Bad Elephant Music is delighted to announce the release of Bruised Sky, the third album from Manchester based progressive quartet, We Are Kin.
Bruised Sky sees We are Kin move away from the ‘universe’ of their preceding albums with a record that is the first true collaboration for the whole band. As keyboards player Daniel Zambas explains:“Bruised Sky is a stand-alone, no story line album. It’s very much a band effort, subconsciously reflective and introspective”.
In a significant departure from previous albums there are no guitars on Bruised Sky. “I’ve beenexperimenting with different synth sounds and patterns”, says Dan, “and I was conscious that Ididn’t want to play guitar. It’s important that we keep evolving as band, from Pandora, to ….and Iknow… and now onto Bruised Sky”.
On working with BEM Dan added “It’s the easiest decision in the world, and they provide us with the purest form of support”.
Bruised Sky will be released on Bad Elephant Music on both CD and digital download on 12th July 2019. Pre-orders will be announced soon.
We Are Kin are a progressive rock quartet from Manchester, and formed in 2011. Combining a shared love for the musical prowess of the Seventies, the recording gloss of the Eighties and songcraft of the Nineties, the founding members Gary Boast and Dan Zambas, met while playing together in pop band, The Reclusive Barclay Brothers.
Gary and Dan began discussing music during rehearsal breaks and very quickly realized that they shared a love of progressive music, specifically Genesis. It was during these discussions that the pair embarked on the idea of collaborating and writing their own music to fulfil these progressive leanings.
The resulting concept album Pandora – described as “a mature and well realized album” by The Progressive Aspect – was released on Bad Elephant Music in 2014. Its sequel, 2016’s ….and I know… – described by Prog Magazine as “formidable” – continued the Pandora story.
For ….and I know… Gary and Dan were joined by Emma Brewin-Caddy, who brings experience of working with choirs and a focus on strong vocal harmonies, and Lee Braddock with fifteen years of experience on bass guitar. Bruised Sky sees the whole band making writing contributions for the first time. Dan: “this is the first album we’ve worked on as a full band. Lee gets to unleash his inner bard on one track, whilst Emma has written all the other lyrics for the album”.
Bad Elephant Music is delighted to announce that Dial, the second album from progressive electronic rock project Shineback, will be released in September, with pre-orders now open at the BEM Bandcamp store.
Five years ago the release of Shineback‘s first album Rise Up Forgotten, Return Destroyed saw the launch of the fledgling Bad Elephant Music. Its ground-breaking style, incorporating elements of rock, pop and EDM in a heady fusion of styles was widely acclaimed on its launch, with one commentator describing it as “possibly the most progressive album ever”.
Unlike its predecessor, Dial has no central story linking the songs, though the theme of communication provides a thread through the album.
“We humans do a marvelous job of failing to communicate with one another, often when it matters most”, says Shineback main man Simon Godfrey. “All the songs on Dial carry that as an underlying theme. Musically, very much like the debut album and last year’s Minotaur EP, the new record seeks to hop the fences between genres, just to enjoy the process of getting dirty while in the hunt for buried sonic treasures”.
Alongside Simon’s regular writing partner (and labelmate) Robert Ramsay, guests returning from Rise Up Forgotten, Return Destroyed include Matt Stevens (The Fierce & The Dead), Dec Burke (Frost*, Darwin’s Radio), Hywel Bennett (Dec Burke Band) and Henry Rogers (Touchstone, Mostly Autumn). New collaborators Tom Slatter, Daniel Zambas (We Are Kin) and Simon’s bandmates in Valdez Joe Cardillo and Tom Hyatt make this album very much a Bad Elephant family affair.
Dial will be released on CD and download on 14th September 2018.
Bad Elephant Music:
http://music.badelephant.co.uk/Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/BadElephantMusic/
Twitter: @elephantbad
The last five years have been a whirlwind of activity for Simon Godfrey, the creative force behind Shineback. Since releasing Rise Up Forgotten, Return Destroyed in 2013, Simon has married, moved from Streatham to Philadelphia, released a solo album, Motherland, under his own name as well as three instalments of the digital Black Bag Archive series, as well as forming the well-respected rock band Valdez, releasing the superb This album in 2017.
