保羅·賽門，全名保羅·費德瑞克·賽門是美國一位流行音樂歌手、唱作人、吉他手，音樂製作人；也是六十年代著名民謠音樂二人合唱團賽門與葛芬柯其中一員。

Listening to an Autolux album has always been like being temporarily transported to an entirely different universe, one where disorientation and intrigue are the dominant forces, and embracing the unfamiliar and mysterious is the best navigational strategy. Pussy's Dead, the Los Angeles-based trio's third album, is even more of an immersive sonic experience. The foundation of nearly every song consists of tangled sonic collages built around uneasy, often beautiful arrangements that approach meaning from seemingly impossible vantage points, but still register squarely with the listener s emotions. There is an "electronicness" within the organic wash of these songs, but it comes from digitally deconstructing what's been played by humans, rather than precisely programming synthetic sounds and instructing a computer to play them.
To enhance this feeling, Autolux also made a deliberate choice to de-emphasize electric-guitar-driven music. They deconstructed and distorted what electric guitars they did use. This was a marked change from their previous two albums: 2004's stormy, post-punk-inspired Future Perfect which landed them support slots for Nine Inch Nails, White Stripes and Queens Of The Stone Age and 2010's eerie, synthesizer-and-sample-heavy Transit Transit.
Although Pussy's Dead ended up sounding complex, many of its songs were initially based around simple acoustic guitar and vocals. Creatively, these sparse, sketch-like origins encouraged reinvention. For these transformations, credit goes to Pussy's Dead's producer, BOOTS, who's known for his collaborations with Run The Jewels and Beyoncé, as well as his own rhythmically inventive solo work. After coming aboard, BOOTS immediately clicked with everyone in Autolux so much so that during the studio process, he operated like a fourth member of the band. Sequencing was a priority and the artwork was carefully selected to reflect the music's aesthetic and intent.
The result is a collection whose songs not only stand on their own as individual works of art, but also draw considerable power when listened to in context with each other. Pussy's Dead is particularly transformative: Its intelligent construction and experimental approach make for an album that's not tied down to any era, genre or approach. Additionally, the albums artwork comes courtesy of the Australian contemporary artist Anthony Lister, whose work is a striking combination of technical prowess, spontaneous technique and tradition-flouting.

Leaner and more intricate than their earlier releases, this record is remarkably confident and mature, the vocals are even more ferocious, the melodies are even more infectious and the ideals are even more passionate. A Kill Rock Stars Records release.

| syn·es·the·sia (noun) | The sensation of a sense other than the one being stimulated, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color.
Our relationship with God is the most vibrant, multi-dimensional relationship we could ever have. There is a world in living color that He wants to reveal to us and in us. Without Words: Synesthesia paints a limitless landscape for that to happen.
Bethel Music’s sophomore instrumental project contains 11 well-known worship anthems set against new sonic landscapes and threaded together by cinematic interludes. Remove lyric, and a worshipper is free to find a new expression. This project invites listeners into a vibrant experience: one of communion, rejuvenation, and discovery.

The harmonium that was prevalent on previous recordings has been replaced on Lost in the Glare with the undulations of a Farfisa organ. The songs here are deep, cosmic excursions. Rich in dynamics, the record possesses a transcendental tone through both a densely layered combination of electric and acoustic instruments and walls of melting amplifiers and feedback alchemy. The lines between strict structure and ordered chaos blur as third-eye opening e-bowed drones explode like beams of light and corrode into crumbling distortion, baking tones that sizzle like brittle bones left in the desert sun.
Between rhythmic, turning strums that recall Saharan twilight, radiant synth swells and choral clusters that echo the desolation of deep space, the duo’s sound has no doubt ascended from it’s desert-rock roots into a new, beaming realm. Evocative as they are, the sounds here aren’t easy to tie down to particular imagery. A myriad of influences from blues and raga to the guitar style of Northern Mali most often associated with the Touareg people meld into a new universal sound that can only be described as cosmic and sublime.
In addition to guitars and organ, "Lost in the Glare" features Juno 60, manipulated cassette tapes, tanpura and gong played by Michael Elrod (The Alps, Date Palms), Steve Dye on bass clarinet (Portraits), and the crucial contribution of drummer Jacob Felix Heule. Heule’s playing is paradoxically heavy and commanding, subtle and elegant. Morphing from hypnotic processions to abstract ritualistic clatter and orchestral swells, his addition to Barn Owl takes the sound to new heights.
Just returned from a month long tour of Europe with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, San Francisco-based Barn Owl are gearing up for some US dates in support of Lost in the Glare.

