Фирма Critical Heights

Heartbreak, working shitty jobs to survive and the loneliness of public transport in a city, Craig Dermody knows no other way than heart-on-sleeve. Paying bills, selling paintings, going to work, smoking cigarettes, thinking rationally - Craig Dermody's difficulty performing these mundane actions is well documented on "Para Vista Social Club", the debut album from his revolving-cast Australian band SCOTT & CHARLENE'S WEDDING. Originally pressed up to just 200 copies with each sleeve painted by Dermody himself, these have now long since sold out, however the album will be reissued worldwide by London label Critical Heights in November 2012. "Para Vista Social Club" (named for the Adelaide suburb in which Dermody grew up) is an off-the-cuff collection of real-life woes, each song spilling out like a soused diary entry. Dermody wrote the songs faithfully about his experiences and from there enlisted a backing band that knew not to overcomplicate the rusty, grunge-damaged appeal of the songs. And so we have guitarist Luke Horton (Love of Diagrams), bassist Jarrod Quarrel (St Helens, Lost Animal), and drummer Dion Nania (Panel of Judges) channeling the Velvet Underground and The Wipers against Dermody's slurred singing and name-checking of specific Melbourne transit lines, often the site of his melancholic self-reflection. After "Para Vista Social Club"'s original Australian self-release, Dermody headed to America indefinitely, putting this particular incarnation of the band on ice. Now based in New York, the band keeps changing and Dermody keeps writing songs under the name Scott and Charlene's Wedding. There will be a new album in early 2013. Despite Dermody's relative inexperience playing guitar and writing songs his musical CV consists of sharing lead vocals in Spider Vomit and playing bass in the scrappy Lindsey Low Hand, the songs on "Para Vista Social Club" aren't short and simple. They're long, knotty jams, often digging into a single idea and not looking up for the next few minutes with Dermody's voice ranging from a rough moan on "Born To Lose" and speech-like drawl on "Every Detail" to a bummed flatness on "Foreign Lands" and a surprisingly clean presence on the poppy "Wiseman At The Station". "Footscray Station" is the album's breakout track, a shuddering feat of shaggy-dog jangle and perfectly bruised lyrics, leading directly on to another train-themed song, "Epping Line", a crawl of a song documenting Dermody's own crawl to work as well as a demoralising phone conversation with his father. A lot of the themes are well trodden to say the least - heartbreak, working shitty jobs to survive, and the loneliness of public transit in a city - but the delivery is so wincing and unpolished that it socks you in the gut before you can call it cliché. "Para Vista Social Club" is sludgy and hypnotic and true; an undisguised catalogue of the licks we take in our youth. When Dermody sings, "I think I lost my soul/But I found it again in rock'n'roll", it's not just an easy rhyme we've all heard before. It's something closer to the salvation provided by cheap beer, good music and even better friends. Record Label: Criticalheights Style: Independent

"In September, Critical Heights will be releasing the new full-length from Brooklyn's duo Talibam! Previously known for their avant-jazz, experimental rock leanings, ""Puff Up the Volume"" sees Talibam! turning their considerable talents towards an album Record Label: Criticalheights Style: Hip Hop

In July 2012, London label Critical Heights will be releasing the new album from DEAD RAT ORCHESTRA. It was originally recorded as the soundtrack to Intrepid Cinema's critically acclaimed BBC Documentary "The Guga Hunters of Ness", which follows the journey of ten men from the community of Ness on the Isle of Lewis as they embark on a traditional hunt for gannets. Utilising their customarily unconventional instrumentation to create precarious and powerful abstract-folk, the trio of Daniel Merrill, Robin Alderton and Nathaniel Mann have come up with a powerful score, with compositions seeded in hours of study of Hebridean folk song. DEAD RAT ORCHESTRA have become the slow burning backwater of British music; perpetually hovering on the fringes of distinct scenes, yet never fully on-board, they remain their own mutable paradigm. They perform with violins, harmoniums, logs, axes and pigeon flutes; folly snow-boxes, semi-strung guitars, home-wired glitchers and record player clunks; they use organ pipes like hunting horns, which are overblown like great whales; and with shards of metal, cast to the floor in shimmering joy. For nearly a decade Dead Rat Orchestra have effortlessly remained the most original and unconventional live act around, both challenging the traditional concert setting and bringing a powerful and innovative performance aesthetic to their music whilst never falling into the trappings of novelty. Over the past two years they have performed or collaborated with the likes of Baby Dee, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Marc Almond, Eric Chenaux, David Tibet, A Silver Mt Zion, Natural Snow Buildings, Sandro Perri, Trembling Bells and many others. Record Label: Criticalheights Style: Independent