In Hearts Wake – GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK- A Documentary About the Music Industry and the Environment

Earthwalker and UNFD present a film by In Hearts Wake
GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK
A Documentary About the Music Industry and the Environment

Australian heavy music act In Hearts Wake is releasing the official trailer for their feature length documentary GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK alongside the announcement of Australian and international screening dates across Earth Week 2022 this April.
 
Conceived during the catastrophic bush fires of early 2020, filmed during the global pandemic and released as unprecedented floods have devastated the East coast of Australia, Green Is The New Black holds a mirror up to the music industry and its relationship to the environment.

Green Is The New Black chronicles the making of In Hearts Wake’s 100% carbon offset 2020 album Kaliyuga and their journey to become a certified Carbon Neutral Organisation but it’s more than a film about one band and one album. As In Hearts Wake examine their processes and search for more environmentally sustainable options, inspiring new possibilities for an entire industry begin to emerge.

Through conversations with creatives, experts and professionals including Damon Gameau (2040, That Sugar Film), Tamara Smith (Greens Member for Parliament), AY Young (United Nations Young Leader), Jessica Ducrou (Splendour in the Grass Festival Co-founder), Heidi Lennfer (FEAT Artists) and Luke Logemann (UNFD Records), In Hearts Wake uncover unsettling truths, face human adversity and discover inspiring solutions for a new earth-aligned way forward.

Green Is The New Black will screen at Bangalow Film Festival on 12th April, with 100% of ticket sales to be donated to local charities directly assisting the Northern Rivers flood recovery.

Kicking off in Earth Week, Green Is The New Black will then screen at Palace Cinemas around Australia as well as special screenings in Los Angeles, Toronto and London.

Formed in Byron Bay in 2006, In Hearts Wake are one of Australia’s leading heavy music acts. Their fiercely loyal following has been forged from relentless world touring, passionate ecological advocacy and hard-hitting, melodic-driven music. The band have received four top-5 records, earned an ARIA nomination for Best Hard Rock album, 110 million digital streams and over 100,000 records sold worldwide. They are the only known band to be registered as a Carbon Neutral Organisation.

“When we first started this band, we just wanted to tour the world and play music, but the further we travelled the more it hit home. We were unintentionally endangering our own future. The world we knew was changing fast and we realised we had to change with it.” Jake Taylor, vocalist In Hearts Wake / Producer and Co-Director Green Is The New Black.

GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK SCREENINGS
Presented by Heaps Normal, Afends, New World Artists & UNFD

Tue 12 April – Bangalow Film Festival – Bangalow, Australia – 7.30pm (Fundraiser)
Thu 21 April – Palace Central, Sydney  – 6.30pm
Thu 21 April – Los Feliz, Los Angeles USA  – 7.45pm
Fri 22 April – Palace James St, Brisbane – 6.30pm
Fri 22 April – The Rec Room, Toronto CAN – 7.00pm
Thu 28 April – Palace Raine Square, Perth – 6.30pm
Fri 29 April – Palace Westgarth, Melbourne – 6.30pm
Sat 30 April – Palace Nova, Adelaide – 6.30pm
Sat 30 April – Prince Charlies Cinema, London UK – 6.00pm

Tickets for all screenings available at inheartswake.com / greenisthenewblack.film

 

Nexus – Ninouki (28 February 2022)

Mike Pougounas gathers John Fryer, MGT, Steve Whitfield and friends for the new Nexus album “Ninouki”

Greece based project Nexus returns with the album Ninouki after 17 years hiatus, bringing together the production skills of John Fryer, the guitar magic of Mark Gemini Thwaite and the soundboard guru Steve Whitfield along with Greek guitar players Yiannis Drenoyiannis and Michalis Galeos, trumpet player Louis Kontoulis and bassist Michalis Semertzoglou.

Nexus is the brainchild of Mike Pougounas, a veteran of Greece’s post punk/gothic scene since the 1980s and leader of the band New ZeroGod.

Since New Zero God couldn’t tour or record with his band due to COVID-19 he decided to bring back to life Nexus, a band with which he released four albums during 2000-2005 and use it this time as a side project.

“Gigs were halted for New Zero God, as well as for everyone else. I was meeting the other members of the band sporadically, so I decided to start recording solo, until things return to normal.”

