New York, NY (Top40 Charts) No Movement Records has announced the forthcoming release of their sophomore album 'Inertia' from We Are Parasols, a Portland-based alternative trio known for making music that simultaneously embraces several genres while walking the thin line between dark and light. It will be made available on cassette and digitally.
A throbbing beat. Machines on march. Guitars can be a drill or sing like an angel. A voice like a computer caught in a human throat. A whisper. A howl. Synthesizers are sometimes smooth and glassy, sometimes jagged and bloody. A walk on the shore can easily turn into an apocalyptic landscape, depending on your perception.
Influenced by Curve, Wire, Cocteau Twins, Depeche Mode,
Gazelle Twin, Skinny Puppy,
Nine Inch Nails and Bloody Knives, their new offerings on 'Inertia' features tracks ranging from the analogue postpunk near-industrial enigma of projects like Clan of Xymox and The Tear Garden to electronic dark reverie similar to
Delerium and
Gazelle Twin classics to the stripped back melancholy served up by This Mortal Coil.
Dubbing their own music as 'industrialgaze' and 'darkwave', We Are Parasols is comprised of D (vocals and bass), Jerman (guitars, piano, synthesizers, programming, and samples), and Alec Eye (drums, programming, and synthesizers).
"I have a stronger desire — or, really, a need — to continue to make and perform music. So that deep need often overrides the fears I have about creating and sharing our art, and performing live," says D.
We Are Parasols began as a shoegaze-electronic hybrid band. Their debut full-length 'Infrastructure' was followed by their 'bite_your_tongue' EP, a more minimal ambient release. The song 'No Movement' off the band's debut album, which was about an android sex worker, ultimately spawned the musical world of their new album 'Inertia'.
'Inertia' combines industrial, shoegaze, dream pop and darkwave with sci-fi in order to tell a dystopian, possibly humanist, probably anti-human, story about violence, technology, politics, control, and an android feminist anti-hero known only as a synthetic sexual tasked android body.
There are 13 tracks on the cassette version of the EP, which comes with a full color 4-panel J-Card featuring all the lyrics, as well as a digital download (a poster is also available). While these same 13 tracks are available through online stores and streaming platforms everywhere, the Bandcamp edition includes a special bonus track - 'hush (Piano Version)' - especially for lovers of early 4AD output.
On December 8, 'Inertia' will be released via No Movement Records, a Portland-based label and artist cooperative lead by Jeremy Wilkins, focusing on a darker, electronic-based sound and fully committed ourselves to releasing cassette tapes. The album can already be ordered in both formats via Bandcamp.
We Are Parasols will perform next at Portland's Brickbat Mansion on December 1. RSVP via Facebook or email at
[email protected] Admission is free, but anyone who donates of $5 or more gets an 'Inertia' poster with a download card.
"We are Parasols' roots seem to intertwine with the music of those who have influenced their own music. Loaded with innovation and a well-crafted waxing and waning of intensity, Inertia is most closely reminiscent of The Rose Chronicles, Single Gun Theory, and Bill Leeb's side project
Delerium (particularly those tracks where Kirsty Thirsk and Jacqui Hunt contribute vocals)" - Big Takeover Magazine
"Add a cauldron, Curve, Bloody Knives, darkwave, Nine Inch Nails, Wolfgang Press, and mix everything up nicely. The result is We Are Parasols. Their sound really goes far beyond genres and subgenres, exuding modernity.... This seems as if an obscure Beggars Banquet's album. 'Inertia' is one of the records of the year, inspiring and instigating us with its mix of shadows and dreamery" - The Blog That Celebrates Itself
"Inertia is 13 sonic gems that slip into one's ears like honey slides down the tongue... A unique voice in Portland's, or the world-at-large's, music scene" - Northwest
Music Scene
TRACK LIST
1. data merge 01:27
2. concrete 03:45
3. dim 04:36
4. in the code 00:54
5. scoptophilia 03:33
6. the perfect host 01:21
7. hush 03:51
8. quarantine 03:23
9. recoil 03:05
10. ss.tab 03:57
11. repeater 02:45
12. new blood 01:52
13. bloodvoice (a violent choir) 04:21
14. hush (Piano Version) 02:37
d // vocals, bass
jerman // guitars, piano, synthesizers, programming, samples
alec eye // drums, programming, synthesizers
Production // we are parasols
Recording, mixing, & endless tweaking // jeremy wilkins at underwater research and design
Mastering // adam gonsalves at telegraph mastering
All songs written by wilkins/wood/yeager
All lyrics by wilkins except "scoptophilia" by wilkins/wood & "repeater" by wood
All songs published by soulLAXluster.BMI cover art by daniel kopton at danklife
Cover art by daniel kopton at danklife
All photos by
George Lewis III
a violent choir is comprised of avoxblue (jimmy rossi jr), charlie moses (carolyn grigar), hawks do not share (george lewis III, jason roark, britt white, jeremy wilkins), & richard parsons
