Ahead of the release of Mount Wittenberg Orca, David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors explains the collaboration with Bjork in detail in this letter:

In April 2009, Brandon Stosuy from Stereogum.com asked me if we wanted to play a benefit concert at a bookstore in New York. I said yes. He asked Björk the same thing, and she said yes. Then he asked us if we wanted to collaborate, and we said yes. Björk asked me what we should do, and I said, “I don’t know, I guess I’d really love to write a bunch of new songs for us to sing together?” And she said Yes.

That same month, Amber from Dirty Projectors was walking along a ridge on Mount Wittenberg, north of San Francisco. She was looking out at the ocean and saw a little family of whales, as you sometimes do in April on the Northern California coast. I wrote some songs about it and sent them to Björk, who agreed to sing the part of the mom whale. The songs became Mount Wittenberg Orca. Amber and Angel and Haley sang the part of the kid whales, and I sang the part of Amber. We sang all week long and learned the music just in time to perform it at the bookstore on May 8th.

Then our album Bitte Orca came out and we went on tour forever. We finally got a chance to record Wittenberg last month, almost exactly a year after we first sang it. We went into the Rare Book Room in Brooklyn and rehearsed it for three days, then we recorded it as quickly and as live as possible. We only overdubbed lead vocals and a guitar solo.

Now we’re making a website for it, which will be the only place you can buy it. It’s going be up June 30th (we are playing in Utrecht that day!) The music is going to be $7, because there are seven songs.

We’ve decided to give away all the money that Wittenberg generates to the project of creating international marine protected areas. Only 1% of the oceans are protected in any way and this is a huge problem. We’re working with the National Geographic Society to create areas of sustainability, so the oceans don’t end up like a giant poisonous corpse hugging the continents. You can learn more about this project here and here and here.
We’re so psyched about how this recording came out and hope you are too.

Don’t listen on those tinny computer speakers — put in on the stereo and blast dat shiiiiiiiiii!!
Enjoy.
–David

Mount Wittenberg Orca by Dirty Projectors and Bjork will be available from June 30th. Tracks are as follows:

I    Ocean
II    On and Ever Onward
III    When the World Comes to an End
IV    Beautiful Mother
V    Sharing Orb
VI    No Embrace
VII    All We Are

As a rule, it’s best to avoid anyone who happily applies the tag ‘singer-songwriter’ to themselves – the phrase is too redolent of MOR radio balladry, shopping centre busking and clunking protest songs. These days, there’s usually an issue of ego at play there too. For a long time now, the only way for a solo artist to distance themselves from this is to adopt a ‘band name’. Newcastle based Trev Gibb neatly sidesteps this issue by writing introverted and melancholic songs. There’s not a hint of ‘look at me everybody’ about his music at all. Which is just how it should be.

Ahead of the release of his excellent mini-album Summer Tears, on Rainboot,  Trev Gibb releases two free acoustic  e.p.s the first, Postcard is available now, the second, Dancing follows on June 28^th.

To get your hands on them, visit http://www.rainboot.co.uk/download/ and click on ‘free stuff’ to access the downloads.

Incorporating last year’s download only album, Fervency, New York based minimalist composer and sound artist Kyle Bobby Dunn’s latest offering, A Young Person’s Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn, occupies a mesmerizing middle-ground between avant-garde drone soundscapes and the minimalist modern classicism of say Steve Reich or Hildur Gudnadottir.

Dunn’s methodology is to record classical musicians playing strings, piano, brass and guitar and processes and manipulate the sound until he is left with translucent and shimmering notes which seem to hang forever in the air, not so much floating ethereally as suspended by a kind of surface tension. This is music which holds its breath.

By allowing himself two CDs to explore his ideas, Dunn has been able to produce a work which is expansive and permits the listener to glide through the full spectrum of his sound – from the tense void of pieces such as The Second Ponderosa, which recalls the kind of thing The Orb were dabbling with twenty years ago but without the intrusion of the tiresome sampling of astronaut radio excerpts, to the softer, more enveloping piano sound of Last Minute Jest.

An antidote to a cluttered mind, A Young Person’s Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn, is something to immerse yourself in. See you in a couple of hours.

