Thanks to Iain Wilson of FOTW Audio Productions for this wonderful review of our new album from my band with Paul Harmon, The Prince Of Seagulls. NOT JUST ANY OLD SEAGULL . . . Melbourne duo, The Prince of Seagulls, have just released their debut album . . . and its a good one! But theres no vocals. Instead, its an instrumental album, full of mood-music, driving percussion, laser blasts, extensive synthesizer washes and melodies, written in the spirit of early eighties post-disco, like the fabulous Arthur Russell, and South Bronx trailblazers, E.S.G. Paul Harmon and Hanna Silver would acknowledge that the inspiration behind this album comes more from 21st century projects, like UKs Quiet Village, whose album Silent Movie was built purely of library samples of 70s film music, and Australias own the Avalanches, whose turn-of-the-century album, Since I left You, famously consisted of thousands of op-shop vinyl samples. Having met through Myspace in 2008, Paul - who also plays in Promise Land - looks after the production side, sourcing the majority of the sounds and creating sophisticated percussion, while Hanna plays various synthesizers, like the Roland SH-3A and the Korg MS-20. Although a classically trained pianist, Hanna has built up her skills over the last decade through live gigs around Melbourne, tweaking synths for the great horror-funk cover band, Inverto, as well as releasing her own solo projects like the Valentine EP in 2011. Released on Punk Groove through a Pozible campaign, the tracks of this album segue seamlessly into one another, with some real stand outs, like Electric Clutch featuring a bassline evoking Grace Jones 1982 Nightclubbing album and heavily delayed percussion, giving it a space-rock vibe. Melbourne World Edits 3 is also great, with kalimba and steel drum samples – theres dubstep with After the Fact and a bit of experimentalism on Introduction with back-masking and wind-chimes. But the best of their tracks is the sideways rocking, Entropically, that will still be with you when you wake up in the morning (linked below). The other thing that is worth mentioning is that the album is nicely mixed; Paul and Hanna have given themselves a few years to prepare the material, and listening to it, its difficult to tell that it is only the two of them behind it, as all the parts sound as integrated as a normal four/five piece band. Listen at theprinceofseagulls.bandcamp and find it in various other internet music places. #Theprinceofseagulls #newmusic #melbourne #exotica
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 07:10:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015