FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

MEMORY TAPES return to play XOYO this summer.

“Putting the disco back into disconnection”  (ho ho ho)

Player Piano, the excellent second album from Memory Tapes is released this summer on Something In Construction Records in Europe and Carpark in the US.  It was, like its predecessor, recorded at Dayve Hawke’s home studio in rural New Jersey, where he juggles looking after his young daughter and being a musician.

Seek Magic was released properly in March 2010 and has since sold over 30,000 copies worldwide.  It received almost exclusively excellent reviews.  Memory Tapes debuted his live show in January 2010 in Manchester, England and has since criss-crossed North America and played shows all across Europe and as far away as Australia.  His remixes of the likes of Crystal Castles, Gucci Mane and Britney Spears have had consistent acclaim.

The template / motif for Player Piano was “keyboard-based psychedelic girl group songs, a sort of Motown suicide note” and so it is.  Largely eschewing modern dance beats this time, there are still the spaces of modern R’n’B, along with 60s pop, 50s doo wop, krautrock, Eastern pop and nods to Aphex Twin.  

Again he has chosen not to use sequencing software and has played each instrument in the studio himself.  Some of the elements are played deliberately off-key or out of synch to give the slightly warped yet warm feel that works so beautifully against the topline melodic aspects.

While Seek Magic was quite an electronic sounding record with lots of dance music tropes, Player Piano is all about the melody.

Simply put, there are lots of catchy tunes here, singalong choruses throughout the album and songs that feel very immediate and accessible, despite consistently dark lyrics that describe a disconnected mindset and a profound sense of isolation.  

There is a painterly aspect to the composition that gives the album a bright, clear arc that describes a deceptively simple picture, taken as a whole, despite the fact there are hugely contrasting tunes within.  And then again, within each song there are very playful twists and turns, wrong-headed arrangements and some very unusual instrumentation, from 70s Hammond organs to XXXXXXXXXXXXX and YYYYYYY.  

Dayve is already working on Memory Tapes’ third album, which is going to be a “space rock, kind of Sabbath” guitar based set.

An earlier version of Today Is Our Life from Player Piano was released earlier this year on Something In Construction’s Love SIC Disco compilation and still yields over 800,000 hits on Google.  There seems to be a natural word-of-mouth spread of Memory Tapes’ music and anticipation for this record is considerable.

Dayve Hawk will be debuting the new album live this summer and the band will be expanded from the previous duo of him and drummer Matt Maraldo.  In addition to the new material the band will be playing more poppy arrangements of old favourites like Bicycle, Green Knight and Graphics from Seek Magic.

24 year old Manchester beatsmith STAR SLINGER has shot to worldwide recognition in a startlingly short amount of time. He has already been named by the Guardian as “best new act of the year by miles”, with his recent track Mornin’ one of the most popular songs across music blogs the world over. He counts the likes of Diplo, Jamie XX, Donald Glover and Benji B amongst the fans of his melodic, chopped up beats, with pitched up soul vocals sliced around complex drum machine patterns and swathes of vintage synths.

His rogue re-workings of the Cocteau Twins and Nicki Minaj are perfect examples of his talent for completely transforming the mood and tone of the original source.

The talent didn’t go unnoticed and SS has since officially been hired to remix notorious acts. The list includes none other than Gold Panda, Childish Gambino, Broken Social Scene, The Go! Team & The Morning Benders.

With 2011 already offering Teams vs. Star Slinger – 12” (on Brooklyn’s finest Mexican Summer label), a Sold Out 7” & a self-released EP (Rogue Cho Pa) – Slinger  is touring the UK / EU and beyond, rocking dancefloors and winning eardrums the world over.

Tickets from:

www.ticketweb.co.uk

08444 771000

www.seetickets

0870 264 3333

Join us on Facebook here

Follow us on Twitter here

Visit our Tumblr here

FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

“Banana Ripple” wil be released on 30th May as the first single from JUNIOR BOYS’ forthcoming album,”It’s All True”. The album began its life in Shanghai, where Jeremy Greenspan made an extended visit to write and begin recording. Traces of Greenspan’s trip can be heard in tracks such as the album opener “Itchy Fingers” whose exotic middle eight features local musicians he recorded during his stay. With much of the album composed and conceived, Greenspan returned to his native Hamilton, Ontario and was joined by Matthew Didemus to record in earnest at the band’s recently constructed studio. The result is “It’s All True” – Junior Boys’ most accomplished album to date.

