Ola Podrida‘s new album – Ghosts Go Blind is available for pre-order now! You can also catch the band live at a few different venues in Austin if you happen to be at SXSW. Catch several Western Vinyl bands at the WV official SXSW showcase at the Driskill on March 14, 2013 – the show will include performances by Balmorhea (1AM), Lushlife (12AM), JBM (11PM) Ola Podrida (10PM), and Aisha Burns (9PM).
Available from Western Vinyl: On Stranger, Balmorhea continues the cosmic dialog they began with their eponymous debut in 2007. Though the spirit of Texas’ early inhabitants and the weight of the night sky inspired previous albums All is Wild, All is Silent (2009) and Constellations (2010), Stranger shifts the focus from the celestial to the terrestrial, or more accurately, it begins to explore the celestial resonance in all things terrestrial.
Balmorhea’s music has always been guided by the experience of living in Texas, but with Stranger the band moves beyond contemplative reverence for the land and the history of their home state. The most forward-leaning of their catalog, Stranger presents worlds of tenderness, aggression, estrangement, and freedom using an expanded sonic palette including guitar loops, vibes, synthesizers, ukulele, and steel pan drums. In addition to these new sounds, electric guitars and percussion take the stage once occupied by piano and acoustic guitars.
Stranger explores the kinetic rhythms that dictate our day-to-day lives, fascinated by the wanderlust that drove the itinerant hearts of our earliest settlers and that continues to pulse in the kids roaming Texas’ suburban sprawl. Unsettled, but patient, these songs embrace everyday sensuality, youthful discovery, and nomadic reverie…awe-struck by the divine energy that permeates all of our earthly fauna and flora.
Playing music together for over 20 years has given the Bell brothers plenty of time to learn how to build off of one another’s strengths as they write, record, and tour. During the three years Michael and Jared spent writing and recording their new album Symbolyst, they spent more time apart than they ever had. After several years of steady touring in support of two full-length releases and an ep with This Will Destroy You, the brothers found themselves on opposite sides of the globe, with Michael living in Japan and Jared studying graphic design in Brooklyn. The geographic distance led them to rely more than ever on the trust they’ve developed over the years they’ve spent creating together.
Symbolyst, Lymbyc Systym’s debut with Western Vinyl, draws on the band’s eclectic pool of influences–The Jackon 5’s funk, Jung’s dream theory, Bergman’s existentialism, Baudelaire’s prose, and Wright’s organic architecture. The distinctly catchy melodies and head-bobbing rhythms are immediately inviting, while the densely layered polyrhythms, harmonies, and countermelodies reveal themselves over multiple listens, making for an incredibly rewarding experience no matter how many times you’ve heard the album.
The album’s title, Symbolyst, refers to the late 19th century movement in visual art, literature, theater and music. Much like the Symbolists, Lymbyc’s music evokes ideas, feelings, and experiences, rather than explicitly stating anything about them. The resulting songs tell stories without words, using a musical vocabulary to construct landscapes of universal joy and dread…disappointment and optimism.
Thanks to the folks at Western Vinyl, we just completed pressing EDM‘s Night People.
Night People is a series of character studies. Alienated and out of fashion, these people stay up all night, stumbling through isolation to explore trauma and ecstasy in search of their own glamour. The boundaries of reality dissolve in their environment, and the light from within transforms street lamps at last call into beacons towards infinity. Guided through fuzz and fog, truths emerge, as the knots binding sensuality and spirit unravel. In a world defined by EDM’s music, the Night People’s stories are projected, as reality turns into a film. Like the characters in his songs, songwriter and guitarist Daniel Burton has experienced a rebirth and transformation. Night People punctuates his catalog of work under the Early Day Miners moniker. Additionally, this release finds the band coming full circle, transitioning back to the Western Vinyl label, home of Early Day Miners’ first record, Placer Found.
Just as the band’s name has been abbreviated, their process of recording and producing has been been stripped down for this album. Unlike the meticulous self-production that defined Early Day Miners’ albums, their first effort under the EDM moniker finds the band relinquishing engineering duties. Recorded and mixed by engineer Mike Bridavksy at Russian Recording in just five days, the Night People sessions have yielded the most expressive vocal and instrumental performances of Burton’s career.
You can pre-order the album now, or stay tuned to your favorite indie record store!
