Record Of The Week

The End Of The Ocean – In Excelsis

Columbus, Ohio based The End Of The Ocean release their follow up to the excellent Pacific Atlantic, the name of this latest release is called In Excelsis, which is Latin for ‘in the highest degree’. The music on this release is in the highest degree, great songs, great sound, great production. 5 well crafted post-rock songs coming in at just under 26 minutes in length. Future Recordings continue with the innovative treatment for this release with a CD  release that also has a lathe cut vinyl track on it. There is also a standard CD, 12″ vinyl and also the now standard digital release. Ok but what about the music, well songs range in length from a very short two minutes to a mid length 7 minutes. The two tracks that I played on the show were the opening two tracks on the album, On Floating and Star-Crossed. Both these tracks are real powerful songs, with nice quiet moments and very nice loud passages as well. They keep the music interesting with twist and turns, changes in tempo, rhythm and they keep the music on track, it always seems to be going somewhere. Track three seems to me to be an interlude as it has mostly quiet moments, this is just to lull you into thinking that all the loud bits are over, well the last two tracks on the album come at you with all guns blazing with a sound that is definitely The End Of The Ocean. I wondered how the follow up to Pacific Atlantic would sound and would they be able to stay at that level. Well I believe that they have done an amazing job on this release and it will definitely be in my top half of top 10 releases of 2012.

So thank you to Kevin, Trish, Bryan, Tara and Wes for an amazing release, the only one regret I have is that I didn’t get to see them playing live for this album release tour. They had a gig in San Antonio, but it clashed with a special edition of Fade To Yellow that I had to do. Next time for sure, maybe SxSW in 2013 is a reality.

Band Members

Kevin Shannon – Guitar
Trish Chisholm – Guitar
Bryan Yost – Bass
Tara Yost – Keys
Wes Jackson – Drums

Biography

The End Of The Ocean is an instrumental post-rock band based out of Columbus Ohio.

Engulfing listeners in waves of eerie nostalgia and sorrow, the ambiance of The End Of The Ocean becomes a self-voyage of life’s ebb and flow unfailingly finding a beacon of hope at the horizon.

Record Of The Week

Au Revoir – In The Key Of Night

New Jersey based Au Revoir have just released their debut full length release, In The Key Of Night, on Never Lost Records. There is 58 minutes of ‘post-rock’ music spread across 11 tracks on this release and they have done a fine job with their sound. 7 songs of mainly dark and moody tones but not so dark that it is overbearing or boring. I like the quiet music interludes that then build into something a bit more less quiet but again in never gets unbearably loud. They have thought this whole quiet/loud thing through and resisted going totally loud and bring it back to quiet just when you think it is going to explode. Even on the long songs they keep their composure and resist the big wall of sound. i picked up some vocalizations on the closing track of the album and that track certainly seems to be the heaviest of the lot. Some great repetition on the closing few minutes of the album.

To summarize, i think Au Revoir have done a really good job with this debut release and I am sure it is one that they are proud of. Fade To Yellow was only too happy to have this release as its record of the week.

Go check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

From the bands Record Label 

Au Revoir is an Instrumental/ Indie-Rock band based out of Northern New Jersey, with the current line-up as Eric Annicchiarico on Guitar, Dayn Viglione on Guitar, Corey Davis on Bass and Matt Carpenter on Drums. The band started as just a side-project for Eric and Dayn, with the idea to write some tunes that were both emotional and very dark in nature. Eventually, Au Revoir was being taken a little more seriously as an entire full-length album was produced and small tours began to take place. “We all have one common denominator and that’s a love for emotional instrumental music. Our goal is to write songs that pull and tear at every emotion possible and with this album, we feel that we have definitely hit our mark.” Au Revoir is getting ready to release their debut full-length “In The Key Of Night” on Never Lost Records, with plans to continue touring over summer 2012.

