Thursday, November 12, 2009

Drum n' drone trio DINOWALRUS get remixed by the Mae Shi ; the cosmic freakouts, krautrock rhythms, and atmospheric haze of "%" out in January

DINOWALRUS get remixed by THE MAE SHI ; the cosmic freakouts, krautrock rhythms, and atmospheric haze of "%" out in January on Kanine

MP3: Nuke Duke 'Em (Mae Shi remix)
MP3: Nuke Duke 'Em



"Brooklyn ecstasy-noize troupe Dinowalrus crawl out of the teeny-tiny opening Animal Collective and Black Dice have made for fluttery textures, ambient suckscapes, and incoherent blare-chants"
Village Voice

"Their forthcoming debut full-length, jumps from spazz-y, rollicking guitars and whirling keyboards to a sudden breakdown that by the end of the song sounds more like space rock than noise-rock."
Pitchfork Media

"Dinowalrus play music best described by a series of genre names centering around "rock n roll" and "experimental," hopefully with "weird synth textures" and "sweet drumming" in there too"
'Sup Magazine

"While their name might suggest a pink-scored jump suit and a heavy reserve of bleeps, Dinowalrus actually makes sleek music from the future that simultaneously shares a lot of roots with early New Order, Brooklyn spazz-prog 2008, psychedelics abusers, and the dreams I had last night about manatees. It's all adhered together with Spaceman 3 era reverb."
Impose Magazine

UPCOMING SHOWS
11.17 Glasslands Brooklyn, NY
10.3 Union Pool Brooklyn, NY w/ Dan Friel, Mirror Mirror

DINOWALRUS merge prismatic noise, acid-soaked guitars, and propulsive grooves thrusting noise-rock into the future. The Brooklyn-based drum n' drone trio began when Pete, an unemployed architectural designer and installation artist, met Kyle, an abstract painter and wine-store manager, while simultaneously attempting to stalk Andrew WK at a To Live and Shave in LA show. Shortly after, Josh fell of the boat from Belgium and onto the drum throne in late 2008. Since then they've released two sought after 7"s and have been melting minds with their ecstasy inducing live shows opening for scene luminaries such as HEALTH, Titus Andronicus (Pete is also a guitarist in the band), The Mae Shi, Ponytail, and many others.

Standing out amongst their peers, Dinowalrus do the garage rock thing progressively without being derivative, and do the psych/drone/tribal/electronic thing without falling into the traps of being dull in a live setting. In an attempt to capture the spontaneity of their improvisational instincts, retain the complex spatiality of their recorded experiments and transcend the limited sonic palette that plagues most three-piece bands, Dinowalrus reinvent their instrumentation on each song live. The band relies on the use of self-sustaining electronic devices to push its sound into cosmic freak-outs, ass-shaking kraut-rhythms, lush atmospheric haze, and/or juvenile twee-skronk. These devices include an optical theremin, a sampler, and a 1983 Roland analogue synth named Marc Bolan. Their recordings are much more than a facsimile of their powerful live thrash, but instead they are didactic experiments in infinite reverb, uber- and anti- "dance-ability", delay-treated xylophones, dime-store voice changers, deep-fried drum machines, and pop-neo-orientalism careening through a variety of styles using buzzsaw guitars, fuzzy dronescapes, and pounding percussion.

Due in January, Kanine Records will be releasing their debut full-length "%" which pens a new narrative of rock history, aptly connecting the dots between all the various forms of musical futurism and eccentricity over the past 40 years. This thread starts with the Silver Apples and the Stooges in the 1960s, passes on to Brian Eno, Devo, Hawkwind, and Throbbing Gristle in the 1970s; then to PiL, New Order, and the Human League in the 1980s; it then moves through Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine; and finishes with the recent work of the Boredoms, Ex Models, and Trans Am. "BEAD" takes on an automated arpeggiator pattern reminiscent of 70s progsters Tangerine Dream and recent Animal Collective, warps it with Black Dice knob tweaks, then tries to shake the whole thing free with some bangin' 80s downtown no-wave punk-funk, complete with a skronky James Chance-inspired clarinet solo. "Cage Those Pythons" revolves around a greasy Crampsian surf-garage riff, spiced up with some gothy baritone vocals a la Nick Cave or Dave Vanian; then gives the whole thing a Locust Abortion (Technician) via plenty of high-tech synth, sampler, pitchshifting and electronic bleep action. "Nuke Duke 'Em" somehow manages to keep its balance while jumping back and forth between XBXRX or Melt Banana warp-speed electro-thrash spazzouts; and Slowdive-y shoegazin' chillout sections that briefly douse the meltdown. The suite of "I Hate Letters" + "I Hate Numbers" initially embraces arrhythmic Spacemen 3 drone-bliss, then drops the hammer with a classic Mancunian electropop banger that declares that the Hacienda is back open for business.

% is a reference to the economic crisis of 2008, when the bulk of the album was conceived--refering to % layoffs , % declines in the value of people's homes, retirement savings etc. The album artwork's abstracts an aerial photo of valueless suburban tract homes into a colorful, but demonic acid-soaked texture.

It also refers to the mysterious Dinowalrus creature itself--what % Dino and what % Walrus is the actual music?

% is also a reference to so-called "one percenter" outlaw biker gangs. Lyrically, many of the songs vibe off of the post-apocolyptic dystopian biker/survivor themes explored in "Easy Rider", "Mad Max" and the "Ace of Spades" album by Motorhead.

"%"
out 01.19.2009
www.dinowalrus.com

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