HIGH PLACES (Thill Jockey / Upset the Rhythm)

HIGH PLACES are Mary Pearson and Rob Barber, two Brooklyn dwellers who create a unique and joyous union of world beat, dance music and underground pop. All about exultation, positivity and light-headed charm, High Places sound like the dreamy and sincere vocalisations of K Records groups plunged into the tropical electronics of the fertile US underground. Swirling twitchy psychedelic beat patterns into inventive and verdant exotica, High Places do not sound like your usual New York band, but scratch the surface and their heavy syncopation and free-wheeling approach to melody sounds like a city alive in daydream. Building otherworldly polyrhythmic miniatures from small drums, bells and shakers that are all clouded in blankets of echo and reverb. Their most thunderous heart-thumping impulses are juxtaposed with a spacious (almost peaceful) atmosphere, like a joyous and uplifting Tim Hecker. Having recently toured the world with Deerhunter, High Places are quickly preparing the world for the follow up to their 2008 critically mass acclaimed debut 'High Places', don't miss this final opportunity to catch High Places in such an intimate and involving space.

www.myspace.com/hellohighplaces

HIND EAR

Hypnotic HEALTH-esq space jams from Hind Ear (formally Revenge of Shinobi)

www.myspace.com/hindear

COCOROSIE

CocoRosie were formed in Paris in 2003 by half-Cherokee sisters Sierra Casady and Bianca Casady. Sierra, the older of the two, was born in Iowa, and Bianca was born in Hawaii. Their mother nicknamed them Rosie and Coco respectively, from which their musical act takes its name.

In 2003, Bianca was growing restless and decided it was time for a change. She left her apartment in Brooklyn to travel the world and, unexpectedly, showed up at Sierra's apartment in Paris. Over the course of the next two months, the women spent nearly every waking hour in Sierra's bathroom, chosen as the most acoustic and isolated room in the apartment. Soon, they had completed both an unreleased hip-hop recording called Word to the Crow and their debut album La Maison de Mon Rêve.

Originally, La Maison de Mon Rêve was only intended to be distributed among a close circle of friends. However, by 2004 the album was released on independent label Touch and Go Records, who had obtained a copy and had pursued CocoRosie. Since the creation of their first album, the Casady sisters have been virtually inseparable.

CocoRosie released their second album, Noah's Ark, in 2005. The album includes collaborations with Antony Hegarty from Antony and the Johnsons, Devendra Banhart and French rapper Spleen. Its cover, a drawing by Bianca of three unicorns having sex while one of them vomits, was selected by the Guardian and Pitchfork Media as one of the worst album covers of all time.

The sisters' third studio album, The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn, was produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson, Björk's longtime collaborator, and released in 2007.

Sierra, who studied operatic vocal techniques at the Conservatoire de Paris, does the lead vocals and plays guitar, harp and flute. Bianca is a percussionist and beatboxes. The pair also use objects such as toys to construct their unique sound.

www.myspace.com/cocorosie

LANGHORNE SLIM (Kemado Records)

Born Sean Scolnick, LANGHORNE SLIM is a crucial American alt-folk-punk underground phenomenon. Having risen to prominence in 2005 with his incredible album 'When the Sun's Gone Down' on the infamous Narnack label and numerous international tours with the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Langhorne Slim now performs as a four piece band alongside Jeff Ratner on up-right bass, Malachi DeLorenzo on drums and David Moore on keyboard and banjo. Making a rare stop in the UK and his first show in Brighton for many, many years, you really don't want to miss this one!

www.myspace.com/langhorneslim

THE BUNDLES (K Records)

In February 2001 New York performer/comic book artist Jeffrey Lewis was living in Austin, Texas for a few months and then-Moldy Peach Kimya Dawson came to visit him. During that visitation week they made up five songs with Jeffrey on guitar and Kimya on keyboards. In 2002, when Kimya had launched her solo career and was touring Germany along with the Jeffrey Lewis Band, those same five songs expanded into full band songs with the addition of Jeffrey's brother/bandmate Jack Lewis on bass and Anders Griffen (known for his work with jazz great Frank Lowe and Regina Spektor) on drums. One night while playing in a cold, clammy basement venue, all bundled up in sweaters, hats and scarves, the nascent band became known as The Bundles; Jack and Anders soon got in on the writing of some new songs too. Years passed, during which Jeffrey and Jack released five acclaimed records on Rough Trade, Anders drummed and toured with the likes of Dufus, John Ludington, and Diane Cluck, and Kimya stormed the world, touring constantly with 6 solo albums, and recently celebrating the Grammy-winning Juno movie soundtrack.

