mesh And Lace
Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska
We chatted with Andreas Lagerström, the affable frontman for the Swedish band ‘Holograms’. The band’s latest album Forever is now out on Captured Tracks.
NT: Your latest album, Forever, has been described by some writers as dangerous. It’s not often you hear that kind of thing about an album. What’s your take on that?
AL: I don’t think it’s dangerous. I actually think the record is a bit on the romantic side. Our music truly does have a romantic element to it. We don’t try to sound dangerous. I think we try to have a bit of intensity when we write. I find it funny that someone would actually describe the album as dangerous (lol). In my opinion, the core of our music is probably more influenced by pop music than anything else.
NT: The band has really made great sacrifices to make albums, including leaving jobs, moving around. Do you feel like your in a good place?
AL: It’s really paid off in a personal way. Holograms never set out in the beginning to do things on this level. When we signed our record deal, we knew that we were really fortunate. The band has really enjoyed it so far. We really have no regrets.
NT: Why did you guys want to move in a different direction on this album?
AL: I think we really wanted the first album to sound the way that Forever does. Some of the songs on the first album sound familiar to the ones on Forever, that was the direction we wanted for the whole record. On the new album, we had more time and a bit more experience. The last album we really didn’t have as much time or money. This time when we went into the studio in Stockholm, it was much easier. We really knew what we wanted to do.
NT: Your music is influenced by post-rock and punk. What was the scene like where you grew up in Sweden?
AL: When I was a teenager, I really looked up to The Helicopters. When we started Holograms, we really didn’t have very many peers or inspirations. We really wanted to do something different musically. It was very difficult in the beginning.
NT: Sweden has had a long love affair with garage and punk, where does it all come from?
AL: That’s a good question. Punk, garage, and metal too have been popular for so many years. It has definitely changed a bit though. I think the biggest thing today is Indie electronica; it really is huge. Guitar-based bands these days aren’t as popular for some reason.
NT: For the fans that don’t speak Swedish, tell us about the song “Attestupa” and it’s meaning.
AL: It’s an old legend or myth in Nordic countries. It’s a big cliff where old family members go and kill themselves. They go there when they feel they are no longer useful. The inspiration behind the song is about not feeling useful. I guess that kind of simplifies it (lol).
NT: Many Swedish bands sing in English and speak without much of an accent. How young are you when you start learning the language?
AL: We start studying English in the first grade. Another reason is, we watch quite a bit of American television, so we get exposed to so much of the language. Also, we don’t dub any of the shows into Swedish, so that is also how we learn quite a bit.
NT: Which five albums are still influencing you today?
AL:
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
Death In June – Nada
Brodeur Daniel – Forever
Modern English – Mesh And Lace
Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska
Review Of The Field’s New LP “Cupid’s Head”
Artist: The Field
Album: Cupid’s Head
Label: Kompakt
Rating: 7.0
When Axel Willner, aka The Field, released his debut album From Here We Go Sublime, it came as a surprise to him that the minimal techno sound would become such a critical hit. It didn’t sound like other techno out there, so any success it did receive was probably a bonus because that wasn’t the driving force of his creativity. Willner was able to follow up with two more successful albums, using the formula of “no formula”. It’s a fun but dangerous game to play as an artist, because you’re always having to challenge yourself which can be quite satisfying, but with no set blueprint or ideas it’s hard to just set down to work. Willner felt this awkwardness as he began work on his newest album which eventually Willner was able to produce a new and unique sound, but Cupid’s Head while at times stirring, fails to capture the imagination quite like his previous outings.
The album opens up with an aptly titled “A Guided Tour”. Its soft beats and mellow loops start this guided tour of the album off with a daydream like trance. It lulls very steadily over eight minutes which feels maybe a tad long, but it will foreshadow the choices that will be made later in the album. “The Black Sea” follows up with an almost twelve minute opus, that for the most part is an organic extension of the first track, it’s not until the seven minute mark of the song though that things take a darker shift from the light upbeat tones. Harder beats get introduced for the first time, and an ominous vocal sample is heard that feels very sexual in nature. This is the black sea we’re talking about here in context to album title Cupid’s Head, I think you see what he’s going for here. The title track “Cupid’s Head” marks the start of the interesting part of the album, it’s the shortest track which might be a clue here as to what really works on this album, the vocal sample is delightfully ambiguous and it’s meandering repetitiveness actually creates a sense of wonder and wandering emotion. “No, No…” is the best track on the album, and is sort of a throwback to the ambient trance of the late 90’s early 2000’s. It’s very cinematic in it’s scope, and the repeating “no’s” can be devastating and thrilling, although again, the track is just a tad too long for my liking. “They Won’t See Me” starts promisingly enough with a cool beat, and an interesting loop, but it’s another 9 minute track that never really takes off. The most glaring of the misses is the final track “20 Seconds of Affection” which has a very ambiguous synth loop that just keeps going. It’s very inorganic sounding, and never once do you forget that you’re listening to manufactured sounds which I always find is the goal to not do when you’re listening to this type of ambient techno. At times listening to this last track I zoned out like you might normally do in this genre, but it didn’t take me any place interesting, I literally just forgot I was listening to anything.