Originally emerging from the neo-prog scene of the late Eighties, Simon made the switch from drums to guitar and vocals to become part of Tinyfish, one of the mainstays of the progressive music scene in the South East of England in the early part of the twenty-first century. Simon has become recognized as one of the most distinctive and highly acclaimed songwriters of his generation. His projects cut through genre boundaries, veering wildly from acoustic introspection through power pop rock with Valdez to full-on electronic rock experimentation with Shineback.
Dial is the third part of the Shineback musical journey, following Rise up Forgotten, Return Destroyed and the Minotaur EP. Together with long-time collaborator, lyricist and spoken word artist Robert Ramsay, Simon takes us on a rollercoaster musical journey which is sure to excite and delight all lovers of adventurous rock, pop, and EDM.
When Simon isn’t creating music or playing live with Valdez across the USA he can be found bewildering fellow dogs walkers as he and Dora take their morning constitutionals.
Bad Elephant Music is delighted to announce that ‘Where The Moonlight Snows’, the second album from Manchester-based prog/pop/indie/rock band Mothertongue, will be released worldwide on March 23rd 2018, and preorders are now open!
‘Where The Moonlight Snows’ is perhaps a more consistent set of songs than the band’s explosive debut, ‘Unsongs’, which was a highlight of BEM’s 2016. Louis Smith’s songwriting is translated by the band into a cohesive yet diverse album which will delight all fans of good pop and rock music. The album also sees the debut of Mothertongue’s new drummer, Filip Pardej, alongside Louis, Phil and Mark’s triple guitar attack, Will Holden’s bass grooves, and Andy Malbon’s trumpet providing unique colour. Daniel Zambas from fellow BEMers We Are Kin guests on keyboards.
Pre-orders are open now from the BEM webstore – follow the link below to reserve your copy now, and get the preview track ‘Earthbound’ immediately!
After a very successful show last year Abel Ganz will once again stage their ‘Prog Before Christmas’ event in Glasgow which this year will be held on Saturday December 17th.
Drummer Denis Smith said “last year’s event was such a success with both Tiger Moth Tales, and We Are Kin making the night so special that we started discussing among ourselves whether it might be a worthwhile idea to try and make it a regular, annual event, with special guests invited along each year”. Very soon after we began talking about it we got the news that our dear friend and one of the original founding members of AG – Hugh Carter has been diagnosed cancer. So – this kind of made our minds up for us and we are now organizing The Prog Before Xmas 2016 as a charity fund raising event with all the proceeds going to https://www.maggiescentres.org/
Like last year Abel Ganz will be joined by two other Prog acts to round out the bill. John Young from Lifesigns – who will perform a solo spot. https://www.facebook.com/Signslife/and Big Hogg from Glasgow https://www.facebook.com/bighoggband/
Denis says “we are absolutely thrilled that both these acts have agreed to join us to help make this what we hope will be a memorable night and hopefully together we will also raise lots of money for a very worthy cause. We recently became aware of newcomers [and fellow Glaswegian band] Big Hogg and have all quickly become great fans of their style. Really interesting, great tunes, and definitely a band to watch.
We are all also huge fans of Lifesigns so of course we are all delighted that John has so kindly agreed to come and play for us.
This year, the Abel Ganz set promises to be quite different and a bit of a ‘one off’ performance. Denis explains – “it so happens that before we learned that Hugh Carter was ill both he and the other original founding member of AG, Hew Montgomery, have over the last six months or so been preparing a reissue of the very 1st AG album Gratuitous Flash from way back in 1984. This got me thinking – since I knew this reissue was coming up wouldn’t it be a great idea to try and reunite the original line up of Abe lGanz to play a couple of tunes from Gratuitous Flash at the 2016 Prog Before Xmas event. I knew that this would be something that would be a real thrill for Hugh and when I talked to him about it he was delighted!”
So – this is something I have been working away at the last couple of months and it has proven to be quite a challenge as at least one of the original line up of the band had not been seen or heard from in over twenty years and the rest of the guys have not played together in decades. However, I am happy to say that I have now tracked down every single one of them and once they learned of Hugh’s illness they have all agreed to play at this year’s Prog Before Xmas!!!
So – please spread the news far and wide. This will be the ONLY gig that Abel Ganz will do this year.
Thanks very much and really hope to see as many of you there as possible. Love to all – Abel Ganz
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
