Ice Choir’s Afar is out July 31st on Vinyl and CD.
Pitchfork: “Ice Choir is Kurt Feldman’s (the Pains of Being Pure at Heart) new project, and the band’s debut LP, Afar, is out July 31 via Underwater Peoples. ‘Teletrips’ is a slinky jam that invokes 1980s R&B, somewhere between Spandau Ballet and Michael Jackson’s ‘Human Nature.’”
80s production married to 19th Century poetic influences, simultaneously disengaged and deeply personal, the immediacy of its melodies obscuring ornate arrangements, Ice Choir’s debut album “Afar” revels in the multiple contradictions it presents to listeners. This is a record that sounds like it was tracked thirty years ago in a $5,000-a-day studio: all sheen, synths, compressed guitars and digitally revived vocals yet is as bedroom-and-laptop as any; written and produced on the road and out of suitcases over the past 12 months by Kurt Feldman (and later brought to life via MIDI and an extensive collection of outmoded vintage synthesizers).
Indeed, part of its genius is this unyielding commitment to subverting expectations. Rather than engaging in crude revivalism, “Afar” challenges conventional perceptions of 80s technopop, highlighting its musically progressive and literate roots and re-imagining them to create a startlingly original sound.
This makes for an unconventionally diverse album that dips into the palettes of Italo-disco, avant-garde pop, classical music and even smooth R&B while somehow remaining completely, utterly, coherent. Feldman jokes that he originally tried to make something that sounded “equal parts Flyte Tyme, flight school (via SNES Pilotwings) and luck dragon in flight.”
Notwithstanding the meticulous detail to composition and arrangement throughout “Afar”, perhaps it is the substance and quality of lyrics, and their centrality to its appreciation, which will distinguish it most from its contemporaries. This is writ large in Feldman’s nod to John Keats’ Fancy on the album closer “Everything Is Spoilt By Use” (a glittering, tinsel-clad ballad that features a sublime cameo from Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek).
“Afar” is 35 minutes of the most considered pop music out there; a
compelling ode to lust, distance and alienation …
“Apart from one or two lonesome 4-track explorers popmusic didn’t really break bones in the off-stream musical spectrum for the last ten years or so. Just when we started worrying about a scene that would become overruled by eternal drones and loops, Danish pop freaks Girlseeker came to the rescue…
With an oeuvre that sounds like a more dance friendly and mentally disabled version of Ariel Pink, the trio (live often extended by the guitarist of Iceage) is ready to herald a new musical era. Fusion jazz, Alan Vega and eighties AOR are the main ingredients of the Girlseeker cult and despite the sometimes happy sounding keyboard patterns, the lyrics embrace the same existentialist crisis of that period.
With the whole electronic eighties revival movement Girlseeker share a fascination for MTV- and VHS culture, but leaves out all the irony and false nostalgia. This is pop music in its purest moment: psychotic outsider art for the romantic listener.” – Free Music Archive
We are happy to announce the release of Eric Copeland’s latest full length, Limbo, on July 24th.
The LP is now available for preorder in the UP Store.
Eric Copeland is an experimental musician based in New York City. He is a core member of Black Dice and forms half of the duo Terrestrial Tones with Animal Collective’s Avey Tare. His extensive and exemplary solo work has long been hailed for its ingenious torrent of sounds and schemes.
Tie up your laces and listen loud. Feeling like a funked up alien comic book, Copeland’s newest full length, Limbo (out on June 5th via Underwater Peoples), extends his ouvre of layered, pitched, and all-out fucked sounds toward an easier place, a more familiar musical terrain. More fleshed out than his earlier work, Limbo’s six parts give it a capacious feel of action. Well organized and having an undeniable rhythm, the album is an excellent progression from the concepts explored throughout his body of work.
Check out a stream of “Louie, Louie. Louie” courtesy of AdHoc.fm:
“Black Dice’s Eric Copeland is dropping Limbo, a new LP on Underwater Peoples to follow up last year’s excellent Waco Taco Combo. Available for stream from the album is “Louie, Louie. Louie,” a warped mixture of waw’ing guitars and decaying voices that plays out like an R. Crumb cartoon rave– it fits into Copeland’s legacy in the best way.”
