Category: News

The Tangent announce new album ‘Songs from The Hard Shoulder’, Hear the first single “The Changes”

The Tangent, the progressive/jazz-rock collective led by Andy Tillison, are pleased to announce the release of their 12th studio album ‘Songs From the Hard Shoulder’ on the 10th June 2022. This album sees The Tangent focusing almost entirely on their long format songs or “epics” with only one song being less than 16 minutes long. 

Today, you can check out an edit of the album’s opening track and first single “The Changes (single edit)”:

Andy Tillison comments: 

“The Changes was written in the depths of the first and strictest of the Covid Lockdowns. During this strangest of times there was an emptiness in all of our lives and this song explores my own such feelings in that time. I began to wonder whether the band would ever meet again, and more importantly, how long it would be before I could see my family again.  Some of the song is focused on the minutiae of being on tour with a band… not so much missing the gigs, the stages and the playing, but missing he crazy little things like not being able to find a hotel, being lost and the general camaraderie that is all around when a band is out on the road. It’s important to say that this single edit is just 5 minutes of what is a 17-minute song – and this only gives a hint at what is there in the full version… which includes a standout Luke Machin guitar solo of unbelievable quality which isn’t represented in this at all…”

Tracklisting:

1.     The Changes (17:06)

2.     The GPS Vultures (17:01)

3.     The Lady Tied To The Lamp Post (20:52)

4.     Wasted Soul (4:40)

5.     In The Dead Of Night (Bonus) (16:11)

The album is available now for pre-order as:

https://thetangent.lnk.to/SongsFromTheHardShoulder

With ‘Songs From the Hard Shoulder’, the band (who are celebrating their 20th year in the business) have audibly focused on the compositional structure of this album which in the case of the three long pieces is also highly complex and “thought out” – from a luscious and uplifting song about loneliness in Covid lockdown, to a full on 17-minute long jazz/prog/canterbury fusion instrumental, to a darkly electronic story of a homeless woman with shades of Nine Inch Nails, Po90, Japan and Van Der Graaf lurking within. The album’s final track is the 4 minute bouncy Motown-style track “Wasted Soul”, where the band anticipate a wonderful day in the future when the pandemic is over forever. Early editions and the Vinyl Edition will include the bonus track “In The Dead Of Night” which is of course a cover version of the classic song by UK. The band lineup remains from the previous 2 albums as Andy Tillison (Vocal/Keyboards), Jonas Reingold (Bass), Luke Machin (Guitar/Vocals), Steve Roberts (Drums) and Theo Travis (Sax & Flute).

A new era of EVERGREY: A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament) is dark melodic metal mastery!

Gothenburg’s finest export of darkness, EVERGREY, enters an astonishing new chapter in the band’s history with their thirteenth studio album and Napalm Records debut, A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament), to be released on May 20, 2022. This overwhelming journey through progressive heaviness and searing emotionality is repeatedly accented by sonic melancholy and gripping lyrics – leaving the listener speechless and re-cementing the Swedish five-piece at the top of the scene without a shadow of a doubt!

Celebrating over 25 years of metal mastery, EVERGREY, led by founder, singer and guitarist Tom S. Englund, are known for wandering the realms of progressive and heavy melodic metal and painting sonic renderings with their twelve studio records released as of today. Now, the follow-up to the unit’s highly successful 2021 full-length, Escape of the Phoenix (which landed at numerous chart positions worldwide), reveals a 10 track mélange of which every note, every riff and every word seeps pure poetry – creating a ceaseless intensity that mesmerizes from the very first second. 

A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament) impresses with flawless, meticulous production that deftly depicts both heartfelt honesty and scorching metallic intensity, while its instrumental force of furious, technically driven riffs, skyrocketing solos and dramatic synths merges with the expert, brooding vocal performance of Englund – one of the most distinctive vocalists in metal. He skillfully balances harsh and heavy tones with an inarguably soulful approach, all topped by melancholic, thought-provoking lyricism that digs deeper with every spin, leaving a long-lasting impact. Pounding opener “Save Us” reflects everything the album stands for, as it kicks in immediately with stunning guitar work and unveils a chorus sure to top the annals of EVERGREY history!

