Colin Williams (Guitars/synth/keyboard), Ciaran Cullen (bass guitar, synth), David Paul (drums/sequenced electronics). All tracks and instrumentals written by the band.
Influences
"....I have changed constantly all my life, usually at top speed, and it has always been with the total, permenant finality of a thing fed in to the atom smasher. My soul and my body chemistry are like that of a chameleon, a lizard with no pulse.... People praise me for this, but they are all foreigners and they know nothing. When I go to Mexico or Germany they call me "Lizard Man," and i laugh smugly...."To get along, go along." Thats what i say.
H.S.T. Woody Creek 1990
LIVE REVIEW -
GIGWISE "The perfect sound track for an alien abduction" - " Gorgeous Eno-esque keyboard minimalism"
GLASSWERK "something intellectual and educational" - " it is refreshing to hear something that doesnt really sound like anything else " MANCHESTER MUSIC "Its a learning experience for the listener, but well worth subscribing to, as Laymar may actually be just one step ahead of the game"
UNPEELED MAGAZINE "this band are chin-strokingly interesting and occasionally violent on the guitar front".
THE FUGITIVE MOTEL The live reputation that surrounds Laymar is unrivalled in the local area. Their dark soundscapes and menacing samples have built up an extremely vocal fanbase, and the Motel makes the trip out tonight on the strength of previous atmospheric performances. It’s hard to describe Laymar without saying that they communicate a disturbing vision of the apocalypse, but rest assured that while the noises they make may well be a little unnerving, they are nothing short of excellent.
Dark, wheeling synths spin in and out of brooding electronica and post-post-post-rock guitars, and during several particularly resonant moments of bowel-moving bass, the sound of a washing machine on ‘spin’ appears. Never breaking to allow applause, the forward-thinking experimentalism showcased makes all sense of time seem irrelevant, but the impulse to gently sway to the rolling, guttural power-melodies proves impossible to resist.
This band don’t play their instruments. The instruments play them, with bassist Ciaran dipping into the drumkit and sliding his fretboard across a flight case with eyes closed and the look of a possessed man. Never mind any of those twee keyboard tinklings in Close Encounters, Laymar make the kind of music to welcome alien life to.
GIGWISE Imagine taunting and berating Sigur Ros till the frustration and hostility of Masssive Attack emerged from their delicate soundscapes and you’re someway to making sense of Laymar.
MANCHESTERMUSIC.CO.UK “Manchester's finest purveyors of intense post-rock....this is something truly magnificent and beautiful and towering almost beyond description...”
GIGWISE “Imagine taunting and berating Sigur Ros till the frustration and hostility of Masssive Attack emerged from their delicate soundscapes and you’re someway to making sense of Laymar...”
ANGRY APE “a meticulous construction of layered synths over streaming guitars, punctuated by glorious programmed beats and ear splitting cymbals erupts in a monolithic apex of spine-tingling sound to tear the breath from your lungs and the words from your mouth...”
Laymar are a long standing electronically infused, instrumental rock band that have been gigging in and around Manchester for the past 6 years. Laymar consist of three members: Colin- Guitar, Piano, Synth. David- Drums, Programmed Drums, Laptop and Ciaran- Bass, Synth and Laptop.
Laymar’s debut album In Strange Lines And Distances... is released on TV Records through Shellshock/Pinnacle on June 23rd and digitally by Pinnacle on June 22nd available @ itunes, eMusic, HMV, Napster, 7Digital & all good digital retailers.
ALBUM REVIEWS OF IN STRANGE LINE AND DISTANCES -
"...Laymar were born to soundtrack the desolation of the inner city, where robot vultures gather long after mankind has wiped itself off the face of the Earth and music is no more than a memory resonating in the steel skeletons of reinforced concrete. Don't let anyone ever tell you that music should make you want to dance."
- Jenni Cole MUSIC OMH
Do not be fooled by the gentle introduction which builds gradually with consummate ease, good dreams can often turn into nightmares. The really worrying aspect is that they achieve this vision so melodically and yet ultimately so convincingly.
Put this record on and listen to it in a darkened room. Or, even better, put it on in your room and feel it darken around you.
David Brown BEARDED MAGAZINE.CO.UK
Svarte Greiner (Deaf Center/Miasmah/Type) explores deep into a dark, mysterious and disturbing universe. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Earth, Volcano the Bear, David Darling & Deathprod, the music is draped in Lynchian mysticism and horror film cinematics. "The music of Svarte Greiner is practically perfect. It's like that sound in our heads we've been imagining for ages but had never actually heard." - Type Records.
The Sight Below (Rafael Anton Irisarri/Miasmah/Immune) draws as much on modern genre progenitors like Brian Eno, Robin Guthrie and My Bloody Valentine as it does from the more historic traditions in neo-classicism from Erik Satie and Olivier Messiaen. His album Glider has appeared on Thom Yorke's radar in making the Radiohead's lynchpin's top ten playlist.
His debut album Navigare soon to feature on the Miasmah label, Simon Scott (former Slowdive) is set to be a household name in conceptual music. Simon is the former Slowdive drummer, co-producer of Televise, producer of Seavault, and owner of KESH Recordings label.