Since their formation in the summer of 2005, Subrosa has been recognized as one of the more unique bands in the doom / rock genre. Underpinned by a monolithically heavy rhythm section and featuring two electric violinists and the enchanting vocals of Rebecca Vernon, the Salt Lake City-based group garnered widespread critical acclaim in 2011 for their third album (and Profound Lore debut) No Help for the Mighty Ones, a powerful mix of Kyuss, Sleep, L7 and PJ Harvey as well as folk, neoclassical and chamber music influences. With their newest full-length, Subrosa presents their most accomplished and enrapturing work yet, one that shall bring the band even more accolades. More Constant Than the Gods continues in the vein of its predecessor while improving upon the aspects that landed that release on so many "Best of 2011" lists (Decibel, Pitchfork's "Show No Mercy" column, etc.). The meticulously composed and beautifully structured album is not only the best-sounding Subrosa recording yet, it's also the heaviest. Destined to be one of the most lauded doom metal / rock releases of 2013, More Constant Than the Gods will earn Subrosa a place alongside Royal Thunder, Kylesa and Witch Mountain as one of the most prominent bands of the genre.

Melodic, uplifting vocals and harmonies, side-by-side with tortured, assaulting screams. Mathematically precise rhythms and complex fretwork, giving way to loose jam-inspired divergences. Pop-meets-punk-meets-metal-meets-rock in the unlikeliest of places: this is the musical crossroads where you'll find Washington State-based trio The Fall of Troy, skittering off defiantly in one direction after another, refusing to stick to any one established road. If it sounds like it all adds up to chaos, that's because it often does - but only in the same beautiful way as our own everyday experience. And with Doppelganger, their Equal Vision debut, that kind of musical experimentation and alternate perspective has enabled Thomas Erak (vocals/guitar), Tim Ward (bass/vocals), and Andrew Forsman (drums) to stand out right from the start. Given the chance to work on the new record with top producer Barrett Jones (Foo Fighters, The Melvins, Jawbox), the band jumped, and entered the studio in exactly the right mindset. "We didn't really go in there with a set sound in mind," says Forsman. "We just kind of figured it out on the spot. So the new album became more of a snapshot of us at the time than a posed picture." Which is fitting, considering that no two live experiences with The Fall of Troy are ever the same. Rather than plan out every aspect of their shows, the band leaves things open on stage, allowing for the music and the energy to take over. No one knows exactly when or how a song will change, or when the atmosphere will explode with electricity, until it actually happens. And while a record can't physically change from listen to listen, that sense of spontaneity remains a big part of what makes Doppelganger so powerful.

