Record Of The Week

This Patch Of Sky – Newly Risen, How Brightly You Shine

Eugene, Oregon based This Patch Of Sky have just released their second album, and it is quite a release. The album comprises 5 tracks at just over 30 minutes in length. Its well written, well played, well mixed and sounds excellent. There is not a bad track on this album, every track seems to have its own character, there is melody over melody, quiet and loud  all over the place on this release. This is post-rock, of that there is no doubt. But, this just isn’t any post-rock, its This Patch Of Sky post-rock and I think this is important. This album was also funded by a Kickstarter project, of which I pledged, so it was the fans who, in the end, actually made the recording of this album possible.

So sit back, relax and crank the dial to 11 and enjoy the awesome sounds of This Patch Of Sky.

Biography

This Patch of Sky is an instrumental/rock band from Oregon which was founded in the summer of 2010 by Kit Day, Nate Trowbridge, Joel Erickson, and Andrew Sandahl. What started out as a work of passion for the four guys had mutated into something bigger. As fans began popping up across the globe, the band realized that what they had to say had found an audience.

This Patch of Sky released their first EP, The Immortal, The Invisible, in February of 2011 and have since been playing shows throughout the West Coast. Later that year, the band joined forces with German post-rock label, Oxide Tones. After receiving overwhelming support from fans across the world, they decided it was time to record their sophomore album a little over a year later.

Newly Risen, How Brightly You Shine was recorded at Clarity Recording in Hillsboro, Oregon and consists of 5 songs, approximately 30 minutes in length. To fund this album, the band decided to launch a kickstarter asking for other people to donate money to help fund this project. After seeing an amazing amount of fans donate to this cause, the album was fully funded in less than 30 days.

The goal for this EP was to create music that reflected their hearts, to turn music into more than just music. They wanted to give people a sense of belonging, a hope, a connection. Newly Risen, How Brightly You Shine became available in June of 2012 as a free download on Bandcamp, NoiseTrade, and other various web sites to show how thankful they were to family, friends, and fans.

After recording their 2nd EP, guitarist Andrew Sandahl parted from the band to pursue new things in life. His role was filled by Austin Zentz in May of 2012 who gave a new sound to the band. Christopher King was also added to fill in on synth and piano. The band is eager to continue sharing their music and hearts with family, friends, and fans across the world.

Record Of The Week

Lights Out Asia – Hy-Brasil

From the N5MD website

Hy-Brasil was said to be a phantom island off the south west coast of Ireland. The island’s lore contains such accounts as more advanced yet opulent inhabitants, an unusually round geographical layout, and a strange attribute of only being visible every 7 years. To further add to the island’s mystique it is widely speculated to be the geographic coordinate included in an alien binary code that is also thought to include the phrase ‘EXPLORATION [of ] HUMANITY’. Such multifaceted myth seems to be the perfect name sake the band Lights Out Asia’s multifaceted 5th album.

For Hy-Brasil the band is now back to the core duo of Mike Ystad and Chris Schafer. The absence of Mike Rush’s guitars have left a bit of space for the duo to explore more visceral sometimes ‘Vangelian’ synthwork, warm emotive cello passages and more dexterous electronic beat workouts. From the opening track onward each composition on Hy-Brasil twists and turns through the organic and synthetic seamlessly while yielding what we think is their most dynamic, expansive and universally accessible album to date. The sense of urgency so prevalent on their previous album In The Days Of Jupiter has given way to an underlying mood that seems to reflect moments of transition or exhausting post-catharsis. Maybe even an ‘exploration’ [of] the duo’s own ‘humanity’ while looking outward, questioning what truly “is”. [52 09’42.532″ N 13 13’12.69″ W]

Record Of The Week

When Clouds Collide – We’re Just Making Sound

When Clouds Collide release We’re Just Making Sound on the German based record label, Oxide Tones. 10 tracks in total clocking in at just over 47 minutes. Based in New Jersey in the North East of the USA, they have really embraced the genre with this solid release. They list a host of bands are their influences across a few different genre, but they have resisted the temptation to sound like those influences. I like the ambient, post-rock, minimalist sounds throughput the album. I also like the quiet/loud aspects of their music, and the strings are very well placed in the music, the strings just bring out that bigger, more expansive, fuller sound. The quiet is very ambient and dreamy while the loud is big sounds but well controlled big sounds that don’t go totally crazy, they seem to hold back rather than letting it all go.

