The History of Colour TV - Split Blood

The last time The History of Colour TV appeared on these pages they were topping the bill in Nugazer's end-of-year album list.

Fast-forward three months and Berlin's noisiest offspring are back with a brand new single and another dose of crackling synthgaze.

Split Blood is the band's first release since Saint Marie gave Emerald Cures Chic Ills a physical release in early 2013 and builds on that momentum as scuffed guitars tear holes in measured synth riffs and bursts of tremolo buffer verses like warped punctuation. It's a notable return to form and a clear statement of intent for 2014.

Split Blood is backed by a brace of remixes; the first from label-mates Bloody Knives who offer a bruising breakbeat imprint, and the second from home-town collaborators E_S_D, whose skewed percussion blurs into melting drone.

Split Blood is out today on Saint Marie Records as a limited one-sided 7" or digital download.

Lilies On Mars - Dot To Dot

Signed to Saint Marie Records and championed by the likes of Simon Raymonde (Bella Union chief and one-time Cocteau Twin), Lilies On Mars have made a stirring return to the world of dream pop.

Dot-To-Dot is the band's first full-length album to be given a worldwide release and boasts an absorbing sound that flits between abstract experimentation and exquisite electro-pop.

Featuring the singles Dream of Bees (released digitally through Bandcamp) and Oceanic Landscape - a collaboration with Italian songwriter Franco Battiato - Dot To Dot achieves elegance and intimacy amidst polished production.

From the delicate dream pop of Sugar Is Gone to the stark opening bars of See You Sun, Lilies on Mars segue introspection with candor to offer a record that threatens brittle fragility but ultimately delivers an all-consuming warmth.

Comparisons will be sought, and whilst references emerge in the form of Cranes and Beach House it would be churlish to not acknowledge a band that sit very much in their own mold - a fact enhanced by the varied instrumentation on show - as an array of synthesisers jostle amongst vintage organs and a blend of live and digital drum loops.

And whilst there are guitars here too (borne witness by the swooning, ambient fuzz of So Far America), perhaps the most effective tool at the group's disposal is the immersive vocal talent of bandleaders Lisa Masia and Marina Cristofalo. For it is their hushed refrain that gives such depth and rarity to this wonderful record.

Dot To Dot is released today through Saint Marie Records, whilst digital copies can be found at Bandcamp.

Shortwave Broadcaster - Everything You Do Is Deja-Vu

Keith Canisius, perhaps best known for his work with Rumskib, is back with a new alter ego and a new release under the banner of Shortwave Broadcaster.

Splicing multi-layered electronica with rich ambient textures, Everything You Do Is Deja-Vu takes the experimental attitudes of the Berlin School pioneers and melds them with contemporary production techniques to produce a sound as abstract as it is absorbing.

Opening track Eternal Waves sees swathes of synth jostle for place on a deep ambient bedrock, whilst the dark symphony of Europa draws heavily on the influence of William Basinksi; cited by Canisius as an inspiration to the project.

Closing couplet, Recognition and Everything You Do... forge a complex myriad of samples and loops - the former a forgotten memory played out on a strummed guitar, the latter a cut and paste patchwork of delicate drone.

Everything You Do Is Deja-Vu is digitally released by Saint Marie Records on 10th September.

Drowner - You're Beautiful, I Forgive You

August 13th sees the release of You're Beautiful, I Forgive You, the long-awaited debut album from Nugazer favourites, Drowner.

Following on from 2012's self-titled EP (a record that saw some serious love on these pages) You're Beautiful... sees the band return to familiar territory with twelve tracks of effortless dream pop decadence.

Recognisable, yet unique, Drowner's sound merges the hazy spin of Cocteau Twins bliss pop (Glow) with the pedal-heavy punch of classic-era Cure (On Bright Days).

It's a breathless mix, rarely more evidenced than in stand-out track Stay With Me (featured below) and the delicate brooding of Not There. Songs that draw heavily on the album's themes of loss and forgiveness.

Elsewhere, the atmospheric charge of Mirror shimmers in the wake of Anna Bouchard's transcendent vocals, whilst the breakbreak melancholy of You is peppered with waspish guitars and reverberating piano stabs.

You're Beautiful I Forgive You is a fine record and an impressive debut. Released through Saint Marie Records, the album is available to stream or download from Saint Marie's Bandcamp page.

Panda Riot - Serious Radical Girls

As if 2012 wasn't already exceeding its promise to be a wonderful musical year, June 5th sees the return of Panda Riot with a typically infectious slice of sunshine shoegaze. The Chicago-based quartet are set to release Serious Radical Girls on limited edition 7" (just 400 copies are being pressed) through Saint Marie Records.

Backed up by Golden Age Precursor and a sprawling SPC ECO remix of the title track; Serious Radical Girls presents Panda Riot's first new material since 2010's Far & Near EP - and boy do they deliver.

Bursting with the innocence of high school power-pop, Serious Radical Girls has a growling undertow of incendiary guitars and echoing piano loops; but it's the jubilant headrush of Rebecca Scott's vocals that make the sound so utterly charming.

It's a huge return to form, and one that bodes well with a long-awaited LP, Northern Automatic Music, scheduled for release later in the year.


To pre-order your copy of Serious Radical Girls, head to Saint Marie's online store.

Drowner - Drowner

One of this year's most hotly anticipated releases was the debut EP of Texan four-piece, Drowner. Melding influences as diverse as REM, The Cure and My Bloody Valentine, their eponymous CD is a sparkling journey through the very best in contemporary shoegaze and dream pop.

Led by Darren Emanuel (Swimming In, Apples To Earth) and spearheaded by the opulent vocals of Anna Bouchard, Drowner are yet another feather in the cap for the remarkable US independent, Saint Marie Records - a label that boasts a roster including Sway, Trespassers William and The Sunshine Factory.

Drowner is an record spanning vast sonic spectrums. From the lazy calm of Never Gonna Go Away to the euphoric Here (featured below), you sense it's a genuine labour of love... so it comes as little surprise that Emmanuel took three years between the recording of early demos to the recruitment of final members, Sean Evans (guitar) and Mike Brewer (bass).

But it's a patient approach that paid off. Indeed, as the first bars of EP-opener, Point Dume, ring in, it's clear we're looking at something a little bit special... It's an immediate rush; a hit of neo-Cocteau's bliss-pop and a soaring statement of intent; buffered only by the emergence of edgier tracks, such as the near-gothic Chime.

Immaculately produced and intelligently written, this is a record of genuine craft - and never more so than when consumed by the FX-laden ambience of Emmanuel's patchwork guitars. The lucid dreamtime of Tiny Ship explodes into a dizzying pedal-charged roar, and the glorious This threatens to literally burst with joy.

Drowner concludes with the addition of some not unwelcome remixes. Emmanuel's own Apple's To Earth add breaks and funk to a reworking of Chime, and Nikki Gunz slaps a dubstep imprint over Never Go Away.

Drowner is out now on Saint Marie Records. To discover more about the band, visit their official website here or stream music via Bandcamp and Facebook.