February 2012
24 posts
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Andrew Bird
Chicago’s multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird graces our pages today in anticipation of his new album, Break It Yourself, out on Mom+Pop Records in the US and Bella Union in the UK.
Bird was destined for an illustrious musical career having been trained in the Suzuki method from the age of four, with violin as his primary instrument, and initially sought to showcase his considerable skills...
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Patten
London-based producer Patten (another enigmatic figure whose real name is apparently so well-guarded that even his emails are signed off with the single letter ‘D’) released his stunning debut album GLAQJO XAACSSO on the quickly-maturing No Pain In Pop label at the end of last year. A disorientating update on the classic sound design of late 80’s / early 90’s Detroit and...
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Naked On The Vague
Where previous material from Sydney’s Naked On The Vague put them in the same raucous, post-Stooges garage camp occupied by the Von Bondies or The Icarus Line (albeit with a idiosyncratic laid-back coolness in a Velvet Underground vein), their new material, going by the stunning leaked track ‘High Noon’ (listen below) sees their sonic palette expand into noisy, drifting...
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Power Animal
Squealer will never complain of being sick again. Philadelphia’s Keith Hampson, the driving force behind Power Animal, spent ten months in and out of hospital and, although too fatigued to play his instruments, he still managed to piece together the songs for his latest EP, Exorcism, which came out on Tuesday.
In spring 2009 Hampson re-worked years of bedroom recordings with the help of...
Watchgalapagospresents:
Frightened Rabbit - Scottish Winds
The last song of our session for Lick, from Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison. The Lick boys have got some very exciting sessions lined up, keep your eye on their website for more details.
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Dustin Wong
In recent weeks the blogosphere has been lit by fireworks of praise for Dustin Wong’s second album on Thrill Jockey, Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads, so we thought we’d throw our hat into the ring and add a bit of news which should negate the occasional “one trick pony” tags that have been unfairly slung his way.
Formerly of Ponytail and Ecstatic Sunshine,...
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Bass Drum of Death
Last year’s Fat Possum signings Bass Drum of Death released their storming, fuzzy debut LP GB City late last year - a tremolo’d, distorted exploration through the imagination and talents of Oxford, MS-based band leader (and former Fat Possum employee) John Barrett.
Now a two-piece, with Barrett freed from the drumkit, the chords can be dirtier and messier, the vocals can be wrought...
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Bill Orcutt
Though presenting new music by new artists generally requires a relative inclination to the young, it is just as important for us at Squealer to include experienced, weathered musicians who contribute to the “new music” landscape in (necessarily) different ways, but with just as much vigour, just as much excitement and just as much exploration.
Flying a particularly greying,...
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Louis Weeks
The emerging talent that is Baltimore’s Louis Weeks catches our ear today as he steps above the crowd of folk-tinged singer/songwriters by combining his skills of traditional melodic songcraft and electronic composition.
Prior to 2011, much of his work seems to have been fairly standard acoustic fare, not bad, but not too remarkable either. Last year, however, things began to pick up:...
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Dead Fader
Brighton / Berlin’s Dead Fader seem so intent on destroying speakers that the black-line waveforms SoundCloud feeds out to visually accompany their tracks resemble rolling pins, or sausages, or whatever antisocially-obese object you could care to name, representing a mix so loud that it only just matches the limitations of the software. Even to the point at which their label specifically...
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Perfume Genius
Back in 2010 Mike Hadreas, also known as Perfume Genius, delivered a debut album of lo-fi, intensely intimate songs based mainly around voice, pads and piano that, although the lyrics were occasionally hidden behind the production, garnered comparisons with Sufjan Stevens in its tenderness and evidence of undeniable talent. Not bad for a first record.
Now, less than a week away from his...
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Andrea Belfi
Milan’s Andrea Belfi - an accomplished electro-acoustic composer and percussionist - has already made a mark on the ‘indie’ world with his collaborations with David Grubbs, but with Wege, his debut LP for the solid Melbourne-based ROOM40 label, the crossover seems incontestably achieved. This is also aided by the inclusion of Machinefabrik and Greg Haines on his new record.
...
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To What Strange Place
An unusual update today. Not a band or an artist as such - except for his creative mastery and careful selection of sounds - but a musical curator. A narrator, rather than a director, but just as valuable and just as accomplished.
Currently visiting the UK (from Baltimore) on a listening/lecture tour, ethnomusicologist and serial uncoverist Ian Nagoski is commonly regarded as the foremost...
9 tags
Here We Go Magic
Brooklyn’s Here We Go Magic are back with a third album, A Different Ship, due to be released later in the year through Secretly Canadian, from which today’s featured track is taken.
Starting as the solo project of artist-turned-musician Luke Temple, Here We Go Magic’s first, self-titled LP was recorded on a 4-track with little more than a tom, synth, mic and guitar to create...
Watchgalapagospresents:
Frightened Rabbit - My Backwards Walk
Scott from Frightened Rabbit came along to the Lick frozen yogurt shop to play some songs, and we came along to record them! This track is from the excellent album ‘Midnight Organ Fight’.
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Young Heel
“Young Heel makes experimental madrugada pop music. Brooklyn, NY.” When that’s all you’ve got to go on when researching a band it’s fairly obvious which word is going to stick out. Thankfully, Young Heel haven’t taken any left-field inspiration from Norwegian rock band Madrugada, or even Portugal’s moustachioed 1975 Eurovision Song Contest entry of the...
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Doldrums
Canadian Eric Woodhead might be seen - if a little unimaginatively - as a descendent of Australia’s legendary re-splicers The Avalanches. A haywire but detailed joyride through Bollywood scores, funk, electro-beat, R&B and Casio-chic, Woodhead’s Doldrums project first reached the outside world’s ears on a split 7” with Squealer-favourites DD/MM/YYYY. Now the proud...
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Slugabed
Effortlessly capturing Ninja Tune’s spirit and personality in one driving, beaty, energetic, articulate and stirring swoop, Greg Feldwick and his Slugabed project always seemed destined to land with that label.
Feldwick - a 20-something producer from Brighton, UK - released his Sun Too Loud, Turn It Off EP through Ninja Tune in October 2011. A vibrant menage of throbbing basslines and...
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Sealings
Brighton’s Sealings write dark, brooding, black-as-black pop songs drowning in distortion, played at an almost antisocial volume and seemingly written for no one but themselves. Antisocial may in fact be the perfect word to describe the band as, when Squealer saw them as a two piece, front men Liam and Michael were as interesting and engaging to watch as the drum machine that accompanied...
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Creepoid
A fitting name for a musical entity that creeps between dark, acoustic folk and Velvet Underground-style fuzz-jams, Philadelphia’s Creepoid released their debut full-length online a whole year ago. Slowly-surfacing new music, however, reveals a re-emergence of a band who appeared to only narrowly miss their chance at huge recognition with their stunning Horse Heaven LP.
Horse...