All in all an awesome release, which is well written, produced and performed by these two talented musicians. If you haven’t heard this then I urge you to do so.

From the Oxide Tones Website

When Clouds Collide is a post-rock duo from New Jersey comprised of Matt O’Connor and Michael Coyle. Their debut LP – entitled We’re Just Making Sound – was completely self-produced. Both members wrote, recorded, and produced the album with the exception for a few parts written and recorded by Russ Frank and Ryan Lederer. Their influences range among several genres and include bands such as Minus the Bear, This Will Destroy You, Cloudkicker, and many more. Their sound can be described by the quote, “…they avoid self-indulgent interludes and solos – and their songs possess propulsion. In a concert hall, the reverberations would likely fill the room, drowning out conversation and evoking the euphoria of layered instrumentation.”

Record Of The Week

Apta – Algorithms EP

To say i was impressed when this 4 track ep by Apta hit my inbox is an understatement. I knew Apta, the solo project of Barry Smethurst, from the his work with the Circle Project, and I did play a track back in February called ‘Little Waking Light’.This EP, titled Algorithms, is just splendid. Lots of melodies intertwine with each other, electronic sounds with IDM overtones is really pleasing to the ears. There is a certain organic simplicity about how it sounds, but there is also the complexity of having multiple melodies playing at the same time and having the overall feeling that they all fit. That has always impressed me with songwriters, how to have all these multiple melodies and beats playing and not making it sound messy. So the four tracks, titled Rise, Break, Shadows and To The Sky all have a certain beauty, and a slightly different feel, contained within each track. Overall there is a growing melancholic feel to it, the first track is fairly upbeat but gradually each track seems to slow down ever so slightly. The field recordings on To The Sky at the end are a touch of class and kind of close the curtains on the whole EP, as if this EP is closing act one and the next act is to follow.

Thank you to Thomas for having the vision on securing this outstanding release for the ‘We Are All Ghosts’ net label and thank you to Apta for sharing your creativity with us all and here is hoping the next release is not too far away.

Self Penned Bio

Apta is a one man Electronic / Post-rock / ambient project from Manchester, UK. I now live in Cardiff and spend most of my free time fiddling with synthesisers, Morphing sounds and listening to vinyl.The music I write is almost entirely original, using very few samples. The drums, keys, and synthesisers are all Virtual instruments sequenced through midi, but the guitars, and Harmonium (where applicable) are live instruments. Most of my inspiration comes from great electronic acts of today (Four Tet, Tycho, Clark, Aphex Twin) mixed together with old electronic pioneers, and analogue synthesis ideals. Together with this is a healthy love of post-rock in ALL of it’s forms, (GYBE! are probably my favourite band of all time, The Echelon Effect and The Eternal Twilight, more close to home, are big influences), brought about mostly due to being a writer for the (now defunct) Silent Ballet. I have a great appreciation for all things musical, and enjoy music in almost all of it’s forms. My goal is to develop my sound, and to make music I am truly proud of, that is well written, and (more challengingly) impeccably produced. It is a learning process, but one I enjoy hugely.

About the label 

Founded by music fan Thomas Mathie aka Headphonaught as a means of giving back to the independent music community…… We Are All Ghosts is a small non-commercial netlabel based in Motherwell, Scotland; that specialises in ambient electronic soundscapes but is open to other styles of music.

For more info… and early warning of our releases… please follow us on Twitter :: @weareall_ghosts