NLF3's music has been described as "a kitsch This Heat" by The Wire, and compared for its rhythms to a 2009 version of the Ege Bamayasi-era of Can. The Guardian even spoke of them as "a Radiohead seduced by the idea of live improvisation". The members of NLF3 - F.lor, Mitch and Don Nino - name influences as varied as Pierre Henry, Fela Kuti, Steve Reich, Ennio Moricone, as well as Syd Barrett, Zappa, Fantomas, Aphex Twin, and Sonic Youth. Strange gurus indeed, for a music that, after all these comparisons, still sounds unique. NLF3 is the story of three music lovers – two brothers in blood and a third in spirit – united by the same passion: to make music, record it and take it all around the world. In that regard, their kinship with Battles and Animal Collective, with whom they have toured, seems perfectly natural - they all belong to the same generation of musicians and have the same desire to discover new territory, to explore new possibilities and to bring together past and future. It comes as no surprise either that the brothers F.lor and Don have lived in Germany as well as the US, and have spent some time in Nigeria where their father introduced them to the great Fela Kuti and others like the sculptor Twin Seven Seven. www.myspace.com/nlf3
I now have my tickets for my Manchester academy show on the 23rd june. i would really apprchiate if you can come down. Drop me a message/Comment if your thinking of popping down. COME WITH LOADS OF FRIENDS!#!#!
Ooo if you fancy watching me @ a free show, pop down to thirsty scholar(Pub under the bridge next to oxford road trainstation) on the 1st of june..so this monday coming.(ITS 18+ SHOW) x
b>Tues 12th May 2009, The Klondyke Club, Burnage Range (off Albert Road), Levenshulme, Manchester, 8pm, £4..
xNoBBQx (Australia) + Hathor Duo (UK) + Trinity (UK)
BACK ON!!!
We're absolutely delighted to say that, after much hassle at the airport and having to fly back to Berlin, xNoBBQx are now able to play the scheduled show at the Klondyke Club. The dude of can-do Chris Tipton has managed to sort out work permits for the band so it's all groovy. Yes! It's gonna be a really amazing show, so please come show some love to these weary travellers who, we promise, will give you a gig to remember.
Machinefabriek is amongst the finest experimental/electronic artists of today. His ultra-prolific back catalogue showcases his ability to perfect classical ambience, organic drone soundscapes, electronic minimalism and cathartic noise. He is hailed as one of the most interesting new experimental musicians by the Wire magazine.
Xela is the shady, underworld atmospheres and improv horrors of John Twells, owner of Type Records. "Xela has always been able to pre-empt the shifting tides of electronic music and deliver a statement that's definitively of its time” (Boomkat).
His debut album Navigare soon to feature on the Miasmah label, Simon Scott is set to be a household name in conceptual music. Simon is the former Slowdive drummer, co-producer of Televise, producer of Seavault, and owner of KESH Recordings label.
Laymar, Please note the new RecordScout.com website is live! We have so many new features all aimed at unsigned, and signed bands looking for valuable exposure. Previously it was just a directory for unsigned bands but our new launch includes MP3 and Video exposure as well as photo galleries. Encourage your fans to sign up and vote for you. When we go live with our national radio coverage the charts will be announced weekly! Unfortunately previous bands and artists will have to set up an new account from scratch but it is worth it!
xNoBBQx Skewer 10" LP (Ltd to 300 copies) - Out May 12th
We first came across xNoBBQx (just call them No Barbeque, I guess) in Piccadilly Records last year when the Siltbreeze vinyl reissue of their first CD-r appeared on its shelves. The Siltbreeze label being a bastion of all that is great in terms of dirgy, lo-fi, transcendental unmusicality, we were thus intrigued to hear this slab. And, we have to say, it was one of the greatest shop-listening experiences of all time. Here was a duo, probably of fully grown men, bashing away at their instruments in a manner that suggested they had never really learned any 'proper' technique. We later read a review, in fact, that put it thus:
"So what exactly is the difference between an xNoBBQx recording and a couple of 14 year olds bashing instruments in the garage with record pressed down on one of their mum’s old tape recorders? Probably not a whole lot, actually, but I get the feeling that’s precisely the point. " (Cyclic Defrost)
Well, yes, that does largely seem to be the point. But it's a helluva point. The Australian duo, in spite of their unabashed simplicity, manage to create sounds that are warm as an old-fashioned blanket, each piece having the ability to induce a state of complete, dribbling mental stasis. It's disjointed, scratchy and 'difficult', yes. But it also manages to be completely absorbing. If you like your rock deconstructed to the nth degree, we highly recommend you dig this.
xNoBBQx will be touring the UK from 10th May 2009. We'll be putting them on in Manchester on 12th May (venue TBC), so keep yr eyes on this page.
We've never been able to quite pin down exactly how the The Hunter Gracchus are going to play on any given occasion, which is a wonderful thing. A shifting unit with Syed Kamran Ali, Fiona Marshall and Jon Marshall at the core, they have recently settled into a fairly stable unit of six, but it's hard to know how long that'll last. Still, while it does, it's producing all manner of magical and highly unexpected performances. The one captured here was recorded at the band's practice room cum gig space, Fagin's Hideout/The Furniture Makers and is a less blistering freakout than some of their recent output, preferring to quietly explore every nook of tonal space. It simmers rather than erupts and, the longer you become immersed in it, the less aware you become of the passage of time. It's a recording that feels like it should go on forever and, when it does come to a close, the silence is shocking. In a time when it's all too easy for a group of improvisers to just go full-tilt in some euphoric pursuit, the Hunter Gracchus provides us with a glowing alternative that draws us slowly in and drowns our senses. This is truly awesome.
Ltd to 80 copies, sleeves printed on recycled card w/soya based ink, no less
