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Feature

St. Marie Records Rampage: The Patience

I hadn’t listened to The Patience before I spoke to Wyatt aka St. Marie Records about the bands I should include in this feature. Now I have and I’m wondering why no one apart from SMR had pushed me in their direction sooner.

It could be because they don’t have a steady sound. I’m working here on the basis of the two EPs they put out within six months of each other – separately but together – The Sun Is Always Pt. I and The Sun Is Always Pt. II. I wish I had had the chance to ask why they didn’t just wait a bit and put out the one especially since there’s no sign of a physical release to make it a collectible. It could be that they’re realists who are aware of how easily distracted internet listeners are. It’s wiser to put out a few small releases a year (less commitment on the part of the listener + less chance of falling out of an audience’s collective memory) than one or two biggies (longer download/stream time, more commitment required from the listener + greater odds that a lot of them will go ‘who?’).

‘Space Farewell’ – the first song on the first EP couldn’t have a more apt name. It’s about five different styles of song in one and fiercely reminiscent of the Nineties.  Just what part of the Nineties it is reminiscent of, I can’t place, but I can tell you that it’s not the shoegaze bits. The song isn’t exactly what you’d call simple in structure – its pop base is interrupted by sounds from outer-space whose alienness is only heightened by the patient voice with HALlike  intonation talking down to you.

‘I’m Going’, the track that follows, is barely anything like its predecessor. This is your standard Slowdive-tinted shoegaze – but the later one – the one that uses pauses, false percussion, loops and echoes. It’s Pygmalion all over the place – some sounds from ‘Rutti’, some from ‘Crazy for Love’ and some from ‘Miranda’. The rest of the album might be in there as well. The title track that closes the EP, nicks a guitar line from The Who (or it could be I’ve been watching too much CSI), a mild vocal hook from A Storm in Heaven and glues it all together with percussion that throbs so violently it makes the track feel like a remix.

The opener on Part II is another runner. Can’t tell if that percussion is real or engineered but if ‘Moving Through The Echoes’ had feet, the drums are the sneakers pounding. ‘In Vain’ is a bonkers track compared to the others, with the possible exception of ‘Space Farewell’. If ‘Space Farewell’ is Dissociative Identity Disorder, ‘In Vain’ is Mania. Not bipolar disorder but all out mania. It’s energetic, overactive, and can’t stop talking at (AT!) you about itself until it tires itself out. Finalement, you’ve got ‘Solar Fields’ – the song to sleep to. Soft, drawn out vocals, endless pauses between beats, small little beepyboops, and your standard shimmery. sparkly, ethereal, <insert shoegazeadjective> waves of sound to cushion it all.

If all this sounds convincing, you know where you have to go to try and buy. Both albums are available on SMR’s Bandcamp for less that $3 apiece.

Voici: The Sun Is Always Part I.

Voilà: The Sun Is Always Part II.

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Feature

St Marie Records Rampage: The Sunshine Factory

Seriously now, what do you expect when you hear that name? The Sunshine Factory. Me, I expect bright, sunny – and given the album art – acid-laced exhilaration (I was going to say ‘ecstasy’ but that could be confusing).

They are joyful, you know. But they are not nauseatingly happy in the Katrina and the Waves sense. Sorry, I don’t exactly hate That Song, but there’s only that much positivity us normal folk can stand to have shoved in our faces. What makes ‘Walking on Sunshine’ (and its ilk) so excruciating is that it doesn’t share the happiness – it just flaunts itself without inviting the listener to bask in the same joy.

Of course we haven’t brought Katrina and the Waves into the picture for a musical comparison, but more to bring home the point as to how positivity is meant to be brought out in music. You have to really involve the listener – make him or her feel how you (the musician) are feeling. Instead of making a song for a listener to ‘use’ only in appropriate and/or unique circumstances where it can be most effectively ‘applied’ (that too to the individual alone), it is far more endearing to make a song that, more honestly, reflects your own experiences. That way, when we listen and nod in agreement, you can be assured we honestly sympathise with how you feel.