Lieven Moana aka Lieven Martens graciously put together UP MIXTAPE 5. This one is a real treat, enjoy.
Dolphins Into The Future’s Canto Arquipélago is available in the UP Store.
UP MIXTAPE 5: 26 SHORES OF CHORALS
c60 Mixtape
Compiled by Lieven Moana
for Underwater Peoples
SIDE A
1. la flûte de krishna (serendip)
2. lue, choeur de femmes (ontong java)
3. mu’aabaka pati (ontong java)
4. the ocean (baltra)
5. tambours et toeré de moérai (rurutu)
6. tarava (raivavaé)
7. rimono (rurutu)
8. himene tarava (mautara)
9. imene rarava (tahiti)
10. seashore at lau (malaita)
11. cachu / tromne (curaçao)
12. beku (bonaire)
13. e pele pele pele (hawai’i)
14. kau ka hali’aika banawa (kawai’i)
SIDE B
1. kau ka hali’aika banawa (kawai’i) – cont -
2. chant de pilonnage (malaita)
3. octopus fishing (lafonga)
4. sounds at lagoa capitão (ilha do pico)
5. chants des thermes aux sources chaudes (tottori)
6. revival zion ulplifting (jamaica)
7. magindanao drum and flute (zamboanga)
8. tambú solo (curaçao)
9. imenetuki (mangaia)
10. vedda ceremonial (serendip)
11. chant celèbre (taiohai)
12. winds at magnesia hill (crete)
13. canção (ilha das flores)
“With the combination of sound, music, field recordings, etc., I am creating NEW landscapes, UNREAL landscapes, that penetrate down to the deeper psychology of music. Just like a great romantic landscape painter, it’s not about re-creating a real landscape, but about inventing a magnificent, sublime landscape. Landscapes that are necessary to be heard, to be created, to be recreated. I believe strongly in the necessity of this kind of creation, for all times…” – Lieven Martens, Dolphins Into The Future
Lieven’s words reiterate a common artistic goal, yet his intent resonates with a primal depth when compared to his output. Dolphins Into The Future continuously strives to place the listener in a new zone in a manner more equatable to the fantasy author than the typical musician. He discusses his compositions as meditative atmospheres – not thought provoking in their own right, but mood altering to the point of being unable to not think. His settings are completely immersive, but in your own way. You will lose any sense of presence and in its stead you may find a happy place you didn’t know existed.
The analogy of Canto Arquipélago to written word is particularly appropriate when it is juxtaposed against visual art. A painting or film inherently deposits direct images into the minds of its’ audience, whereas there is more room for personalization within the realm of music and literature. Rather than telling a story, Canto Arquipélago lays a beautiful setting that is acutely intimate. It is therefore acceptable, even expectable, for one to approach any of Dolphins Into The Future‘s visual accompaniment with a wary attitude. That said, the nearly eight minute video created by Zahid Jiwa and Lieven is an effective continuation of Canto‘s intent. The imagery isn’t real enough to place literally, rather we are brought to the edge of our mind’s eye, at the point where it meets memory, and our meditative state is ultimately amplified.
When the bleary eyed and wistful extol love’s endless utility, it is natural to recoil. Cloaked in sensibility, it’s easy to sigh deep, hunch awkward, and ignore the flirty beams of light sneaking past leafy guardsmen. It takes a slightly more valiant fellow to drop one’s plans, get stoned, and flirt back.
The Memories debut, self-titled LP, is a thesis statement for the young, courageous romantic. A drug fueled philosophy with pretty girls atop a pyramid of friends, weed, skateboarding, pizza and weed.
The Memories sound as if the The Feelies and The Delfonics had children, then left them to grow up alone in southeast Portland on a diet of sandwiches and skipped school days. Recorded in the upstairs bedroom of their shared home, The album bops between lamenting croons and peppy chorusses. The songs are short and stick around just long enough to properly articulate the sentiment, i.e. “Baby (You’re Totally Crazy)” & “Took Drugs (Went Insane).”
