Sonic Cathedral - The Website That Celebrates Itself

DEAD MELLOTRON ALBUM – DIGITAL RELEASE TODAY

Sonic Cathedral — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:03:18 +0000

Dead Mellotron’s new album ‘Glitter’ is out today on iTunes and all major download services. Unfortunately the limited-edition vinyl version (which comes on clear wax with a glitter print sleeve) has been delayed until June 4.

The album has already been getting some rather impressive reviews…

“Like Beach House doing the dirty with Bradford Cox” – NME

“Euphorically groovesome… provokes nothing but pleasure” – Q

“As good as anything My Bloody Valentine at their finest have produced” – The VPME

“Betrays smarts in advance of your average FX-pedal pushing crew” – The Stool Pigeon

“It’s back to 1991′s alternate world, dream-pop in extremis” – Bowlegs

“A wash of tumultuous, reverberating sound that’s both beautiful and accessible” – Sounds XP

“A fine piece of work” – The 405

“The bar for any shoegazing LP has just been raised considerably higher” – Bearded

“One of the albums of the year, without a doubt” – Music OMH

If that hasn’t convinced you, then check out the two tracks below…

COME ON, BE A SPACE CADET

Sonic Cathedral — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:53:18 +0000

Broad Church Mix Thirty Two by Sonic Cathedral on Mixcloud

Here’s our latest mix, as broadcast on Strangeways Radio last night, but minus the sub-Bob Harris whispering at the start. The ‘space cadet’ is a reference to the little sample of Sesame Street’s David at the end.

Also featured on the mix are Spectrum (‘Neon Sigh’ from their incredible ‘Soul Kiss (Glide Divine)’ album), Stereolab, Deerhunter and a track they covered on a recent Marc Riley session, Magazine’s ‘The Light Pours Out Of Me’. Plus there’s New Order, a track from Nico’s single with The Invisible Girls (aka Martin Hannett et al) and some classics from Colourbox, AR Kane and their collaboration as M/A/R/R/S – not this one, but the AA-side, ‘Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)’ – surely the first and last shoegaze Number One single?

FAIREWELL – REMIX EP OUT NOW / LAUNCH PARTY TONIGHT

Sonic Cathedral — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:04:22 +0000

Fairewell’s ‘Poor, Poor Grendel Remix EP’ is out today via all major download services, including iTunes, plus on a very limited-edition hand-numbered CD, with a die cut cover by ACDSleeve.

The EP contains six reworkings of tracks from ‘Poor, Poor Grendel’. The full tracklisting is as follows:

1. Born Under A Bad Sign (Pat RL Remix)
2. Others Of Us (Bad Meat Club Remix)
3. Honey Street (The All Golden Remix)
4. Wild Meadow/I’ve Been Locked Away (Team Ghost Remix)
5. So May You All (Younghusband Remix)
6. Born Under A Bad Sign (Echo Lake Remix)

The launch party for the EP takes place tonight (April 30) at The Social, London W1. Fairewell headlines with a full band – and also selects the films that will be projected. In support are Charlie Boyer (not the drummer from Yeti Lane!) and the mysterious Dawn Hunger (who you would be well advised to get down early to see). Guest DJs include Echo Lake, Younghusband, Chris Rotter and maybe more. Doors are at 7pm.

Tickets are still available for a mere fiver.

CELEBRITY PEDALBOARD #4 – SONIC BOOM

Sonic Cathedral — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:52:48 +0000

Here’s a slight twist on the Celebrity Pedalboard concept – Pete ‘Sonic Boom’ Kember tells us how and why the LA-based boutique handmade stompbox manufacturers Acid Fuzz ended up making his signature pedal.

The pedal includes the fuzz and treble/bass booster combination used by Sonic on much of his work with Spacemen 3 and Spectrum, plus a repeat percussion unit. The (Spacemen) 3-in-one pedal also incorporates extra parameter access, including external pedal control option for repeat speed, FX send/return loop, extended repeat rates and more. If, like me, this last bit goes over your head, maybe this look inside will help…

Sonic says: “About 12 years ago I had a friend called Steve Thomas deconstruct and copy the internal effects from my Vox Starstream guitar so I could use the effects on other instruments (the fuzz, bass boost and repeat bass guitar on ‘The Lonesome Death Of Johnny Ace’ came that way, for example).

“He made a small run of the pedals called Sonic Starstreamer. People kept asking me where they could get one of them, but Steve was deep in his work teaching theoretical physics and working with EMS synthesizers on their remake of the Synthi HI-FLI guitar effects and other amazing EMS interfaces and add-ons as Digitana Electronics.

“About a year or so ago, Jon at Acid Fuzz approached me about doing a Sonic Boom pedal with his company. He had already built a prototype with a load of extra features not available on the Sonic Starstreamer version, giving access to all the parameters of the circuits.

“It’s nice to see these effects being honestly remade using the best components – some of which are absolutely critical to the sound.”

