Drowner Featured in IMPOSE Magazine
Drowner has the distinct pleasure of being featured in IMPOSE Magazine today. Amid a stellar line up of new music, our track “Never Go Away” gets some love.
Drowner caught us offguard this week with the mind expanding elegance of “Never Go Away.” Heralding from Space City, USA – Houston, TX – the band are like dreamancers that repeat the sounds that have made their way from the unconscious into the awakend world of far away sounding buzz-saw guitars. Drowner’s self-titled comes out March 13 on Saint Marie.
Thanks to Sjimon Gompers for his wonderful words, and for turning us on to some other great acts in his amazing “Week in Pop” rundown. To catch this mention in context, and to see the other awesome bands who made the list, go here.
Review of Drowner’s Debut on ReadJunk
Gracious thanks to Adam Coozer of ReadJunk for his amazing review of Drowner’s debut release for Saint Marie records. Describing our sound as “Shoegaze on a symphonic, grand scale,” he details:
“Drowner is aptly named. The album, but particularly the first four tracks, sounds like a song arc – first, a feeling of being swept into a maelstrom: powerful, ominous, swirling indie rock clashing with an echo chamber of shoegazing female vocals. Then the tracks flow into an afterlife of tension, release, introspection, and grace. The multilayered, reverbing vocals sound like a flock of angels commenting from above on a drowning victim’s last moments.
…The guitar chords are expansive, often minor key, and the rhythm is steady but understated like a fading pulse. But it’s the fuzzy, dreamy vocals that take the oceanic music and make it otherworldly. It’s like bathing in an eternity of cosmic radiation.”
You can read the full text of the review, as well as discover other great content on ReadJunk.com.
Drowner S/T is slated for release on 3/13/2012. But, you can get it early via pre-order on SMR’s website, or on Amazon.com.
Drowner Point Dume Video on Spinner
We’re excited to announce that Drowner’s video for our first single off our upcoming expanded EP on Saint Marie Records (out 3.13.12), Point Dume, is featured on the mega music blog Spinner.com. Check it out.
Drowner on 200,000 Gazes Compilation
The intrepid when the sun hits. has done it again! This incredible blog devoted to shoegaze and dreampop, the brain child of the lovely Amber Crain of the show of the same name on Strangeways Radio and Danny Lackey of Deepfieldview, has now reached an incredible 200, 000 Gazes, an amazing feat for any blog. We are so stoked to be a part of the great when the sun hits. community (they have an awesome Facebook group, which if you love shoegaze and dreampop, you should definitely check out), where we regularly receive news and exclusives related to two of our favorite genres in music. Now, we have the privilege of being featured on Volume One of the superfantastic comp that was released to celebrate this milestone of amaze bloghood. Our track Chime, gets cozy with some outstanding ‘gaze from dead leaf echo, Screen Vinyl Image, The Bloody Knives, Highspire, Astrobrite, 2060 Chiron, Deepfieldview, The Sunshine Factory, Presents for Sally, Elika, The Consolation Project and more. If you haven’t already, you can download 200, 000 Gazes Volume One for free on Bandcamp. Yes, we said free. What are you waiting for? You can read more about it on when the sun hits., truly “your resource for all things shoegaze and dreampop.” Gaze on.
Drowner on Beats Per Minute
The amaze Beats Per Minute with their impeccably-curated and stunningly well-laid out site honored Drowner today with a feature of our track, Never Go Away. Erik Burg beautifully describes the song as “a meticulously crafted and perfectly paced track, a great accomplishment in today’s mostly bustling world. As piano keys build atop cymbal crashes, vocal echoes roar, and xylophones sparkle in the distance, “Never Go Away” all comes crashing together in a beautiful mix of screeching guitar and faint harmony.” We are really grateful to have BPM’s ear and to have the opportunity to reach their music-savvy readers, and so we offer them a hearty Cheers and thanks! You can check out the mini review and the rest of the incredible site here.
Drowner Wins Best EP in IATP 2011 Listener Polls
Drowner wins BEST EP and BEST NEWCOMER in the IATP 2011 Listener Polls. From the moment we debuted on IATP’s lauded Flights 013 with our track Point Dume, we have had much love from the amazing IATP community. Thanks so much to everyone who voted for us and thanks to the fearless and talented Ryan Abato for working night and day to bring the very best in intelligent new music to the masses. Be sure to check out all the other incredible artists involved. Of note: Lilies on Mars, who won Best Album for Wish you were a pony, Her Vanished Grace, who won Best Single for Passenger and our dear friends, Morpheme, who gave us a run for the money with their killer Red Dog EP.
Drowner E.P. One of the Best Shoegaze Albums of 2011
Drowner is stoked to have made ENT Clic’s Music for the Masses: Best Shoegaze/Noise-Pop Albums of 2011 list. The honor is all the more special when you consider who we are sharing it with: undoubtedly some of the best shoegaze, dreampop and noise pop albums to come out this year. We get cozy with some of our favorites (The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Asobi Seksu, SPC ECO, The Raveonettes, The Sunshine Factory, Ringo Deathstarr, I Break Horses, 93MillionMilesFromTheSun, Astrobrite and Purple Bloom), as well as get a fine shout out for our upcoming full length album on Saint Marie Records next Spring. Thanks, Han, for your kind words. You just made our holidays a little brighter.
Check out the complete list here.