That’s the kind of sound The Sunshine Factory have –  they make introspective, but engaging neo-gaze, tinged with the sound of the classics, but still unmistakeably recent. Their album, Sugar, is very open, very honest and consequently, very  inviting. You’re not forced to echo the songs’ emotions, you’re not compelled to wait for a certain mood or ambience to set in before you listen. They make Anytime Music so it’s no wonder they’re such favourites within the Shoegaze Set. And it’s even less of a wonder St. Marie Records picked them up. Listen to Sugar on Bandcamp and try to tell me I’m wrong.

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Feature

St. Marie Records Rampage: The Spiracles

You know, I keep wondering if this should be called St. Marie Record Rampage, but that title throws me off, because the Proper Noun is plural, but with ‘rampage’ you should use the singular, so I am a bit befuddled and you are all just going to have to put up with the slightly shaky on the ears plural form.

Today I’m listening to the Spiracles. Do you remember Resplandor from a few years ago? Peruvian shoegazers caused quite a ruckus in their time with Pleamar which is now a classic in Gaze 2.0 circles. Any aglet-eater worth his or her salt had Resplandor on their Dream Lineup (together with the likes of Malory, Ariel, Highspire et al).

I’m not sure why I’m referring to Resplandor in the past tense. It may be because Luis Rodriguez, guitarist and songwriter for the band, is one of the two Spiracles I’m talking about. Don’t expect the breathy vox off Pleamar, because we’ve got Aracelli Fernandez doing the singing here. ‘Fireflies’ is the song to watch out for. They may have experience, yes, but for all practical purposes, The Spiracles are a new band, yet ‘Fireflies’ is overwhelmingly well-produced. I daresay, it’s so professionally presented its virtually pop music. There is nothing rough or jagged about it. It’s crisp, sleek and even has an expert video to match. The Spiracles have also gone and done the world a favour by reminding them ofThe Field Mice via their, admittedly a bit safe, version of ‘The End of the Affair.’

The EP  you’re meant to pick up has the tongue twisting title How Things Went Well When I Met You. Listen to these two tracks, a third called ‘Mercy’, and two mixes of ‘Fireflies’ (told you it was popular). If you are so intrigued or inclined, the St. Marie Records bandcamp page is the place to be.

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Feature

St. Marie Records Rampage: Elika

Elika are so quiet.

Outside of music that is.

I barely hear a peep from them.

Yet somehow they’ve turned out half a dozen records at the regular rate of one a year.

Yet somehow, even in shoegaze circles, they skulk quietly in corners. Not ignored as much as aloof. Appreciated by the similarly silent and elusive.

Even the music isn’t particularly obtrusive. It just sort of clears its throat and starts to speak. It’s got a voice like ‘Ray of Light’ era Madonna’s – a fact that most publicity for the band tries to avoid. Even their set-up isn’t particularly protuberant. What’s there? A laptop? a keybpard? Maybe a guitar? Two people? There aren’t any drums that’s already reduced the physical space they’d take up as a musical entity by 75%.

If only there was some way to be whispering this post. Whatever I say about Elika feels like interference in a private project. I fear they might come across this post and narrow their eyes at the interruption (soz!). I’m going to wrap up and slink out, but I think you need to hear the zen for yourself. Listen to Always The Light. It came out in March this year. It’s determined, but not bullheaded. Concentrated, but not heavy. Come to think of it, the lightness and simplicity of it all makes me wonder if, rather than being cross at me for so impertinently judging them, Elika would just ignore me altogether.

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Feature

St. Marie Records Rampage: bloody knives

Oh, St. Marie Records, your timing is impeccable. For those of you who were following XD Records while they were around, you probably know bloody knives from their time on the label. XD Records were as discerning as St. Marie Records are, so it’s no surprise that when the former folded, the latter came along and whipped up bloody knives before they could even hit the floor.

