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CD
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ECD 010CD
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Walls (Alessio Natalizia and Sam Willis) return with their third and final studio album, Urals. Urals is the conclusion of a three-album cycle that began with their self-titled debut in 2010 (KOMP 082CD/KOM 212LP), and continued in 2011 with Coracle (KOMP 091CD/KOM 245LP). This album is an accumulation of four years of studio exploration, inverting their signature sound into a new, more intense dimension, the duo once again exploring futuristic vistas with their coruscating synth lines, spiraling guitar figures, and howling distortion and noise. Informed by the creation/curation of their burgeoning Ecstatic Recordings imprint that has seen them release music by kindred spirits such as Pye Corner Audio, Axel Willner (The Field), and L/F/D/M, among others, as well as their own individual explorations (Natalizia's caustic, minimal synth workouts as Not Waving, and Willis's lurid, ritualistic techno as Primitive World) Urals pushes the envelope a long way from the template they set out with on tracks such as "Burnt Sienna" or "Hang Four." From the stumbling, off-kilter groove of the title-track to the probing kosmische pulses of "Altai" to the intense, ear-shredding acid of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" to the sublime synth-scape paean "Radiance," it's clear that Willis and Natalizia are taking leave of the Walls project at the top of their game. Mastered by Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3, Spectrum) at New Atlantis Studios.
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LP
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ELP 010LP
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LP version. Pressed on white vinyl. Walls (Alessio Natalizia and Sam Willis) return with their third and final studio album, Urals. Urals is the conclusion of a three-album cycle that began with their self-titled debut in 2010 (KOMP 082CD/KOM 212LP), and continued in 2011 with Coracle (KOMP 091CD/KOM 245LP). This album is an accumulation of four years of studio exploration, inverting their signature sound into a new, more intense dimension, the duo once again exploring futuristic vistas with their coruscating synth lines, spiraling guitar figures, and howling distortion and noise. Informed by the creation/curation of their burgeoning Ecstatic Recordings imprint that has seen them release music by kindred spirits such as Pye Corner Audio, Axel Willner (The Field), and L/F/D/M, among others, as well as their own individual explorations (Natalizia's caustic, minimal synth workouts as Not Waving, and Willis's lurid, ritualistic techno as Primitive World) Urals pushes the envelope a long way from the template they set out with on tracks such as "Burnt Sienna" or "Hang Four." From the stumbling, off-kilter groove of the title-track to the probing kosmische pulses of "Altai" to the intense, ear-shredding acid of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" to the sublime synth-scape paean "Radiance," it's clear that Willis and Natalizia are taking leave of the Walls project at the top of their game. Mastered by Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3, Spectrum) at New Atlantis Studios. Limited edition LP pressed on white vinyl.
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12"
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E 002EP
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The double A-side Urals/I Can't Give You Anything But Love sees Walls releasing on the Kompakt-imprint Ecstatic for the first time, with a pair of mind-expanding dancefloor-focused compositions. Limited to 300 hand-stamped white-label copies for the world. "Urals" creates a pulsating, hypnotic atmosphere through its trippy synth melodies, and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" is a clash between the heavy acid sound of Armando or DJ Pierre with the towering guitar squalls of My Bloody Valentine.
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12"
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KOM 257EP
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Walls return with Coracle Remixe, a compendium of select remixes by some of the finest electronic minds working today. Tri-Angle Records ghostly beatsmith Holy Other steps up with an epic, doom-laden take on "Sunporch" -- portentous slabs of bass and echo chamber stabs wrapped in sinuous guitar while industrial techno provocateur Perc turns it into a stripped-down, mechanistic slam-dance. Wolfgang and Reinhard Voigt turn "Raw Umber/Twilight" into a sparkling, mesmeric head-nodder. John Tejada turns "Drunken Galleon" into a soaring sunset anthem.
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12"
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KOM 249EP
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London's Krautpop duo Walls continue their voyage to distant planets, hovering over alien continents. Starting off procedures with some trademark drone work, the title-track soon introduces a danceable beat pattern straying not too far away from what luminaries like Caribou or Animal Collective are doing to tighten up their jam sessions, but with lush vocals, succulent textures and a hallucinatory bloom. Backed up by an exclusive edit and unreleased freeform thump-out "Idle Sway," this 12" brings the bounce back to the chill-out.
