Wednesday 29 February 2012

THE (10-INCH) VINYL COUNTDOWN FOR THE DUBLO AND MONKEY ISLAND


L-13 Recordings, the musical arm of Clerkenwells L-13 Gallery, present this joint offering from two of Hackneys most forward-thinking, backward-looking bands.  Pressed on deluxe 10-inch vinyl, from hand-cut masters, and housed in individually-numbered hand-printed sleeves, each collectable disc comes complete with a free download code for the more. modernamong you.

MONKEY ISLANDDEFUNCTUS EST

In this eight-track core sample of the terrain Monkey Island have been inhabiting over the last year or so since the release of Luxe et Redux, the body of rock has been mischievously rearranged on the slab post-exhumation and a cross section of the results displayed for scrutiny. The strata on view present us with a neo-vista of the bands recent activity. Mudrock, hardcore, metal-ore, artefact and other grim evidence of civilisation are ploughed into the arising midden via their bulldozing sonic archaeology, with the polluted industrial top-soil of punk liberally scattered throughout. A lyrical commentary is provided, its disrupted narrative doing little to assist a linear analysis, but leaving us with their wilfully hammer-headed version of rock's megalithology and - fracked from an unsteady substrata of half-forgotten ideology, folk forms, surreal observation and digibox truisms - a few dark-humoured clues of how to maintain hope, and grinningly sidestep a seemingly catastrophically corporate future.

Released
on 10 April on a label whose roster includes Billy Childish, James Cauty and Jamie Reid and reads like a Who's Who of underground pioneers and media certified outsiders, the record is a split with fellow eastenders

THE DUBLOBABY DONT BLUES EP

Fronted
by a twenty-something-year-old, double-bass playing Hackney gal, their take on the blues is more revisionist than retro. Lo-fi and underground - in part recorded completely live - their unrepentantly independent stance and refusal to pander to a miseryologist interpretation of the blues, has allowed them to illuminate the twilight zone between rockabilly, blues and folk scenes, then slip away unnoticed in the dead of night after serious fun has been had by all. Drawing inspiration in part from both singer and bands coming of age in an area once charmingly known as the murder mile, this three track debut is a taste of the twenty-odd self penned songs, spanning rock n' roll, boogie, gospel and jazzy standards the band has written over the last couple of years.

Launch Party Friday 13 April at The Jackalope (underneath Luigi’s), Stoke Newington Church Street, London N16.


 

TWO DOLLAR BASH SET OUT FOR NEW ADVENTURES


Critically acclaimed folk, blues and Americana band Two Dollar Bash return on 23 April with their fourth album New Adventures on Berlin’s Cannery Row label. Comprising three equally talented musicians and songwriters from Scotland and France (plus a full supporting cast), they bring together a wealth of diverse influences and disciplines across fourteen original songs to complete their most fully realised album yet. It might prove a task and a half getting them all in the same room together, but when they do, they create beautiful sounds.

The three members, Mark Mulholland, Matt de Harp and Joe Armstrong, have been playing together in different combinations throughout Europe for the past fifteen years, in a variety of bands including punk, rock, psychedelic and swing as well as the folkier formations, and also simply travelling around, picking up gigs and busking, swapping songs and stories with other musicians along the way. As well as honing their own songwriting and playing skills, this means that the band's repertoire includes many songs from friends, who in turn are singing Two Dollar Bash songs throughout Europe and North America.

With band members spread across different continents, putting the album together wasn’t straightforward. Says the band’s Joe Armstrong: “We started making New Adventures when we did last summer because we knew we wouldn't be getting another chance for a good long while. We knew we could use our friend Chris Lastelle's Berlin studio for a few days and we knew we had good songs to work with. The basic tracks were recorded in the three studio days but the overdubbing was a slower process. Although it’s possible these days for band members to record their contributions from different hemispheres, we reckoned that approach would be too clinical and lacking the intimacy we wanted for the album. So the overdubs were stretched out over a period of months whenever band members and/or guests and/or studio time was available.”


Since the formation of this incarnation of the band in 2003, Two Dollar Bash have been touring constantly throughout Europe, and have also completed four very successful tours of America. In March 2009 Two Dollar Bash were invited to perform a showcase at the prestigious SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, for a remarkable third successive year.

Mark Mulholland issued his second solo album, The Cactus And The Dragon, in January to widespread approval.

Press:

"...the group’s organic, authentic sound provides plenty of moments to savour, taking in folk, country, blues and acoustic rock ... this has the potential to impress any fan of uncontrived, richly-textured roots music." Maverick

"This is good ol' time American music. There is blues, folk, country and chugging R'n'B in here. The auras of Canned Heat, Woody Guthrie, Neil Young and Springsteen waft on the breeze. And... there is an echo of the Rolling Stones' down-home bluesy vibe...This is classic big skies and barrooms music."  Songlines

“Like CSNY without the monstrous egos.” Crooked Rain



Thursday 2 February 2012

THE RETURN OF MYSTERY JUICE!


Edinburgh’s psychotic blues hoods MYSTERY JUICE return with a new four-track EP Eye For An Aye on 7-inch vinyl and download only. The EP was recorded in the band’s own studio and features the tracks ‘Hurt You, Hurt Me’; ‘Song For The Rural Dispossessed Of Scotland’; ‘God told Adam’ and ‘An Eye For An Aye’. The artwork is classic screenprint design by the amazing Superlectric Industries and the first 50 copies will be individually handprinted making each one a one-off work of art. The EP is released on their own Red October Recording Co label, available through Fence Records.

An incredibly vital mix of heavy funk grooves, blues guitar, searing electric fiddle and machine-gun vocals. Mystery Juice rock the house every time they play. The rhythm section of Donald Hay and Joe Peat grab you by the neck while Donald MacDougall digs guitar licks straight from the Mississippi delta. Tim Matthew's fiddle takes the traditional idiom to the nth degree of distortion while his impassioned vocal delivery leaves you in no doubt that he means every word.

MYSTERY JUICE have been peddling their particular brand of Scottish breakbeat-blues for a number of years. They started out running club nights in Edinburgh, which then spread to a residency in Belfast and tours around the UK. A bizarre connection with Russia led to various tours, two Russian-only album releases and many festival appearances playing to audiences of up to 100,000. Recently, Mystery Juice headlined at the 40th anniversary celebrations of Copenhagen’s anarchist enclave Christiania.


Back home, MYSTERY JUICE have been resolutely ploughing their own furrow as a cult band with a solid nationwide following. Their recipe of house-shaking grooves, the dirtiest blues guitar licks and howling fiddle, topped off with machine-gun vocals guarantees that they sound like no-one else.
Recently the band have been collaborating with Fife’s Fence Collective, film-makers Ruth and Louis Paxton and graphic artist Superlectric Industries on a number of projects. Tim Matthew is a highly sought-after sound engineer in his own right, putting his sonic stamp on countless live shows by James Yorkston and, most recently, King Creosote. He has also recently been playing with the reunification of KC’s ‘90s band, Khartoum Heroes and ex-Milkshake Russ Wilkins’ Lord Rochester.


Preview the EP at www.mysteryjuice.bandcamp.com and www.facebook.com/MysteryJuice