PLAYLOUDER PRESENTS: PRE // VILE IMBECILES // DDD // CHANNELS 3x4Digital Singles | 07 September 2006

After the riotous success of the last PlayLouder show whence Circulus and Voxtrot rocked our basement, we’re back at the Old Blue Last for a show that, we can guarantee, will be Very Loud Indeed.

Indeed we shall try and trouble the venue’s new floor with the quartet of Beezlebubbian bands we’ve got playing for us on Wednesday, September 20th, 2006. They are (a drum roll from the bowels of Valhalla, if you please, maestro):

PRE: Best described, as we did a few months back, as “bass buggeration”, Pre are probably one of the finest and most evil live bands you’re likely to catch in the UK at the moment. With Akiki (also of Comanechi) screaming over the terrifying twin bass/guitars/drums assault of the Pre chaps.

VILE IMBECILES: Former Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and Neils Children men Andy Huxley and James Hair apparently left their respective bands because they wanted to do something more sonically challenging. Well, you don’t get much more challenging than this, a terrifying brew of self-styled ‘death jazz’, where time signatures and melody are considered trivial matters, and thundering evil reigns.

ddd: With his second single ‘Knives’ out via the excellent White Heat label in October, deviantly handsome Anglosolo artist ddd smacks together chunky 303 rhythms and demonic guitar crunches into some-time love songs as that are indecently catchy as they are complex.

CHANNELS 3×4: And for you, this one time only, we defy space for gear and time by having an extra band. Hooray! Yup, Canada’s Channels 3×4 are stepping in for the hell of it and blasting off proceedings with their excitable, menacing synth racket, that sounds like a mucked -up Numbers from an abacus owned by Gallileo’s insane drunk brother.

So we hope to see plenty of you there, The Old Blue Last, Wednesday, September 20th, 2006, 8pm, four pounds and fifty pence on the door, and we’ll do a cheap thing for PlayLouder members.

PlayLouder Presents - Nights of Musical Jamborism Ahoy!Digital Singles | 29 June 2006

Those of you with fine Omega 3-assisted Jeevesque memories will recall that a couple of years back PlayLouder set the rooms of the Camden Barfly and Water Rats Theatre a-shaking with our series of PlayLouder Singles Club gigs. These featured early performances from the likes of Franz Ferdinand, The Darkness, British Sea Power, Editors, Futureheads, The Go! Team, The Pipettes, Art Brut, The Rakes, Kaito, Patrick Wolf, Raveonettes and Keane, and we could go on… but we won’t, because we want to tell you about ace new things.

For PlayLouder.com is teaming up with Playlouderecordings with a brand new musical venture at the Old Blue Last in Shoreditch because a) it’s nearer PlayLouder Towers and, more importantly, b) it’s such an intimate venue that we couldn’t resist the chance to put on big bands in a way that’ll get the floor creaking, as well as new acts who we’re either writing about on PlayLouder, releasing on Playlouderecordings – or, most likely, both.

Our first gig is on Tuesday, July 25th with Pink Grease headlining, and support being finalised as we type. Thereafter we’re lining up a rather droolsomely masive act for August 2nd, and have a band doing a special warm up set for the Green Man Festival on August 16th. We can’t tell you who they are yet, but can promise a rather timeless evening of mystical musics. Thereafter we’ll be hosting shows at the Old Blue Last on the first and third Wednesday of every month. See you there, dears?

As ever, we’ll be running preview interviews and news stories and contests &c &c, so keep your eyes to this very site, and to PlayLouder.com for all the latest updates and details of tickets n’that. Or use the link below to sign up to the Playlouderecordings mailing list to be kept up to date with all our ongoing goings-on.

