Available now. "Blessed," the Vancouver, Canada-based punk band's debut, is filled with knotted riffs and crushing dynamics, as evident on lead single "Waving Hand." Skittering between loud and soft moments of jagged post-punk, the song's anthemic hook is dark and creepy with an infectious melody. The song's structure takes twists and turns from start to finish, with primal chord progressions pushed by complex rhythmic patterns. Play it over and over again, there's something new to discover with each listen. Recorded by Curtis Buckle of Rain City Recorders (White Lung, Japandroids, Baptists), Blessed is next in the long line of great Canadian art punk. 12"ep includes an etched B-side and is limited to 563 copies.
February 19 street date. The cover art for "iii", the upcoming EP from Canadian art-rock band Blessed, depicts a wall of wooden blocks, all different shapes, jumbled messily and precariously high against a softly-coloured background. It's an image that captures Blessed at their most essential: experimental, asymmetrical, and interdependent, all the more remarkable for their marriage of those three qualities. The EP's four tracks expand on Blessed's already-idiosyncratic vision: cavernous post-punk electronics and measured drum work pave under guitarwork that trips and sways from chiming and sunny, to serrated and snarling, to frigid and stiff. Vocalist Drew Riekman's lithe tenor flickers in and out across tracks, an extra texture rather than a spotlit focus. Rather than aim for one uniform mix, the band pursued four separate ones: Corin Roddick (Purity Ring), John McEntire (Tortoise), Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck), and Riekman. The result is four tracks with distinctly different palettes and trajectories.
February 19 street date. The cover art for "iii", the upcoming EP from Canadian art-rock band Blessed, depicts a wall of wooden blocks, all different shapes, jumbled messily and precariously high against a softly-coloured background. It's an image that captures Blessed at their most essential: experimental, asymmetrical, and interdependent, all the more remarkable for their marriage of those three qualities. The EP's four tracks expand on Blessed's already-idiosyncratic vision: cavernous post-punk electronics and measured drum work pave under guitarwork that trips and sways from chiming and sunny, to serrated and snarling, to frigid and stiff. Vocalist Drew Riekman's lithe tenor flickers in and out across tracks, an extra texture rather than a spotlit focus. Rather than aim for one uniform mix, the band pursued four separate ones: Corin Roddick (Purity Ring), John McEntire (Tortoise), Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck), and Riekman. The result is four tracks with distinctly different palettes and trajectories.
October 28 street date. Blessed's sophomore full-length, "Circuitous", cements and expands on their status as a band's band: a patient, eclectic career outfit guided by the intense pursuit of an internally-dictated creative agenda. The group has sharpened their strengths, bringing an ever-growing depth of songwriting and artistic evolution to their craft. Composed from hours of jam material and hundreds of demos, "Circuitous" comprises eight tracks that sprawl and thrash and burst and fall. The record finds the band digging deeper into their vast collective catalog of influences, taking notes from groups as diverse as Mount Kimbie, Shabazz Palaces, Liquid Liquid, and Unwound. The result is a sweeping, hyperreal, industrial art-rock tragedy, rendered in walls of noise, controlled drums, meandering ambience, and staccato syncopation, while touching on topics like agoraphobia, isolation, grief, the hyper-control of capital and the numbness it breeds. Circuitous was mixed by John Congleton (Swans, St. Vincent, Wye Oak) and mastered by Greg Obis (Alabaster Deplume, Cloud Nothings, Stuck).
October 28 street date. Blessed's sophomore full-length, "Circuitous", cements and expands on their status as a band's band: a patient, eclectic career outfit guided by the intense pursuit of an internally-dictated creative agenda. The group has sharpened their strengths, bringing an ever-growing depth of songwriting and artistic evolution to their craft. Composed from hours of jam material and hundreds of demos, "Circuitous" comprises eight tracks that sprawl and thrash and burst and fall. The record finds the band digging deeper into their vast collective catalog of influences, taking notes from groups as diverse as Mount Kimbie, Shabazz Palaces, Liquid Liquid, and Unwound. The result is a sweeping, hyperreal, industrial art-rock tragedy, rendered in walls of noise, controlled drums, meandering ambience, and staccato syncopation, while touching on topics like agoraphobia, isolation, grief, the hyper-control of capital and the numbness it breeds. Circuitous was mixed by John Congleton (Swans, St. Vincent, Wye Oak) and mastered by Greg Obis (Alabaster Deplume, Cloud Nothings, Stuck).
Digipak reissue of Blessed Death's intense second album. Intense thrash with crazed vocals, oppressive riffs and dominating rhythms. Originally released in 1987.
April 1 street date. Of Blessed Feathers’ 2012 EP Peaceful Beast in an Ocean of Weeds, PopMatters’ Matthew Fiander wrote that the Wisconsin duo’s "hazy sounds can still be awfully substantial". That description definitely applies to the group’s new full-length Order of the Arrow, as the ascendant melodies conjured up by Donivan Berube and Jacquelyn Beaupre are anchored by pithy folk structures. There’s an organic feel to the whole affair that comes through in the resonant, rootsy boy-girl vocals and the earthy percussion. Working with Real Estate and Widowspeak producer Kevin McMahon and Sharon Van Etten guitarist Doug Keith on Order of the Arrow, Blessed Feathers’ intimate vibe opens up just enough, covering more ground than you might expect.
October 29 street date. Full-length album by GB (Gifted & Blessed) on his own label. It's hard to believe that with an output as prolific as that of Gabriel Reyes-Whittaker, Within These Machines is only his second widely-distributed full-length release in his more than 10-year career. Having released critically-acclaimed projects as The Abstract Eye, The Reflektor, Julian Abelar, and of course, his best-known guise GB, he returns again with what is perhaps his most ambitious project to date. GB's Within These Machines is a song set themed around the various applications of his primarily analog electronic instruments. Working in concert and synchronized via MIDI and triggering mechanisms, the machines act as the performers themselves with Gabriel serving as engineer, conductor, composer and producer, guiding the machines in their performance. All pieces were recorded live and in one take. Within These Machines encompasses not only GB's stylistic versatility and technical prowess but also the capabilities of vintage electronic musical instruments that in many cases had not yet been explored. GB visits and expands upon many subgenres of the wide world of electronic music while not quite stepping fully into any category. Yet the album moves with a consistency and theme that illustrates the unique character of all of Gabriel's music.
October 29 street date. Full-length album by GB (Gifted & Blessed) on his own label. It's hard to believe that with an output as prolific as that of Gabriel Reyes-Whittaker, Within These Machines is only his second widely-distributed full-length release in his more than 10-year career. Having released critically-acclaimed projects as The Abstract Eye, The Reflektor, Julian Abelar, and of course, his best-known guise GB, he returns again with what is perhaps his most ambitious project to date. GB's Within These Machines is a song set themed around the various applications of his primarily analog electronic instruments. Working in concert and synchronized via MIDI and triggering mechanisms, the machines act as the performers themselves with Gabriel serving as engineer, conductor, composer and producer, guiding the machines in their performance. All pieces were recorded live and in one take. Within These Machines encompasses not only GB's stylistic versatility and technical prowess but also the capabilities of vintage electronic musical instruments that in many cases had not yet been explored. GB visits and expands upon many subgenres of the wide world of electronic music while not quite stepping fully into any category. Yet the album moves with a consistency and theme that illustrates the unique character of all of Gabriel's music.
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