SATURDAY MAY 19, 2018
529 Presents:
529 & Irrelevant Music Present:
Flamingo Shadow
Smoke Bellow | Sisterwife | + FREE Dance Party After Show w/ DJ Sweater Summer!
Flamingo Shadow
Cosmic family band Flamingo Shadow harnesses the power of Art Pop to win the hearts and minds of fellow Earth Americans. The Atlanta, GA group synthesizes musical styles from around the world in their relentless hunt for the perfect groove. The band’s character-steeped lineup includes Lady Nice (lead vox), Star Girl (vox/keyboards), Big Man (guitar/bass/vox), Sin D (drums/synth percussion), and Beast Supreme (producer/guitar/bass/electronics). Although the band’s catalog heavily emphasizes hip-shaking grooves, their influences are deep and wide-ranging, including everything from New Wave to Funk, Disco, Krautrock, Exotica, and Tropicalia.
Cosmic family band Flamingo Shadow harnesses the power of Art Pop to win the hearts and minds of fellow Earth Americans. The Atlanta, GA group synthesizes musical styles from around the world in their relentless hunt for the perfect groove. The band’s character-steeped lineup includes Lady Nice (lead vox), Star Girl (vox/keyboards), Big Man (guitar/bass/vox), Sin D (drums/synth percussion), and Beast Supreme (producer/guitar/bass/electronics). Although the band’s catalog heavily emphasizes hip-shaking grooves, their influences are deep and wide-ranging, including everything from New Wave to Funk, Disco, Krautrock, Exotica, and Tropicalia.
Smoke Bellow
Transcontinental, experimental duo Smoke Bellow have been at it since 2012, relocating from Australia to Baltimore, MD & back again and then BACK AGAIN (now firmly settled in Baltimore). The duo released the “Blooming/Middling” LP in 2014, followed by “Isolation 3000” in 2018 (both on Baltimore label Ehse Records) After a line-up shuffle, they eventually recruited one of their favorite drummers and dear friend, Emmanuel Nicolaidis (Thank You, Oh Hang). which found the duo refining their sound into a dizzyingly attractive mixture of kosmiche serenity, minimalist composition, test-card psychedelia, and highlife guitar.
With “Open for Business” the three members set out to create a set of songs more immediate and bare than previous outings. The album title itself is a cheeky reference to Maryland governor Larry Hogan’s less than inspired motto “we’re open for business”. Half of the songs were written in a room together and the second half via email (for obvious reasons). At the time they were listening to a lot of post punk and were struck with the partnership of drums and bass as propulsive instruments. The trio started writing songs around that idea - with the rhythm as a brace to hang their decorations.
Sonically, Smoke Bellow are inspired by disparate sources. The heyday of Compass Point studios’ famed rhythm section of Sly and Robbie sustained them for months. Others included good old VU, ESG, guitar hero Zani Diabate, The Raincoats (especially their under-appreciated second album, Odyshape), the frenetic sound collisions of the Flying Lizards, the ever warm blanket of Yo La Tengo, the evolving repetition of Stereolab, the understated genius of Asa Osborne, as well as Philip Glass and Steve Reich. The David Byrne/ Robert Wilson "Knee plays" reminded them of the joy of the spoken word set to music. Lyrically, Best & McHugh drew from life in Baltimore, from isolation (again), memories of life in Melbourne, their friends and each other. “We wanted to talk about resilience and resistance.” Says Best. Recording and mixing took place between a remote cabin in the Smoky Mountains and Tempo House in Baltimore with Jared Paolini. “Maybe Something” includes cello from Owen Gardner (Horse Lords). Words on "Night Light" by Daniel Stephensen.
Transcontinental, experimental duo Smoke Bellow have been at it since 2012, relocating from Australia to Baltimore, MD & back again and then BACK AGAIN (now firmly settled in Baltimore). The duo released the “Blooming/Middling” LP in 2014, followed by “Isolation 3000” in 2018 (both on Baltimore label Ehse Records) After a line-up shuffle, they eventually recruited one of their favorite drummers and dear friend, Emmanuel Nicolaidis (Thank You, Oh Hang). which found the duo refining their sound into a dizzyingly attractive mixture of kosmiche serenity, minimalist composition, test-card psychedelia, and highlife guitar.
With “Open for Business” the three members set out to create a set of songs more immediate and bare than previous outings. The album title itself is a cheeky reference to Maryland governor Larry Hogan’s less than inspired motto “we’re open for business”. Half of the songs were written in a room together and the second half via email (for obvious reasons). At the time they were listening to a lot of post punk and were struck with the partnership of drums and bass as propulsive instruments. The trio started writing songs around that idea - with the rhythm as a brace to hang their decorations.
Sonically, Smoke Bellow are inspired by disparate sources. The heyday of Compass Point studios’ famed rhythm section of Sly and Robbie sustained them for months. Others included good old VU, ESG, guitar hero Zani Diabate, The Raincoats (especially their under-appreciated second album, Odyshape), the frenetic sound collisions of the Flying Lizards, the ever warm blanket of Yo La Tengo, the evolving repetition of Stereolab, the understated genius of Asa Osborne, as well as Philip Glass and Steve Reich. The David Byrne/ Robert Wilson "Knee plays" reminded them of the joy of the spoken word set to music. Lyrically, Best & McHugh drew from life in Baltimore, from isolation (again), memories of life in Melbourne, their friends and each other. “We wanted to talk about resilience and resistance.” Says Best. Recording and mixing took place between a remote cabin in the Smoky Mountains and Tempo House in Baltimore with Jared Paolini. “Maybe Something” includes cello from Owen Gardner (Horse Lords). Words on "Night Light" by Daniel Stephensen.
