Monday, August 20, 2012

the real deal with BEAK>>

This may be the best album of the decade so far.

Due to our insane summer schedule, we didn't get around to discussing Beak>'s new record just yet.. We had no clue they were working on anything new, and it suddenly dropped without much warning back in June. We're also suckers for the simplicity and mystery within their marketing.. At the moment, we're cautiously labeling this as (possibly) the first true candidate for classic albums released since Jan 1 2010.

Somehow we were convinced that Beak> contained a member of Electrelane, but that turns out to be untrue after quickly glancing at their wikipedia entry.. Instead, there's one member of Portishead and two bands we're not familiar with (Fuzz Against Junk and Team Brick).

Here's their press release:

From Invada: "Beak>, formed by Geoff Barrow (Portishead), Matt Williams and Billy Fuller in 2009 recorded their debut album, created out of 12 days of improvised sessions and then edited them into song form. Shortly after releasing it on Invada (UK) and Ipecac (US) the band went on a successful tour including festival dates across Europe and the U.S. Buzzing from the tour Beak> then returned to the studio to start work of the second album only to find that the time on the road had taken its toll on the band's delicately sensitive and creative nature. And, by consequence had turned them into a truly awful sounding pub prog-rock band. The magic had gone. It seemed that the band were thoroughly moribund. Until...one rainy afternoon in Bristol after many tortured, truly terrible recording sessions something changed. It may have been the diesel fumes from the bands tour splitter bus had worn off, others say that the band simply turned their amplifiers down. We will possibly never know the true events of that afternoon but the band began to play and once again their bleak wobbly anti-blue note sound had returned, but this time with added synthesizers. And so, recorded in one room live (with very few overdubs), Beak II is upon us." - Invada



The vinyl is priced somewhat unfairly at $41, although free digital streams are available at Bandcamp and Spotify...

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