Drowner Interviewed on The Blog That Celebrates Itself
Drowner recently had the pleasure of being interviewed on one of the preeminent international shoegaze and dreampop blogs, the aptly titled The Blog That Celebrates Itself. We had a chance to sit down (via the miracle of the internet) with the blog’s founder, Renato Malizia and go in-depth about how we came together as a band, what our writing and recording processes are like and to drop a few hints about what’s coming soon for Drowner. Renato’s beautiful opening review describes our sound as “tak[ing] us to an imaginary world of glittering and ethereal dreams, accessing a fascinating space filled with delays, sustains, a cozy little piece of heaven where we end up spending part of our lives, at least 30 minutes, during the full seduction that Drowner’s namesake EP has to offer.” If you want to drop in on the celebration and check it out in the original, lucid Portuguese (the interview is in English) click here. Thanks so much, Renato!
Drowner | E.P. Reviewed on Soundvenue
Drowner was very honored to have our debut E.P. reviewed on the illustrious Danish music and style magazine Soundvenue, Denmark being a country known for incredible acts like The Raveonettes, Death By Kite, The Foreign Resort, Dorias Baracca, RUMSKIB, Flag White, Ghost Society and Scarlet Chives, to name just a few. Anders Cold’s wonderfully evocative prose describes Drowner as “towing their debut E.P. listener into deep water, to a place where the horizon is blurred and sky and sea are in…a dark Bermuda triangle between dynamic, bulging post-rock, noisy shoegaze and drowsy, daydreaming dreampop.” Darren Emanuel’s guitars are described as “float[ing] on goose feather pillows of atmospheric, resonant space echo in the best Robin Guthrie style,” and Anna Bouchard’s vocals as being “staged” on tracks like Point Dume and Chime “as a temperamental amazon with lightning in her eyes – a fine counterpoint to her angelic voice.” You can read the full text in Danish, below. Or click here to read it in its context.
Den texanske duo Drowner bugserer på deres debut-ep lytteren med ud på dybt vand, til et sted, hvor horisonten udviskes og himmel og hav står i et – i en mørk Bermuda-trekant mellem dynamisk, svulmende postrock, støjende shoegazer og dagdrømmerdøsig dreampop.
Trommerne er mixet helt ud i havgusen og guitarerne svæver på en gåsedunspude af atmosfærisk rungende space echo i bedste Robin Guthrie-stil, mens Anna Bouchards smukke, fjerlette og ofte multitrackede sirenesang genkalder Elizabeth Fraser uden dog at være helt så egenartet og udskejende.
I det hele taget synes sammenligningerne med tidlig Cocteau Twins at være snublende nærliggende, og ja, nærmest alt for tæt på. Drowner redder skindet ved at være lidt løsere, mere jazzede og organiske omkring deres lyd. ‘Wildflowers’ og ‘Never Go Away’ flyder således nærmest helt ud i et brusende støjocean. De små, glitrende blink af marimba og xylofon i guitarorkanens øje på sidstnævnte nummer fuldender et billede af at være på dykketur i et mørkt spøgelsesskib med flænsede sejl, der kastes hid og did af undersøiske strømme med tordenrummel i distancen, mens Darren Emanuel på ep’ens tre andre, mere fokuserede numre iscenesætter Bouchard som en temperamentsfuld amazone med lyn i øjnene – et fint kontrapunkt til hendes englerøst.
Drowners største skavank er manglende originalitet, men ser man mellem fingre med, hvor meget parret lyder som et regulært Cocteau Twins-knockoff, er ep’en faktisk ganske overbevisende og skriger på at blive fulgt op med en rigtig albumdebut. Den er hermed skrevet på ønskesedlen.
On the Four-Oh-Five!
Drowner is excited to be the New Band of the Day today on one of our favorite music and culture mags, the impeccable 405. They describe our sound as “Drowning in reverb and beauty,” and recommend us to fans of Slowdive and Ringo Deathstarr (love them both!). You can check out the original here, with a lovely embed of our track Point Dume.
Drowner signs with Saint Marie Records
We are so pleased to announce that Drowner has signed with expanding indie record label Saint Marie Records! SMR is home to some amazing and renown shoegaze, dreampop and indie/lo-fi/experimental acts: Sway, Elika, The Spiracles, The Sunshine Factory, Patrik Torsson and Niels Nielsen.
Drowner will be releasing our debut LP on Saint Marie Records, and we couldn’t be happier! The LP is slated to emerge in Spring 2012. We hope you’ll be on the lookout for it. In the meantime, check out these other great releases from SMR: http://www.saintmarierecords.com/releases.
For more information about Drowner on SMR, including promo and interview requests, please contact:
Wyatt Parkins
Phone: 817.983.6874
Email: email hidden; JavaScript is required
Cocteau Twins 2.0
So says Parklife on his indie-pop blog, Coast Is Clear (in German), where he describes Drowner’s visual aesthetic as “4AD”-like and our track Point Dume as “beautifully faded (alles wunderbar verhallt)” and our debut release, E.P., as music “for rainy Autumn evenings (für verregnete Herbstabende).” You can read the full text in the original German below, and on Coast Is Clear.
“Noch bevor der erste Ton der Band Drowner aus Houston erklingt, ist schon klar, wohin die Reise geht: 4AD-Ästhetik auf der Website, mit Drowner einen geradezu prototypischen Bandnamen: es geht um eine neue Shoegazeband. Und was für eine! Cocteau Twins 2.0 dachte ich so bei mir, als ich das Video zur ersten Single «Point Dume» hörte – alles wunderbar verhallt und verhuscht und leicht bedrohlich. Keine Musik für ausgelassene Partystimmung, eher für verregnete Herbstabende. So soll es sein! Auf der EP werden manchmal auch etwas knackigere Klänge angeschlagen, so dass es nie langweilig wird. (Danke an den Shoegazr-Blog für den Tipp.)”
