SWANN DANGER: new album and European tour.

They are compatriots to the likes of Black Ice, Sixteens, and Phantom Limbs (and indeed, are even neighbors to some members of those aforementioned groups), and so it should come as no surprise that we enjoy ourselves a litte Swann Danger. Quite much, in fact.

Their newest offering, an album entitled "Deep North" and released on the band's own "Custody Night School" imprint, builds on their previous 10" released by Release the Bats about 2 years ago. The drum machine was replaced with live drums for the recording, but Andy and Cynthia's instrumentation remains sparse-- even skeletal-- in spite of the fuller sounding percussion. Their myspace page describes the band's genre as "post-punk/ dub/ gothic," which I quite like as a description. King Tubby or Big Youth, this is not, but while the drums and bass pound out a rhythmic din and the guitars reverberate with distant, shimmering chords, you can easily envision this as a dub track emptied of its warmth and ganja-induced histrionics. Cold-wave dub, perhaps? X-Mal Deutschland has come up as a point of reference before, which is not inaccurate in and of itself, but only if you can imagine that filtered through PJ Harvey by way of Siouxsie Sioux. Be that as it may, "Deep North" is definitely recommended to those who might be drawn the above description.

... and since they currently find themselves on tour, you should indeed go to see them if you find yourself in their path.

For more info, direct yourself here or here.



JUNE 22:@FIEBER-TANZPARTY@AMP HAFENSTR. 64 MUNSTER,DE
JUNE 23:@SCHLACHTHOF/LUNATIC GOTH ASYLUM FINDORFFSTR.51 BREMEN,DE with MONOZID
JUNE 24:@POP ART CAFE, 103 RUE DE NEUFCHATEL REIMS, FR
JUNE 26:@SOAP BOX CLUB 29 AV DE LA RESISITANCE NANCY,FR
JUNE 27 @ LA FELINE 6 RUE VICTOR LETALLE PARIS,FR EARLY SHOW : 21:00!
JUNE 29:@Sonic/Peniche Mascaret 4 Quai des Etroits LYON,FR with CARLA BOZULICH
JUNE 30:@NOISE CLUB Via San Massimo, 1 TORINO,IT with NORMA LOY (FR) and VIDI AQUAM
JULY 1: @Sinister Noise Club via dei magazzini generali 4b ROME,IT with AVANT-GARDE
JULY 4:@heinrichstrasse 137 ZURICH, CH
JULY 5: @Kunstverein, Franken str. 200 im Z-Bau, NUREMBERG, DE with MONOZID
JULY 7: @NACHTGEFLATTER/GIESZESTR. LEIPZIG,DE
JULY 8: @Z vereinstr. 25 AACHEN, DE
JULY 11:@AZ Conni DRESDEN,DE
JULY 13: tba
JULY 14: @ OCCII/HEX PARTY AMSTERDAM,NL HEX COMPILATION RECORD RELEASE PARTY