02 November 2008

Introducing: School Of Seven Bells

Today seems like the day when all the bells are ringing: first Howling Bells now School of Seven Bells - yet another wonderful Brooklyn band, would you believe? There seems to be a good thread of bands from there thinking along similar lines: if you examine Chairlift, MGMT, Yeasayer and these guys hard enough you'll notice that while they are obviously influenced in some by psychedelia, and have a distinctly dreamy quality to them.

Formed by former Secret Machines guitarist and vocalist Ben Curtis, he recruited Alejandra and Claudia Deheza to sing for him together so that they created harmonies and then branched off in different vocal ways at certain parts in certain songs. They've just released their first proper single (there have actually been quite a few demo EPs), "Half Asleep". As the title suggests it's a typically dream-pop inspired piece of electronica punctuated by some fuzzy background guitar work and some rather spaced out vocals, different to the singing on some of their other songs.

Other songs like "Prince of Peace", which is probably my favourite song right now (can someone please tell me where I can download this!?) - this is quite Yeasayer like, it has a rather eastern quality to it almost completely driven by the girls' vocals as they chant and power away through admittedly repetitive but ultimately lovable lines that put you in some sort of trance.

Everything is distinctly light and airy about this band but with some slightly darker undertones lurking somewhere beneath the fuzz - I would say that if you like any of the bands mentioned above, and enjoy people like Royksopp then you're probable on to a winner here. The debut album is supposedly out.... tomorrow!! But I've had bad luck with release dates before (curse you, Chairlift!) so keep checking. Until then... well I can't find a proper video so I'll just have to leave the MySpace URL. Enjoy:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=82880408

2 comments:

  1. is the band is the British Band? Hey Jamjar, I'm wondering most the band you write on you blog, I never heard about them. Maybe they are not well known in my country. but I hope i can listen to some songs of some bands you posted on your blog. Where I might get the songs? Is it their song is downloadable from the internet?

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  2. WOw, what a cool band. They remind me of a hybrid of Belle and Sebastion and early My Bloody Valentine with some a little Souixie thrown in.

    Scarlet, I want YOU to load my Ipod.

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