M83 is electronic artist Anthony Gonzalez. Gonzalez founded the group with Nicolas Fromageau in Antibes, France, in 2001. M83’s musical style owes something to shoegaze, with emphasis on tone, extensive use of effects and, most notably, softly-spoken lyrics almost submerged in instrumentation. Guitar or synthesizer based, many of M83’s parts conform to the fetishism of tone that dominates contemporary electro. Saturdays = Youth, M83's fifth studio album was released on April 15, 2008 on Mute Records. It was recorded with Ken Thomas (known for his work with Sigur Rós, The Sugarcubes, Cocteau Twins and Suede), Ewan Pearson (who has also produced for Tracey Thorn, The Rapture and Ladytron) and Morgan Kibby (of The Romanovs, and Morgan and the Hidden Hands). The album is said to deliver the rich sonic textures for which M83 is well known, but with a more focused approach to song structure and form. "Couleurs" is the first single from the new album, released to digital retailers on February 25, 2008. The album's second single, "Graveyard Girl," was released to digital retailers on April 8, 2008 and comes with an exclusive remix from Yuksek.
Part swampy juke joint brawlers, part smooth Philly warehouse doo-wop crooners, a sprinkling of wild-eyed, demon-haunted art hustler, and a hint of punky kindergarten playroom Pollyannas, Man Man bring their incomparable vision of "pop music" to bear with Rabbit Habits, their Anti- Records debut. Having honed their legendarily exuberant live show to hypothalamus-tickling perfection opening for such indie stalwarts as Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire and Cat Power, the band has captured the fiery spirit and essence of a Man Man show and etched it into 45 minutes of the most raucous, weirdly moving, spiritually uplifting music this side of Oppenheimer's great beyond. Stand-out tracks such as "Top Drawer" and "Big Trouble" illustrate Man Man's ability to provoke and inspire in a single instance.
Man Man's power isn't derived from the genres they stumble across, or the maniac light in their eyes, or the sweat pooling in their beards. It's the unbearable sadness in their marrow and how they transform it, like the existentially distressed but heroically steadfast men men they are, into a terrible and lionhearted joy. Release date: TODAY!!!
Touring Europe '08:
May 11 2008 Whelan’s Dublin
May 12 2008 Stereo Glasgow
May 13 2008 Cargo London
May 14 2008 The Phoenix Manchester
May 15 2008 Start The Bus Bristol
May 17 2008 La Nuit De Botanique Festival Brussels
May 19 2008 Voxhall Aarhus
May 20 2008 Loppen Copenhagen
May 21 2008 Henriksberg Goteborg
May 22 2008 Garage Oslo
May 23 2008 Debaser Stockholm
May 24 2008 KB Malmo
May 25 2008 Knaack Berlin
May 26 2008 FZW Dortmund
May 28 2008 La Casa 139 Milano
May 30 2008 Primavera Festival Barcelona
May 31 2008 Le Ciel Grenoble
Jun 1 2008 La Cave A Musique Macon
Jun 2 2008 Nouveau Casino Paris
Jun 3 2008 Paradiso Amsterdam
Jun 4 2008 Doornroosje Nijmegen
Jun 5 2008 Vera Groningen
The name "Gregor Samsa" appears to derive partly from literary works Kafka had read. The hero of The Story of Young Renate Fuchs, by German-Jewish novelist Jakob Wassermann (1873–1934), is a certain Gregor Samassa. Gregor Samsa is a fictional character in The Metamorphosis, a novella by Franz Kafka, who tries to live his life after having been transformed into a "monstrous vermin". He is a travelling salesman. Oh and also an excellent band nowadays.
In early 2001, from the ashes of Charlottesville's beloved indie rock outfits, the Silent Type and Excitbike, rises Gregor Samsa. In their third full-length album in seven years, Gregor Samsa takes a new approach to composition, both in process and instrumentation. The result is Rest; nine pieces composed over e-mail during the course of nine months by key members in New York, Chicago, Boston, DC and Richmond, VA. In Rest, Gregor Samsa expand on their affinity for minimal, classical instrumentation mixed with mangled and manipulated sound through integration of new instruments such as the celesta, clarinet, classical voice and vibraphone. Along with these new sounds, guitar has been almost entirely replaced by piano, whose parts were recorded on a rare Bösendorfer once owned by Philip Glass. These pieces demonstrate a shift in focus to harmony, restraint and the use of muted tones, while less interest is taken in the large dynamic shifts that once carried the weight of many of their compositions. Rest is complete and due out in late April 2008.
2006 marked the return of Vancouver's Dan Bejar with his seventh full-length
release under the moniker Destroyer. If there has been any precedent set or
pattern developed over the previous six recordings in the Destroyer canon, it's
that Bejar holds little regard for convention or expectations. Never one to rest
on laurels, each successive Destroyer release always explores new sonic
territories and ideas. The album was titled Destroyer's Rubies and the opening track, 'Rubies', sets the tone well. Destroyer's Rubies was an inadvertent Guide To Destroyer - every defining quirk, every 70's pop nod and ill-advised but forgivable falsetto was condensed and framed. Bejar's dylanesque flare for biting and sardonic wit and his nods to the glam and bombastic folk approached of early Tyrannosaurus Rex and Bowie recordings have clearly distanced Destroyer from the more straightforward pop of his "other" band, The New Pornographers. This new album feels like an event: hooky, quirky, sumptuous and sometimes apocalyptic. 'Trouble In Dreams' will hit the stores next Tuesday!!! (18th May)