An artist who continuously pushes the production envelope, MANTLER’s albums to date have each brought their own unique sound. Mantler’s first album, “Doin’ It All” (2000), was recorded almost entirely with a densely multi-tracked wurlitzer, a Rhythm Ace drum machine, and drums sampled on a primitive 1980s sampler. His second album “Sadisfaction” (2002) was more expansive, sedate and”rock”-like while the third album, “Landau” (2004), featuring tighter songs and brighter production, was intended as a tribute to the R&B sound of the late 1970s and early 1980s (the album was frequently compared to Steely Dan). Mantler’s new album, Monody, combines the best elements of the previous albums to create a grander, more epic version of his sound – the density of “Doin’ It All”, the sedate quality of “Sadisfaction”, and the songwriting focus of “Landau”.

JAPE are an Irish electronic–rock band from Dublin. Formed as a side project by Richie Egan whilst part of The Redneck Manifesto, they have released three albums to date; ‘Cosmosphere’ (2003), ‘The Monkeys in the Zoo Have More Fun Than Me’ (2004) and ‘Ritual’ (2008). The band have performed at festivals and events such as Glastonbury, Electric Picnic, Lovebox and Hard Working Class Heroes and provided support for The Flaming Lips. ‘The Monkeys…’ opening track, “Floating”, became a popular single on late night alternative music radio shows and attracted the attention of Brendan Benson who now covers the track whilst performing live with his band The Raconteurs, as do the Belgian bastard pop duo Soulwax during their DJ sets.

Plus a special after party with DJ set from MAX TUNDRA, and late curfew for post Junior Boys dancing.

FREE from 11pm

Praise for Max Tundra’s recent album,

Parallax Error Beheads You

“A whole other world of pop music – an absolutely unique, enchanting, and irreplaceable vision of how the stuff can work” – Pitchfork (27th best album [and highest-rated Domino release] of 2008)
“Improves upon [his previous] albums’ strengths – wide-eyed eclecticism among other things – managing greater coherence and scope than anything he’s ever done… astounding” – Cokemachineglow
“Parallax Error Beheads You is an enormous achievement, one that expands the syntax of the medium” – Momus (best album of 2008)
“This year has bubbled and bleeped with the sound of bedroom electronica that harks back to the past, but the third album by Max Tundra is the most joyful of all. A pop tour de force, bursting with bright, bouncy hooks” – The Guardian
“It is a near masterpiece, elastic, eccentric and eclectic” – musicOMH.com
“He’s never made anything approaching a bad record before, but the greatness that Max Tundra’s turned out to be capable of still proves to be a revelation of earth-shattering proportions” – The Quietus
“Mannered English eccentricity never sounded so deliriously thrilling” – All Music Guide
“What Max has created as a result is nothing short of amazing” – Urb
“Jacobs works in a peerless vacuum located in a hazy plot point on the pop timeline, located somewhere in-between outright sugary pop and nerdy bedroom electronica” – Prefix Magazine
“It hurts and twists your brain until you start to crave this Tundra terrorism” – NME
“Max Tundra’s music is smart, engaging, and both challenging and fun to listen to. That’s what makes it unusual, and worth treasuring” – PopMatters
“His maniacal energy is infectious” – The Wire
“Mr and Mrs Tundra can be very proud of their boy” – The Independent
“It’s eclectic, uplifting, vigorously produced and alluringly zany, yet ultimately, highly recommended listening” – Future Music
“There’s something for anyone with a taste for things multicoloured and marvellously eclectic” – Mojo
“A photogenic view of the last thirty or so years of electronic music blended into one smart-paced gem of a record… one of those rare pleasures that inspire all parts of the brain. If this is the blueprint for music’s future, we’re in good hands” – Austinist
“A modern landmark in sophisticated pop-song composition. Frank Zappa, Steely Dan, Scritti Politti, Cornelius, Prince, Daft Punk… it manages to consistently equal and even occasionally improve upon the best work by each of those artists and then some. 10/10” – Spencer Owen (mog.com)
“He has struck gold with his masterful third release – smart and relevant” – Treble
“A million-course meal stuffed into one disc from the singular mind of an itinerant musical chef” – XLR8R (Staff Pick)

Tickets from:

www.ticketweb.co.uk

0844 477 1000

www.seetickets.com

0870 264 3333

Follow us on Twitter here

Join us on Facebook here

Visit our Tumblr here