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CD
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KOMP 091CD
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Walls' Alessio Natalizia and Sam Willis return swiftly on the back of 2010's critically-lauded self-titled debut, an album that picked up MOJO's coveted "Electronic Album Of The Year," featured in NME's end-of-year lists, not to mention winning fans such as Jamie XX, Caribou, James Holden and impressing U.S. trio Battles. Yet it isn't these admittedly impressive accolades that make the announcement of second LP Coracle such an anticipated one; what makes Walls so alluring is the fully-immersive experience of their mellifluous electronica -- reaching out far and wide to pull influences sonic, emotional and theoretical together into patterns of blissful phantasmagoria. Taking their debut as the prototype, Willis and Natalizia have taken those initial early-sunrise evocations and pushed them to even more grandiose expanse. Coracle also takes a more dance-oriented stance, the soft-edged rhythms of ambient combining with influences from the protean Detroit techno and Chicago house music of Juan Atkins, Mr. Fingers et al., to propel the likes of opener "Into Our Midst" and lead-off single "Sunporch" forth. Sonic shapes often collide in slow motion, while a greater usage of guitars and pedals -- twisted to push the instruments beyond their comfort zone -- have further cemented links to Krautrock (Cluster/Popul Vuh) and shoegaze (MBV/Ulrich Schnauss). At times aural ideas bleed together, sometimes one pushing the other into the background, elsewhere combining to morph into something new. Tracks like "Vacant" and "Drunken Galleon" glimmer with the sense of voyages not entirely known, the former shimmering and shaking as though ready for take-off, the latter's introductory keyboards tiptoeing naively, like an explorer feeling their way amidst freshly discovered surroundings. There's no sense of a directed level at which we the listener should respond to their music, so long as we can connect with it -- indeed, for a group whose most obvious tools remain electronic machines and samplers, theirs is a sound that could hardly sound more human. This open-ended approach is inspired by the ideas of German film director Werner Herzog -- the track "Ecstatic Truth" is named after his talk on the subject. Coracle is cerebrally-created music, but it's a work that hasn't been allowed to escape the more impulsive -- and yet in many cases more complicated -- spectrum of human emotion imbued in it first. It's an album that connects on the most satisfying and accessible level, as the pair say: "we learned to trust the goosebumps that we've both felt throughout making this record;" they won't be alone in experiencing such spine-tingling reactions.
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LP+CD
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KOM 245LP
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Limited white vinyl version with a free copy of the CD. Walls' Alessio Natalizia and Sam Willis return swiftly on the back of 2010's critically-lauded self-titled debut, an album that picked up MOJO's coveted "Electronic Album Of The Year," featured in NME's end-of-year lists, not to mention winning fans such as Jamie XX, Caribou, James Holden and impressing U.S. trio Battles. Yet it isn't these admittedly impressive accolades that make the announcement of second LP Coracle such an anticipated one; what makes Walls so alluring is the fully-immersive experience of their mellifluous electronica -- reaching out far and wide to pull influences sonic, emotional and theoretical together into patterns of blissful phantasmagoria. Taking their debut as the prototype, Willis and Natalizia have taken those initial early-sunrise evocations and pushed them to even more grandiose expanse. Coracle also takes a more dance-oriented stance, the soft-edged rhythms of ambient combining with influences from the protean Detroit techno and Chicago house music of Juan Atkins, Mr. Fingers et al., to propel the likes of opener "Into Our Midst" and lead-off single "Sunporch" forth. Sonic shapes often collide in slow motion, while a greater usage of guitars and pedals -- twisted to push the instruments beyond their comfort zone -- have further cemented links to Krautrock (Cluster/Popul Vuh) and shoegaze (MBV/Ulrich Schnauss). At times aural ideas bleed together, sometimes one pushing the other into the background, elsewhere combining to morph into something new. Tracks like "Vacant" and "Drunken Galleon" glimmer with the sense of voyages not entirely known, the former shimmering and shaking as though ready for take-off, the latter's introductory keyboards tiptoeing naively, like an explorer feeling their way amidst freshly discovered surroundings. There's no sense of a directed level at which we the listener should respond to their music, so long as we can connect with it -- indeed, for a group whose most obvious tools remain electronic machines and samplers, theirs is a sound that could hardly sound more human. This open-ended approach is inspired by the ideas of German film director Werner Herzog -- the track "Ecstatic Truth" is named after his talk on the subject. Coracle is cerebrally-created music, but it's a work that hasn't been allowed to escape the more impulsive -- and yet in many cases more complicated -- spectrum of human emotion imbued in it first. It's an album that connects on the most satisfying and accessible level, as the pair say: "we learned to trust the goosebumps that we've both felt throughout making this record;" they won't be alone in experiencing such spine-tingling reactions.