We Are Wolves 'L.L. Romeo'Digital Singles | 15 June 2006

We Are Wolves’ abrasive deviance has its roots in the band’s formation back in Montreal, year 2000 as an art project collaboration between the trio of Alexander Ortiz, Vincent Levesque, and Anton Marquis. And while so many of the excellent bands currently coming out of their homeland seem to have been raised on a rather wholesome diet of beards and folkish exuberance, Montreal trio We Are Wolves follow are more outré, neon-lit and deviant path.

This is none-more evident than on ‘L.L. Romeo’, the latest digital single from Playlouderecordings. Taken from We Are Wolves’ amazing debut album ‘Non Stop Je Te Plie En Deux’, ‘L.L. Romeo’ is a grinding and seductive blend of snorting synthesisers, flustered guitar and little-death vocals that call from the seedy shadows of a balcony in decidedly the wrong part of town.

With a drummer who has no choice but to stand up when he hammers out the pulsing and frenzied beats in contest with a drum machine that has a mucky mind of its own, We Are Wolves’ live outings (they’ve toured with the US anyone from The Gossip to And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead to Voxtrot) are the talk of legend, a pulsating mass of eccentricity and twisted energy. Be sure to catch them on their first UK live excursion at one of the dates below:

Dead Disco - 'City Place'Digital Singles | 01 June 2006

Catch new Yorkshire band Dead Disco live, and the first thing you’ll notice after the dare-devil precocity and vocalist Victoria Hesketh’s rich vocal arpeggios, is their shoes. For these are three glamorous ladies (and one noble and sturdy boy drummer) who escape the drudgery of the small town, by dressing up and singing out through a darkly made-up eye focussed on decidedly pop horizons. And all this from a band who have been together for less than 6 months, but saw their fizzing debut single ‘The Treatment’ roundly praised by iD magazine, Xfm, PlayLouder, Drowned In Sound and beyond.

So Playlouderecordings are pleased to announce that Dead Disco’s second release ‘City Place’ will be the next in our series of digital singles. Opening with a strident drum pattern and popping synths that capture the dark glamour of neon lights and seedy bars, Hesketh’s vocals take Debbie Harry for a joyride through threatening streets. Like an ‘I Predict A Riot’ for sophisticates, Hesketh sings of nocturnal danger – “Yes I know the city’s not too safe” – as Dead Disco provide solace in ‘City Place’s dark glamour, a cutting glance, and a passionate embrace.

The KBC - 'Sherlock Groove Holmes'Digital Singles | 29 May 2006

On May 28th 2006 PlayLouder Recordings continues its series of regular digital releases with ‘Sherlock Groove Holmes, the third single from Preston trio The KBC. On the cusp of their twenties, The KBC have already had enthusiastic radio support from Messrs. Lamacq, Lowe and Lard for their two singles to date, which set forth their self-imposed mission of sculpting “super-charged indie” through a shared passion for soul.

In 2005, just months after the release of their debut single ‘Trippin’ / ‘Day of Disillusion’ (described by Drowned In Sound as “all spiraling riffage and pulsating beats”), The KBC supported The Strokes across the UK as well as playing the unsigned stage at Glastonbury Festival.

With a keyboard that cost 50p and beats knocked into shape by a rhythm section in thrall to the sounds of Motown, ‘Sherlock Groove Holmes’ continues The KBC’s bold intent, casting briar and deerstalker aside to take tumultuous, whipped-down and devious white boy funk for some dark moves on a trembling dance floor.

Free gig // The Great Escape // FridayDigital Singles | 18 May 2006

Greetings one and all, and we hope you’re well on this blustery spring day. We thought we’d let those of you who are in the Brighton area this weekend, whether residentially or temporarily as part of the Great Escape music festival, that PlayLouder and Playlouderecordings are presenting an excellent free party late tomorrow (Friday, 19th May) night. It’ll be taking place at Pressure Point (33 Richmond Place, Brighton, BN2 9NA) from midnight until very late, and playing we have…

Playlouderecordings’ very own mystic and exceedingly loud Norwegian signings Serena-Maneesh, shortly to release their eponymous debut album in the UK. See below for details of a free Serena-Maneesh video for your iPod device. Listen to Serena-Maneesh here.

