Edith Piaf, Gene Clark, John Martyn, Elizabeth Fraser, Jimmy Page, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Sandy Denny, Billy Childish, Pentangle, Lydia Kavina, Bob Moog, Stereolab, Johnny Marr, Headless Heroes Of The Apocalypse, Danny Thompson, Jim Jarmusch, Neil Young, Tunng, Four Tet, Klaus Nomi, Mothers Of Invention, Edgar Varese, Mark Hollis, Nina Hagen, Dick Annegarn...
New album "Shape Of The Shape" released on 12 October 2009 on Static Caravan (UK & France) and Locust Music (rest of world).
Moving on from their well-received eponymous debut, Starless & Bible Black have drawn together the sounds of ‘70s Topanga Canyon country-rock, ‘80s Mancunian jangle, and space-age psychedelic drones to make this dynamic, warm and woodsy second album. Gone are the dulcimers and banjos of the first record, replaced by an electrifying wall of Telecaster and Moog, and standing in the centre of this bold, widescreen sound resides the earthy and husky voice.
Recorded at Bryn Derwen within the wilds of the Snowdonian mountains, and during all night sessions in the relative tranquillity of their local village hall, Shape Of The Shape is an album of contrasting styles, themes and approaches that coheres beautifully into a seamless entity.
We get guided through verses and choruses of swamp rock, gothic bluesy chanson and smoky acoustic ballads, as well as a jazz-folk tinged instrumental – after all the band take their name from the classic 1965 Stan Tracey cut – but the apogee of this collection is the driving drone-choral opus, Les Furies - sung in French, this is a very Gallic observation of after hours culture. And while this album traverses all these different styles, the band never deny the importance of a fine tune and a fine song.
Starless & Bible Black were formed in Manchester in 2005 when Hélène Gautier, guitarist Peter Philipson and synth man Raz Ullah started performing live together and they were soon joined by Paul Blakesley on double bass and Brian Edwards on drums. Drum duties on recent recordings were performed courtesy of Karl Penney, another friend of the band.
Their first record was released in 2006 to unanimous critical acclaim most notably from Pitchfork, Wire, CMJ and The New York Times and a seven-inch single Up With The Orcadian Tide was pressed up in summer 2007. Live shows have included playing alongside Vetiver, James Yorkston, Espers and The Earlies as well as performing at the Green Man and Moseley Folk Festivals.
Starless also have a track on the recent "Leaves Of Life" compilation in support of the World Food Programme...
For European orders click here------------
For US orders click here--------------------
Starless & Bible Black's debut album is available on CD, 180 gram vinyl and download. Locust Music through Cargo (UK).
Single "Up With The Orcadian Tide" out on Static Caravan on 18 June 2007.
Reviews
“Full-blooded revivalists of bold 70's folk rock eclecticism……from bare acoustic ballads to Pentangle style rambling and bitter sweet harmonies……they accomplish all this with a firm perception of their own powers, drawing on such varied sources without succumbing to self conscious classicism, and stamping their own personality on their material.” Wire Magazine
“This Manchester-based group is responsible for one of the year’s best folkie songs” New York Times
“…they draw upon any number of intertwined traditions simultaneously….. the group moves crisply through songs informed by Appalachian folk, downtempo jazz, Middle English pastoralism, and smoky continental balladry. Starless & Bible Black perform each of their stylistic shifts with an effortless agility, resulting in a collection that captivates primarily through its graceful, almost nonchalant simplicity.” Pitchfork
“Folk strains, art songs, and electronic atmospherics combine for a beguiling blend in the debut by this Manchester band.” Amazon.com
“For an album that features a breadth of different takes on contemporary nu-folk sounds, taking in some diverse approaches to arrangement along the way, Starless & Bible Black are equally effective when paring a song down to its very core. An extremely promising debut indeed.” Boomkat.com
“a solid record……. a warm, intimate folk experience…..catchy folk with a sublime twist.” Foxy Digitalis
“Starless and Bible Black’s music feels absolutely effortless, born out of thin air. And over this serene percolation, Hélène Gautier sings like an angel with an earthly heart, enhancing, to near impossible levels, the beguiling and mesmerizing effect of the songs. It’s like Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval singing through a curtain of opium smoke and fireflies, only a whole lot more awesome.” Harp Magazine
“Starless engage the tropes of antique folk and folk revival through a rigorously formal songwriting approach...... while “freak-folk” typifies America in all her goofy, communalist, postmodern Californi-ality, Starless & Bible Black blow in with the green, reserved air of the heath and the Arctic Circle, serious and hard.” Dusted Magazine
"the rhythm section feel their way around a dark studio one chord at a time, conversing over a slow-motion drone. The pulse, when it finally arrives, is a cool breeze from a more delicate era -- with hints of cresting jazz polyrhythm but, thankfully, no jazz pretensions. This proves an ideal launching pad for Helene Gautier, a French singer with a clear and hollow voice. Here, her verses sometimes echo the moody side of Pentangle.” National Public Radio, US
“Those songs are built like trellises: finger-picked guitar, banjo, glockenspiel, winds, and brushed skins augmented by carefully placed electronic glitches and synth washes. Gautier, who slips into her native tongue once or twice but otherwise keeps to an appealing, heavily accented English. She can sound wraith-like or husky, like Francoiz Breut channeling Sandy Denny.” Allmusic .com
“ What really sets Starless apart from the average acoustic-based warblers are Helene Gautier’s vocals, notably her airy high notes, throaty alto and French (her native tongue)-via-Manchester accent.” CMJ
“Starless And Bible Black bring much of the mysticism and sounds of the sounds of British countryside to the fore...... a modern fusion of beautiful, classic folk and urban ballads....... an album that’s been a long time coming, but be assured, it's worth the wait.” Manchester Music
"Starless & Bible Black se permettent même d'errer vers des teintes plus sombres et gothiques comme seuls le Velvet Underground ou Nico savaient en apposer sur les murs de leur cave." Rock & Folk Magazine, France
"Le groupe publie en cette fin d'année un album se situant dans la droite lignée des ambiances de Sixteen Horsepower, Led Zeppelin (lorsque Jimmy page et ses acolytes avaient opéré un retour aux sources folk), voire des maîtres Nick Drake ou Bert Jansch." Popnews, France
“melding of early 4AD’s ambient experimentations with the baroque elements found in neo-folkies” Paper Thin Walls
“This apparent bouquet of contrasts is the sonic essence of Starless & Bible Black, a blissful, down-tempo conundrum that maintains a pastoral presence” Glide Magazine
“Distilled sunlight, perfume bottles on an aunt's dresser, driving south, unplanned friends' jams, certain bookstores on cold afternoons, and the raking of leaves.” Poly Revenge
To begin at the beginning... It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible black. The cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters’ and rabbits’ wood, limping invisibly down to the sloe black, slow, black, crow black, fishing boat-bobbing sea. Cheers for the add, best wishes from all at EMP
Electric Free Time Machine celebrate the launch of their debut album: ’mystery with hermit foil’ with a gig at the Yorkshire house in Lancaster.
ELECTRIC FREE TIME MACHINE - Lancaster
recent sound carriers for Damo Suzuki:From fast and bulbous blues stomps and vast experimental krautrock ambient strangeness, to abrasive shambolic metal, strange time shifts and delicate acoustic folk. www.myspace.com/eftm
albums at a special launch price of £4...so thats £5 for an amazing night of music and a brand spanking new bespoke embossed digipack album...have mercy
/>
... M A M Y K Ô ... 
MONTRÉAL QUÉBEC CANADA