The release date of Contact marks the ten-year anniversary of Margaret Chardiet’s project, Pharmakon. While working on her newest release, she began to evaluate the project as a whole. Though the content of each record has been very different and specific, the pervading question, which has underlined them all, is what is means to be human. Her last album, Bestial Burden, focused on the disconnect between mind and body, looking at the human as an isolated consciousness stuck inside of a rotting vessel. For Contact, she wanted to look at the other side of the spectrum – the moments when our mind can come outside of and transcend our bodies.
Because an album is itself an object, she struggled with how to convey the transcendence of the physical, through a physical medium. She started to study trance states and equate her live performances to them. In trance states, music and the body are used to transcend the physical form and make contact with some outside force. In the live setting, she used sound and her body to create an exchange of energy and make contact with outside forces - humanity, empathy, the audience. This energy/empathy exchange has always been at the heart of a Pharmakon performance, but she felt that on records, it wasn’t translating. They were one-sided and flat – declarations rather than conversations. She decided to structure the compositions of each side of Contact after the four stages of trance: preparation, onset, climax, and resolution. By using these stages as a biorhythm for the album, she animates it, and instills the intention of communion into the music.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
Man is a rabid dog, straining at its leash of mortality with bared teeth. Snarling and clawing over each other, we aim to reach a higher ground to claim as our own. There are those who will attempt to exert power over others to attain it. They will sniff you out; lay claim over your body, your actions, your thoughts, your time. (How starkly human, so desperate for the sense of vantage over all versions of its own reflection!) Their aims are empty, because their power is a construct they created and gave back to themselves. They too are small and inconsequential. All people are only human and humans are only animals. The nature of existence and our sentience is chance, owing nothing to anything. Humankind is of no special significance to the universe. (Despite all our scrambling rejections, we cannot transcend all of our instincts — just animals, lost in a confused dream, where mankind is real and at the center of everything). We are each nothing but a single, short-lived cell in a vast organism which itself will one day die. If we accept that the only true claim sentience gives us is our tiny sliver of time, it opens us to revel in it,to make CONTACT. When we pick up on transmissions between the private rooms inside our heads and the flesh of our vessels, when thought escapes its isolation and is seen, heard and understood. When our mind uses the body in order to transcend and escape it! The moments of connection/communion/CONTACT, when the veil is for a brief but glorious moment lifted, and we are free. Empathy! EMPATHY, NOW!
releases March 31, 2017

The singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt, who has died aged 45 after an overdose of muscle relaxants, was a veteran presence in the independent, rather than the mainstream, music charts. In his songs, he confronted his demons with a disarming frankness and brave humour, and his lyrics could often be raw and uncompromising.

Full title - The Miraculous Hump Returns From The Moon. After sitting in the Warner Bros. Vault for 28 years, the Camel's long awaited early 70's album has finally been put on CD. 2002.

Belladonna of Sadness is the debut album from Portland, Oregon native Alexandra Savior. Her album is available digitally, and in physical formats of CD and a special RED VINYL LP. The album features 11 blissfully cinematic tracks, steeped in retro vibes and dusted with darkness and sensuality. An artist in every sense of the word, not only does Alexandra write music and perform live, she also paints her own artwork and writes, directs and edits her own music videos. With a voice that channels the ghosts of smoky 50s jazz haunts, lucid and literary lyricism worthy of J.D. Salinger, and wondrous youth-in-revolt abandon, Alexandra will tell you she makes "sassy impolite spaghetti western music."
Belladonna of Sadness was co-written by Alexandra and British rock front man Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys, The Last Shadow Puppets) and co-produced by James Ford (HAIM, Florence and the Machine) and Alex Turner.
Alexandra first made her mark with the release of her debut single "Shades" in the summer of 2016, which left Noisey "comp4letely hooked" on the 21-year-old singer/songwriter. "It's about knowing you're doing something you're not supposed to be and reveling in it," she explains. In addition to "Shades," Belladonna of Sadness features previously released songs "M.T.M.E," "Mystery Girl," and the official first single "Mirage," which is about being in the grasp of the record industry and society s portrayal of women. Also included on the album is the track "Vanishing Point,", a hauntingly beautiful song that Idolator called "the best showcase yet of her evocative, widescreen sound and scene-setting lyrics."
Alexandra's unique sound and style first caught the attention of several creative forces including T. Bone Burnett, who placed her song "Risk" in the most recent season of HBO's cult series True Detective. Live performances followed in both New York and Los Angeles, leaving audiences clamoring to hear and know more about this beautiful mystery girl. "I stay a bit stoic with my personal emotions," she admits. "I portrayed things I was going through, but I didn't say them out loud. I made the record when I first moved to L.A. I was observing a world I'd only heard about but it was true. I felt like I had to figure out who I was in a year, and I wrote about that struggle. I created a fantasy."
With nods from top-tier publications including The FADER, Pigeons & Planes, NME, The Sunday Times, Stereogum, PASTE Magazine, V Magazine and many more, Alexandra is certain to soon be on everyone's radar.