Sisterwife
In Atlanta music circles, David Norbery is best known as the artist behind Nomen Novum, a long-running, genre-defying solo project that Norbery summarily put on hold in 2016. Shortly after, he began experimenting with ambient drone and left-field electronica via the alias Night Heron, and although much of that work has remained hidden from the public eye, what has surfaced has been stark and languid—mesmeric soundscapes that ask the listener to retreat within themselves and drift into a trance. In the past year or so, however, Norbery has made a conscious shift from that reclusive, sometimes spectral aesthetic in the hopes of discovering a sound that is more organic, vulnerable, and human. In doing so, he abandoned most of his synths and electronics in favor of softer, more spacious songs the rely predominately on his vocals and fingerpicked guitars. He’s taken to calling the project Sisterwife, a term he finds “mysterious and transgressive,” and which marks a significant departure for a songwriter grown accustomed to wrapping himself up in philosophical conundrums and idiosyncratic mystique. “I had been listening to a lot of hypnotic, insular electronic music, and what I was doing as Night Heron reflected that,” Norbery explains via email. “I would wake up in the morning before work, turn on my machines and make these little sketches as the light filled my studio. I recorded a whole album that way and was really happy with it, but never released it. At a certain point it got harder to connect with that type of music. That started around the time Trump was elected, I guess. I kind of didn’t want to be in a cocoon anymore. A lot of my favorite records in recent years have sounded convincingly inhuman—robotic, ghostly, alien, atmospheric. I love that, but I missed a certain human connection. It’s been challenging and fun to work with guitars and microphones again.” “Reclaim the Dust,” which we’re excited to premiere this morning, is Sisterwife’s formal debut and it finds Norbery in a pensive space, crooning over spidery guitars and muted textures. The song features Lisa Highfill of Lois Righteous on backing vocals and together the pair weave an alluring web of delicate harmonies that feel less brooding than self-reflective. Overall, it’s a springtime ode to transformational change, one that implores the listener to “unpin their fear” and seek out the courage to evolve. It’s sage advice Norbery has been actively implementing into his own life, albeit with some measure of restraint. Although he says he’s written about 16 songs and is the process of tracking a few of them, don’t expect a whirlwind of activity anytime soon. For now, he’s content to take his time and let things take their due course. “I’m not in any rush,” Norbery says. “Right now I just want to start playing shows and see what happens. Starting from square one is scary but also exciting.”
In Atlanta music circles, David Norbery is best known as the artist behind Nomen Novum, a long-running, genre-defying solo project that Norbery summarily put on hold in 2016. Shortly after, he began experimenting with ambient drone and left-field electronica via the alias Night Heron, and although much of that work has remained hidden from the public eye, what has surfaced has been stark and languid—mesmeric soundscapes that ask the listener to retreat within themselves and drift into a trance. In the past year or so, however, Norbery has made a conscious shift from that reclusive, sometimes spectral aesthetic in the hopes of discovering a sound that is more organic, vulnerable, and human. In doing so, he abandoned most of his synths and electronics in favor of softer, more spacious songs the rely predominately on his vocals and fingerpicked guitars. He’s taken to calling the project Sisterwife, a term he finds “mysterious and transgressive,” and which marks a significant departure for a songwriter grown accustomed to wrapping himself up in philosophical conundrums and idiosyncratic mystique. “I had been listening to a lot of hypnotic, insular electronic music, and what I was doing as Night Heron reflected that,” Norbery explains via email. “I would wake up in the morning before work, turn on my machines and make these little sketches as the light filled my studio. I recorded a whole album that way and was really happy with it, but never released it. At a certain point it got harder to connect with that type of music. That started around the time Trump was elected, I guess. I kind of didn’t want to be in a cocoon anymore. A lot of my favorite records in recent years have sounded convincingly inhuman—robotic, ghostly, alien, atmospheric. I love that, but I missed a certain human connection. It’s been challenging and fun to work with guitars and microphones again.” “Reclaim the Dust,” which we’re excited to premiere this morning, is Sisterwife’s formal debut and it finds Norbery in a pensive space, crooning over spidery guitars and muted textures. The song features Lisa Highfill of Lois Righteous on backing vocals and together the pair weave an alluring web of delicate harmonies that feel less brooding than self-reflective. Overall, it’s a springtime ode to transformational change, one that implores the listener to “unpin their fear” and seek out the courage to evolve. It’s sage advice Norbery has been actively implementing into his own life, albeit with some measure of restraint. Although he says he’s written about 16 songs and is the process of tracking a few of them, don’t expect a whirlwind of activity anytime soon. For now, he’s content to take his time and let things take their due course. “I’m not in any rush,” Norbery says. “Right now I just want to start playing shows and see what happens. Starting from square one is scary but also exciting.”