To spice things up even more, EVERGREY invited their fans to join them on this special track and recorded hundreds of voices that ended up on the final result. Songs like “Midwinter Calls”, which also contains fan participation with atmospheric audience recordings from the band’s latest tour through Sweden, and “The Great Unwashed” draw the listener in with grooving, glistering instrumentation, flowing between boisterous dynamics and a next level vocal performance, while emotive “Wildfires” turns the volume down as a goosebump-worthy ballad that hurts and heals all at once. “Call Out The Dark” begins atmospherically with accented keys, suddenly evolving into an intense opus of symphonic and power metal attributes in the blink of an eye, whereas the record’s longest track, “The Orphean Testament”, impresses by revealing its heaviest facet. A sensitive introduction lures the listener into “Heartless”, and offers one of the album’s most engaging verses, followed by a hauntingly beautiful chorus and variety in pace to create a magnificent listening experience.

A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament) is a striking testament to the fact that while the Swedish five-piece doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone at this phase, they still impressively showcase that, after over 25 years of existence, their creativity sees no bounds – dropping yet another sensation within their impressive catalog!

Pre-order the album here ahead of a 20th May, 2022 release date:

Evergrey – A Heartless Portrait (The Orphéan Testament) (lnk.to)

James LaBrie announces new album ‘Beautiful Shade of Grey’

Launches first single “Devil In Drag”

James LaBrie, known internationally as the vocalist for progressive metal icons Dream Theater, embarks on uncharted waters with his fourth solo album, titled ‘Beautiful Shade of Grey’, out 20th May 2022. Today sees the launch of the album’s first single and opening track, “Devil In Drag”, and you can watch the Wayne Joyner-produced video here: 

The new endeavor sees him traverse personal maturation, loss, a myriad of complex relationships, and most importantly – LaBrie’s burning passion for music. On paper, the latest studio offering from the Canadian singer first took shape shortly after the global pandemic began to emerge. But in reality, LaBrie formed a bond with his fellow collaborator, bassist Paul Logue (Eden’s Curse), nearly a decade earlier. 

The two first met in 2011, when James would lend his voice to a feature for Logue’s band, UK melodic metal outfit Eden’s Curse, on the song “No Holy Man”. As years went by the two remained in touch, occasionally kicking the tires on the idea of working together on another project. But when Dream Theater performed in Glasgow during the late winter of 2020, LaBrie and Logue would run into each other at the airport – once again asking the question. But this time, armed with the knowledge that a drastic change in the world was all but imminent, LaBrie made the decision to set things in motion.

On the album, Logue plays acoustic rhythm guitar (both six & twelve string) and acoustic bass, while guitarist Marco Sfogli, who’s contributed on all of LaBrie’s solo albums since 2005’s ‘Elements of Persuasion’, handled the leads and solos. Logue recruited Eden’s Curse keyboardist Christian Pulkkinen to lend his playing on the record, while the suggestion to recruit James’s son Chance to play drums would also come from Paul. ‘Beautiful Shade of Grey’, as LaBrie describes it, was a title that only came to him once he identified the record’s two core themes throughout its track list. “A lot of these lyrics are dealing with the beauty of human beings, and a lot are dealing with the grey areas of the in between. You’re not exactly happy, but you’re not exactly sad, either.”

The record starts off (and ends) with the track “Devil In Drag”, which emerges as a wall of synthesizers and acoustic strumming before exploding into a full-blown ensemble. LaBrie expresses that the song was written about “someone who started out as a decent human being, but along the way lost touch with their roots – overtime becoming self-serving, narcissistic and devoid of principles or values.” Going on to say, “’Devil In Drag’ is written from the perspective of someone who’s known them all their life and, seeing them now, asking ‘what happened?’”

‘Beautiful Shade of Grey’ will be released as a Limited CD Digipak, 180g LP + CD & as Digital Album, with artwork by Thomas Ewerhard. Pre-order now here: https://jameslabrie.lnk.to/BeautifulShadeOfGrey

The full track-listing is as follows:

1.     Devil In Drag

2.    SuperNova Girl

3.     Give And Take

4.     Sunset Ruin

5.     Hit Me Like A Brick

6.     Wildflower

7.     Conscience Calling

8.     What I Missed

9.    Am I Right

10.  Ramble On

11.  Devil In Drag (Electric Version)

Look out for more information in the coming months!