Pougounas also hosts the Blackout Radio Show, so while he was discussing with Producer/Musician John Fryer (This Mortal Coil, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Cocteau Twins) about an interview, they agreed for Fryer to listen to what Pougounas was doing and do the remix of the track “Rhythm of Life”.

Things were different with guitarist/producer MGT (The Mission, Peter Murphy, Gary Numan, Tricky, Spear of Destiny, Theatre of Hate).  The two met in 2000 when Nexus supported the Mission, where MGT was playing the guitar for the English band. MGT played the guitar parts on “The Words That Got Away” and “You & Me” and did a special mix for the second one.

Pougounas turned to Steve Whitfield (The Cure, The Mission UK, Terrorvision) for the mix of “Star Thief”. The two men worked together in 1995 when Wayne Hussey produced the album “Brilliant Mistakes”, the swan song of the first band of Mike Pougounas, The Flowers of Romance.

Greek guitarists Yiannis Drenoyiannis (Anti Troppau Council, Yeah!, Captain Nefos, Sigmatropic) Michalis Galaios (Ερεβος, Lost Bodies, Mavres Comodies), bass player Michalis Semertzoglou (New Zero God, GAD, Atria) and trumpet player Louis Kontoulis (Stress, De Traces) joined forces with Mike Pougounas, who sang, played keyboards, bass, and sometimes the guitar.

As of February 28 Ninouki is available via Bandcamp.

TRACKLIST

1.       The Words That Got Away*

2.       Do You Remember+

3.       Star Thief

4.       Voyager’

5.       You & Me (MGT mix)

6.       Rhythm Of Life (John Fryer mix)

7.       Turn Me On / Turn Me Off^

CREDITS

All music and lyrics: Mike Pougounas

*lyrics by Mike Pougounas and Anna Psarreas

Vocals, bass, keyboards, guitar: Mike Pougounas

Guitar*: MGT

Guitar+: Michalis Galeos

Guitar^: Yiannis Drenoyiannis

Bass’: Michalis Semertzoglou

Trumpet*: Louis Kontoulis

Recorded at QZN Studio, Athens

The Words That Got Away* mixed at Mob Research Laboratoriee – Los Angeles, USA

Produced by Mike Pougounas

Mastering by John Psimopoulos

Artwork, photos and videos created by Panos Skordas (The Art Asylum)

Keep up with Nexus

Bandcamp | Facebook | Youtube | instagram

 

New Anton Barbeau album “Power Pop!!!” (March 25, Big Stir Records)

BIG STIR RECORDS and ANTON BARBEAU are proud to announce the March 25 release of Anton‘s album POWER POP!!! 

The new collection features 19 tracks balanced between fully formed songs (including the lead single “Rain, Rain”) and a handful of fascinating interstitial miniatures.

It’s available for pre-order on CD and digital formats now at www.bigstirrecords.com and most online music outlets, and will be streaming and on record store shelves worldwide upon the release date. It follows on the success of a string of recent albums including 2020’s ambitious Manbird and last year’s Oh The Joys We Live For on Big Stir, both acclaimed as high points in Barbeau‘s prolific career.

The release date of the album is shared with Omnivore Records’ lovingly curated reissue of The Loud Family and Anton Barbeau‘s What If It Works? – Ant‘s 2006 collaboration with the much-missed indie rock genius Scott Miller – making the day a landmark in the legendary psychedelic troubadour’s storied career.

It’s to be said at the outset that the title of POWER POP!!! is archly ironic: Barbeau intends the album partly as a rebuke of the self-imposed limits of the titular genre. He’s not sugarcoating it, either: “Put down your guns, you culture cops, there ain’t no crime like power pop” is just one of the pointed barbs in the title track (which also happens to be as filled with hooks and grooves as anything Anton‘s ever done). The ongoing critique is amplified in “The Sound,” a driving psychedelic takedown of facile genre purism, and the garage/new wave ode to “Julian Cope,” a key Anton influence and fellow iconoclast equally known for blending melody and quirk into something utterly new.