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12"
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KOM 237EP
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Walls presents the first single from their Coracle (KOMP 091CD/KOM 245LP) album. "Sunporch" reinforces the ground they explored with last year's "Gaberdine," a towering, arpeggiated bass line surrounded by a swirling web of guitars and percussion. Alongside an exclusive edit of "Sunporch" and an unreleased ambient crooner, "Tight Spots," this is an essential follow-up that will tempt you for what awaits within Coracle.
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CD
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KOMP 082CD
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Walls are a band from London made up of members Sam Willis (of Allez-Allez) and Alessio Natalizia (of Banjo Or Freakout). Having met in 2009 while Allez-Allez were remixing Banjo Or Freakout's Mr. No, they quickly realized that the natural combination of Alessio's guitar playing and haunting vocals together with Willis' emotive synth-lines and sample manipulation magic was a match made in heaven. "We're particularly influenced by artists such as Neu! and Harmonia -- Michael Rother's guitar work, and Mobius and Roedelius' synth work really pushes boundaries yet remains melodic and euphoric. It's easy to make noisy and difficult music, what's harder, and feels natural to us is to make music that skates along the edges -- melodic, but with a sense of sadness, hope and euphoria at the same time. Kompakt feels like such a perfect home for us as a label -- emotion, personality, individuality, quality of sound etc. -- these are all things we feel about the music coming from the label." Walls tightrope this fine line to remarkable lengths. Take "Hang Four" where the slo-mo techno rhythm finds an easy bond with Alessio's lush guitar picking. "Cylopean Remains" immediately conjures the potentials of a jam between Animal Collective and Boards Of Canada -- rolling beauty combined with epic strangeness to the most cerebral degree. Destined to be one of Kompakt's most unparalleled releases in their history, Walls has a lack of concern for the boundaries of genre distinction, but easily fit uniquely between the classic "sound of Kompakt" and the bliss of Pop Ambient.
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LP+CD
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KOM 212LP
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LP version with CD. Walls are a band from London made up of members Sam Willis (of Allez-Allez) and Alessio Natalizia (of Banjo Or Freakout). Having met in 2009 while Allez-Allez were remixing Banjo Or Freakout's Mr. No, they quickly realized that the natural combination of Alessio's guitar playing and haunting vocals together with Willis' emotive synth-lines and sample manipulation magic was a match made in heaven. "We're particularly influenced by artists such as Neu! and Harmonia -- Michael Rother's guitar work, and Mobius and Roedelius' synth work really pushes boundaries yet remains melodic and euphoric. It's easy to make noisy and difficult music, what's harder, and feels natural to us is to make music that skates along the edges -- melodic, but with a sense of sadness, hope and euphoria at the same time. Kompakt feels like such a perfect home for us as a label -- emotion, personality, individuality, quality of sound etc. -- these are all things we feel about the music coming from the label." Walls tightrope this fine line to remarkable lengths. Take "Hang Four" where the slo-mo techno rhythm finds an easy bond with Alessio's lush guitar picking. "Cylopean Remains" immediately conjures the potentials of a jam between Animal Collective and Boards Of Canada -- rolling beauty combined with epic strangeness to the most cerebral degree. Destined to be one of Kompakt's most unparalleled releases in their history, Walls has a lack of concern for the boundaries of genre distinction, but easily fit uniquely between the classic "sound of Kompakt" and the bliss of Pop Ambient.
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