Despite a few of the tracks that don’t work, there’s a couple that really do. The Field has been an interesting artist that has given us some cool stuff to listen to over the years, and this album certainly has some great moments. Some edits or remixes of these tracks might bring some life to these recordings, because at this point listening to this album, coming from a musician at the top of his genre, it comes off very cold and ineffectual. It may have been his intention to create something lost and distant, and while a times it does, it doesn’t quite work as a whole.
Review Of Ty Segall’s New Band ‘Fuzz’
Unmasking Islands Frontman Nick Thorburn
From the safety of a tour van somewhere down the West Coast, Islands frontman Nick Thorburn took a few patient moments to explain to Northern Transmission’s Julie Colero how a mellotron works and how its sound, combined with the cosmic delivery of the perfect cover art, came to shape the band’s latest album, Ski Mask.
JC: I read that your last album, A Sleep & A Forgetting, was an album written with “pain and a piano”. If you had to choose one emotion and one instrument to represent Ski Mask, what would they be, and why?
NT: I would say… murderous rage and a mellotron? I’m just trying to be alliterative – I don’t think murderous rage is accurate. But there is a lot of mellotron on the record, though… Maybe morose? Morbid? Moribund? The mellotron is not something we have access to on a regular basis, but we were in the studio, where they had a real, live mellotron. For Islands, in previous years, we’ve had more instrumentation – strings, violin – a little more classical. Now we’ve whittled the band down to four members, and something like the mellotron, its whole purpose is to create that instrumentation. And that’s exactly what we used it for – really, for its primary purpose. It’s a keyboard that was built in the early 60s and it simulates different instruments. There’s a component of the mellotron and you put in a piece of tape that is a recording of each note played on that instrument corresponding to the notes on the piano. It’s a very old-fashioned, but at the same time pretty advanced and cool piece of technology. It gives a real sample of the instrument. We couldn’t afford a marimba player on “Wave Forms,” so we popped in the marimba tape loop.
JC: Had you had the chance to play with one before?
NT: They make simulations, digital, fake plug-inny ones, and I’d fooled around with those. But this was maybe the first time I’d used a real one. You try not to get carried away. It’s just that it’s been done – the Zombies, the Beatles. They put their name on it. It’s a very trademarked sound.
JC: How will this Mellotron-heavy approach change the make-up of the band on stage?
NT: We’ve got a lot of keyboards on this tour, a lot of synthesizers. The Gordon Brothers, who are the instrumentalists who have been with me for the last three records, they really just are trying to handle all that stuff, whether it’s fit to play with a synthesizer or not. They’re handling all that instrumentation. We’re about to start. We have played a couple of these songs live in the past, but, for the most part, these songs we haven’t even played outside of recording the record. We made this record a while ago, and we’re just now re-learning the songs that we hadn’t thought about for a while. It all feels very fresh.
JC: Have you already moved on to composing more tracks since this album came together?
NT: Yeah, we have a few extra songs. Well, I have a few. I haven’t brought them to the band yet officially. Maybe six songs for the next record. We’ll see if they stand up, if they hold up for that long. Up until now, yeah. Evan and Jordie [Gordon] are more than just session players; they’re terrific songwriters in their own rights. I have floated the idea by them that we actually write together, do some collaborating, or that they maybe write something and bring it to me. Until now, Islands has been this very solitary exercise. I thought it might be refreshing to open it up, to keep it from being too stagnant. It’s too much of a monologue. I thought it might be cool to have more of a dialogue with the band. For now what we have is [that] I have six songs, and generally I write the songs and then bring them to the band in whatever state of completion they’re in, and they always bring something magical to the process.
JC: I read about your trip in April of this year, where the band went to Malawi and participated in an after school musical education program. Can you talk a little bit about that experience?
