Rolling The Young Black Prisms

There have been announcements of all kinds of interesting releases in the past couple weeks, and I thought I'd focus on a couple more that are piquing my interest.


Seems that Black Dice are primed to drop Mr Impossible, their sixth official LP since their inception some fifteen plus years previously. Easily one of the most influential experimental rock bands to ever walk the dirty corridors of this earth, the NY trio never approach music the same way, offering instead a distilled focus on creating something insular, unique, and unequivocally Black Dice. THAT is why my skin is tingling at the thought of this release. Mr Impossible comes out April 9 on Ribbon Music.

Black Dice - Pigs


Whilst not at the heady heights of excitement, this one is still up there. An early highlight of 2011, San Francisco band Young Prisms' album Friends For Now married the shoegaze aesthetics that has attracted so many bands of late with an earthier, more playful style that nevertheless was a little too throwaway. Now they are prepping to hit us with some clearer, fresher dream pop madness courtesy of sophomore effort In Between on Kanine Records. I enjoyed the first album, but there were chinks in the armour, so I'm eagerly awaiting the drop of this LP to see if they come back stronger. The first taste is below. I'm not entirely won over to be honest, but the crisp production could play in their favour if there is enough deviation in their sound. The premise - the band has based the record on the loss of a dear friend and an unexpected stranding in London's Heathrow Airport - certainly alludes that this may be the case. Time will tell...

Young Prisms - Floating In Blue

Prism Eyes - Spending the Parisian Weekend With Reading Rainbow

Its a week since I spent the weekend loitering around Paris, yet Im still uber excited about it, highlighted no less by the albums that I listened to whilst there. Whilst Jesu was a perfect mix for traipsing around the Cemeterie du Plaise, and Merchandise rocked the Jewish Quarter, Reading Rainbow's much awaited Prism Eyes helped to penetrate the cold and gloom, brightening the cobblestoned streets into simplistic, ultraviolet primary colours (although that could have been the hallucinogenic aftereffects of gorging on orgasmic wheels of French soft cheese...)

Reading Rainbow (we posted about their awesome CD-R Songs To Sing To here) have branched out to a somewhat higher level here, enhanced no end by their allegiance to rad label HoZaC (who have also just put out an gritty little 7" by Heavy Times, which you'll hear about soon enough), and although some of Prism Eyes echoes some of my sentiments about the lo-fi machinations of the myriad contenders for scuzzy pop bands of the year ('I See Light', a great track, still sounds like Grass Widow or any of that ilk), their edge is in just how sunny they are. I cant help but feel giddy when hearing these head-wobbling harmonies in tracks like 'Let's Dream Tonight' and 'Must Be Dreaming', or the heady paces of early favourite 'Underground'. This sense of fun elevates other elements that might otherwise have been seen as aping other likeminded bands (Vivian Girls in 'Wasting Time', for example). All I can say is that since getting this album, its been on pretty much nonstop, and that is as good a seal of approval as any.

No if you'll excuse me, Im going to eat myself a wheel of gooey St Augustin and trip off the (Reading) rainbow...

Reading Rainbow - Wasting Time

Friends For Now - Spending The Parisian Weekend With Young Prisms

Hey kids! Guess what? Uncle Sonic Masala has just spent a weekend in Paris, walking around in the blistering cold, feeling snowflakes eviscerate his brain and looking at lots of cultural stuff. It was pretty rad. But my soundtrack made it even better. I listened to a gamut of great 2010 releases - Jesu, Merchandise, Deerhunter, Women, Best Coast, Grinderman - plus some other great bands. But the three that got into my head the most as I walked along the Seine seeing the Eiffel Tower through the mist were Weekend (who we rated the hell out of here), Young Prisms and Reading Rainbow. As Weekend and Young Prisms have a tenuous link outside of my malfunctioning iPod, I thought Id post about them first.

Having just finished a tour supporting Weekend, Young Prisms have been making a name for themselves with their woozy shoegaze with split records with Weekend, Mathematic and Small Black, and are now prepping their debut LP Friends For Now (on Kanine Records, who have been home to the likes of The Depreciation Guild, Grizzly Bear and Surfer Blood) in January. This album is infectious as fuck - think along the lines of their past touring buddies, but only if they listened to more Bradford Cox and a smidgen of early Dandy Warhols. The San Fran quintet live together, allowing for a tightness in their shambolic ramble that is reminiscent of other bands of their ilk. Its actually a fun record, despite the shimmering distortion, especially on tracks like 'Sugar'.

And its not long at all til you can hear them live! Check out any of the three London dates they are smashing - Dec 6th @ the Macbeth, Dec 7th @ the Lexington w/ Banjo Or Freakout!, and the support slot for ATP's Dean Wareham Does Galaxie 500 Dec 8th - that one is @ the Garage. Then they jet off to mainland Europe to support A Place To Bury Strangers. Yep, these crazy cats are flying high, and its a pity this album wasnt released in 2010 - Friends For Now would be pushing for my top album.

Preorder Friends For Now here.

Young Prisms - Sugar

Young Prisms -Eleni

Playing Sports On The Weekend...Will Piss Your Neighbours Off...

Yeah, here is another loud, fuzzy band that I have been meaning to share for a while. Not to be confused with equally rad Baltimore band Weekends (see, they are plural people, PLURAL!) who put out a fantastic cassette they put out through Impose - chek out here if you missed that one - Weekend are just about to release debut LP Sports on Slumberland Records (having released a 10" previously on Mexican Summer - they are keeping the right company) - and it is very, very good. Opening with noisy jammer 'Coma Summer', these young San Fransiscans lurch and speed through ten tracks of varying levels of feedback-drenched noise, sculpted into columns of infectious pop in the effortless manner that ol' Ed Scissorhands mangles a block of H2O into something majestic and arresting. Weekend have had a extremely fast ride since forming last year (maybe up a 70 degree incline? Thats a pretty fast rise, yeah?), and Sports shows that it was not all hype at all.

If you are in the US, chances are you will be catching Weekend play as they do extensive slots with The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, after which they'll tour with Young Prisms - lucky beggars!

Weekend - Coma Summer

Weekend - End Times