IM S/T: Pelican Guitarist Trevor de Brauw Explores His Inner Eno With Chord
Posted on February 16, 2009
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Strike a CHORD—vogue, vogue, vogue.
So we were minding our business the other day when who IM’s the s/t office but Trevor de Brauw. The Pelican guitarist had apparently seen our news story on their looming record deal with Southern Lord—a story he proceeded to clarify. While we can’t tell you who’s really guesting on Pelican’s next EP, we did manage to uncover a mound of details about Flora, the Neurot debut of Chord.
De Brauw has helped lead the Chicago-based “drone collective” for more than five years. Now before you start making condescending Sunn O))) comparisons, know that Chord whips up an “ambient wash of notes” on their first proper full-length. For an idea of what this actually means, check out the exclusive excerpt below (complete with our unedited IM interview), as well as a pack of “ringdrones” they recorded for your iPhone.
IM S/T: Sally Shapiro
Posted on March 7, 2008
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Sally Shapiro is so terrified of performing that her first brief tour of the U.S. (including a stop tonight at New York’s Mercury Lounge) is a DJ-only affair alongside her Italo-sculpting producer Johan Agebjörn. While this’ll be exciting to all the disco revivalists out there—the kind that equally worship Lindstrøm, Giorgio Moroder and Metro Area—those of us who fell for Shapiro’s Disco Romance disc are going to have to wait a little longer to hear any of those tracks in a live setting.
In the meantime, Shapiro has not one but two volumes of remix collections on the way this spring, the first of which drops on April 15 and features expansive and airy pop (Holy Fuck’s “Find My Soul” treatment), wobbly synths and slight Depeche Mode melodies (Junior Boy’s “Jackie Junior”), and a downright epic Lindstrøm remix (”Time to Let Go”) that starts off in Cybotron territory with electro breaks and vocals that weave in and out of the mix like the haunted forest whispers that taunt us in Lost. In other words, every contributor twists their track into new territories far removed from Shapiro’s original recordings. Oh by the way: If you can’t wait to hear all of the above on CD, Remix Romance Vol. 1 is available through Amazon’s digital store here. Vol. 2, on the other hand, will be available on May 13 and include remixes from DNTEL, Solvent, and Russian Futurists.
Which brings us to a very special Sally Shapiro feature: our first edition of “IM S/T,” an extensive unedited conversation with an artist over—you guessed it—Instant Messenger. Check it out after the jump along with some of Johan’s DJ mixes and other mixed media links …