Underwater Peoples Records is proud to introduce you to The Memories. The self titled LP will be available for purchase internationally on April 24th, 2012. Pre-Order the gorgeous vinyl HERE. For more information on the gang, peep their critically acclaimed Tape label, Gnar Tapes n’ Shit, or catch’m as their alter ego, the ferocious shred mob, White Fang.
We’re very excited to see our pals from down under!! They’re about to embark on a whirlwind tour of the United States with Real Estate, so check out the dates and make some plans!
Thursday March 29
285 Kent Ave, Brooklyn
with Ducktails + more
Friday March 30
Mercury Lounge, New York
with the Mad Scene
tix link: http://www.mercuryloungenyc.com/event/91291
Saturday March 31,
319 Scholes, Brooklyn (art gallery)
Newtown Radio website party with Blondes and Laurel Halo
TOUR WITH REAL ESTATE, PT 1
Tue-Apr-03 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church
Wed-Apr-04 Baltimore, MD Ottobar
Thu-Apr-05 Richmond, VA Strange Matter
Fri-Apr-06 Raleigh, NC Lincoln Theatre
Sat-Apr-07 Athens, GA 40 Watt Club
Sun-Apr-08 Oxford, MS Cats Purring Dude Ranch
Mon-Apr-09 Little Rock, AR Rev Room
Tue-Apr-10 Dallas, TX Club Dada
Wed-Apr-11 Austin, TX The Mohawk
LOS ANGELES – SAN DIEGO
Tues April 17
Soda Bar, San Diego
with Northern Tigers + more
Thursday April 19
Satellite, Los Angeles
with Frankie Rose + DIVE
TOUR WITH REAL ESTATE, PT 2
Mon-Apr-23 Santa Cruz, CA Catalyst Atrium
Tue-Apr-24 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
Wed-Apr-25 Reno, NV Holland Project
Thu-Apr-26 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge
Fri-Apr-27 Englewood, CO Gothic Theatre
Sat-Apr-28 Lawrence, KS Bottleneck
Sun-Apr-29 St. Louis, MO Plush
Mon-Apr-30 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall
Tue-May-01 Harrisburg, PA Appalachian Brewing Co.
NEW YORK
Friday May 4
Glasslands Gallery, Brooklyn
supporting Spectrals
Underwater Peoples is happy to announce that we are working with the great Minneapolis label Moon Glyph at SXSW this year. YES its short notice, but if you’ll be at SX on Wednesday, March 14th it’ll be worth your while to head down to the Light Bar for an afternoon of rad tunes. Check details and set times below.
UNDERWATER PEOPLES AND MOON GLYPH
SXSW 2012 FREE SHOWCASE
MARCH 14th, DOORS AT 2pm
LIGHT BAR, 408 CONGRESS AVE, AUSTIN, TX 78701
We’re very pleased to announce Canto Arquipélago, by Dolphins into the Future.
Lievan explains the record’s inspiration in Fact Magazine:
the Azores [islands], a remarkably beautiful volcanic archipelago that lacks very little by way of inspiration. Once an island gets born, it’s a continuous struggle, a continuous dialogue, a learning, a BATTLE and cooperation of influences. The sea starts bashing on it’s shores. Erosion starts the complete demolition of the island. But at the same time, sun and sea give birth and food… Archipelagos have a heavy rhythm.
Martens has fastened on one rivulet in the torrent of ex-Skaters output and developed it into a distinct and more fully realized sound-stream. Dolphins Into the Future is a significantly more electronic proposition, touching on just about every decade of its history, from early Dutch operators like Dick Raaijmakers, through the Seventies analogue synth gods and their New Age-y Eighties offshoot “space music” (Martens gives props to Windham Hill sub-label Private Music, artists like Michael Stearns and Emerald Web, and America’s long-runningHearts of Space radio show), up to Nineties electronica heads like The Orb.
