Month: September 2018

WARDROBE Returns With New Track From Upcoming Album – Here’s ’24 Weeks’…

Posted on by JL

Daily fuel to load your sonic batteries…

29 September 2018

WARDROBE is a Belgian indie band of daydreamers build around singer/songwriter Johan Verckist. Early 2017 they made an affecting impression with Crawling, their debut album. Verckist and his musical accomplices will unleash their follow-up longplayer Giving Up A Ghost in March next year. To cover the time gap here’s the first single, entitled 24 Weeks. A sepia-colored, idyllic love story wrapped in a delightful, uplifting song. With a joyous feel and reflective sentiment, reminding me of one of those rare happy moments of the late great Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse fame. Capture the romantic vibe right here…

WARDROBE: Facebook

24 WEEKS available via Bandcamp

EXPLODED VIEW Challenges Your Subconsciousness With New Enigmatic Album… ‘OBEY’

Posted on by JL

28 September 2018

EXPLODED VIEW, the self-willed international ensemble led by the puzzling singer-
songwriter Annika Henderson, already made a lasting impact with their highly praised
self-titled debut album two years ago and are now back to mystify your sense of being even more. From the twilight lullaby opener onwards you enter their unreal sonic world
as designed on their new, second longplayer, entitled ‘OBEY. After the intro you drift into darksome ballad ‘Open Road‘ until ‘Dark Stains‘, with ‘Come On Honey‘ one of the most explosive songs on the fresh LP, jumps at you like a serpent. Suddenly and firmly.

By now you fully realize what’s really going on. Henderson is already walking around in your head looking for closed doors to open, looking to challenge your subconsciousness just the way mindfucker David Lynch loves to make you believe you’re on the verge of insanity with his nightmarish movies. Absolutely! That’s how Henderson‘s haunting and hunting vox captures your awareness, that’s how the whole hallucinatory orchestration vibrates like. At times (Sleepers / Letting Go of Childhood) it’s like if all instruments at play follow their own path before joining each other somewhere along the line, organically
and mysteriously. Obey is a perplexing and bewildering adventure. An enigmatic trip
from beginning to end. When the electro-droning closer ‘Rant‘ hit me for the first time
I still had no clue where I actually was, so I restarted the record instantly to find out.
That is what ‘Obey‘ does to you. It puts a ghostly spell on you. You just can’t escape. Exploded View‘s world is one of psychotherapeutic magic and seducing illusions.

Well, that’s my personal, ongoing, confused experience since the album was released yesterday. Discover the fascinating odyssey for yourself. Believe me, it’s much cheaper
and absolutely more effective than visiting your money-greedy shrink…

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OBEY available via Sacred Bones  and Bandcamp or iTunes 

EXPLODED VIEW: Facebook – Instagram

MERCURY REV Released Their Symphonic Magnum Opus ‘DESERTER’S SONGS’ 20 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

Going back in sonic history looking for memorable albums…

28 September 2018

Band: MERCURY REV

Album: DESERTER’S SONGS – the band’s fourth album

Released: 29 September 1998 – 20 years ago

ALL MUSIC wrote back then: “Four albums in and ‘Mercury Rev’ remain as surprising and daring as ever, exchanging the volcanic noise and twisted sensibilities of earlier releases for ornate arrangements and ethereal strings, ‘Deserter’s Songs’ unlocks the beauty always hidden just below the band’s surface, its lush harmonics and soothing textures bathing in an almost unearthly light. Complete with its fractured instrumental interludes and odd effects, ‘Deserter’s Songs’ sounds like no other album, for that matter, it doesn’t even sound like Mercury Rev, yet there’s no mistaking the record’s brilliance for anyone else.” – Score: 4.5/5

TURN UP THE VOLUME! says: After hearing Rev‘s masterpiece Deserter’s Songs (thanks
to NME who voted it as their Album Of The Year in 1998) on repeat I discovered a totally other Rev than the chaotic group of the first LP’s. This felt immediately as an exceptional record. A symphonic phantasy from the magical start (Holes) to the playful end (Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp). A bit later, in January 1999 I saw Mercury Rev live for the very first time when they played an indoor festival in Antwerp, Belgium to promote Deserter’s Songs. Their captivating performance blew me away. It wasn’t a traditional concert, it was a spiritual and psychedelic happening. A starry-eyed trance-like event that left a lasting impression on my senses. I’ve seen them countless (about 20 shows if I remember well) times since, with their 2011 show at the Cirque Royal in Brussels as one of the most memorable and unforgettable ones, playing Deserter’s Songs in full. A once in a lifetime band.

