Shogun Orchestra live

Shogun Orchestra venture northwards to promote their brand new album Black Lotus, playing a show tonight at Ponsonby Social Club from 9pm (free). Tomorrow night they play Leigh Sawmill.

"Shogun Orchestra, playing "Revolve" from their new album Black Lotus, to be released in October 2013, at the Opera House during the Wellington Jazz Festival.

Jennifer Zea - Vocals, Lucien Johnson - synth, Toby Laing - Trumpet, Barret Hocking - Trumpet, Dan Yeabsley - Saxophone, Joe Lindsay - Trombone, Justin "Firefly" Clarke - Guitar, Chris Yeabsley - Keys, Tim Jaray - Bass, Adan Tijerina - Congas, Paul K Hoskin - Drums."

Our new album Black Lotus can be purchased here:http://shogunorchestra.bandcamp.com/

Lord Echo: Curiosities interview

Brendon Goldwasser over at Ground Sounds interviewed Lord Echo recently about his 2nd album Curiosities, out mid November worldwide, more info here. Here's a few IV excerpts...

Your debut release was back in 2010 and was no doubt one of the more creative, original sounding albums that whole year. Was the response what you expected?

I wasn’t expecting a response, apart from my friends in New Zealand who had grown so tired of hearing me say ‘this year I’m gonna release my album’. It was really heartwarming to find it made its way all around the world with no promotion or hype, and that’s something I will always be proud of.

Speaking of other artists, who are some current artists, bands, or musicians that you’re really into right now? Who would you really love to collaborate on music with or go on tour with?

I’m diggin records by Tame Impala, Opossum, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Lorine Chia, Julien Dyne, and Daughn Gibson. I’m heading into the studio with Victor Axelrod/Ticklah this weekend, so dream collab’s are actually happening! He’s really a fantastic player and engineer.

I want to talk about your newest tracks that have just been released this past month. Both “Molten Lava” and “Digital Haircut” have very distinct elements that are a little different than your previous material. What were some of your goals with these new songs and how has the response been so far?

Uggh, just for them not to suck. The response has been very good. I think I was trying to take elements of ‘dance music’ (which I really know nothing about) and dress them up with my preferred sound palette of the rough edges of 60′s production. It’s funny, those two songs – one took me about 2 days to make and I never touched it again (Digital Haircut) and the other I wrestled with for months and I’m not sure who won (Molten Lava). There’s always some songs on a record that for what ever reason are just a pain in the arse to make.

Overall, from previewing the tracks from your forthcoming release Curiosities, it seems like the songs are busier, faster, and definitely with a bit more jazz and disco. How long has this album been in the making and what sorts of recording techniques were used in the process?

I guess it’s been 2 or so years in the making, and definitely the last year fairly full time. The last record, I had to speed some songs up because they were too slow. This time I had to slow them down! Some of them were so fast, listening back I thought I must have been on crack. I do tend to get very excited when a song is in the honeymoon phase of being made though, so perhaps that was it. I made the record on a computer, with some tape machines and a couple of pre-amps. It was mixed in my garage."

Read the full interview here