I know this sort of thing goes without saying, but bear with me. I am totes a bloody knifer. They make My Kind Of Music (M-KOM) – or one of My Kind of Musics. I don’t have many M-KOMs, but I love each one passionately enough to be convinced that there is no other M-KOM. Until one of the other M-KOMs shows up and again I pledge my undying allegiance etc. etc. But in all fairness there are only, like, three (3) that I cycle through.

If I’m not terribly wrong, their full-length blood is their first release on SMR. It’s not unlike their previous releases at all which is great because if it was it wouldn’t be M-KOM anymore. They call this kind of sound ‘industrial’ and they also call it ‘pop’ in the same breath. In addition, you’ll find tracks dappled with 8-bitty beepyboopies. Me, I love it because it’s NOISE! I love the lazy CBF vocals, I love how the synth tramples all over them – easily, because they’re obviously not going to put up a fight, and I love the how the percussion acts as the gruff sidekick to the hulking bully synths, poking its out from behind them just to make its presence felt. Far be it for me to support aggressive schoolyard behaviour but you know what they say about your first taste of blood (bad puns R us).

blood comes out today and you can pick it up from the SMR store. If you’d like to taste it before you buy it, you can do that over on SMR’s bandcamp. Also, do appreciate how consistently I maintain the desired lowercase letters across band name, album titles, and tracks. Makes it a bit difficult to pick out the proper nouns in a pile of text such as this, but maybe it’ll teach you to read more carefully.

Clench your jaw, grind your teeth, narrow your eyes and turn on bloody knives. This is what’s known as a best practice.

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Feature

St. Marie Records Rampage: Panda Riot

St. Marie Records have been lapping at the Fountain of Eternal Shoegaze for some time now and in the process managed to pick up some of the most – at the risk of sounding Hipster Runoff-y – relevant – bands around. One of those bands is Panda Riot.

It’s presumptuous of me, but since I’ve admired Panda Riot from afar, I was apologetically surprised to learn that they had signed on to SMR. I wanted to know how this had happened, so I did what any Normal Person would do when they want something – I asked. I got a response immediately and it turns out Wyatt, too, is a Normal Person. He wanted to sign Panda Riot on to his label, so he asked them.

You know – this is a life lesson I wish they’d taught me when I was still in school.

I believe the Serious Radical Girls EP is their first release on SMR. I’m having a ball listening to it. There’s only that much to say about it since it’s two and a half songs, so I have to play it on repeat but it’s a small price to pay.

I like how Panda Riot appeal to a conventionalist like me. I like how refreshing their sound is. Not refreshing like ‘oh here are some people doing this new unique thing no one has ever done before!’ I mean refreshing as in invigorating. At the same time the EP is also impossibly calming. Not Slowdive/Fauns/Tears Run Rings style calming – the noise-fragility balance is tilted too much in favour of noise to qualify. Calming, as in you don’t need to concentrate to listen to it. The complexities in the compositions are all intricacies you cannot and are not expected to pay attention to. I hear a bit of Ringo Deathstarr in the title track – contrary to popular belief this does not necessarily imply I hear My Bloody Valentine. In any case, the Imagine Hearts Ringo Deathstarr is nothing like the Sparkler Ringo Deathstarr and it’s the Imagine Hearts RD I hear. It’s the same delicate-but-firm female vox set against a backdrop of noise, but here the noise is less scrapey.

I wonder how many people reading this would imagine  ‘scrapey’ are negative adjectives to use when talking about curtains of sound in shoegaze…

It’s a funny, mathematical kind of EP. The title track you have to bounce about to a bit – it’s undeniably a mover. The next – and if you don’t have the SPC ECO bonus mix, last – track is inexplicably called ‘Golden Age Precursor’. I am all like ‘wtf is this precursing if it’s the last track, this band doesn’t make any sense…’ and then I find myself flat on my back on the Persian carpet and I’m wondering how I got there and why are all these stars around me.

The SPC ECO mix of ‘Serious Radical Girls’ is the sum of the first two. Do you want to dance to it? You can! Do you want to lie on your back and look at the stars in the sky or in your head? You can! Choices, choices, everywhere, and the entire EP only has three tracks on it!

