Alternative

Record Label: Nuclear Blast Style: Prog Rock

Record Label: Domino Records Style: Independent

180g. A ship at port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” (Grace Hopper) Following their debut, “Hold this Ghost”, whose immediate melodies and lush orchestration garnered significant press and a devoted listenership worldwide, Musée Mécanique returns with the ambitious “From Shores of Sleep”, a through-composed musical voyage that finds its lineage as much in the song-cycles of Robert Schumann as in its Portland, Oregon folk-rock contemporaries. Using water as a central image, Musée Mécanique has crafted a story both surreal and insightful, meticulous and moving, a record about travels and transitions, of restlessness and longing, and the grief that comes from leaving things behind.“From Shores of Sleep” is a statement twenty years in the making. Songwriters Micah Rabwin and Sean Ogilvie met in their 9th grade English class and have been making music together ever since. Rabwin reflects “We've known each other for 20 years, through burgeoning adolescence, making bad decisions, having children and getting married. We were coming to terms with what it means to grow up.” Over the course of two years, they labored over lyrics both together and separately, referencing Homer’s Odyssey, Dante’s Inferno, Jacques Cousteau, old sailors legends, as well as their own interactions with the ocean and the rivers near Portland. As Ogilvie notes, “There were so many personal struggles and observations from our combined lives that we wanted to fuse into this one small forty-five minute piece of material.” Rich with wordplay, lyrics with double and triple meanings, and references to earlier songs in later songs, the musical journey ultimately parallels the time and emotional toll of making the record; reconciling the writer’s identities as artists with the responsibilities and expectations of adulthood and forming a dialogue between the dreamer and the realist.Ogilvie’s background in classical composition is apparent throughout “From Shores Of Sleep”, as is his tenure with respected post-rock instrumental band Tristeza. From the upbeat opener “O Astoria” to the arresting choral harmonies of “Castle Walls”, arrangements mirror and interact with the lyrics. Strings, woodwinds and synthesizer sounds appear and re-appear, often playing characters, not unlike Tchaikovsky’s instrumentation in “Peter and The Wolf”. Sirens enter, sung beautifully by Johanna Kunin and Alela Diane. Layered percussion at times resembles the complex rigging of a ship, and elsewhere invokes the steady pulse of ocean waves. The album ends with a quiet meditation on mortality “The Shaker’s Cask”: a pump organ dissolves into a string quintet then makes way for a regal section of woodwind and brass, each change emphasizing the song’s message: all things will pass.To perform the arrangements live is a daunting task requiring more than a dozen keyboards and an array of acoustic instruments from flugelhorn to lap-steel to musical saw. Nevertheless, having swelled from a duo into a solid five-piece, the band now pulls it off with impressive passion and precision. Musée Mécanique includes drummer/ethnomusicologist Matthew Berger, one-man brass section John Whaley, and skilled multi-instrumentalist Brian Perez. Each player must do several things at once, all the while singing complex harmonies, to succeed in capturing both the technical complexity of From Shores of Sleep, and also its emotional depth and generous spirit. Not available for most territories. Please ask for details. Record Label: Glitterhouse Style: Alternative Rock

Record Label: Domino Records Style: Independent

A new seed has been planted in the barren fields of the cold north! The Copenhagen based stoner rock quartet, Black Book Lodge, made themselves recognized on the Danish rock and metal scene when they released the appraised debut album “Tûndra” in February – now is the time has come for an international break-through.If there ever was such a thing as the perfect marriage between stoner, progressive and alternative rock, Black Book Lodge would be it. The band’s sound draws on their on the cold, misanthropic nordic heritage and could easily be the soundtrack to an erupting icelandic volcano. Their inspirations include such acts as: Queens Of The Stone Age, Mastodon and Opeth as well as the gothic americana scene in the vein of 16 Horsepower and Woven Hand.Not long after Black Book Lodge began as a project, rumors of the band’s crushing sound began to spread fast after the release of their EP “We Are Legion”. Even to the point of being invited to support The Kandidate (feat. Jacob Bredahl of HateSphere) on their Danish tour in 2012. Shortly hereafter, the band started recording their debut album, which was released in Denmark in February 2014.The debut album “Tûndra”, excels at being melodic gripping, but also damn heavy and totally uncompromising in comparison to traditional song-structures and other norms that are often has given the fierce guitar-based music a reputation for being a thing of the past.Domestically, the debut album has already been met with incredible critical acclaim from leading music magazines.Gaffa (DK): 5/6 – ”Black Book Lodge unleashes their overwhelmingly confident debut, and sets a new standard for 2014… Tûndra places itself in the absolute top of contemporary european releases within the genre.” Devilution (DK): 5/5 – ”’Tûndra borderlines on being the perfect debut. It is almost like a stroke of genius, in the sense that the songs maintain the simple and melodic hooks, while still remaining utterly original.” Revolution Music (DK): 6/6 - ”Their style is as sharp-edged as a freshly sanded sword and their sound is brimming with understated coolness and rock ‘n’ roll attitude. I find it impossible not to surrender myself completely to this debut!” Lydtapet (DK): 5/6 – ””Lead singer and guitarist Ronny Jønssons vocals is both reminiscent of a tender, delicate musings of Josh Homme as well as the raw energy and power of a young Ozzy Osbourne.” Record Label: Mighty Music Style: Stoner Rock

Record Label: Domino Records Style: Rock

Artist: Antisocial Label: Step 1 Music

Artist: Blueneck Label: Denovali

Performer: Gene Clark Label: High Moon Records - Universal Special Products

Artist: Loscil Label: Kranky

Artist: Loscil Label: Kranky

Artist: C-Lekktor Label: COP Int. (Alive)

Artist: Deerhoof Label: Clapping Music

Artist: Dean Blunt Label: Rough Trade Us

Artist: Ariel Pink Label: 4AD

Artist: Faust Label: Bureau b

Composer: Ariel Pink Label: 4ad/Beggars Group (Indigo)

Artist: Tindersticks Label: Lucky Dog

Artist: The Flaming Lips Label: Bella Union