Ladyfuzz, the twisted and spiky pop residents of the excellent Transgressive Records , who’ll be hot-footing it across town from the Transgressive showcase earlier in the evening. Listen to Ladyfuzz here.

And the spittle shouting clever chaps of Untitled Musical Project, one of PlayLouder’s favourite unsigned bands, whom you can listen to here.

What’s more, Gucci Soudsystem will be playing us out with the bangers until the very wee hours, when dawn scrapes across the grey sea.

Entry is FREE from midnight, look out for PlayLouder wristbands and fliers in Brighton record shops from today, or just email comps@playlouder.com with PLAYLOUDER PARTY in the subject heading to get on the list.

Simon Bookish - 'Terry Riley Disco'Digital Singles | 01 March 2006

A classically trained composer, Leo Chadburn spends his days stamping books and arranging shelves in a library, but by night records fantastical and dapper electronic pop records under the nom-de-guerre Simon Bookish, which he describes as an “experimental pop music Trojan Horse project.” Unafraid to write beyond the mundane, Bookish’s music explores the possibilities of electronic pop via lyrical subject matter oft ignored – King Richard the Third, say, or Tobias Schmidt, inventor of the guillotine.

Playlouderecordings are pleased to announce that we’ve climbed aboard the Trojan horse, and will be releasing Simon Bookish’s ‘Terry Riley Disco’ as a digital single on March 27th, 2006. A tribute to the late composer of the same name, ‘Terry Riley Disco’ is a brisk and urgent nugget of sharp electronic pop music, a clarion call for some cerebral dancing. The single comes with three remixes from Fashion Flesh, the ever-influential Max Tundra, and sonic innovator Capitol K.

Simon Bookish has previously worked with St. Etienne and Jarvis Cocker, and released ‘Metal Horse’ / ‘Portrait Of The Artist As A Fountain’ on the Tomlab label. He distinctive remixing style has led to re-edits for Grizzly Bear and The Organ, while his take on Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Michael’ was the much-sought-after b-side to the song’s 7” release back in 2004.

‘Terry Riley Disco’ will be available from all good digital music retailers.

Serena-Maneesh - 'Drain Cosmetics'Digital Singles | 29 January 2006

In August 2005, a little known Norwegian band going by the name Serena Maneesh, released their eponymous debut album through Honey Milk Records.

Indie tastemakers Pitchfork heard the album, fell in-love and placed it at no. 29 in the years top 50 albums (beating Franz Ferdinand by one). Across the pond, Drowned in Sound rated it at no.32 in their polls. Not bad for a record with zero promotion.

Such critical acclaim grew alongside a healthy live following. An appearance at Oya Festival in August 2005 had Playlouder raving that “(Serena-Maneesh are) the festival’s first and only mindfuck – the one I went several thousand miles hoping I might experience.” Then came a support slot on the Dandy Warhol’s UK tour, followed by a sold-out show at a 1000 capacity venue in Oslo in December and a rock-category nomination for a Norwegian grammy ‘Spellemannsprisen’. At which point Playlouder decided that this is the kind of band they want and need to launch their 2006 digital singles club.

And the sound? Is it clichéd to say like nothing else? Or perhaps more accurately Serena-Maneesh’s strange melodies are strikingly original, yet also somehow comforting and familiar.

‘Drain Cosmetics’ epitomises Serena Maneesh’s sound. Driving guitar rock and Primal Scream-esque drum rythms blend with distorted samples and a whispering ethereal vocal that weaves in and out as if in a dream. It’s as much about exploring as it is creating sound and the result is a noise that transcends music and offers an otherworldly atmosphere, as beautifully paradoxical as it is compelling.

‘Drain Cosmetics’ will be available at playlouder.com on Monday 13th February