A Young Person’s Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn is available through Low Point Records.

Lab Coast make a curious kind of racket. Opening with the sound of someone hawking the lining of their throat and nose into their mouth and ejecting it noisily, Wilding is a collection of songs which sound like they were recorded in a hurry, fizzing with distortion and having a kind of off-the-cuff, ramshackle vibe about them.  Frequently, they threaten to collapse in on themselves. Indeed Walking Through The Park does just that, its taut guitars grinding rapidly and prematurely to a halt just a minute and a half into the song. It’s as if they suddenly had an idea for an even better song and couldn’t wait to get started with it. Yet, this short album – the eleven songs will take up only twenty one minutes of your time – is totally irresistible because through the chaos and the noise come some of the sharpest melodies you’ll ever hear.

The whole thing is very reminiscent of a fistful of great bands (early Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur Jr, even The Pastels)  in its effervescent energy; this is a band who sound like they just love playing together, while managing to find, seemingly by happy coincidence, that something extra – pin-sharp melody – in their music.

Incidentally, anyone possessed of the idea that buying the recent Oasis greatest hits album would be a good idea should invest three minutes and seven seconds in closing track I Saw You. You’ll be quickly and energetically disabused of that notion if you do so.

Lab Coast’s MySpace is here.

Jonnie Bloor

People are strange beasts.  Full of a variety of idiosyncrasies and nuances that make them different to one another.  Having said that, as a collective we still operate in a similar way in certain situations.  For example they say that people remember where they were when major events take place; such as when Elvis died, when Obama was elected and when flats started to be referred to as apartments.  For me it was first hearing Suede, the first time I saw a Global-Hypercolour t-shirt, and watching Spinal Tap for the first time.  I have a suspicion that my first hearing of Surfer Blood’s debut album Astro Coast may fall into this category also at a later date.

Hailing from West Palm Beach, Florida, Surfer Blood have created a sound that not only resonates with the progressive and classical indie fan alike, but also expresses their background and geographical origin with extraordinary proficiency.  This amalgamation of influence that permeates from the pores of Astro Coast is as important today as it was in the days of The Psychedelic Furs, The Monks or The Super Furry Animals and is a major weapon in the album’s arsenal.  The region that any band or artist comes from has a direct affect on not only the subject matter, but moreover (and sometimes less than obvious) the sound of the band/artist.  Surfer Blood wear this badge with pride, and before you hear where they’re from you know it must be somewhere on the coast and drizzled in glorious sunshine for large parts of the year.

The opening track, Floating Vibes, starts with reference to the second coming and then graduates to John Paul Pitts (vocals) informing us of his ambivalence to a third party’s departure, due to his certainty of said third party’s return; via what you might think as the obligatory mentioning of surfing.  The next track and single, Swim opens with Pitts’ vocals being double tracked over some of the catchiest guitar work you’ll hear for a good few miles.  The song is full of excitement and seems written for a summers’ day drive with the roof down.

This is followed by Take It Easy, a track concerned with the feeling of being caught between mad infatuation with another, and not wanting to rush things for fear of the relationship falling at the first hurdle. Pitts tells us how this trapped feeling has him in its’ clutches, ‘Up all night I shiver with delight, Everytime I hear your song, Dizzy with anticipation, How’s everything coming along?’. The awareness he has for the situation, and the self-consciousness that pervades him in his personal dichotomy are excellently constructed in the lyrics and the delivery of them, as he switches between falsetto and his usual voice, as if one his him and the other his alter-ego.

A track title that does catch the eye, for those of a certain age, is Twin Peaks.  Indeed David Lynch even gets a name check in the song that’s as confusing and posing as one of his movies.  It opens with a child’s voice being heard in the background before the vocals cut in and the song takes off.  We hear Pitts declare ‘If I’d known all your ghosts, I never would have come so far, I spend too many hours, wondering who you really are’, a veiled vexation of someone as mysterious as one of Lynch’s own creations.