Band Members

Eric Annicchiarico – Guitar
Dayn Viglione – Guitar
Corey Reilly-Davis – Bass
Matthew Carpenter – Drums

Record Of The Week

Elisa Luu – Un Giorno Sospeso

Elisa Luu is an Italian composer based in Rome. This is the second release from Elisa Luu, the first album ‘Chromatic Sigh’, like this one has been released by the excellent Australian record label Hidden Shoal records. This release is called ‘Un Giorno Sospeso’ which translated into English means ‘One Day Suspension’

‘Un Giorno Sospeso’ consists of 8 tracks coming in just shy of 48 minutes. This is 48 minutes of excellent electronic/ambient music, this music has a wonderful textures to it. The first track Flussigirl is almost dreamy and floats along on a bed of tranquil sounds. I played the second track Se fosse per me on my show a few weeks ago and this is track that slowly build into a multi melody sound, with electronic sounds all over and a nice beat to accompany it. There are also skittish horns on this track, which is unexpected, but it works fantastically well, the song comes back down after the horns. The other 6 tracks, which I am not going to describe, but I will say that I featured both Tok and Qui on the show to highlight the music that Elissa wrote. All the music on this release is good, a real nice mix of sounds, I particularly like some of the experimental sounds that appear from time to time.

If I was to offer any advice, it would be to rush out and get a hold of this album. You won’t be disappointed.

From the Elisa Luu website

Elisa Luu (Elisabetta Luciani) is a Rome based composer. She begins her music career as a saxophone player, moving freely from fusion to jazz. Elisa Luu has been involved in many music projects over the years, including fusion quartet Prodotti Speciali and Short’s Monday Night Jazz Orchestra. She participated to Berklee Jazz clinics where she got a special mention as alto sax player. In 2007 she moved forward and started to compose ambient/electronic music. She is also the co-founder of La Bèl, an Italian netlabel offering free electroacoustic music, including her own EP ‘The time of waiting’. In 2009 she released her debut album ‘Chromatic Sigh’ with Hidden Shoal Recordings. Now her new single ‘ Se fosse per me’ is out – taken from her forthcoming long-awaited second album with the same Australian-based independent music label, which is going to be released in June.

From the Hidden Shoals website

Un Giorno Sospeso is the new album by Italian ambient electronica artist Elisa Luu.

As evidenced on recently released single ‘Se Fosse Per Me’, Un Giorno Sospeso is dense with chiming tones, buoyant beats, skittering horns and immersive drones. From the shimmering, levitating tones of ‘Flussigirl’ to the rattling, dark drone-beat of ‘Il Tempo Di Capire’, Elisa Luu’s brilliant marriage of texture and composition is on virtuoso display.

Elisa Luu’s alchemical touch is in full bloom on this, her long-awaited second album for Hidden Shoal. Her uniquely crafted compositions carry a warmth and vulnerability that belies their digitally manipulated  textures. The album takes the glorious blueprint of debut Chromatic Sigh and accentuates the highlights and shadows, making for a deliciously disorientating trip.

Record Of The Week

Drops – Believe You Me

I first heard a Drops track, in fact it was You Have My Word, round about the middle of May. It was a chance post by Alex Steward (Umber) on Facebook about Drops that led me to listen to that track. That first song had me hooked, it was hard not to smile listening to this music. Anyway that was in May, this is now July and Drops aka Liam Hennessy, has released his EP titled ‘Believe You Me’ on the awesome Heat Death Records label.

This EP has 6 tracks. Well that is 4 main tracks and two remix’s of tracks. It clocks in at just over 20 minutes and what a fine 20 minutes it is too. The track ‘You Have My Word’ is obviously included and this has acoustic guitar, handclaps, bass guitar, soundscapes, vocalizations, field recordings, bells and it is all structured so beautifully and it is bright and has plenty of amazing melodies. As I said this is the track that introduced me to Drops and what an introduction. But what about the other three tracks, ‘Star Map’ starts off very dramatically and slowly then picks up, and again its all in an acoustic vein with flowing melody and soundscapes in the background. ‘Autumn Walks’ is a track that Liam tells in audio story form of his time walking around the Sheffield countryside in Autumn 2011. He even recorded the sound of rain against the trees outside his bedroom window to set the scene for this track and give the listener a feeling of actually being there with him on those walks. The last main track ‘Return Stones Into Sea’ follows a similar pattern to the preceding three tracks but with a twist, there are more vocals in this track and more quirky melodies and beats to keep you captivated. Then the the repetitive vocals ‘Return Stones Into Sea’ kicks in with great effect before the track ends all too soon. The last two tracks are remixes of two of the main tracks. And the remixers, Message To Bears and Clem Leek have done fabulous jobs on the tracks, You Have My Word and Autumn Walks.

There are no downsides on this release, well maybe one…..it is all too brief. With that said it would appear that Liam is moving to London sometime soon and he has intimated that he is going to record an EP there, and it will be different to this release due to the influences of the city. I for one would like the next release to be longer, but I have the feeling I may have to get the smile surgically removed from my face if that is the case.