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CD
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VILLAGE 021CD
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Hot on the heels of their critically revered 2014 krautrock-meets-Afrobeat longplayer Regions (VG 007CD/LP), Ellis Island Sound's Pete Astor and David Sheppard return with a seven-track mini-album. Inspired by the main flow of Regions, Divisions is another fertile marriage between motorik Mitteleuropa pulse and subtropical guitar- and percussion-textures. This time, however, the emphasis is less on throbbing, NEU!-beat-propelled blow-outs and more on intricate, highly melodic arrangements for guitars, keyboards, and tuned percussion, with a spacious sound palette propelled by polyrhythmic marimbas and xylophones and layered with infectious lead lines and choral vocals -- the latter sourced by Astor and Sheppard from dusty archive recordings and manipulated into subtle, stirring descants on several tracks. Reference points might be the Penguin Cafe Orchestra's "Cutting Branches for a Temporary Shelter," Cluster's Sowiesoso, Steve Reich's Counterpoint compositions, or the juju pop of King Sunny Adé, with EIS taking such implicit influences and molding them into shapes that are distinctive and very much to their own design, a modus operandi that the gentlemanly duo have deployed for the duration of their unhurried but enduring career since 1996.
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LP
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VILLAGE 021LP
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LP version; includes poster and download code.
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12"
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VILLAGE 007EP
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Ellis Island Sound comprises the duo of Pete Astor (The Loft, Weather Prophets, etc.) and David Sheppard (State River Widening, Snow Palms, etc.). This is the first EP from the band which will be closely followed by their third LP Regions. Described as "Afro-Krautrock," This is a toe-tapping motorik Kraut-pop juggernaut by all accounts. The single features vocals from Radiohead collaborator John Matthias, coming on like an opiated James Brown channeling Damo Suzuki. The EP also features remixes from Fryars and Scott Fraser.
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CD
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VILLAGE 007CD
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Ellis Island Sound comprises the duo of Pete Astor (The Loft, Weather Prophets, Wisdom Of Harry, etc.) and David Sheppard (State River Widening, Snow Palms, etc.). Regions is the duo's third album since their inception, and it has already been described as "Afro-Krautrock" and "Teutonic High Life." It is possible to detect the influence of Jean Bosco Mwende or King Sunny Ade's guitars, along with the polyrhythmic ensemble force of Fela Kuti's Africa 70 and T-Funk-period Talking Heads. Sometime-Radiohead-collaborator John Matthias applies vocals to five tracks, coming on like an opiated James Brown channeling Damo Suzuki. For fans of Can, Fela Kuti, Talking Heads and Neu!.
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LP
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VILLAGE 007LP
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