LOOPER REVEAL NEW TRACK 'FARFISA SONG' LIFTED FROM NEW ALBUM 'OFFGRID' AVAILABLE FROM APRIL 13TH....
Looper have unveiled a new track from their brand new album Offgrid:Offline. Out on 13 April 2015, the new album is featured in the 5 CD box set, collating tracks from their entire catalogue, These Things.
On the same date, Looper will release of all of their albums digitally: Up A Tree (1999), The Geometrid (2000), The Snare (2002) and Offgrid:Offline (2015).
In an inventive reinterpretation of 'The Boxset', Looper have curated the database of their entire body of work as five separate CDs, themed by type and entitled lexiphonics, kinokraft, voxtrot, transmitte and melos (full tracklisting below).
Inspired by mixtapes – and their modern day equivalent, the playlist – These Things puts the songs in new contexts, allowing new relationships between works previously kept apart. Looper explain, “For us this box is a repurposed, recycled and renewed work – an attempt to make something new out of something old”.
The concept of sampling - present both in the construction of the early music and the creation of the playlists - assumes visual form in the cut-and-paste collage artwork by Karn David. Photographs from the Looper archives illustrate her unique liner notes: quotes and 'samples' from music reviews and articles from the time of the original releases, collaged together to tell the story of Looper.
Tim Burgess of The Charlatans, who helped the band out of a jam in 1999, provides further sleeve notes. When the batteries in a sampler ran out during a show in LA a member of the audience came to their rescue, running out to fetch a pack of AAs. Looper later heard Tim had been their unlikely hero, but it seemed so preposterous they dismissed the idea. Tim professes his love of Looper here: “I wasn't even exactly sure where the music came from: the past, the present, the future, another life or a parallel universe but it totally chimed with what I loved - a starkness attached to the glitches and bleeps but a real go get 'em soul to go alongside that.”
Looper emerged from Belle & Sebastian in 1997, when Stuart David (co-founder and bass player of B&S) and his wife Karn (an artist who directed the early B&S videos) collaborated for a show at Glasgow School of Art. A degree show fundraiser for Stuart's sister Karla Black - who received a Turner Prize nomination in 2011- the performance was a multi-media affair incorporating TVs, super 8 film, 35mm slides and kinetic sculptures. Since nothing broke down and everyone clapped, they decided to keep doing it.
The albums that followed, Up A Tree 1999 (SubPop / Jeepster), The Geometrid in 2000 (SubPop / Jeepster - featuring Mondo 77 and My Robot, both used on the Cameron Crowe film Vanilla Sky) and The Snare 2002 (Mute) cemented their reputation before the band took a break from music - Karn went back to art school to study animation and Stuart turned his focus to studying literature and writing novels.
A move to the remote countryside, post-study, prompted the creation of a new body of work. These new songs and stories - inspired by the return to peace and quiet, and influenced by indie-folk music - can be found in Offgrid:Offline, the latest album from Looper.
Stuart David latest book, In the All-Night Cafe, a memoir of Belle and Sebastian's formative year, is out on 16 April via Little Brown, for further information please visit: http://bit.ly/1HRWijq
THESE THINGS – 5 CD BOX SET
Lexiphonics n. Spoken narratives accompanied by sample-based or electronic music, usually structured like a traditional pop song. [from Gk lexis: word, phonein: to make sounds, speak]
Kinokraft n. A form based around a looped riff. Vocals, when present, are usually sampled fragments- used as counter riffs. [from Gk kinemat: movement, Br craft: skill, art]
Voxtrot n. A hybrid form, combining elements of the 'lo-fi' pop song with the production and beats of hip hop and R&B. [from L vox: voice, Br trot: to move}
Transmitte n. A hybrid form, combining the 'lo-fi' pop song with arrangements and beats from all fields of electronica. [from Gl.* transmitter: send out signals, broadcast]
Melos n. A form in which the song is central. Elements from 1960s Easy Listening, Pop and Soul are combined using contemporary techniques and production. [from Gk. melos: song, tune]
*Glitch
OFFGRID:OFFLINE TRACKLISTING
Intro (Down The Lane)
What If…?
Waiting For Trains
Oh, Skinny Legs
Offgrid:Offline
Farfisa Song
I'm A Photograph
Images Of The Shipwreck
The Lucky Bird
Outro (TipToe Home)
Looper release the 5 CD box set, These Things, alongside digital releases of all of their albums - Up A Tree (1999), The Geometrid (2000), The Snare (2002) and Offgrid:Offline (2014) – on 13 April 2015.