24 February 2009

Caspian/thisquietarmy show moved to Divan Orange

ok, fuck this city.
the cops have shut down casa del popolo.

this sounds all too familiar.

remember when they shut down the main hall?
well, we still haven't recovered from that one.

re: the under the snow festival, the organizer has been hella quick on this one.
the caspian/thisquietarmy show march 12th, has been moved to divan orange,
the yellow6/apillow show march 14th, has been moved to il motore.

there is still the kimika/indian ocean show,
the angil & the hiddentracks/heliodrome show to move.

there is damage control to be done, but still. fuck this city, new yuppies moving on st-laurent, aka THE MAIN, with their noise complaints, attracting cops and inspectors into our humble sanctuary for culture, arts & music.

edit: casa del popolo will still be serving food, and make the proper renovations as to abide to city laws.

++

new show info:

Caspian / thisquietarmy
Thursday March 12th, 2009
Divan Orange, 4234 St-Laurent
Montreal, QC

15 February 2009

A Picture of a Picture (collab with Aidan Baker) - Pre-order NOW

Aidan Baker & Thisquietarmy - A Picture of a Picture CD
Official release date: March 31, 2009
Label: Killer Pimp Music

Their first studio collaboration was the Orange EP which came out as a limited edition of 200 orange CDRs on thisquietarmy's own imprint. The tracks were recorded separately from their home, sent back and forth via postmail for months, and finally mixed and edited by Eric Quach. The release was quickly sold out, much to the dismay of the largely reputed Aquarius Records store who kept asking for more after having sold a large part of the run in a very short matter of time.

For their first full-length album, Baker & Quach have decided to do things differently by setting a simple rule beforehand: the record was to be played and recorded live together, adding a very minimal amount of overdubs if not any. The recording session took place in the fall of 2007, in Quach's own home studio TQA-HQ in Montreal. Because of their very busy schedule, it took about a year before the two artists decided to get together to work on these tracks again. This time, Baker finalized the mixes in his home studio, resulting again in four long movements, clocking at around an hour's length. Instead of the overall terror-ambient feel of their first collaboration, the first two tracks actually find both guitarists exploring the brighter side of their spectrum, evoking the hope and the beauty represented in Christy Romanick's photographs that were again used for the artwork, in conjunction with Quach's sketches.

FREE MP3: Imagistic Continuty

Available for pre-order for only $9.99, free shipping worldwide:
http://brainwashed.com/commerce.html

Also check out the 4 other releases by Killer Pimp and get the 5th one free with the "Economic Stimulus" special! Kudos to Jon Whitney of Killer Pimp/Brainwashed.com for those killer upcoming releases.

Killer Pimp Music is also the home of one of my favorite current band "A Place To Bury Strangers", and I could not be more happier to be label mates with them.

9 February 2009

1 February 2009

Panpot reviews Blackhaunter

On fifth solo offering, Eric Quach [also of Montreal's destroyalldreamers] creates layers upon layers of beautiful noise

Thisquietarmy’s fifth album, Blackhaunter, feels like one of those imaginary soundtrack albums. This time, it’s not so much for a film, but for a dance piece. More particularly, for an interpretive dance describing a journey across some barren grey landscape. That may sound cold, but it’s not. It’s actually warm and lush. That’s not altogether common in the world of guitar drone, but Eric Quach, the man behind the album, has been refining this for years and he could safely make the hushed squalls of his guitar compete with meditative organ music.

Blackhaunter begins with a simple motif, slowly turning with tonal variations, but never burying them. The shifts in tone create a distance between the different layers and the track creates a wonderfully spacious quality, retaining the nudity of each stream of sound. This spans over two tracks and then burrows into a rather different place. The next track, "Vampyrs", commences with a lengthy and captivating otherworldly sound before becoming heavier. Drums come in and break up the space that was created and things become more angular, more controlled. Perhaps that’s why the following track is entitled "Taming the Beast". The remaining tracks follow much the same pattern, oscillating between the delicate drones and the shattering drums. From beginning to end, the album holds together without ever peaking, instead simply resting for moments in the sonic equivalent of a blur. Despite some gentle passages, it never become fragile and it feels like it has carefully encapsulated something larger than itself.


- Matt Purvis

http://panpot.ca/reviews/renderAlbumReview.php?id=323