Chad VanGaalen, cantor, compositor e multi-instrumentista canadense está lançando seu quarto álbum solo hoje, Diaper Island, via Sub Pop Records. As canções liberadas são “Sara” e “Peace on the Rise”.
1. Do Not Fear 2. Peace on the Rise 3. Burning Photographs 4. Heavy Stones 5. Sara 6. Replace Me 7. Blonde Hash 8. Freedom for a Policeman 9. Can You Believe It!? 10. Wandering Spirits 11. No Panic/No Heat 12. Shave My Pussy
Black Mold é um alter-ego do cantautor canadense Chad VanGaalen. Nesse projeto ele faz uma espécie de versão eletrônica de sua música se permitindo a liberdade de explorar as mais selvagens tangentes de seu trabalho de forma instrumental, utilizando uma ampla variedade de glitches e noise aliados à tons vivos de instrumentos acústicos, guiado por uma abordagem de livre associação com outros compositores. O resultado desta alquimia é o álbum Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz. Seguem duas boas amostras disso: “Metal Spider Webs” e “Tetra Pack Heads”.
A warped and mutated blend of the futuristic and the organic, Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz is the debut album from Black Mold – the electronic alter-ego of songwriter Chad VanGaalen. With Black Mold, VanGaalen is allowed the freedom to explore the wildest tangents of his instrumental work, using a broad palette of glitches and noise married with the warm hues of acoustic instruments. Guided by a free-associative approach to songwriting, the songs show the full-blown instrumental side that VanGaalen hinted at sparingly on his own albums.
The product of several years of late-night instrumental experimentation, mainly on vintage analogue and hand-built modular synths, Snow Blindness... is at times glitchy and unpredictable while at other times Teutonic and sparse. The album opens with a baffling and beautiful composition, “Metal Spider Web 2”, a lattice of cello and clarinet complemented by shifting electronic pulses. In the dreamlike and metamorphic title track, subtle oscillations and erratic surges build before settling into a simple layering of acoustic guitars and drums. Elsewhere, other songs utilize 8-bit beats & warped synthesis to create multi-layered rhythmic patterns. Snow Blindness... comes from a basement stacked to the ceiling with broken and discarded devices and poorly wired technology fused with organic instruments, all jury-rigged to somehow work together in sequence – and often acting with no masters.
Fans of VanGaalen may draw immediate parallels between Black Mold and the early electronic groundwork of "J.C.’s Head on the Cross" (Infiniheart, 2005), the enigmatic synthesizer lines of "Red Hot Drops" (Skelliconnection, 2007) or the quasi-literate dance styling of "TMNT Mask" (Soft Airplane, 2008). While many songs embody the spirit of the more accessible pop-based leanings of VanGaalen's solo work, the debut album from Black Mold is the product of an artist bent on creating a personal soundscape.
Sometimes re-working the tradition of modular synthesizer pioneers such as Wendy Carlos, Tomita or Jarre, at other times cutting a swath through contemporary sample-based territory, the album is strewn with musique concrete pastiches, creative use of circuit bending and manipulation, and an intuitive and intelligent understanding of rhythmic minimalism. Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz will be driving late-night parties as well as providing the hung-over soundtrack to the aftermath.
Um ano depois do lançamento do terceiro álbum de Chad VanGaalen, Soft Airplane, em setembro de 2008, o cantautor canadense está oferecendo um EP de b-sides do disco como download digital gratuito para os fãs. Nascidas no mesmo período criativo de Soft Airplane, as músicas do EP mostram o outro lado da magia que aconteceu no porão de Chad.
Chad VanGaalen é um compositor/cantor (songwriter) e multi-instrumentista de Calgary, Alberta, Canadá e sua música transita entre indie rock, folk e electrônica.
Chad VanGaalen’s musical roots date back to the first part of the decade, when he made a living busking on the streets of Calgary. He is also an accomplished animator and illustrator whose music is very much informed by his appreciation of visual arts. He has produced a voluminous wealth of material, by himself, at a rate that might best be described as alarming. And whatever his motivation for doing what he does, or creating what he creates, the result is that it is always both genuine and good.
The proof is in the songs themselves. They have heart. They have pain. They have hope. They have humor. And most importantly, they have fun.
Chad’s first two LPs, Infiniheart (2005) and Skelliconnection (2006), were wildly eclectic and ethereal, texturally imaginative, sometimes ambitious and sometimes restrained. Recorded on a Tascam 4-track and other analog devices, using synthesizers, guitars and a collection of his own handmade instruments, Chad created a unique style of pop songcraft, fundamentally experimental, both delicate and soaring, simple and elaborate.
Chad is more confident now, and unlike his previous albums, the songs on Soft Airplane were written and recorded more or less within the same time period, rather than collected from disparate moments and sessions spanning many, many years. As such, it feels more focused, deliberate, thoughtful and centered, both thematically and musically. It’s the sound of someone taking his time and sharpening his focus while opening his mind. At its core, it’s a pop record, one that feels free.
Songs roam from stripped-down, spirited acoustic ballads (“Willow Tree,” “Rabid Bits of Time”) to driving, more dire rockers (“Bones of Man,” “Molten Light”); spirited ebbs of accordions, xylophones and vocal harmonies (“Cries of the Dead”) to gripping guitar hooks, intricate melodies and lush, soaring choruses (“Inside the Molecules,” “Bare Feet on Wet Griptape”). Elsewhere Chad toys with literate, quasi dance-pop songs, invoking the damaged Casio moments of The Flaming Lips (“Phantom Anthills,” “TMNT Mask”) and sparse, acoustic guitar-driven ballads recalling the swagger of Destroyer’s Dan Bejar.
Recorded primarily on an old tape machine and a JVC ghetto blaster in Chad’s Calgary basement, Soft Airplane retains the handmade charm and singular character of his previous records, while incorporating new layers of sophistication and weight. Recalling Neil Young at his most fragile and plaintive, and Thurston Moore at his most resolved and vital, Chad’s emotive vocals anchor these songs while tackling the pervasive themes of death and dreams with an unexpected air of certainty and hope that is far from ominous—-instead it’s luminous. Through a complex interplay of guitar, drum beats, loops, samples, found sounds, unorthodox percussion, xylophones, distortion, synthesizers, accordions and more, Chad has made an album that sounds bigger than one man.
Organizamos este Sub Pop Compilation: Volume 1, juntando 16 faixas de 16 bandas/artistas com seus recentes lançamentos (6 últimos meses ou um pouco mais), de um dos selos independentes mais importantes do mundo, o Sub Pop. Divirta-se!
* Clique com o botão direido do mouse no link; salvar destino como...; renomei o arquivo; inicie o dowload do MP3. * Right click the link and rename the file to download the MP3.
1. Do Not Fear
1. Do Not Fear
