New Tindersticks On the Way!
I’m totally psyched about this announcement but too busy with other stuff to give it the full write-up that it deserves. Check out my review of TINDERSTICKS’ amazing last album, The Hungry Saw, HERE.
The Essentials:
- The upcoming album is called Falling Down a Mountain
- It is their 8th studio release
- Hits streets in Europe Jan. 25th (on 4AD), N America Feb. 16th (on Constellation)
- What I love about TINDERSTICKS is that their sound is this indefinable mix of simplicity and grandeur, these shifting tones, haunting and bright, dark and airy, almost as if it wallows in sadness the same as it does beauty (if it’s even possible to “wallow” in beauty). They’re like a smell that reminds you of everything perfect, and everything heartbreaking, about someone that you’ve lost. They’re a figure from the past dressed in today’s clothes. They’re an old phonograph player from the ’20s, littered in stickers of THE SMITHS and THE BEATLES.
Keep in mind, this is TINDERSTICKS in a kind of second creative wind. It was a whole 5-year’s time between their 2008 release The Hungry Saw and its predecessor, Waiting for the Moon; now, with Falling Down a Mountain, they’re pumping them out like gangbusters. Am I the only one who thinks there’s something cool and kind of special about being a part of that?
Check out what the band has to say about the album, the full cover and Falling Down a Mountain’s first single, “Black Smoke,” attached after the break.
TINDERSTICKS on the making of Falling Down A Mountain:
“Our last album, The Hungry Saw, was our first in five years. We didn’t really know what to expect on its release; we had just six concerts booked, and everyone was a little nervous…
That was April 2008. The success of those concerts, including the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Folies Bergere in Paris, took us all by surprise and led to seventy more shows in Europe and the US – ending with a beautiful summer’s evening headlining The Serpentine Sessions in Hyde Park in July of 2010.
In our ‘downtime’, we have scored 2 film soundtracks for Claire Denis: the much loved and critically acclaimed 35 Shots Of Rum and, due for release in the new year, White Material, which stars Isabelle Huppert. Somewhere during that time, we were also commissioned to create the music for the Louis Vuitton summer collection in Paris.
From those nervous beginnings a new unity and sense of direction grew. Where once our touring days were spent hanging around, killing time, now we found ourselves cobbling together acoustic rehearsals for new ideas in dressing rooms and venue corridors. There was a growing need to explore and we quickly started working in the studio.
Very soon this work became Falling Down A Mountain, our eighth studio album. Recorded at the band’s own Le Chien Chanceux studio in rural France and at ICP in Brussels between May and July 2009 and mixed at Le Chien’ in September and October.
With hindsight, The Hungry Saw now seems like an album made within the confines of what we knew; in making Falling Down A Mountain those boundaries became irrelevant.
The title track was borne out of a collection of moments; a dreamed idea recorded into a mobile phone in the night evolving into a spontaneous recording with the band, Terry Edwards’ trumpet (we didn’t play him the song, just gave him some clues, ran the tape and he played into the silence), singing with David Kitt and his great overdubbed guitar… All, more or less, made in one or two takes. Sometimes you just get lucky.
From the dream of building Le Chien’ three years ago, this is the first recording that gets close to what we have been looking for and gives all the effort some meaning.
The album ran on from there in many different directions, but always with a shared feeling between all the musicians and a sense of discovery towards the ideas. Highlights were many and varied: singing a duet with Mary Margaret O’Hara; new additions to the group in the shape of Earl Harvin (drums and vocals) and David Kitt (guitar and vocals) brought with them new colours to the music, and their voices combining with bassist Dan McKinna’s realised a long dreamt of “vocal section” within the band. In addition, Jo Fraser and Andy Nice, who have played a big part in our soundtrack work, provided some great flute and cello moments.
We hope you enjoy.”
—
Listen to the first single, “Black Smoke” HERE
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 9:53 pm and is filed under music, prog-unrelated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