But more than a sharp commentary laced with both kinds of acid, POWER POP!!! is very much about Anton reinventing the very wheel he’s puncturing. “The concept is, early ABBA gets hipped to Krautrock, disavowing their Schlager roots. Drugs happen. Their tight, super-pop sound merged with the kosmische vibe catches the ear of young David Bowie who offers to produce their next record. They convince him to co-write and sing on the record, and the rest is alternate-history,” says Ant. “Can’t say I lived up to that, but out of noble ambitions grow tiny Raspberries, I suppose!”

As always, those ambitions and Barbeau‘s wandering muse lead him down other avenues as well, from the rollicking surrealist cowpunk of “Hillbilly Village” to the nearly-self-explanatory “The Drugs” and the song fragments scattered amongst the fleshed-out tunes, each with its own rewards. But the primary thread emerging from the tapestry of styles and sonic textures on display might be a sort of psychedelic synth-pop, with Anton making no secret of OMD and New Musik as primary inspirations. You can hear it on the dance-groove- propelled “Free,” the unabashed electropop of “The Never Crying Wolf Boy,” and “Running On The Edge Of The Knife,” which could be an extract from the soundtrack to an ’80s action film until it takes a left turn (quite literally) into a rustic pigpen. It’s a quintessentially Antonian juxtaposition and, like so much of the record, a giddy delight.

Those dominant synth soundscapes inspire some of Barbeau‘s most indelible melodies and vocal performances, from the fresh compositions like the harrowing “American Road” to the-album closing Teen Suite. There, Anton reimagines a trio of his early recordings to compelling effect: “Whisper In The Wind” is simply lovely, the new single “Rain, Rain” stands with the best of electronic pop music then or now, and the touchingly tender “Valerie’s Waiting” hits a mark between chamber pop and new wave that’s a world of its own.

More than a broadside, POWER POP!!! sees Anton Barbeau charting his own path forward as always, inviting the adventurous pop-rock fans of the world to follow. He’s aided and abetted in his work by like-minded luminaries like Donald Ross Skinner (known as Cope‘s longtime collaborator Donn-Eye), guitarists Kevin Allison and Charlotte Tupman, saxophonist Fred Quentin, multi-instrumentalist Rosie Abbott, and vocalists Karla Kane (of The Corner Laughers), Lara Miyazaki, and Julia VBHB, Anton’s wife who’s also the graphic designer for the album. It’s a work so unfettered by genre constraints that it can only be seen as Anton Barbeau‘s next leap, with much to offer to longtime fans and newcomers alike.

For more on ANTON BARBEAU:

www.bigstirrecords.com/anton-barbeau

www.antonbarbeau.com

 

Beauty In Chaos release ‘Behind The Veil’ LP with all-female vocalists

Beauty In Chaos releases ‘Behind The Veil’ LP with all-female vocal lineup, plus video for ‘Grasp The Stars’ ft. Betsy Martin

LA-based label 33.3 Music Collective has announced the release of ‘Behind The Veil’, the highly-anticipated new album from Beauty In Chaos. Recorded, mixed and produced by Grammy nominated producer Michael Rozon, this all-female featured collection brings back three BIC alumni – Tish Ciravolo, Cinthya Hussey and Betsy Martin – as well as new family members Whitney Tai, Elena Alice Fossi and Pinky Turzo.

“The concept of this all female release started to take form when we added “Stranger” (ft. Kat Leon) as the closing track of ‘The Storm Before The Calm’. It was a bit different than the rest of the album, but it turned into the perfect lead-in to the direction of this new record,” says BIC curator Michael Ciravolo.

“Our past formula has been to follow up each of our two albums with a remix record.  This time I decided to change the script a bit and include a remix of each song on ‘Behind The Veil’.”  

Earlier, Beauty In Chaos released the singles ‘Orion’ ft. Whitney Tai and ‘Kiss of the World’ ft. Elena Alice Fossi. In addition to the six new songs, this release features some diverse re-envisions by Tim Palmer, MGT, John Fryer, Statik, Tommy Hatz, Julian Shah-Tayler and Michael Rozon.

An evolving and revolving collective, Beauty In Chaos also presents the video for ‘Grasp The Stars’ featuring Caterwaul front-woman Betsy Martin, the album’s dark and heavy closer. Industrialism Films created what Ciravolo describes as a “homage to the ’87-’88 Scream scene in Los Angeles”. Scream was a popular darkwave club, where Ciravolo’s former band Human Drama and Martin’s Caterwaul were staples.