The imperishable highlight…

The beauty in full…

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MERCURY REV: Website – Facebook – Twitter – All Albums

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS Share New Track – Dance Yourself Totally Woozy To ‘FREE YOURSELF’…

Posted on by JL

Daily fuel to load your sonic batteries…

28 September 2018

The veteran dance experts THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS released their last album
Born In Echoes 3 years ago, back in 2015. A year later they launched stand-alone
single C-h-e-m-i-c-a-l . And just now they dropped a brand new track, which they
already played live on European festivals this summer. A taster for a new album?
Whatever, FREE YOURSELF is all you expect from the Bros. Trashy electro beats
that have an instant impact on your body temperature and your body movements.
The weekend is coming folks. Here’s the soundtrack. Dance yourself totally woozy
right here, right now…

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THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS: Facebook

TURN UP THE VOLUME’S Knockout SEPTEMBER Team – Eleven Killer Tracks…

Posted on by JL

Eleven killer tracks on repeat this past month…

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Eleven killer tracks we played on repeat in September!
A crazed fusion of roaring rippers and galvanizing grooves
energizing all of our senses and our limbs this past month!
Here’s Turn Up The Volume‘s Knockout September Team!

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1. ‘Dark Stains’ by EXPLODED VIEW (Mexico/Berlin)
A truly booming dance knockout. Its ongoing menacing and eurhythmic vibrancy is simply irresistible and will put a spell on your senses. New album Obey out today. Stream here.

EXPLODED VIEW: Facebook

2. ‘Dirty Boy’ feat. Barry Adamson by A CERTAIN RATIO (Manchester, UK)
The veteran Manchester post punks still make your hips sway uncontrollably. With special guest (ex-Magazine) Barry Adamson you can hit the dance floor and funk yourself dizzy…

A CERTAIN RATIO: Facebook

3. ‘Danny Nedelko’ by IDLES (Bristol, UK)
A moshpit punk uppercut from the band’s smashing new longplayer Joy As An Act Of Resistance. It will catapult this hot-blooded gang of misfits into the premier rock league.

IDLES: Facebook

4. ‘Get Along’ by FADE AWAAYS (Toronto, Canada)
This loud-mouthed corker, made to energize mad crowds, confirms that guitar rock is still alive and kicking! Expect uproarious riffs, a pumping bass/drums force and a killer chorus.

FADE AWAAYS: Facebook

5. ‘Bigfoot’ by DIANE GRACE (Belgium)
Demonic and exorcistic, yet catchy as bloody hell. Hot boiling ripper from this up and coming punk desperados’ debut EP ‘Panic!’. Stream/buy the whole shebang right here.

DIANE GRACE: Facebook

6. ‘When We Left’ by SOMEDAYS (London, UK)
Its glowing drive, its tenacious pace and its confident dynamic will vitalize your adrenaline’s stream and will activate your nerves. The Strokes are dead! Long live Somedays! Damn right.

SOMEDAYS: Facebook

7. ‘Graphite’ by TWIST HELIX (Newcastle upon Tyne. UK)
Here’s a wholehearted, passion injected synths power stroke. Ardent, blazing and totally infectious. An anxious crackerjack strongly intensified by frontwoman Bea Garcia‘s vox.

TWIST HELIX: Facebook

8. ‘The Present’ by MOVIESTAR feat. Professor Elemental (Oslo, Norway)
This is a funky hippy-hoppy party humdinger featuring the wacko steampunk-rapper Professor Elemental. Its funny, trippy, poppy, dancey and totally contagious all the way.

MOVIESTAR: Facebook

9. ‘The Beast Of Love’ by HERSELF Featuring JONATHAN DONAHUE (Italy/US)
A stirring ballad feat. Jonathan Donahue, angelic vox of legendary New York dreamers Mercury Rev. The song resonates like a sensitive symphony growing fuller along its starry-eyed path. New LP by Herself aka Italian singer/songwriter Gioele Valenti out 19th October.

HERSELF: Facebook

10. ‘Young Fools’ by SMALL MILLION (Portland, Oregon, US)
A highly charming pop pearl with singer Malachi Graham‘s gracious vox turning the sticky melody into a moony reverie. Ryan Linder‘s poetic guitar play adds magic to this beauty.

SMALL MILLION: Facebook

11. ‘As One’ by SUEDE (London, UK)
Grand and epic symphony. It’s the magnificent opener from the glam rockers’ new album ‘The Blue Hour‘. There’s a phenomenal choir in there that just blows my mind. Top score!

SUEDE: Facebook

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See/hear you next month, music junkies…