Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Windsor For The Derby Return!


Hey guys...

Been a hell of a weekend around POP! Stereo HQ. Lots of work getting done, restoring my yard after a brutal winter (the joys of a house), replanting, re-sodding, cleaning beds, pest control. Fun times indeed.

All that work has left me in a bit of a bind. I've got a TON of email and music to sort through so there are probably going to be a ton of posts between now and the end of the week, including a Ten Tracks You Need multi-part post.

So lets get sorted shall we... Check out new Windsor for the Derby!

In a day and age when many a band must carefully plot an air of mystery around themselves, it is with much grace that Philadelphia-Austin sonic craftsmen Windsor for the Derby have maintained their particular cult mystique over eight albums of subtle, biting and exploratory post-rock. We're proud to announce the latest from WFTD, Against Love, arriving June 22 on Secretly Canadian (June 21 in the UK).

In a world of “slow” movements that rail against mindless consumption, rock survivalists Windsor for the Derby represent “slow” music. For their latest outing, they began with a set of seemingly infinite drones and loops inspired by their early beginnings as a band. As those recordings were passed back and forth, the sounds were further sculpted by Dan Matz and Jason McNeely into their own leftfield brand of pop song. This became Against Love.

While they experimented with more formalized rock structures on their past few albums, Against Love finds the balance between experimentation and rock tradition more heavily skewed toward the former. The songs are filled with tried & true conventions. Nowhere on Against Love is this better displayed than within the psych-pop anthem "Queen of the Sun," full of warm feedback and synth built around a patient acoustic guitar strum.

Lyrically the songs are about how the modern world is changing the human condition, how we decide to land when the floor is pulled out from under us, and how hope is born from loss. The songs were shaped over months in backstage rooms, hotels, vans, and wherever else Matz and McNeely found time during WFTD’s European and American tours of the past two years. Tracks were finalized in Matz’s haunted Hope Union Studio, where disengaged clock chimes, spectral taps, and mysterious footsteps are a constant cause for another take; some left in the mix.

Download: Queen of the Sun

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