The more I listen to Serious Radical Girls the more I feel like I must tell you to AT LEAST listen to it. I understand why, in these difficult economic times, you might be reluctant to buy it (but look! vinyl!), so if, based on what I say, you decide to give it 15 minutes of your time, I can say I have succeeded, and so have they.

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Familiar Sounds

Brief Candles vs. Mansun

I am telling you, Brief Candles‘ ‘The Patron Saint of Hopeless
Causes’ is going to haunt me till my dying day. The opening is EXACTLY
like a Mansun song that I have been trying to place for the
last four months. I have finally given up and settled on the surreal
segment midway through the album version of Six for the purpose of
this post, while simultaneously having convinced myself that it is IN
FACT from a live version of ‘Television’ that exists only in my
imagination. In my notes I’ve tagged it as ‘She Makes Me Bleed’ which,
I remember, made perfect sense at the time, but now appears an inane
notion.

Please, please tell me which Mansun song the first track is. Please,
please, please it’s driving me out of my mind.

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Discover

Incoming: St. Marie Records Rampage

It would usually be called ‘St. Marie Records Week’ but we all know I can’t commit to a post a day. I CAN do a post every couple of days however, which is why a rampage is a FANTASTIC idea – and so much better a word than ‘week’ <bleah>.

St. Marie Records have been around for what seems like eons, but in the last 6 months or so they’ve gone snap-snap-snappity-snap and picked up some of the best (no exaggeration) new shoegaze acts on the scene. I’m going to be taking (us on) a walk through albums by Panda Riot, Drowner, Elika, Bloody Knives, The Spiracles and The Patience, and if I can manage it, get some input from the bands themselves. That’d be good yeah? Yeah!

Stand by…

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Discover

Interactions in Installments: DIN Martin Part 4

I have a few more small questions for you: Do you have any pets? Are you a coffee or tea fan? What’s your favourite kind of food? And out of cultural curiosity – what do you do in Leipzig when you’re hanging wit yer mates (as they call them in Australia)? Any preferred venues or activities?

Well I do actually have a pet. I have a little cat, called Rudi. He was already there, in the house, when I moved into my flat and after a while he started coming around quite regularly. Now he is around all the time and we became quite good mates!

I do enjoy the occasional coffee just as the occasional tea but I wouldn’t consider myself as a tea / coffee drinker. So no real feelings on that one. Same with food, well not really the same, but I eat pretty much everything. I’m a bad cook though, which I find really annoying. I’d really like to cook nice food and stuff but it doesn’t really go much further than pasta with me. I will do a course though at some point.

Leipzig is amazing. A really pretty city. I live, just as the rest of DIN Martin, in the west of Leipzig, which back in the days used be full of industry, factories…the builders and their families basically. After the wall broke down all the industry started to disappear leaving the empty factories and houses which were empty for a long time. In the last, say 5 years, they started doing up the houses which attracted people. Amongst young families and students, lots of artists came, some better than others, but the whole vibe changed. Many of these factories were being converted into galleries, venues, pubs, studios and so on. We’ve got our studio in one of them, too. It’s a really cosmic place, creative and alternative which I really feel comfortable with. 

 For a while now really we haven’t been really going out. This album and tour and everything around it, took up quite a lot of space and energy in everyone’s life. We usually just go and hang out in our favorite pub called “Noch Besser Leben” which means “Even better living”. (there is also a pub called “Besser Leben” which means “Better Living” which opened before the Noch Besser Leben, obviously 🙂 ). It’s a great place, we know many of the bar staff who are all characters, and you can still smoke there and sometimes you find yourself sitting there till six in the morning. It’s lovely. 

 We are really pleased with the video too. That was pretty exciting. I seriously couldn’t sleep for two weeks before we shot it. We had to plan everything so well, as we were in Leipzig and they in Bristol and communication was a bit tricky. But yeah, they were really on it. It premiered on national German tv by the way. That was pretty cool, and good for Richard, the guy who shot it, too. Good reference.