Betsy Martin notes, “The music took me to a place of being in a meteor shower of emotion. It brought out feelings of how we sometimes create unhappiness for ourselves with manipulation brought on by pain, causing such confusion. I could visualize dodging these sharp and pointy damaging stars of thoughts whizzing by in my head. The music travels a celestial path to a calm after a storm.”

33.3 Music is releasing ‘Behind The Veil’ on CD and limited-run vinyl. As with all BIC releases, a 25-track digital version is included with all physical copies. Ciravolo imparts “I am blessed with a lot of talented friends that created more remixes than would fit into the time-constraints of the CD.  I value everyone’s time and talents, so I convinced 33.3 to release ‘Further Behind The Veil’, which contains these additional re-envisions as part of a limited edition 2-CD set.”  

The Limited Edition 2-CD Set contains the bonus CD ‘Further Behind The Veil’, which includes additional remixes by Paul Wiley (Marilyn Manson), Sin Quirin (Ministry), Kitty Lectro, Bentley Jones, Roman Marisak, Kevin Kipnis, Julian Shah-Tayler and The Phoenix Supernova, as well as an extended album version of ‘Orion’.

The ‘Behind The Veil’ album is available across streaming platforms, including Bandcamp. It can also be obtained, in all formats, directly from Beauty In Chaos’ online store at https://www.beautyinchaosmusic.com/music-store.

TRACK LIST
1.    ‘Afterlife’ ft. Tish Ciravolo
Lyrics by Tish Ciravolo. Music by Michael Ciravolo/ Michael Rozon
2.    ‘The Kiss Of The World’ ft. Elena Alice Fossi
Lyrics by Elena Alice Fossi. Music by Michael Ciravolo/ Michael Rozon
3.    ‘Not Your Fault’  ft. Pinky Turzo
Lyrics by Pinky Turzo. Music by Michael Ciravolo/ Michael Rozon
4.    ‘Orion’  ft. Whitney Tai.
Lyrics by Whitney Tai. Music by Michael Ciravolo/ Michael Rozon
5.    ‘Open Wound Heart’  ft. Cinthya Hussey
Lyrics by Cinthya Hussey. Music by Michael Ciravolo/ Michael Rozon
6.    ‘Grasp The Stars’  ft. Betsy Martin
Lyrics by Betsy Martin. Music by Michael Ciravolo/ Michael Rozon
7.    ‘Afterlife’ (JST Mix) ft. Tish Ciravolo
Remix by Julian Shah-Tayler
8.    ‘The Kiss Of The World’ (MGT Mix) ft. Elena Alice Fossi
Remix by Mark Gemini Thwaite
9.    ‘Not your Fault’ (Meltdown Mix) ft. Pinky Turzo
Remix by Michael Rozon
10.    ‘Orion’ (Asteron Mix) ft. Whitney Tai
Remix by Tommy Hatz
11.    ‘Open Wound Heart’ (Edge Of Reality Mix) ft. Cinthya Hussey Remix by Tim Palmer
12. ‘Grasp The Stars’ (Collide Mix) ft. Betsy Martin
Remix by Statik
13. ‘Open Wound Heart’ (Shadows of Coils Mix) ft. Cinthya Hussey
Remix by John Fryer

CREDITS – ‘Grasp The Stars’
Recorded, mixed and produced by Michael Rozon
Betsy Martin – vocals
Michael Ciravolo – guitar and video concept
Tish Ciravolo – bass
Dirk Doucette – drums
Kevin Kipnis – bass VI
Video filmed and Directed by Vicente Cordero / Industrialism Films
Edited by Ryan Conlon (Industrialism Films)
Lighting by Anthony Love. Makeup by Jessica Zweig

Keep up with Beauty in Chaos
Website | Store | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Videos | Blog | Soundcloud | Bandcamp | Apple Music | Spotify | Discography | Press contact

 

Chameleons (UK) Joins Metropolis Records

Metropolis Records is thrilled to welcome the legendary post-punk act Chameleons (UK) to their roster.

The vastly influential Chameleons (UK) was formed in Manchester, England in 1981, with vocalist/bassist Mark Burgess, guitarists Reg Smithies and Dave Fielding, and drummer John Lever (who quickly replaced founding member Brian Schofield). The band released three classic albums: “Script of the Bridge” (1983),”What Does Anything Mean? Basically” (1985) and “Strange Times” (1986) before breaking up.