NT: It was insane. It was my first time in Africa, and it was quite a shock, quite a change of lifestyle. I feel like I run the risk of sound naïve or something, or that I’ll have a first-world block over things, but despite the deep poverty, it seemed like a really positive place. We were in a small village in the country of Malawi, and there was no running water, no electricity, and most people just lived in these thatched-roofed huts, and they didn’t have anything. But what they did have was this sense of community that was way more in touch with their own happiness and their own life than anyone in North America. Coming back to North America was so depressing. Everyone’s so caught up in their own narcissism. It was drastically different coming back here and it made me sort of depressed for a few weeks. L.A.’s pretty much the extreme.
JC: You’ve done quite a bit of coastal hopping, from Vancouver Island to Montreal to New York to L.A. Do you get different inspirations and passions in each of these different cities? Or is it more about looking for a change of pace every few years?
NT: I like to keep moving, I guess. Basically, I’m a wanted criminal and I’ve got to keep on my toes because they’re after me. I don’t know…I just sort of let the events unfold. All my reasons for moving around have been, you know, circumstantial. Events would happen in my life and I would be confronted by a decision to move, whether it was for relationships –to get out of relationships, or to get into them, or whatever – that’s the thing. I left Vancouver Island, I wanted to get as far away from my home town of Campbell River as possible. It’s really fortunate that I was able to go to Montreal. It was a huge growing opportunity. I guess I just like fresh, new things, new environments. But L.A., I think I’ll be here for a while.
JC: We’re talking fresh and new – you’ve mentioned freshness a couple of times. Your mantra for the band is “Islands are forever.” Which elements of the band are about transition and change, and which ones are about permanence?
NT: I should have a thesaurus handy if I keep saying the word “fresh”! I think there are constants, like in any part of life, that orbit around us. And then there’s change, which keeps things new and different. The most obvious constant in Islands is me. Everything else is subject to change. And that is what it is. I try to make everything else feel different and exciting. Mostly for me – I’m not doing this to keep anyone else interested, but I like the idea of being able to move within these confines and limitations that I have to try and achieve new things. I like trying to discover different types of songs or to make different kinds of records. The idea is to continue using the name Islands as a banner.
JC: Finally, can you explain what we are looking at on the cover of your new album? It looks as though you’ve somehow found a photographic realization of your own comic characters.
NT: It is a still from a film from 1988 called “Ozone! Attack of the Redneck Mutants”. It’s a B-Movie, beyond B. It’s about as low-budget as you can imagine, but it’s really quite something. It’s a home-movie style horror movie and I came across the image online on an art blog or something and just fell immediately in love with it, probably for that reason, that it’s a manifestation of my inner mind, and the director of the film, Matt Devlen, was kind enough to let me use the image, but it’s just this weird… that’s what I liked about it, actually. I couldn’t make sense of it. His face, it’s melting, and it looks like a galaxy of stars. I saw that image maybe two-and-a-half years ago, and I knew that that would be the cover, and I knew that the album would be called Ski Mask. It was kind of all cosmic.
From the safety of a tour van somewhere down the West Coast, Islands frontman Nick Thorburn took a few patient moments to explain to Northern Transmission’s Julie Colero how a mellotron works and how its sound, combined with the cosmic delivery of the perfect cover art, came to shape the band’s latest album, Ski Mask.
JC: I read that your last album, A Sleep & A Forgetting, was an album written with “pain and a piano”. If you had to choose one emotion and one instrument to represent Ski Mask, what would they be, and why?
NT: I would say… murderous rage and a mellotron? I’m just trying to be alliterative – I don’t think murderous rage is accurate. But there is a lot of mellotron on the record, though… Maybe morose? Morbid? Moribund? The mellotron is not something we have access to on a regular basis, but we were in the studio, where they had a real, live mellotron. For Islands, in previous years, we’ve had more instrumentation – strings, violin – a little more classical. Now we’ve whittled the band down to four members, and something like the mellotron, its whole purpose is to create that instrumentation. And that’s exactly what we used it for – really, for its primary purpose. It’s a keyboard that was built in the early 60s and it simulates different instruments. There’s a component of the mellotron and you put in a piece of tape that is a recording of each note played on that instrument corresponding to the notes on the piano. It’s a very old-fashioned, but at the same time pretty advanced and cool piece of technology. It gives a real sample of the instrument. We couldn’t afford a marimba player on “Wave Forms,” so we popped in the marimba tape loop.
JC: Had you had the chance to play with one before?
NT: They make simulations, digital, fake plug-inny ones, and I’d fooled around with those. But this was maybe the first time I’d used a real one. You try not to get carried away. It’s just that it’s been done – the Zombies, the Beatles. They put their name on it. It’s a very trademarked sound.