The Flower Kings launch new single “Revolution” 

Third track from upcoming album ‘By Royal Decree’

Prog icons The Flower Kings are set to release their 15th studio album ‘By Royal Decree’ on the 4th March 2022.  Now, the band are pleased to share the third single from the album, “Revolution”. Watch the video here:

Roine comments:

“The songs on the new double album come from a whole lot of different places in time and space, often a combination of themes gathered from older ideas born before The Flower Kings emerged in 1994, mixed with brand new ideas. 

’Revolution’ is that kind of a song; a mini epic that is reflecting a number of themes spanning this album, cinematic and sometimes bombastic. A celebration of creation and the evolution, making the world what it is, through the million years of  fire, brimstone, ice ages, floods, devastation, pain and finally….. beauty, colors, flowers, the vast oceans of life and new life out of the darkness & raging volcanos. The miracle!

The song is yet another piece of the larger scale composition that is ‘By Royal Decree’ – a sort of modern 2022 Rock Opera if you will. A landmark album from this band that we’re all incredibly proud of!”

‘Revolution’ also features a guest appearance from Jonas Lindberg, who plays bass on this track.

Listen to the album’s first single “The Great Pretender” here: https://youtu.be/03NFABil4yo

Watch the video for the second single “A Million Stars” here: https://youtu.be/k0RiSF1Lwac

‘By Royal Decree’ Tracklisting

1.The Great Pretender (6:55) 

2.World Gone Crazy (5:04) 

3.Blinded (7:45) 

4.A Million Stars (7:11) 

5.The Soldier (5:23) 

6.The Darkness In You (5:13) 

7.We Can Make It Work (2:48) 

8.Peacock On Parade (5:15) 

9.Revolution (5:59) 

10.Time The Great Healer (6:12) 

11.Letter (2:25) 

12.Evolution (4:47) 

13.Silent Ways (5:01) 

14.Moth (4:31) 

15.The Big Funk (4:39) 

16.Open Your Heart (5:17) 

17.Shrine (1:08) 

18.Funeral Pyres (7:14) 

‘By Royal Decree’ will be available as Ltd. 2CD Digipak, 

as Ltd. 180g 3LP+2CD Box Set as well as Digital Album. 

You can pre-order the album now here:

https://theflowerkings.lnk.to/ByRoyalDecree

The band are back at their most creative, flowery and playful – mirroring the 70’s melting pot of folk, symphonic, electronic, jazz, blues, funk & prog. On the new album they have looked for more organic and vintage sounds, still centered around the foundation of drums, bass, guitars and the iconic Hammond, grand piano, mellotron & Moog synthesizers.

The album also sees the return of founding member Michael Stolt, who takes up bass guitar and vocals, alongside the line-up of Mirko DeMaio on drums, Zach Kamins on keyboards, Hasse Fröberg on vocal & guitar and Roine Stolt on vocal & guitars and Jonas Reingold on bass. The band convened in the middle of 2021 at Fenix Studios in Sweden to record through the fully analogue Rupert Neve mixing desk. The album also features beautiful cover art, once again created by Denver-based artist Kevin Sloan.

This year’s tour will also see the band revisiting their early years, performing tracks from ‘Retropolis’, ‘Stardust We Are’, ‘Flower Power’, ‘Space Revolver’ and ‘Back In The World Of Adventures’. This will coincide with the release of newly remastered editions of The Flower Kings albums on CD & Vinyl later in 2022. The first confirmed live dates are as follows: 

30th March 2022 – Katalin, Uppsala, Sweden

31st March 2022 – Musikens Hus, Gothenburg, Sweden

1st April 2022 – Södra Teatern, Stockholm, Sweden

1-7th May 2022 – Cruise To The Edge, USA

11th May 2022  – Imperial Bell, Quebec City, Canada

12th May 2022  – Club Soda, Montreal, Canada

14th July 2022  – Rootsfestival, Notodden, Norway

4th Sept 2022  –  HRH Festival , UK

Lobate Scarp To Release Second Full Length Album – ‘You Have It All’

Progressive-rock band Lobate Scarp will release their second full-length studio album You Have It All on April 1. It serves as an expansion to their 2019 EP Spirals and Portals. Progressive rock fans will appreciate the 17-minute finale “Flowing Through The Change” and the 14 1/2-minute title track featuring guest vocalists Jon Davison and Billy Sherwood from Yes. Modern prog fans will also enjoy guest appearances from Ryo Okumoto (Spock’s Beard) and Jimmy Keegan (Spock’s Beard, Pattern-Seeking Animals). Also drumming on both epic tracks is Eric Moore (Suicidal Tendencies, Infectious Grooves).