As is often the case with these interactions in installments (because, you know, there have been so many) the conversation doesn’t really ‘end’, but the feature has to. I think this is a great place to publicly congratulate Ole, Carsten and the Martins on their work so far.  At this point, I’d also like to ask this Martin if there’s anything I’ve missed asking him about and that he’d like to share.

I think I mentioned it a little before but again thanks for doing this. Even though we are only emailing each other this feels like a really natural and personal conversation. A thousand times better than many interviews I did before. It has been really interesting and I’m surprised how much I was able to open although we haven’t even met! So well done you! 😉

If you want to give DIN Martin a listen, this is the place to visit for a physical copy of their record, or you could go here or here for immediate gratification (aka downloads). I think you should buy their music, or at least send them a message on facebook or twitter or wherever telling them you dig them. They’re the nicest people and would only be too happy to hear your praise. Danke for your time and effort and luffly  company, DIN Martin!

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Discover

Interactions in Installments: DIN Martin Part 3

That’s a nice line from the Go-Betweens’ song – it’s one I like to think I’ve lived by for most of my life. Yet I’m still a bit confused as to my take on it. On one hand I agree you shouldn’t confine yourself to a boring job just to put bread on the table, but on the other hand, in a weird way it’s not a bad idea to have a dull, boring, absolutely unrelated job on the side so your own music becomes the focus. It’s like – the more I write for other people, the less I write for myself. I don’t know if THAT makes sense since it’s barely formed in my own head, but it’s one of those thoughts that makes me think there isn’t a right answer to the way of life question. Not to forget the obligations and ambitions change across generations and cultures – we can’t equate our paths to our parents’ and in my time in Australia I noticed the expectations were very different to what I was used to in India. That must be why I’m so confused I guess.

I can only imagine what it’s like hearing non-music-makers speak so decisively about what YOU should do with YOUR music. I like to imagine I am a Good Guy but I guess I slip up as well. I find music piracy especially a difficult topic to comment on because, you know, it’s not for me to say since it’s not my product. So all I can do is equate it to my own work. But the problem – for lack of a better word – with music is that it ends up belonging to everyone. I’m no musician but I think I might be more possessive of some songs and albums than the people who made them. Sounds like crazy talk, but I think that, apart from ease of replication and distribution, the personal aspect of music – the ‘it’s mine!’ feeling might compound the problem. My ‘it’s mine!’ feeling is so intense I refuse to share music at all – as in not even play the songs I like to someone in the same room (unless they ask very very nicely and promise to pay close attention). Lars Ulrich would be pleased 😉

I guess the problem with that mentality might be that it limits the number of people who know you exist, so you’re back to the original problem again i.e. how do you get people to know you exist AND have them pay for your music. Maybe the choose your price technique?

I agree with you that there isn’t a right answer to the way of life questions. It’s really difficult and blatantly you’re not the only one who finds this confusing. I don’t know I think making the most of it is important, what ever that may be for one. That’s what makes me happy anyway and I’m thankful in a way and really appreciate that the general set up allows me to do what I want. I’m aware that this isn’t a given and situations are very different in other countries, some of them not far from Germany.

I like the Lars Ulrich mention! 🙂 I mean he’s a bit of pain to be honest and I’m sure he’s earned and spent more money than any of us are ever gonna see… don’t know whether you have seen the documentary ‘Some Kind Of Monster’ which is about Metallica, you have to! But he’s got a point in the end.

But I totally get you with the ‘it’s mine’ situation as well. I get that with music too. And it is the most exciting thing and this is what music is for. Totally! It’s tricky but I mean I don’t see many of our politicians getting this feeling and being so passionate about music as you are. But I don’t want to be prejudgmental. 

I always think it is great if you go see a band, you haven’t seen before and they totally blow your mind and you know it is something special. I couldn’t then go home on the computer and start downloading their music for free, knowing that they won’t see a penny of it. It wouldn’t make me feel right, you know. 

