Asobi Seksu Release Xiu Xiu Remix Mp3, UK Tour With …Trail Of Dead Starts this week
aaamusic | On 14, Apr 2011
Brooklyn dream poppers Asobi Seksu have released a brand new remix by Xiu Xiu ahead of their UK tour with …Trail Of Dead.
Download Xiu Xiu’s spectral electronic rework of album track ‘Perfectly Crystal’ here:
Asobi Seksu – Perfectly Crystal (Xiu Xiu Remix) by Polyvinyl Records
As previously announced, Asobi Seksu are set to head out on a UK tour this weekAdd an event for this week with Austin rockers …Trail Of Dead, opening for them and Rival Schools. A couple of headline dates in London and Brighton have also been added where indicated, here’s the full list of shows:
Fri 15-Apr London Electric Ballroom
Sat 16-Apr Manchester Academy 2
Sun 17-Apr Glasgow Garage
Mon 18-Apr Birmingham O2 Academy 2
Tues 19-Apr London XOYO – headline show – get tickets
Thu 21 Apr UK Brighton Audio – headline show – get tickets
Following on from appearances at SXSW, this will be the first time the UK will be able hear material from Asobi Seksu’s latest album ‘Fluorescence’.
The signs in Chris Zane’s studio couldn’t have been any clearer: “Don’t Overthink It” and one simple word—“BOLD.”
Or as Asobi Seksu guitarist/singer James Hanna puts it, “This time, our agenda was to not have one at all; to be mellow about the entire process instead of obsessing over everything.”
Maybe mellow isn’t the right word, unless he’s comparing the band’s fourth proper full-length (‘Fluorescence’) to a coiled-up cobra or unconscious crocodile— temperamental types that are one false move away from striking. After all, ‘Coming Up’ sets the scene by plowing into beehive-like synth lines and warp speed washes of dream-pop that leave you wondering just what the hell is going on.
Things don’t let up on ‘Trails’ either, as singer/keyboardist Yuki Chikudate sets her immaculate melodies against a barrage of battery-powered chords. Catchy and chaotic to the core, the sky-scraping song pays homage to the pitch-perfect songwriting of the ‘60s by chartering a yellow submarine to the moon.
And when the Brooklyn-based quartet (rounded out by bassist Billy Pavone and drummer Larry Gorman) finally hits the ground, their color-saturated soundscapes don’t get dull or cold. They get even brighter, as Fluorescence’s many shades shift with each passing song. That includes everything from the expansive/erratic—and yet, oh-so- poppy—prog movements of “Leave the Drummer Out There” to the weightless balladry of “Ocean,” a track that channels its title with swollen synths and beats that bob and weave through the murkiest waters around.
“James likes to get a lot more abstract with the music,” says Chikudate, “So Chris (Asobi Seksu’s longtime producer) will often try and reign him in.”
“I like to see how far we can take a song before pulling back a bit,” explains Hanna. “Like I’ll say that 100 vocal tracks would sound great in a spot where we only need 40.”
And since Asobi Seksu have spent the past decade refining their bombastic but beautiful blend of hailstorm hooks and fog-shrouded 4AD-isms (including last year’s special acoustic album, ‘Rewolf’), they knew exactly what to do with all of that restlessness: embrace it.