Rich Mouser, whose mixing repertoire includes Spock’s Beard, Transatlantic, Neal Morse, has once again mixed the album, and has played even a bigger role as co-producer and additional musician on several tracks. Steven Leavitt, producer of Lobate Scarp’s debut album Time and Space, has also returned to co-produce and engineer. The album will be available in a high-res digital format as well as a limited edition glossy CD-booklet including 16-pages of lyrics, art, and liner notes. This is the third Lobate release with a front cover created by David A. Hardy, infamous space artist. The album is currently available to pre-order at Indiegogo / gotprog.com.

Lobate Scarp is a progressive opera-rock band based in Los Angeles. Their influences range from classic prog-rock of the 70’s such as Genesis and Yes, to 80’s pop such as Duran Duran and Tears for Fears, as well as strong ties to musical theater. Their debut Time and Space has had positive reviews published in numerous music publications and websites such as Prog Archives, Empire Music, and Yes Music Podcast. Online blog, Progarchy called Time and Space “one of the top 13 albums of 2013”. The band is scheduled to perform at this year’s RoSFest, one of America’s premiere progressive rock festival which will take place in Sarasota, Florida.

Geoff Proudley To Release New Album About Katherine of Aragon

March/April 2022 sees the release of ‘K of A’ by Geoff Proudley. A musical portrait of the life of Katharine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s Spanish Queen. K of A is an instrumental album, drawing on orchestral, classical, filmic and rock elements to paint some of the key moments and emotions in Katharine’s life.

As Geoff describes ‘It’s been a three-year labour of love. Starting with an original mysterious Spanish theme that came to me when I was reading about Katharine, I gradually started to write more, fleshing out episodes and moments of her life. I suppose it was a bit like writing for plays and getting inside the characters, what she was feeling and then painting musical pictures of events in her life’. It’s something I find I can do. It usually comes through in what I write, through my subconscious. For this album I think I wrote about 70% of the themes and main frameworks of the pieces in one weekend of piano improvisation. Again, thinking about the events in her life and capturing everything I played into Logic. Then going back and listening to what I had. I often write that way and I find it really productive.’

Geoff plans to release the album on CD at the end of March/early April with a 60 page booklet in a nice presentation package. 

It will be available through his website: geoffproudley.co.uk and digital streaming platforms later on.

Why the Tudors and why Katharine?

“Well, I know they’ve been done to death (literally!). But it’s still fascinating five hundred years later. I mean you couldn’t write it could you? It’s easy to be appalled by the brutality of people and their thinking. But these people thought completely differently to us. Everyone was intensely religious. Kings and Queens had real power and the survival of their dynasties was a matter of life and death lest they be usurped by someone with an equally tenuous claim to the throne!

But I know what you might be thinking. Didn’t Rick Wakeman do Henry’s six wives back in the seventies? Well yes, but that was an album about all his wives. A whistle-stop tour of the matrimonial set. This is purely about Katharine and follows her life from leaving Spain as a teenager to marry Prince Arthur, through her subsequent widowhood and betrothal to Prince Henry. Then her coronation when Henry ascended to the throne and life as queen consort and then queen regent (when Henry was at war with France). It moves on through her fall from grace, her cruel banishment and divorce after failing to provide a male heir, the split with the Catholic church of Rome and her eventual death while under effective house arrest in 1536. It’s been a really interesting project. I learned a lot about her. I empathised with her plight too having been through a divorce myself. That might sound pretentious, but those sorts of emotions resonate through history. They are as real today as five centuries ago”.

Track listing:

Envy Of None Guitar Giveaway!

Envy Of None, in partnership with Epiphone & Gibson Guitars, are giving away an Alex Lifeson Axcess Standard Signature Les Paul guitar to one lucky fan.

Envy Of None, the new band and debut self-titled album from Alex Lifeson (Rush), Andy Curran (Coney Hatch), Alfio Annibalini and singer Maiah Wynne due for release on Kscope on 8th April

PRE-ORDER HERE (https://eon.lnk.to/EnvyOfNone)

Fans will be able to enter the guitar giveaway via a QR code, printed on a ticket inside one of the CDs in the Deluxe Edition of the debut album.

