Lo! Release Another Head Spinning Music Video, The Shaking Sensations To Release How Are We To Fight The Blight?, Astrosaur Release First Single From Upcoming Album
Australia’s post-metal/sludge legends, Lo! released their third full length album, Vestigial in lat 2017 via Pelagic Records. Today the band have released a headspinning new video for the track, As Fools Ripen
Directors Toby Pike comments; “The idea for this clip really came from the first time I saw Lo! play. I thought lead singer, Sam Dillon, was going to turn himself inside out with his gut wrenching convulsions on stage. One of the most animated and captivating lead singers I’ve seen perform. I wanted to create an abstract, ever evolving human form that became more and more distorted and messed up throughout the length of the clip. A visual representation of the multiple personalities Lo! present on stage. It was an amazing experience working with the band on the shoot and through the post process on what was hands down the most technically challenging music video i’ve worked on to date. This piece really wasn’t possible without a huge push from the VFX team to create a clip that i’m extremely proud of. It really is the best kind of a beautiful mess.
Copenhagen-based instrumental 5-piece THE SHAKING SENSATIONS are finally back with a follow up to their critically acclaimed 2013 album Start Stop Worrying.
October 4th will see the release of How Are We To Fight The Blight?, an album that has been 6 years in the making. THE SHAKING SENSATIONS have expanded the classic post-rock constellation by addition of a second drummer, allowing the band to develop a unique approach to the rhythm section and a fresh and unconventional take on instrumental rock music.
During 4 extensive European tours, the band have shared the stage with acts such as Caspian, And So I Watched You From Afar and Russian Circles, and have worked with Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Russian Circles), who also laid down additional synths on Start Stop Worrying.
Then in 2013, the band went on hiatus. “It wasn’t that we felt like we’d broke up or that we parted after disagreements, but more like the circle was fulfilled, that we didn’t have more to contribute with. The three previous releases were kind of worriless, innocent and circled around themes such as life, death, being young, growing up, accepting things as they evolve and unfold. Quite simple and maybe, a bit nostalgic and probably naive”, comments Jeppe Nygaard Christensen.
How Are We To Fight The Blight? displays a band that has lost this innocence, in favour of reflection, growth and maturity… and yet fresh, dedicated and honing their craft. When the band members came back together, after a lengthy phase of focusing on other aspects of life outside of music, everyone came to the conclusion, collectively and individually, that they wanted to bring this band back to life.
The tracking of the album took place in Copenhagen at two different studios. Main tracks were recorded ‘live’ in a room that could accommodate two fully mic’ed drumkits and their individual characteristics, reverb and sound – in the same room, at the same time. Anders Haaning, an up- and coming Copenhagen-based producer with a background in indie-pop/garage-rock, has co-produced the album, which was then mixed and mastered by Magnus Lindberg of Cult of Luna. The lightness and more ‘positive’ feel of Anders’ production needed a counterpart and some focus on the heavier and more uncompromising elements in the SHAKING SENSATIONS’ sound.
“One of Magnus’ biggest talents is to combine a heavy, dark and extremely tight sound, with the airy feeling from indie-pop, but also the chaos and unconventional ways of arranging and performing instrumental music”, Christensen says.
THE SHAKING SENSATIONS are the next band to follow in the footsteps of great Danish independent music culture, incarnated by bands such as Efterklang, Slaraffenland and Lis Er Stille.
ASTROSAUR‘s virtuous necro-nautic universe consists of equal parts instrumental rock and post-metal, studded with lavish prog-, jazz-math-rock and black metal ornaments.
“The general public perceives academia and heavy metal as rivals, but ASTROSAUR, whose members studied at the Conservatory of Music in Kristiansand, lean toward the
intellectual without sacrificing any authenticity“, Invisible Oranges said about the Oslo 3-piece.
Virtuous guitarist and main song writer Eirik Kråkenes has filled in as a session musician for Norwegian acts Leprous and Ihsahn, among many others… he is one of those people you
meet at literally every European metal festival, but always with a different band.
ASTROSAUR is his own band and brainchild, and Obscuroscope is only their sophomore album – hard to believe, considering the musical scope and the maturity of songwriting on display here.
“Obscuroscope“ is in many ways a record about curiosity“, Kråkenes explains. “Thematically, each song relates to stories of exploration, of unveiling that which is obscured and of discovering the unknown. This theme is also a parallel to how Astrosaur try to work as a band, letting curiosity lead the way in the continuous exploration of our own musical universe“.
Although heavier and more energetic, Obscuroscope feels slightly brighter in vibe overall, than the bands debut offering Fade In // Space Out. The songs have more riffs and written parts while maintaining some of the space, ambience and room for improvisation from the previous record: „Whereas on ‘Fade In // Space Out’ we kind of made a point of basically recording the album live, we were not afraid of
overdubbing or tracking instrument by instrument for the parts that demanded that, while still recording other parts live. This, ironically, resulted in a sound more true to how Astrosaur sounds live“, says Kråkenes.
Part of the album was conceived on the road, due to the member’s heavy touring schedules with Astrosaur, as well as commitments to other bands. They had only six days to try out and finalize the ideas
Instrumental band of Eirik Kråkenes. Erik is a Norwegian session musician that I meet at literally every festival I go to, he’s always playing with another band… He has been filling for Leprous, Ihsahn and a ton of others.
Check out their Radiohead cover of „Pyramid Song“
“We’re very excited to release Poyekhali as the first song off our next album. In line with the album’s theme of curiosity and exploration, each title comes with a set of dates and coordinates that gives clues about the story that inspired the song. This particular track is inspired by the soviet space program and their pioneering accomplishments in space flight.” Eirik Kråkenes