The entire record is filled with songs that move you, and that leave you feeling better than you did with each passing song.  This is in part due to Pitts’ vocals, but overlook Thomas Fekete (guitars) at your peril.  The pair work in partnership with extraordinary ease and competence.  It’s as if they were always meant to do this.  This is demonstrated brilliantly on the album’s standout track Anchorage, a song about finding the right person at the right time and self-imposed isolation ending, Pitts even tells us, ‘I don’t want to spin my wheels, I don’t want to let it all hangout, I just want volcanoes to erupt and thaw me out’.  It’s a song in two halves.  The first half slightly understated and quite happy to chug along, but with real style.  The second half is an altogether different beast.  Full of guile, zeal and purpose; Fekete’s guitars are the ace in the pack here.  Your head bobs and you’re happy you’ve heard Surfer Blood.  The real problem with this record is listening to it just the once.  My advice, stick it on repeat, soak up that Florida sun and just go with it.

Surfer Blood’s MySpace is here.

Thirty years ago Orange Juice hauled themselves onto the shoulders of their peers and ensured their immortality by inflecting their sound with a bit of disco and writing lyrics which demanded a wee bit of thought. The Wave Pictures pull what is essentially the same trick only dumping the disco and tacking on the occasional unexpected, yet curiously effective, 70s Isle-of-Wight Festival guitar wig-out to their C86 indie-pop jangle. They write sparkling, articulately narrated songs which are bathed in the golden glow of nostalgia and somehow, until now, they have completely passed me by.

In an inversion of the regular Suitcase Orchestra feature, ‘You Were Into Them First’, it appears that as far as The Wave Pictures are concerned, ‘I Was Into Them Last’. Conspicuous by my silence, I am forced  to shuffle off to the back of the audience, unable to take my place amongst the multitude who not only hang on singer David Tattersall‘s every word, but also know his every word and are powerless to resist mouthing each and every one of them along with him.

The reparation begins right now with close attention set to be paid to their debut album Instant Coffee Baby and the band’s brand new Sweetheart E.P. Next time lads I’ll elbow my way to the front and make out I’ve been listening to them from day one. If of course it’s still possible to get through the throng – I suspect that the crowd may have swelled considerably by then. Thirty years from now, people may well be remembering the arresting and ever so slightly stand-out-from-the-crowd pop music of The Wave Pictures.

The Sweetheart E.P. is available now n Moshi Moshi.

The Wave Pictures MySpace is here.

Brooklyn again. This time it’s Quiet Lights who are set to create a stir, though they seem determined to go about it in an understated manner. The ‘About’ page of their website reveals that they are ‘Quiet Lights from Brooklyn, NY.’ Their Facebook page reveals that they are made up of Chris Curtis, Robin Fowler, Nikhil Kamineni, Yseult Tyler and Marcus Smith. Marcus has revealed that he is formerly of Gods & Queens and Argentine. And that’s your lot; beyond that all you have is the music. Which is a good thing.

Blending the sonic wall-of-sound of early 90s shoegaze with the current lurching haziness of dream pop, their sound is ethereal and translucent yet pressing and powerful. We Live In Balloons in particular hits the nail they seem to be aiming at squarely on the head.

While they busy themselves with applying the finishing touches to their debut album, they have released a free sample e.p. Go get it here, because it’s glorious and take five to watch their video for Twice Today.

Twice Today from Quiet Lights on Vimeo.

Claire Gardner
This second album from Brighton band The Miserable Rich is everything I expected it to be plus a bit more; which is good, because I expected to like it very much indeed.

Opening track Pegasus makes me smile, the band’s characteristically beautiful string arrangements paired with frontman James de Malplaquet’s melodic vocals give it a perfect laid back summer feeling. Indeed, the strings on the first half of the album’s tracks are so pretty that they almost belie the dry and sometimes dark wit and sentiment of the lyrics. Almost but not quite that is. The pretty strings help set the scene on tracks like Somerhill with it’s tale of concealed romance in a small town (Somerhill also has some pleasing Brighton references for this Brighton dwelling reviewer)

After the second of the four brief instrumental intervals on the album, the tone of the album changes; subtly at first with Bye Bye Kitty with it’s more forceful pace and then more so with the darker and deeper bass led sound of For a Day with it’s off kilter strings lending the track a sense of being dizzy and slow and woozy.
The absence of the strings (actually absence of everything bar piano and backing vocals) on final track Hungover lend an air of quiet contemplation.