By the way, I should have asked this earlier – and it’s a cliché question, I’m afraid – but how did you think up the name of your album – The Second Before You Faint? Is it meant to serve as a description of the music as well? As in, how the listener should feel? (‘cos, you know, it can be pretty surreal)

Another naive question – what made you choose to sing in English? I know you’re not the only ones to do so, but it is something I wonder because I think German is a more expressive language (most are) – I would guess the primary reason is to be more accessible?

And a final one for now -tell me about the title video… how did you meet Alison of the Fauns? Any stories about it, any stories it’s meant to convey, etc.?

 The album title “The second before you faint” comes from the chorus line of “Before you faint” which is: ‘the second before you faint/no one listens anyway’. I really like that line, it’s pretty strong and dark and bad really. It is like someone trying to explain their inner self, trying to express their inner feelings and emotions to someone and trying so hard that finally they run out of energy and faint because the person was bored and not touched at all. This whole line works with the meaning of the song and the video but not really with the album. I wouldn’t want this person to be us trying harder and harder to express our music while the listener stops listening and goes off doing something else. 

But just taking the first bit gives it kind of a new meaning. What happens in that very second before you faint? … with your body, your soul, consciousness? Where does it all go and how does it come back? And why? I thinks it’s pretty exciting that our body has a reset button and uses it without us telling him to. My personal thought wasn’t really about giving the music a description with the title. It was more like if I was about to faint, for whatever reason, and this album would play (or not even just this one, any album I like) and make this second last really long, i wouldn’t worry, it would be fine and I’d feel comfortable. 

But I don’t know, I mean everyone can find a different interpretation and I’m alright with that. That was just what was in my head. 

There was never really a question about what language we are going to sing in. It was clear from the start that it is going to be English. One reason, of course, is to make it more accessible. Clearly. That’s why we are trying to keep communication on things like Facebook in both, English and German. But also for me, who writes a fair amount of the lyrics, it feels more natural to do so in English. I spent three years in Bristol, UK which helps a lot and I find English, speaking wise, so much more comfortable than German. German is really hard, long and expressive if you want but it doesn’t have such an easy flow as English. And I would imagine it being really difficult to work into our music. I think English works really well and to be honest I love speaking the language. There’s a word for everything in English whereas in German you need to describe and paraphrase, which some people probably like working with, but I don’t really. 

Lovely Alison I met when I used to live in Bristol. I also know the rest of the Fauns quite well. I used to play with them. I was their very first bass player when they started. Well, they started as a 3 piece (with a different singer, two guitars and without live drums) and then Ali, me, a keyboarder and the drummer joined. I played with them for a year or so until I decided that at some point I’m going to move back to Germany. So me and Michael Savage, who started the band who is kind of the head of it all, decided to go different ways, musically. Still we are all good friends, I always see them when I’m over and we are in touch. Choosing Ali to star the video wasn’t my idea, it came from the other DIN Martins but once it was said and once I had thought about it, it made perfect sense for me too. 

The whole input I have given into the band so far was pretty much connected to Bristol and my life over there. Working on this record and with that band helped me reflect and work through everything that had happened in that 3 years. It was quite a lot and really intense in most ways. I always think of that life I had there as a bubble and everyone who became a close friend during this time was in that bubble with me. All of us we came from so many different backgrounds, ages and stories and we spent the craziest time together, not having any responsibility at all, just living, laughing, loving every day and really feeling it. It was great! And so important. And then suddenly everyone was at a point where they had plans for their lifes. And some wandered off to live somewhere else, some started a family, some started doing a completely different job and so on. We all stayed in touch and it’s great to talk to them and see how they are doing. 

So yeah that’s why Ali is perfect for it and why we shot the video in Bristol together with a filmmaker from there, called Richard Edkins, who is a good friend of mine too. And it worked out great. I didn’t know Ali could act that great, it totally blew my mind and Richards camera work and knowledge is amazing and another friend of mine, André Mueller, who is German and who has been living in Bristol for 10 years now, did the catering and drove us around to the different spots we wanted to shoot at, just perfect really!