Browse by Artist: ZELIENOPLE

Artist:	ZELIENOPLE
Title:	Stone Academy
Label:	DIGITALIS
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	DIGI 033CD

"Hailing from Chicago, Zelienople have been etching out a place for themselves in the Windy City for the past five years. Constant collaborators with Souled American's Scott Tuma, this quartet mixes ghostly song structures with ambient drones better than just about anyone. With recent releases on Time-Lag, New Zealand's Pseudoarcana, and Tarentel's Root Strata imprint, the boys of Zelienople are rising like vines toward the canopy. Stone Academy picks up where 2005's brilliant Ink (recently reissued on CD by Loose Thread Recordings) left off. It balances the simple beauty of guitar-based songs with overwhelming, dark drones. The combination is as powerful as it is intricate. Each note, each chord is carefully chosen and perfectly placed; they never take too long or push too much. The attention to detail is magnificent. Zelienople have mastered the art of making expansive, luminescent drones sound as organic as the soil beneath your feet. Stone Academy reverberates like it's planted deep inside a lost cavern, hidden miles beneath the surface waiting for excavation. With rich textures and challenging soundscapes, Stone Academy is a wholly satisfying listening experience. The darkness is only a canvas for the light of these compositions to shine through. Zelienople offer up one of the year's finest aural adventures."

Artist:	ZELIENOPLE
Title:	His/Hers
Label:	TYPE (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	TYPE 024CD

Zelienople (named after a borough in Pennsylvania) is the moniker of Chicago-based musicians Matt Christensen (guitar/vocals), Mike Weis (percussion) and Brian Harding (guitar/clarinet) and between them, in a desolate suburban basement, they have come up with a record of pure psych-rock sludge. Now on their fifth album, the band has struck upon their finest moment yet, honing their skills to create something singular and utterly unique. There is certainly no shortage of acts willing to throw down waves of experimental guitar noise and clattering percussion, but with the benefit of focus and experience, Zelienople sound like something totally out of time and almost impossible to place. Residing in a hazy drunken world in-between slow-core pioneers Low, psych-folk outsiders Charalambides, Japanese overlords Boris and Dead Man-era Neil Young, His/Hers is a faded photograph of rock music past, yet still manages to keep a firm footing in the present. Guitars echo like disappearing ghosts and vocals moan and wail mercilessly while percussion bubbles up in glorious waterlogged waves. Fusing the warring factions of blues, noise, metal, folk and jazz, the trio has made as breathtaking a psychedelic album as you're likely to find. This is an album made for listening, for enjoying and sinking into, an album that is made as an illicit treat for the discerning music fans among us. Grab hold and step aboard, Zelienople are just about ready to take you on a universal journey into the subconscious, and it's gonna be quite some ride.

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