Despite the heavy creative schedules of all involved, The Bundles continued to be resurrected in unlikely times and places wherever in the world the members happened to cross paths. Eventually in February 2009 the four congregated to make some full-band Bundles recordings at the Dub Narcotic Studios in Olympia, Washington. With troubadour Karl Blau, originally only signed on as session engineer, they recorded some of the pre-existing songs, along with some new ones that all five starting writing together on the spot. On the last night of recording a couple dozen members of the Olympia Free Choir joined them in the studio as well. So on one hand, their debut album The Bundles [KLP214] took just a few days to write and record, on the other hand it took eight years! Will we hear from them again before 2018?

www.myspace.com/kimyadawson

www.myspace.com/jefflewisband

www.thejeffreylewissite.com

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM (Southern Lord)

Arguably the most defining modern ambient black metal outfit on the planet, Wolves in the Throne Room emerged from the rain-soaked Cascadian underground with a singular musical alchemy just five years ago. The band's first two critically acclaimed studio albums, Diadem of Twelve Stars and Two Hunters, in tandem with their incendiary live performances, quickly and unquestionably established the band as the prominent rising force in the extreme music world.

Their new meditation, cryptically titled Black Cascade was released via Southern Lord in 2009. With this record Wolves in the Throne Room wholly transcend the limitations of the black metal label to be reborn as an entity entirely unto themselves. The energy conjured by the music is a distinctive manifestation of a personal vision that is not beholden to the rules of any genre.

Black Cascade is characterized by a heavy and powerful analog sound and a deft touch with songwriting and arrangement. The crumbling roar of decidedly old-school tube amps unite with layers of mossy analog synthesizer and cataclysmic percussion. Blazing and crystalline Metal riffs slowly collapse and shift into ritualistic dirges that invoke endless rain falling upon the ancient cedars of the pacific North West. It is as if the instruments are controlled by shadowy and elemental forces of nature rather than three forest-dwellers from Olympia,WA…

www.myspace.com/wolvesinthethroneroom

ALEXANDER TUCKER (ATP Recordings)

Signed to the ATP label, Alexander Tucker's darkly atmospheric music is a unique meshing of compositional song structures, old-fashioned fingerpicked acoustic folk, drones, stacked-up vocals and improvisations using cello, mandolin, acoustic guitar, and a bank of pedals.

www.myspace.com/alexanderdtucker

JOHANN JOHANNSSON

Jóhann Jóhannsson´s stately, slow-building and hauntingly melodic music, which frequently combines electronics with classical orchestrations, has been quietly bewitching listeners since he released his first genre defining solo record Englabörn in 2002 on the well respected British label Touch. Jóhann's second album, Virthulegu Forsetar (2004), for brass ensemble, drones and percussion. Both releases met substantial critical acclaim, whilst his third album and his first for 4AD, IBM 1401 - A User's Manual (2006), was his most ambitiously orchestrated composition to date involving a 60 piece string orchestra and incorporating electronics and original reel-to-reel recordings of music made on a 1960´s IBM 1401 mainframe computer. Jóhann's most recent album, Fordlandia, was released in November 2008 and it combines a darkly romantic minimalism and baroque counterpoint with Krautrock, post-rock, glitch electronics and melodies inspired! by North European folk music.

www.myspace.com/johannjohannsson

www.johannjohannsson.com

Jóhann Jóhannsson: Piano, organ, electronics
Matthías Hemstock: Percussion, electronics
Ivo Stankov: Violin
James Underwood: Violin
Emma Owens: Viola
Charlotte Rook: Cello

GREG HAINES

Greg Haines is an English musician and composer currently living in Berlin, who specialises inexploring the middle-ground between the academic world of contemporary classical music and the freedom found in the desire to manipulate and experiment with sound itself. Shortly after, Haines discovered the work of Arvo Pärt, and in it found his biggest inspiration to date. Pärt's intricate use of both space and density informed Greg's first solo release, 'Slumber Tides', released on the Norwegian Miasmah label in 2006. The album was critically acclaimed worldwide, leading one writer to state: "This is music to fall into and let it embrace your heart and soul. Be warmed and sadden by its slow unfolding beauty and grace. Clearly one of the most luxurious and emotional rich debut albums you're likely to come across this year, or any other year for that matter." (Musique Machine).

www.myspace.com/greghainesmusic

www.greghaines.co.uk

WOLF EYES (Sub Pop)

"An ungodly noise hybrid which sucks fragments of US hardcore, Industrial, free jazz, avant garde electronics and Death Metal into a sonic vortex. Cloaked in cartoonish horrorcore imagery, their music's obvious delight in its own intensity is as infectious as it is puerile". - The Wire

Having released well over 100 recordings since their formation in 1996, including two critically acclaimed albums for Sub Pop, Wolf Eyes are the world's most sought-after noise-experimentalists. Here in the UK to play JUST TWO LIVE SHOWS!

www.myspace.com/therealwolfeyes

www.wolfeyes.net