You could listen to this album at full volume on a warm summer’s day with a drink in hand* and your head in a far off place or you could sit quietly listening intently to the lyrical content, smiling to yourself with a drink in hand*. But however you do it make sure you listen, it’s definitely worth your while.

*drink optional

Of Flight and Fury is out now

Check out The Miserable Rich here.

Claire Gardner

I’m smiling beatifically as I type; the second album from Icelandic band Seabear is filling the room with a little magic and all is well with the world.

Sounds a bit whimsical I know but bear with me because this is beautiful shimmery indie/folk without feeling at all twee or hackneyed.

Some tracks open gently such as Fire Dies Down and In Winter’s Eyes, all beautifully twinkly with hints of gently plucked guitars and then build and develop into swoonfully lovely pop songs.  Whilst other tracks, including the stand out I’ll Build You a Fire, start as they mean to go on with an upbeat folk pop jaunt and layers of soft vocal choruses and guitars.  A few tracks (Wooden Teeth and Leafmask) are even slightly ‘country’ twinged……. in a good way.

Although it’s clear that this album has been a more collaborative effort than first album The Ghost That Carried us Away; the soft understated voice of Sindri Már Sigfússon still underpins all of the songs, but now the accompanying layers of instruments and backing vocals just add that something extra to a compelling and beautiful album.

We Built a Fire is out now on Morr Music.

Check out Seabear’s MySpace here.

Luke Temple’s mind, it would appear, is somewhere worth getting inside if the soundtracks to his life (and the answers for our Q&A) it produces are anything to go by. Barely a year since his first using the Here We Go Magic banner, Pigeons, a bright psychedelic assemblage of ideas, marks a crystallising of their style.

The album is a set of neatly positioned contradictions. It is by turns intense and overwhelming yet distant and aloof; jittery and manic yet super-chilled. In its feel however, it is always tethered to the telling lyric from Casual; ‘It’s four in the morning’. Whatever reason you may have for being awake at four in the morning and whatever your emotional state might be, Pigeons has it covered.

Admittedly lacking anything so spectacularly awe-inspiring as the dizzyingly hypnotic Fangela which marked the stand out moment of last year’s eponymous debut (and the stand-out song of the whole year) Pigeons is nevertheless an album to immerse yourself in. Opening with, by their standards, two furiously fast tracks, the pace returns to a customary Here We Go Magic rate for the shimmering dream pop of Casual, a vibe which is reprised on F.F.A.P. and Land Of Feeling which feels like the  Cocteau Twins trying their hands at Philly Soul. Sandwiched neatly between this dream pop soundscape is Old World United, a punk anthem recorded inside a 1980’s Pac Man machine.

Temple’s mind throws up two further gems to close the album. Vegetable Or Native is a tribal chant from beyond the Solar System and I love You Herbie, Now I Know could easily have been lifted from a Sun Ra album.

Pigeons is available from June 7^th on Secretly Canadian and Western Vinyl

Luke Temple’s feverishly off-beam brain has also been chewing over the Suitcase Orchestra Q&A.

If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?

Sam Kinison, in the pergatory waiting room, to help him figure out which way to go. It would depend on what his last sin was.

You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?

The Big Biscuit-  Last Stand, Hurrah For Hope!

On the subject of being sent to the moon, what 3 things would definitely be in your suitcase?

Power converter, lonely planet guide, two cases of thin skin.

What film would you be a character in?

The Weasel and Jesus Go On A Date

Tell us an interesting fact.

There’s bees that kill hornets by raising their temperature around the creature to exactly 106 degrees, one degree above where the hornet can survive, the exact degree the bees can survive.

Recommend a book.

Wet Mop Goes Fishing

Which literary character would play you in the book of your life?

Fluffer

What’s the worst record in your collection?

Sick of Tweezer, Give Me Sponge- by T.Cups

What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please.

Q: What’s your name, ceiling?

A: Geronimo!

Visit the Here We Go Magic MySpace here.