Created through extensive work with Alex Lifeson and Gibson™, Epiphone’s Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess Standard similarly redefines the boundaries of the classic Les Paul™ in an accessible package. This guitar carries all of the traditional tones that have made the Les Paul legendary, along with unprecedented levels of sonic and performance versatility.

The Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess Standard carries powerful Epiphone Ceramic Pro neck and ProBucker 3 bridge pickups with coil-splitting options via their push-pull volume controls and a Graph Tech Ghost Floyd Rose system that not only provides the world’s most efficient vibrato but is also loaded with Ghost piezo bridge saddles. Access traditional magnetic humbucker tones, mix it up with coil-split options, tap the Ghost’s realistic acoustic tones, or blend acoustic and magnetic voices — the sky’s the limit from this sonic chameleon, whose sound-shifting depths are virtually limitless. You can route it all through a traditional mono jack or use two cables for individual magnetic and piezo outputs. All this and the Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess Standard still presents that timeless Les Paul look that has remained a classic for more than 60 years. An EpiLite™ case is also included.

For full specifications, visit  https://www.epiphone.com/en-US/Guitar/EPI7IG849/Alex-Lifeson-Les-Paul-Axcess-Standard/Viceroy-Brown/

Retailing at $899, this is a unique opportunity to win a high spec, unique instrument, developed by Alex Lifeson himself. The giveaway is open to a worldwide audience, and no purchase is necessary outside Great Britain.

For full terms & conditions, head to kscopemusic.com/eongiveawayterms 

Envy Of None’s self-titled album is due for release on April 8 via Kscope.

The album will be released on the following formats and is available to PRE-ORDER HERE (https://eon.lnk.to/EnvyOfNone)

Ltd Edition deluxe version – presented in a gatefold sleeve with a blue coloured vinyl LP, 2 CDs including a 5 track bonus disc, 28 page Booklet with exclusive content (plus QR Code Golden Ticket for giveaway entry)

CD – includes a 16 page poster booklet

LP – on black vinyl / baby blue coloured vinyl (North America exclusive) / white coloured vinyl

Digital

Envy Of None are:

Alf Annibalini – Guitar, Keyboards, Programming

Andy Curran – Bass Guitar, Synthesized Bass, Programming, Guitar, Background Vocals, Stylophone

Alex Lifeson- Guitar, Mandola, Banjo, Programming

Maiah Wynne – Lead Vocals, Background Vocals, Keyboards

Playgrounded release new single ‘The Swan’, new album ‘The Death of Death’ released 18th March (Pelagic Records)

Having played with big neo-prog acts like Riverside, Playgrounded are no strangers to outer limits of the contemporary merging of rock and electronica. Their upcoming album “The death of Death”, released on 18th March, features compositions based from dynamic sound design structures by main composer Orestis. New single “The Swan” sees these glitchy synth textures seep through the negative space between languid guitar riffs and chugging bass grooves. The band comment,

“We share with you The Swan, the track that we have chosen as the opening of The death of Death. The lyrics set the premise for the rest of the album: desperate or fascinating, one’s relation to the world that surrounds us is grounded to the very matter of which we are made.”

Listen to “The Swan” now:

Greece has spawned countless instances of criminally underrated music acts in diverse genres ranging from black metal to electronic to avant garde pop music, and the sophomore album of modern progressive metal act Playgrounded titled ‘The death of Death’ is yet another striking example.

“Where did this come from?” you will find yourself wondering, while absorbing the stunning intensity and musical prowess on display. From the perfection of the production and the inherent innovation in defining heaviness by means of not only downtuned guitars, but also elements of electronica are the pillars of an intriguingly idiosyncratic, incredibly mature sound.

Hailing from Greece, but spending most of their time in the Netherlands, the musical pedigree of the members of Playgrounded is quite unprecedented in the metal/rock underground. Main composer and producer Orestis Zafeirou is a graduate from the Institute of Sonology of the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, a department focused on electronic music education and production research. Additionally, he works in a synth factory. Vocalist and co-producer Stavros Markonis graduated from the Amsterdam conservatoire and is an award-winning composer for film and TV. Bass player Odysseas Zafeiriou and guitar player Michael Kotsirakis both work as computer engineers, while drummer Giorgos Pouliasis is a graduate from the Rotterdam Conservatoire, as well as a drum teacher and a popular session musician in Greece as well as in the Netherlands.

