ELDER - 'REFLECTIONS OF A FLOATING WORLD'

Formats

• PSYCHOBABBLE091 - 2xLP (COLOURED)

  4046661509311

• PSYCHOBABBLE091CD - CD

  4046661509229

Details

Band members and friends Nick DiSalvo, Jack Donovan and Matt Coutoalready dismissed any last remains of stoner metal stereotypes on Lore (2015). Their current album, which was written following the long and acclaimed Lore tour in moments of intense creativity, is a journey into prog rock and psychedelic worlds. Six monumental songs, huge in sound, each of them their own cosmic expedition. What begins as driving mid-tempo rock filled with heavy guitar riffs repeatedly erupts into melodic tangents and clever variations. The high demands that DiSalvo places on his own songwriting seem to become more unfettered from minute to minute – as does the pleasure of listening to him. Guest musicians Michael Samos and Mike Risberg have added additional guitars, pedal steel and keyboards to the trio, making Elder’s sound more voluminous than ever, and the influences found here range from 70s prog dinosaurs such as Yes, King Crimson or Pink Floyd to their kindred spirits Motorpsycho or legendary 90’s band, the God Machine. And it is of course a cliché, but Elder bring their own organism to life from all these influences. Elder already strike out on their chosen path on the album opener “Sanctuary”. What begins as a trademark stoner song turns on its own axis several times at minute four, morphing into lyrical polyphonic pickings and using a Mellotron to sweet-talk its way to an unfathomable and brutal finale. “The Falling Veil” moves between Thin Lizzy with palpitations and Motorpsycho (era “Heavy Metal Fruit”). Those who think of Kyuss during “Staving off Truth” won’t be able to hold that thought the entire 11 minutes of the song. And as hymn-like as the riffs can be, the band never settles down to one part for longer than two minutes. But at the same time, the songs never lose their coherence, because all parts are logically woven into one another. And it could be that “Sonntag”, a detour into the Krautrock motor functions of Neu!, most clearly shows the limitless cosmic ambitions of Elder. This album is of epic proportions and fans of the likes of Russian Circles, Ocean Size, 65 Days of Static, Kyuss, the aforementioned Motorpsycho and The God Machine will find much to love here.

Tracks

01. Sanctuary
02. The Falling Veil
03. Staving Off Truth
04. Blind
05. Sonntag
06. Thousand Hands

Press

'Album of the week' Stereogum

Audio & Video

CHASTITY BELT - 'I USED TO SPEND SO MUCH TIME ALONE'

Formats

• HAR101 - LP

  098787310115

• HAR101X - LP (COLOURED)

  4059251098966

• HAR101CD - CD

  098787310122

• HARCS101 - MC

  098787310146

Details

Chastity Belt’s second full-length for Hardly Art • Produced and mixed by Matthew Simms of Wire. US tour forthcoming in Summer 2016 • Serviced to all major press outlets + college radio Full album download included with LPs • Bonus tracks included on CD and LP A few years ago, while in a tour van somewhere in Idaho, the members of Chastity Belt—Julia Shapiro, Gretchen Grimm, Lydia Lund, and Annie Truscott—opted to pass the time in a relatively unusual fashion: They collectively paid one another compliments, in great and thoughtful detail. This is what we like best about you, this is why we love you. I think of that image all the time, the four of them opening themselves up like that, by choice. It’s hard to imagine other bands doing the same. But beyond their troublesome social media presence—see: the abundance of weapons-grade duck face, the rolling suitcase art—and beyond their moonlit deadpan lies, at the very least, an honesty and an intimacy and an emotional brilliance that galvanizes everything they do together. Which is a fancy way of saying: They’re funny, but they’re also capable of being vulnerable. This June marks the release of I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone, their third and finest full-length to date. Recorded live in July of 2016, at Jackpot! in Portland, Oregon (birthplace of some of their favorite Elliott Smith records), it’s a dark and uncommonly beautiful set of moody post-punk that finds the Seattle outfit’s feelings in full view, unobscured by humor. There is no irony in its title: Before she had Chastity Belt, and the close relationships that she does now, Shapiro considered herself a career loner. That’s no small gesture. I can make as much sense of this music as I can my 20s: This is a brave and often exhilarating tangle of mixed feelings and haunting melodies that connects dizzying anguish (“This Time of Night”) to shimmering insight (“Different Now”) to gauzy ambiguity (“Stuck,” written and sung by Grimm). It’s a serious record but not a serious departure, defined best, perhaps, by a line that Shapiro shares early on its staggering title track: “I wanna be sincere.” When asked, their only request was that what you’re reading right now be brief, honest, free of hyperbole, and “v chill.” When pressed for more, Truscott said, “Just say that we love each other. Because we do.” This is who they are, this is why I love them. —David Bevan, February 2017

Tracks

1. Different Now
2. Caught In A Lie
3. This Time Of Night
4. Stuck
5. Complain
6. It?s Obvious
7. What The Hell
8. Something Else
9. Used To Spend
10. 5 AM
11. Don?t Worry (CD/Digital Bonus)
12. Bender (CD/Digital Bonus)
13. I?m Fine (CD/Digital Bonus)

Press

MOJO **** Loud & Quiet 8/10 , UNCUT 7/10

Audio & Video