The pedal is currently at the prototype stage, but The Brian Jonestown Massacre have placed a large order for their upcoming tour, and you can see some of their special models below.

GRAVENHURST, NEIL HALSTEAD, FAIREWELL – IN PHOTOS

Sonic Cathedral — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:50:16 +0000

Last night’s sold-out show featuring Gravenhurst, Neil Halstead and Fairewell at St Pancras Old Church in London was wonderful. What better way to illustrate this than via the medium of blurry Hipstamatic photos?

FAIREWELL

NEIL HALSTEAD

GRAVENHURST

GRAVENHURST – LIVE! TONIGHT! SOLD OUT!

Sonic Cathedral — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:00:06 +0000

Gravenhurst plays an intimate solo show tonight in the beautiful surroundings of St Pancras Old Church in London tonight, with support from Neil Halstead and our very own Fairewell. The bad news is it’s completely sold out.

We will report back tomorrow with some photos of what is sure to be a very memorable gig. In the meantime enjoy this track from Gravenhurst’s incredible new album, ‘The Ghost In Daylight’, which is out next week.

AND IT’S HELLO AGAIN FROM FAIREWELL

Sonic Cathedral — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:21:07 +0000

Just a few months after considering quitting live gigs – and after finding fame as Vice’s Daily Mail spoof Samantha Sick – Fairewell returns to the stage with three shows to coincide with the release of his new remix EP.

The shows are as follows:

Wednesday, April 25 – London – St Pancras Old Church – SOLD OUT
Friday, April 27 – Bristol – Grain Barge – BUY TICKETS
Monday, April 30 – London – The Social – BUY TICKETS

The first two shows are solo outings supporting Gravenhurst, the other is a full band headline set and the launch party for the ‘Poor, Poor Grendel Remix EP’.

The EP includes reworkings from Team Ghost (also available on a limited-edition split 7″ with M83′s ‘Midnight City’), Echo Lake, Younghusband, Bad Meat Club, Pat RL and this one from The All Golden, aka Pete Gofton…

The EP is available as a download and as a limited-edition of 100 hand-numbered CDs.

CELEBRITY PEDALBOARD #3 – MAT FLINT

Sonic Cathedral — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:00:44 +0000

Finally, here’s the third in our occasional series. Mat Flint fronted Revolver back in the early 1990s, had a stint in Death In Vegas and currently plays in Deep Cut, whose second album ‘Disorientation’ came out late last year.

“It may not be the most unusual or outlandish choice, but my favourite guitar pedal is my Russian Sovtek Big Muff. I’ve used loads of different distortion/fuzz pedals over the years, and loved some for a while, then gone off them… but I always come back to the Russian Big Muff.

“It gives you huge-sounding, powerful distortion – but maintains the clarity of the notes or chords that you’re playing, however high you crank up the levels. I play a lot of droney, open-string chords and, while you get a massive, in-your-face wall of noise, you can still hear the definition of the chords through that.

“It’s just a really great pedal that I never grow tired of – and it sounds amazing through my Vox!”

YETI LANE – UK HEADLINE SHOWS IN JUNE

Sonic Cathedral — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:00:29 +0000

Following their support tour with Diagrams earlier this year, Yeti Lane have announced three UK headline shows in June, alongside their already announced special Summer Solstice show with Damo Suzuki.

The Paris-based psych-pop duo will play the following shows:

Monday, June 18 – Brighton – Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar – BUY TICKETS
Wednesday, June 20 – Manchester – Kraak – BUY TICKETS
Thursday, June 21 – London – The Shacklewell Arms (with Damo Suzuki) – BUY TICKETS
Friday, June 22 – Norwich – Arts Centre – BUY TICKETS

The Manchester show sees Sonic Cathedral joining forces once again with the good people of Grey Lantern, and features Hookworms, one of our favourite new bands, as support. All of these shows are not to be missed.

Yeti Lane’s album ‘The Echo Show’ is out now and ‘Warning Sensations’ will be released as a single on June 18 to coincide with the dates. Later in the year, the band also play at at End Of The Road Festival.

NEW DEAD MELLOTRON SONG – LISTEN NOW

Sonic Cathedral — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:56:52 +0000

The physical release of Dead Mellotron’s incredible new album ‘Glitter’ may have gone back to May 21 because of manufacturing delays, but fear not, because you can hear new song ‘Making Up’ right now.

‘Making Up’ is one of a number of tracks from ‘Glitter’ that have already had radio play courtesy of Lauren Laverne and Gideon Coe on BBC 6 Music and Simon Raymonde and Shell Zenner on Amazing Radio. Some early online reviews of the album have described it as “breathtaking” and “as good as anything that My Bloody Valentine at their finest ever produced”. Quite some compliment, but understandable as, over the course of its seven short tracks, ‘Glitter’ has more of an impact than most albums twice that length. In fact, it’s the kind of record that can easily make you end up in Pseud’s Corner, so it’s probably better to let the music do the talking…

We also came across this rather nice fan-made video for the song on YouTube…