In 2000, Chameleons (UK) had their first of a few subsequent reunions which led to “Edge Sessions (Live From The Edge)” a collection of seven classic Chameleons songs performed live in May of 2021 by founding members Mark Burgess and Reg Smithies, joined by recent members Chris Oliver on guitar, and Stephen Rice on drums.

Three additional bonus tracks of ChameleonsVox era live recordings round out this stunning release.

Chameleons (UK) will be touring the United States and Canada in 2022 with The Mission UK and Theatre of Hate.

“Edge Sessions (Live From The Edge)” will be released on CD, limited edition vinyl as well as through all streaming and digital platforms on April 15, 2022 by Metropolis Records.

This release is available for pre-order through Bandcamp .

 

Snog – Eight Offerings For The Undead (Metropolis Records, 4 February 2022)

The legendary Australian band Snog, have just released “Eight Offerings for the Undead” their latest in a prolific career that began thirty years ago with their debut 1992 album “Lies Inc.” 

The songs transcribed here speak of eyes that yearn to hear and ears that long to sing, an occult realm where the waking hours are a shadowy coma, a hypnotic narcosis whence dark puppeteers manipulate the fragile mass mind.

Amidst the titanic struggle between light and dark, played out by those few awake and the many, many asleep – take these humble offerings of solace and song back to your world.

Snog founder David Thrussell has weathered many storms, been lashed by violent torrents and burned flying too close to the blistering sun.

Released by Metropolis Records, “Eight Offerings for the Undead” sparked a pair of new videos for  “Jaded” and “The Masque of Evil” and is available through all digital and streaming platforms.

A limited edition deluxe LP record/vinyl with lyric inner sleeve and accompanying CD with 6 extra tracks is also available from Metropolis.

In a faraway land, on a forgotten mountain top, stands a willowy, robed figure. David Thrussell has weathered many storms, been lashed by violent torrents and burned flying too close to the blistering sun.

Once notorious as a provocative musician, prescient satirist and counter-cultural bellwether, today, due to radical and ultimately unsuccessful treatment regimes, Thrussell is essentially blind and incommunicado.

Operating from his mountain Montsalvat, he may not be a direct apocalyptic analogue to doomsday prophets like David Koresh and Ted Kaczynski, but the comparison could well be forgiven in this rugged mountain compound of spartan silence and esoteric study.

Dutifully surrounded by disciples and minders, the blind seer spends long days poring over arcane tomes and forgotten scriptures, in a frugal existence of fasting and contemplation.

Day to day financial responsibilities and logistics fall under the stewardship of renowned creative therapist Dr. Ian White, whose tutelage has, after years of pain, set Thrussell on a spare but steady course.

Mandated by Dr. White, every whispered utterance from our accidental messiah is recorded and elaborated into song by ace producer Vince Valentini and his crack team working deep in the caverns under Montsalvat.

It is not entirely clear that Thrussell is aware of this record album, his words are rare and most often of a mystical or heavily-medicated nature.

The songs transcribed here speak of eyes that yearn to hear and ears that long to sing, an occult realm where the waking hours are a shadowy coma, a hypnotic narcosis whence dark puppeteers manipulate the fragile mass mind.

Worked through an army of battered drum machines and cranky synthesizers – then recorded in reverberant and rough-hewn sandstone halls – these songs capture an opiated soul that drifts like smoke through worlds both above and below, battles both good and, most certainly, evil.

Sing them loud and let them grow.

A Revolt Against The Modern World. A Purge of The Demiurge. Hymns for The Hypnotic. Eight Offerings for The Undead.

Keep up with Snog

Bandcamp

 

Deathline International “Pax Americana”

Deathline International’s “Pax Americana” 5th studio Album will be released today on Bandcamp [first] and on all other digital providers on Feb. the 25th.

“We salute you if you are reading this.
Because in some ways we created this with you in mind and we thank you for your support. This record is something we always wanted and maybe the beginning of something new. We lost faith many times over. “Pax Americana” became this mythical monster that we could not slay.
But John came to the rescue. He beat the beast into submission and gave us glory, violence, and decay.

