naming your first release after your band is an auspicious way to introduce oneself, to say the least, but birds & souls have done just that-and the results more than live up to their sensational packaging. birds & souls lead single >birds & souls< (from the debut birds & souls ep on spectral sound) is an exuberant track built more for rock shows than dancefloors, charting a journey from giddy, congas-and-claves house to synth-drenched space disco to ecstatic arpeggiated bliss and back again.

positiv treibend, die welt umarmend: zweites album der schweden-rocker.aufbruchstimmung im hause stompin souls: die f?nf stockholmer haben f?r den nachfolger ihres gefeierten 2008er-deb?ts ihre garage entr?mpelt, den 60s-staub vom equipment gepustet und bei der gelegenheit noch synthesizer und einige andere instrumente entdeckt. musste sich das quintett auf seinem explosiven erstling > ... and its looking a lot like nothing at all< noch vergleiche mit landsleuten wie the (international) noise conspiracy, mando diao oder the hives gefallen lassen, so ist >silhouettes< weitaus eigenst?ndiger. mit produzent martin konie ehrencrona (u. a. the horror the horror) haben stompin souls ihren sound weiterentwickelt. so finden sich auf >silhouettes< synthiekl?nge, mellotron, fender rhodes und vibraphon, der sound wurde entzerrt, die songs ohne energieverlust transparenter arrangiert - von positiv treibend (>i wish i were you<), die welt umarmend (>let your love shine<) bis d?ster und ruhig (>a part of everything<) beweisen stompin souls stets stilsicherheit und ein gesp?r f?r songs, die lange im kopf nachhallen.

the industrial project of oliver ho and tommy gillard at its most subversive and evocative, with two preoccupations threaded throughout: middle-eastern percussion, most vivid in the chimes of casting and the driving doumbek rhythms of burning and the sands and the structural iteration of chaos, underlying a collage of wild left-turns, scornful of repetitive hooks and other musical routines. early birds bag a 7inch by hos desert burials, evoking classic punk/funk hybrids like cabaret voltaire.

the rawest, diy gospel ever resurrected. the west side of chicago was just an annex of the deep rural south for gene autry cash and his flock of recent old dominion transplants looking to cut their fiery, unadorned sounds indelibly to plastic. his jade label absorbed those god-fearing artists: family bands with wailing kids and barely amateur groups sourced from local parishes, infused with reverberations of country and western and deep soul. glinting authenticity shines from every track like a diamond in the unpolished rough—each group completely convinced that salvation comes through song.