Blind Atlas – Kodiak Bear

www.blindatlas.co.uk

Blind Atlas have teamed up again with the incredible animator Volkerfirma films who created the video for ‘My Proud Mountains’ which was ‘Video of the week’ on the BBC6 Music Nemone Show. The latest animation for ‘Kodiak Bear’  is for the title track to their debut album, which is due out in April 2012. The results are simply stunning.

Hailing from Denver, Colorado and disparate points around the UK, Blind Atlas came together in the bohemian suburbs of South Manchester, united by a shared preoccupation with drinking, failed relationships and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Led by singer/guitarist Ross Thompson, Blind Atlas concoct a new take on American alternative country and classic British rock ‘n’ roll, taking inspiration from The Rolling Stones and Townes Van Zandt right through to artists such as Calexico and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy.

Blind Atlas have notched up headline slots at some of the most iconic venues in Manchester, with dates planned around their forthcoming debut album. They recently released their ‘Iron wall’ EP which, along with their double A-side single ‘4th Street/For Carol“, was produced by The Earlies. Both releases garnered numerous radio plays including BBC Radio 2 (Bob Harris) and BBC6 Music (Cerys Matthews, Jo Good, Tom Robinson, Gideon Coe).

“… dramatic, spellbinding with a touch of darkness in parts make Blind Atlas a thoroughly hypnotic act … powerful and mesmerising… well worth your attention”.  [BBC]

“… grizzled vocals and a heart-wrenching lyric sheet … think Ryan Adams fronting The Black Keys, or perhaps Fleet Foxes with a Led Zeppelin fixation; and clearly all designed to soundtrack long, whisky-addled nights of anguished soul-searching.”  [CityLife/Manchester Evening News]

City Reign – Numbers for Street Names EP

Impact date: 28/11/11

http://twitter.com/CityReign

http://www.cityreign.net

Picture this: Four twenty-something guys from various parts of the UK meet at a Ryan Adams gig in Manchester and decide to start a band. City Reign were born (did the Ryan Adams fans among you notice the reference to his track ‘City Rain, City Streets’ there)? Next, BBC 6Music’s Steve Lamacq picks up on and plays ‘Making Plans’, noticing the Idlewild influences. He then invites the band on air for an interview and hails them as a band to look out for, along with The Heartbreaks and Driver Drive Faster. Not a bad start for a DIY single.

Another previous single ‘Out In The Cold’ is included on the ‘Numbers For Street Names’ EP, which received a raving recommendation from The Independent (see quote below and the video on http://www.cityreign.net).

To complete the EP, there are three brand new tracks recorded at Blueprint studios. As singer Chris Bull says, “We’re extremely proud of these 5 songs. It’s a good mix of the punchier pop songs like the singles Making Plans and Out In the Cold, alongside bigger sounding songs like ‘The Line’. It closes nicely with a new song called ‘Anywhere Anyway’ recorded at the 11^th hour, that we knew instantly where had to close the record. Although the song is stripped back, the vocal layers give it depth and it shows the attention to detail we put into everything we do.”

‘Numbers For Street Names’ will be released on the bands own label Car Boot Records on CD and digital download. It will be available to pre-order via the band’s brand new website www.cityreign.net from 1^st  October.

Track listing

1 Making Plans (GBK6T1000001)

2 Sleep Easy (GBK6T1000004)

3 The Line (GBK6T1000005)

4 Out In The Cold (GBK6T1000002)

5 Anywhere Anyway (GBK6T1000006)

Quotes

“Fans of Yuck and Dinosaur Jr will approve of City Reign’s anthemic, grunge. A million failing garage bands will ask why.”

The Independent

“‘Making Plans’, I do like that.”

                                                                                                                                                                 Steve Lamacq BBC 6 Music

“I’m really digging the wistful lyrics, powerful guitars and pounding drums. It couldn’t be a better slice of English city life if it tried…it all makes for something very atmospheric”

                                                                                                                                                                               There Goes The Fear

Murky guitar atmospherics, emote an almighty passion and power.

  Manchester Evening News

 This independence of mind can be heard in their driving guitar rock sound, unphased by suggestions that the guitar band is destined for the musical scrap heap.

    Music Week

The Manchester-based band’s third single manages to hit all the right notes.

One’s to watch. 9/10

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Shout4Music

                                                                                                           

Tour Dates

Oct  26^th – The Ruby Lounge – Manchester supporting The Birthday Suit (former Idlewild Rod Jones)

Nov 5^th – CC Muziekcafe – Amsterdam

Nov 7th – Ram +Shackle – Manchester

Nov 12^th – The Bay – Glasgow

Nov 15^th – West Street Live – Sheffield

Nov 19^th – Bull & Gate  – Camden, London

Nov 26^th – Gullivers – Manchester

Dec 3^rd – The Live Lounge – Blackburn

 

The Narrows – Able Danger

Impact date: 07/11/11

http://www.thenarrows.bandcamp.com
 http://www.twitter.com/thenarrowsband 

The Narrows’ second single, Able Danger has already garnered rave reviews from the likes of Tom Robinson, who had the guys in for an interview on his BBC 6 Music Introducing show. This was on the back of their T in The Park performance in August (25:08:11) where they completely wowed the audience, as you can see in the video footage below, which outstripped the views of White Lies and Everything Everything‘s performances.

Utilising a laptop and guitars (and no live drummer), the track is pulsing with 80s electro-pop or, ‘dark futuristic electro pop’, as the band describe their music. “It’s a three and a half minute frenzy of loud guitars; synths that sound like broken computers; and snake-like drum-loops that keep threatening to go mad and eat someone! It is about fear, government, panic, terror and secrets. A mix between the electronic side of Radiohead, Kraftwerk and Queens of the Stone Age – a real pop song for right now.”

Radio 1’s Huw Stephens and Zane Lowe both tweeted about The Narrows: Zane saying he liked the video to their last single, ‘Initials MM’. Let’s hope he tweets the same about their new video too!

QUOTES:

 Mike Joyce: (BBC 6 Music/East Village Radio)

“I like the fact they don’t sound like they are from Manchester!”

HIGH VOLTAGE:

“Here, right here, we could have the makings of another Manchester legend. Like Delphic run through a dark ambient wringer, or Johnny Greenwood playing session on a Portishead record comes the Narrows’ debut, and it is fucking ESSENTIAL… Manchester’s best dark alternative band… when it comes to current Manchester bands, The Narrows really are leading the pack”

MANCHESTER MUSIC:

“…consistently, utterly brilliant…they have precisley no contemporaries”

M.E.N /CITYLIFE:

“…one of the most original, provocative and iconoclastic new Manchester bands of 2011.”

MUSIC FROM RAINY SKIES:

“The Narrows’ sound almost transcends era pigeon-holing… the lyrical content is every bit as confrontational as the music… piercing lyrical genius, fantastically commanding… The Narrows will take over the world.”