The machine and the human merge.
Iron and madness beat with a steady pulse.
Embracing the darkness that reaches out to all of us.
Crystalizing it into rhythmic patterns of destruction.
Sonic assaults, broken cybernetic hearts, and a metallic aftertaste.
Our AI overlords are closing in, but we will fight to the death!”

Deathline International 2022

Produced by John Fryer

Deathline International

Th3Count (aka Christian Petke), the driving creative force behind the band Deathline International and the mastermind behind the record label COP International, is set to launch his latest sonic missile in the form of their new album Pax Americana.  With their long history of guitar-driven, emotionally intense songs, Deathline International has made their mark on the industrial music scene worldwide. 

This new album welcomes legendary producer John Fryer into the mix. Pax Americana provides a healthy dose of aggressive reality in the music and vocals paired with vivid production elements reminiscent of Fryer’s engineering strengths in mixing guitar for bands such as Stabbing Westward, Fields of the Nephilim, and Die Krupps, as well as his synth brilliance working with bands such as Fad Gadget, Moev, Yazoo, and Nine Inch Nails.  Their dynamic pairing has created a multi-layered album that is as intense and aggressive as it is beautiful in its raw descriptions of the world around us. 

 

Venus Fly Trap – Control Addicts (Glass Miniature Download 2022)

To celebrate 40 years of Glass Records, VFT cover a Religious Overdose song that was
originally released as a 7″ single in 1980, Alex Novak is / was vocalist in both bands.

The Glass compilation will be called Glass: Remake / Re Model.

Alex Novak – vox

Andy Denton – Guitar / Programming

Produced by VFT / Recorded at SPIRAL ARCHIVE / VILLERS WOOD

Produced by Graham Bentley (X manager of Bauhaus / video maker )

Available via – Glass Bandcamp

 

Rohn – Lederman “All The Things Left For Dead Go Unsaid(aka “The River”) – COP International

Rohn – Lederman “All The Things Left For Dead Go Unsaid (aka “The River”) is the 3rd EP featuring a song of the acclaimed “Venus Chariot” album [#1 for 3 weeks in the DAC Charts] out on COP International. It features Remixes by Warren Harrison, GW Childs IV, and Emileigh Rohn [Chiasm] herself.

“The River” is one of the key moments of Venus Chariot: a beautiful and sad ballad. Rohn’s fragile and emotional vocal delivery is beautifully counterbalanced by Jean-Marc‘s music. He creates a stark canvas that allows the listener to experience every nuance of her exceptional voice. It is rare for artists to create enough space to let all elements really shine. Sometimes the note that is not played is the most important one. Jean-Marc’s musical mastery gives the whole record an incredibly intimate feeling. Like you just walked into a studio when the record button is on. Lyrically “The River” reveals a struggle that is not unfamiliar. Says Emileigh: I am comfortable in my sadness. It is a companion, steady at times, turbulent in others. It surrounds me, nourishes me, allows me to distinguish the joy I seek, tugs, and whispers, “Yes, we are alive”.

“So here’s to all the darkened things that we keep locked inside.”

Emileigh Rohn (short bio)

Emileigh Rohn is known mostly for her electronic solo project Chiasm, which has kept her musically occupied for over 20 years.  More recently, she completed an album with John Fryer titled “Missed The Noise”, and since has been working with Jean-Marc Lederman on this project.  She also plans to continue her solo work in the near future. ER about VC: I am just in awe of what we’ve created in such a short period.  It’s so open and honest feeling, exactly what we needed to express during a time that the world was closed.  I’m ecstatic to share this with others, we did great!

Jean-Marc Lederman (short bio)

Mild-mannered Belgian music composer, Jean-Marc Lederman has been working with the likes of Fad Gadget, The The, Gene Loves Jezebel but mainly with his own bands like The Weathermen (with their underground hit “Poison”) or Ghost & Writer (with Frank Spinath from Seabound). He is working as well in the fields of movies and video games.

Fans can buy “All The Things Left For Dead Go Unsaid (aka “The River”) HERE

 

Killing Joke – Lord of Chaos

Killing Joke announced The Lord Of Chaos EP that  features two brand new tracks – ‘Lord Of Chaos’ and ‘Total’.

This is the lyric video for ‘Lord Of Chaos’ :