Starting out in 2007, Playgrounded have been together for over 15 years, playing both national and international tours, while also opening for bands like Riverside and even Nine Inch Nails in Amsterdam. Their first EP Athens (2012, Casket Music) portrays an already mature band playing modern prog rock influenced by Tool and Deftones. Their debut full-length In Time With Gravity (2017) shows the band in full flux, experimenting with extended compositions as well as influences from influential contemporary electronic music acts like Modeselektor and Moderat.

Playgrounded’s sophomore album lives up to the aspiration of its lofty album title. The death of Death is music that results from mastery rather than lacklustre exploration and experimentation. The album was recorded at MD Recording Studios by Nikos Michalodimitrakis, long collaborator of Stavros in film productions. Mixing was handled by C.A.Cederberg (Leprous, Shining, and more) in Kristiansand, NO, while the album was mastered by George Tanderø (Madrugada, Satyricon, Jaga Jazzist, and more) in Oslo, NO.

Demonstrating a profound understanding of the glitches they produce, Playgrounded evoke a sense of the uncanny closely related to the cut-up movie fragments of sound artists like the German Orson Hentschel. 

“We start with dynamic sound design structures, most of the times initiated by Orestis,” explains guitarist Michael Kotsirakis. “We then work in pairs expanding the musical space and creating variations and flourishes. Sometimes the lyrics and vocals will dictate a change in quality, other times it’s one of the instruments. After many ideas are on the table Stavros and Orestis sit together and propose a song structure. After this loop has been repeated over and over we have a very good idea of all the parts. That’s when we hit the rehearsal space and refine the details.”

The result is a collection of songs that reveal Playgrounded as composers in the act of decomposition. The memorable guitar riffs and vocal melodies serve as gateways to a deeper layer of glitchy synth textures and liquid drumming, until the perspective of radical decomposition consumes one whole. 

“The shortest sound units become extended themes,” explains main composer Orestis Zafeirou. “Steady rhythmical blocks interact with unstable ones. Noise becomes tone and melody. Sonic grains gather to form masses, masses dissolve into a single entity. With every repetition, comes change.”

On The death of Death, Playgrounded analyse and take apart their surroundings, reducing reality to its smallest components, subsequently converting them into sound to create a new platform – a representation of reality from which they build their artistic vision. In essence The death of Death is dialectical, a study of unity in opposition. A disclosure of contradictory aspects of reality, an expression of their mutual relationship. From these contradictions the band manages to construct a brooding world of dark magnificence. The death of Death has the appeal of a film score that slowly starts to haunt you as the movie progresses. The more you listen to it, the more its sublime beauty becomes apparent.

Pre-order the album now –  https://listen.pelagic-records.com/playgrounded

FFO Karnivool, Katatonia, Nine Inch Nails, Deftones, Moderat, The Ocean, Vola, Leprous, Skyharbor,

LINEUP 
Odysseas Zafeiriou – Bass Michael Kotsirakis – Guitars Stavros Markonis – Vocals Orestis Zafeiriou – Synths / Sampling Giorgos Pouliasis – Drums

InsideOutMusic announce signing of Russian progressive rockers VELCROCRANES

InsideOutMusic are pleased to announce the signing of Russian progressive rock newcomers Velcrocranes. The band’s debut album ‘What If I Die’ will be released on the 29th April 2022 via their new label home. Watch a teaser here:

Started out as a small jazz ensemble created originally for practice, it wasn’t until they discovered the music of Porcupine Tree and the malleable world of progressive rock that their true sound came into focus. This new, expansive direction was the future of Velcrocranes. 

In 2017, the band would begin playing live shows for fans in their local music scene, which, at that time, still largely consisted of covers – mixed in with new material that the group was diligently working on. In 2018, the band release d their debut EP, ‘Afterlife’, which featured the songs “Hold Your Breath” & “Afterlife”. The tracks would bring the stirring and ethereal vocals of Efim Kolitinov into the forefront, as well as the harmonious guitar leads of Liza Kotova, who serves as a primary songwriter for the group, and the intricate arrangements from Alexander Papsuev.  