JC: How will this Mellotron-heavy approach change the make-up of the band on stage?
NT: We’ve got a lot of keyboards on this tour, a lot of synthesizers. The Gordon Brothers, who are the instrumentalists who have been with me for the last three records, they really just are trying to handle all that stuff, whether it’s fit to play with a synthesizer or not. They’re handling all that instrumentation. We’re about to start. We have played a couple of these songs live in the past, but, for the most part, these songs we haven’t even played outside of recording the record. We made this record a while ago, and we’re just now re-learning the songs that we hadn’t thought about for a while. It all feels very fresh.
JC: Have you already moved on to composing more tracks since this album came together?
NT: Yeah, we have a few extra songs. Well, I have a few. I haven’t brought them to the band yet officially. Maybe six songs for the next record. We’ll see if they stand up, if they hold up for that long. Up until now, yeah. Evan and Jordie [Gordon] are more than just session players; they’re terrific songwriters in their own rights. I have floated the idea by them that we actually write together, do some collaborating, or that they maybe write something and bring it to me. Until now, Islands has been this very solitary exercise. I thought it might be refreshing to open it up, to keep it from being too stagnant. It’s too much of a monologue. I thought it might be cool to have more of a dialogue with the band. For now what we have is [that] I have six songs, and generally I write the songs and then bring them to the band in whatever state of completion they’re in, and they always bring something magical to the process.
JC: I read about your trip in April of this year, where the band went to Malawi and participated in an after school musical education program. Can you talk a little bit about that experience?
NT: It was insane. It was my first time in Africa, and it was quite a shock, quite a change of lifestyle. I feel like I run the risk of sound naïve or something, or that I’ll have a first-world block over things, but despite the deep poverty, it seemed like a really positive place. We were in a small village in the country of Malawi, and there was no running water, no electricity, and most people just lived in these thatched-roofed huts, and they didn’t have anything. But what they did have was this sense of community that was way more in touch with their own happiness and their own life than anyone in North America. Coming back to North America was so depressing. Everyone’s so caught up in their own narcissism. It was drastically different coming back here and it made me sort of depressed for a few weeks. L.A.’s pretty much the extreme.
JC: You’ve done quite a bit of coastal hopping, from Vancouver Island to Montreal to New York to L.A. Do you get different inspirations and passions in each of these different cities? Or is it more about looking for a change of pace every few years?
NT: I like to keep moving, I guess. Basically, I’m a wanted criminal and I’ve got to keep on my toes because they’re after me. I don’t know…I just sort of let the events unfold. All my reasons for moving around have been, you know, circumstantial. Events would happen in my life and I would be confronted by a decision to move, whether it was for relationships –to get out of relationships, or to get into them, or whatever – that’s the thing. I left Vancouver Island, I wanted to get as far away from my home town of Campbell River as possible. It’s really fortunate that I was able to go to Montreal. It was a huge growing opportunity. I guess I just like fresh, new things, new environments. But L.A., I think I’ll be here for a while.
JC: We’re talking fresh and new – you’ve mentioned freshness a couple of times. Your mantra for the band is “Islands are forever.” Which elements of the band are about transition and change, and which ones are about permanence?
NT: I should have a thesaurus handy if I keep saying the word “fresh”! I think there are constants, like in any part of life, that orbit around us. And then there’s change, which keeps things new and different. The most obvious constant in Islands is me. Everything else is subject to change. And that is what it is. I try to make everything else feel different and exciting. Mostly for me – I’m not doing this to keep anyone else interested, but I like the idea of being able to move within these confines and limitations that I have to try and achieve new things. I like trying to discover different types of songs or to make different kinds of records. The idea is to continue using the name Islands as a banner.
JC: Finally, can you explain what we are looking at on the cover of your new album? It looks as though you’ve somehow found a photographic realization of your own comic characters.
NT: It is a still from a film from 1988 called “Ozone! Attack of the Redneck Mutants”. It’s a B-Movie, beyond B. It’s about as low-budget as you can imagine, but it’s really quite something. It’s a home-movie style horror movie and I came across the image online on an art blog or something and just fell immediately in love with it, probably for that reason, that it’s a manifestation of my inner mind, and the director of the film, Matt Devlen, was kind enough to let me use the image, but it’s just this weird… that’s what I liked about it, actually. I couldn’t make sense of it. His face, it’s melting, and it looks like a galaxy of stars. I saw that image maybe two-and-a-half years ago, and I knew that that would be the cover, and I knew that the album would be called Ski Mask. It was kind of all cosmic.
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