On their debut full-length, ‘What If I Die’, Velcrocranes remain true to the foundation that they’ve carefully laid in recent years – while showing little restraint for reaching into the bag of tricks to delight their listeners. Speaking about the creative drive behind the themes explored on the LP, the band says, “We imagine the main idea of the album as changing as the listener goes along. Our goal was to draw a parallel to the way your understanding of life’s meaning, your values and choices, and your perception of death change during your lifetime.” The debut album also features keyboard contributions throughout from Adam Holzman (Miles Davis & Steven Wilson): “We’d been trying a lot of different options until at some point we got desperate enough to take a chance and write to Adam … which was totally worth it because he just hit the spot! He managed to keep our original ideas, embellish them and beautifully highlight the genre features.” 

The artwork for the band’s forthcoming debut was created by Carl Glover of Aleph Studio, known for his work with Steven Wilson, Frost*, Marillion & more. The band comment: “The idea behind the cover artwork is as simple as it is effective. It seems to emphasize the focus on the intellectual and metaphorical vs concrete and corporeal – this, together with the minimalistic color scheme, blends in just perfectly and echoes the music.”

‘What If I Die’ will be released as Limited CD (with bonus track), Vinyl LP + CD & as Digital Album. Pre-orders will begin on the 25th February.

Velcrocranes are:

Efim Kolitinov – vocals

Liza Kotova – guitars, backing vocals 

Alexander Papsuev – guitars, keyboards 

Nikita Sarukhanov – drums, percussion

Bogdan Defo – bass

Jo Beth Young to Release First Single ‘BRIGID’ on February 4th 2022, From Upcoming Album ‘Broken Spells’

Ethereal, Indie-folk musician Jo Beth Young (fka Talitha Rise) announces the release of Electro-Folk single BRIGID, the first song from her new album Broken Spells’ The track is a distinctive departure from her previous work, infusing a more upbeat, electronic landscape bringing home to  February, inspired by the Celtic Goddess BRIGID.  

A taster of what changes and atmospheres may be to come in her first album under her own name, to be released later in 2022.

Jo Beth Says:  

“I wrote and created Brigid very late at night on IMBOLC eve itself last year (St. Brigid’s festival on February 1st). I had been working on the new album for some months and hit a real wall in inspiration, especially production wise. For some reason that night, and maybe it was because of it being Imbolc itself, I felt a new energy and started experimenting with loops and beats, something I’d never attempted before. Content wise, It’s as close to a love song as I might ever write and is about finally breaking through and getting out of dark time or rut or finally uniting or reuniting with someone or something that you feel deeply connected to on soul level. Imbolc is when Persephone is said to come out of the underworld and bring spring to the earth each year. Part of Brigid’s folklore is that she will knock on the door three times that night and if you let her in you let healing and the spring into your life also. It felt very apt and after all of us have been through such a strange time on the planet, it felt like an omen of hope and that there really may be something to look forward to!“

The track features Devon based Cellist Ben Roberts (Abrasive Trees, Evi Vine), beat maker and producer Matt Blackie, and her co-collaborater John Reed from the NIGHTSONG project on lap steel. All the parts were recorded at a distance between the UK and the cottage Jo was living in at the time in the West of Ireland.  

Her new album BROKEN SPELLS will be out later this year, the release date of which is not yet confirmed, but there is much more to come from the album yet!  
DIGITAL DELUXE RELEASE 

The single will be available on all major streaming platforms but will also include a  Deluxe release on her music glue website as a Digital Deluxe version on MP3 and WAV format. 

Jo Beth’s new album Broken Spells will be the first official release under her own name and not under her previous stage names of Talitha Rise and RISE . It features members of her touring band ‘The Abandoned Orchestra’ as well as long term collaborator Peter Yates (Fields Of The Nephillim). Recorded and Produced between England, Ireland and Spain, the album is a thematic exploration of ‘spells’ breaking from both the personal and collective point of view. She has been working on the record since she finished touring her last album STRANGERS in 2019. Interestingly, and perhaps spookily, during recent times, and after having named the new album, Jo Beth found out she was the descendant of Isobell Young  –  a Scottish woman who was accused, persecuted and executed for witch craft in the 1600’s. With the upcoming pardon of Scottish witches on the horizon, Jo Beth has recently been interviewed by publications such as The Sunday Times and Daily Mail on the subject and her feelings on creativity, healing and the end of persecution for women in particular.  

Tracks from the new album will appear on upcoming film The Clear which is currently being produced in the UK.