renfro

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Broken Little Pieces

Album: Mathematics

Released: 27 Jul 2007

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Broken Little Pieces
5:17
155,829 plays
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Illuminations
7:43
125,063 plays
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HalfLife of Happiness
5:08
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Telescope
5:40
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Capture
4:45
77,369 plays

Total Plays: 649,115 / Plays Today: 1See All Featured ►

General Info

Genre: Down-tempo / Electronica / Experimental
Location Un
Profile Views: 942208
Last Login: 26/04/2011
Member Since 27/07/2007
Record Label Meltwater Records
Type of Label Indie
Bio
.... ...... .. ....POPS, CLICKS & MELTED CIRCUITS.... .. Based in East London & North Devon, UK, renfro are Tim Branney and Atom James Draper. Tim sings the songs and Atom sources found-sounds. Together they write words and make music from recorded fragments. .. Renfro formed in late 2005, born from a mutual love of electronic music and West-Coast vocal harmonies. Tim & Atom like the avant-garde, but often find themselves wanting to sing along too. They enjoy Low and Midlake as much as they do Tod Dockstader and William Basinski, so their idea is to meld experimental electronic musical techniques with dream-pop songwriting. .. Early on, whilst waving microphones at elephant seals in Santa Cruz, Ca., they also wondered why pop music couldn't be made using a soundtrack of field recordings and electro-acoustic manipulations. Those same elephant seals ended up joining a sonic cast that includes malfunctioning leads, NASA feeds from deep space, tapped teeth, burning plastic (a credit card sacrifice), a host of wild animals and numerous controlled bursts of static & distortion. .. Words are also important to renfro, and they try to remain optimistic in the face of the political and social realities of modern life. Modernity can be a tough gig, after all. In their lyrics renfro like to explore the poetics of isolation, difference and collapse. For guidance they binge on film, literature and assorted junk culture. .. Mastered by Kramer (producer of Low, Dot Allison, Robert Wyatt etc.) their already widely acclaimed debut album, 'Mathematics', finds lushly layered vocals residing amongst twinkling tunes that float on a sea of pops, clicks and melted circuits. A kind of electronic-alternative-gospel-folk for the 21st Century. Sometimes it's melancholy, and sometimes it chuckles quietly in the corner. .. Renfro are interested in making music that embraces the future, rather than bathing in nostalgia for a retro-electro past. They believe that you can, and indeed that in 2008 you ..should.. make pop songs from the sound of technology breaking down.
Members
..Releases:.. .. ..'Mathematics'.. (album) Digipack CD + Digital .. Japanese Release: 16th June 08.. Worldwide Release: 6th Oct 08 .. ..'Half-Life of Happiness'.. (EP) Digipack CD + Digital.. Worldwide Release Date: Announced soon... .. .. "A dreamlike hybrid of Los Angeles and Berlin, blending shimmering pop-electronica with sweet vocal harmonies that...demonstrates genuine melodic gifts" (..WIRE..) .. "Enchanting... innovative...exquisite... (renfro) sound like musique concrete meeting pop and bearing a baby named folk and the dysfunctional family of genres results in an album that ripens into a blissful fruit. Grade A material." (..CLASH..) .. "Masterpiece....album of the month" (..Inpartmaint.com..) .. "Magical, incredibly subtle and emotional. A tender, haunting album 'Mathematics' bubbles and blossoms with soaring melodies and delicate samples" (..Subba-Cultcha.com..) .. "8.5/10" - Chosen as one of the Top 10 Albums of 2008 (..Lost At Sea..) .. "An exquisitely organic whole which seizes the listener's attention from the very beginning. (Mathematics) is an amazing piece of work, surely bound to become a timeless and unforgettable classic." (..Connexion Bizarre..) .. "Mesmerising....One of the most atmospheric voices I've ever heard.... A duo project of such originality and purpose. Think of how millions of people felt when they found out Portishead were to release a new album or when Radiohead were releasing one of their best albums, that's how I feel every time I listen to a track from this debut. The most unique album I've heard this year, and I urge, nay command you to immerse yourself into it." (..SonicDice.com..) .. "Immensely rewarding, enchanting glacial glitch pop. Bursting with sublime soul-searching vocals, brimming with feeling and lashings of warm melancholia, produced masterfully. Definitely an Album Of The Week!" (..Norman Records..) .. "Rich and complex. Melodic gifts are suffused with shards of digital saffron on this impressive debut effort. Voices...hover like innocent martyrs while shuddering fields of rhythmic noise generate a rough and exciting listening experience." (..The Milk Factory..) .. "Brilliant and original songs. One might compare them to a sample–rich merger of Low and Portishead, but that would not do justice to the distinctive sound that renfro have created for themselves." (..YME.COM..) .. "A subtle and beautiful album... folk music re-imagined to suit the glow of an LCD screen rather than a campfire. 'Mathematics' is consistently good right across its 55 minutes" (..Cyclic Defrost Magazine..) .. "Poetic and hopeful, renfro have expanded the possibilities for the future of their work and the genre as a whole. A band with a heart as well as courage. This is an emotional and emotionally daring record." (..Foxy Digitalis..) .. "Mesmerizing...enthralling...'Mathematics' is beautiful, poetic, and it overflows with fragile and transfixing melodies." (..The 405.com..) .. "Like The Beach Boys in a dream state or Nick Drake, if he had plugged in a computer instead of plucking a guitar" (..WXPN 88.5 FM Philadelphia..) .. "An inexplicably gorgeous collage of sumptuous sounds. 'Mathematics' is a thoroughly rewarding album which reveals a little bit more of itself after each play. These are quietly addictive songs which slowly lodge themselves into the head and heart. Along with Junior Boys, Renfro are at the forefront of the electronica acts who wear their hearts on their sleeves." (..Leonard's Lair..) .. "Wonderful, a brilliant debut." (..Eardrums.com..) .. "Should stake Renfro's place atop the lofty mountains of avant-garde electronic pop without a doubt." (..Earz Magazine..) .. "Comparable to the more subtle elements used on Thom Yorke's solo release, 'The Eraser', innovative, serene electronic music that explores the poetic.".. (..Exclaim! Magazine..) .. "Thoroughly beguiling material. The listener will be transfixed by their swooning melodies and lighter-than-air vocal masses. (The) songs are so lovely, they call to mind nothing less than Morr Music's Slowdive tribute "Blue Skied An' Clear" (..Textura.org..) .. "Deeply affecting and engaging - 81%"(..The Line Of Best Fit..) .. "Album of the Week" (..Deuss Ex Machina..) .. "Buzzing with serene melody" (..Plan B..) .. "A wonderful world of music...magical....amazing sounds" ..(Transform @ ..Global Vortex Radio..) .. "Sweetly beguiling yet hurting and distant. Arrestingly fragile....is going to break a fair few hearts once it escapes on to the more clued up hi-fi's of the record buying community" (..Losing Today - The Indie Music Magazine..) .. "Subtle, haunting, complex collection of songs" (..3BarFire.com..) .. "The album to unite fans of Sigur Ros and Fennesz - a marvellous combination of crackling and simmering samples, nature recordings and Simon & Garfunkel harmonies.... It is the unusual fusion of electronics and vocals that makes renfro particularly special.... 'Mathematics' sounds as if Murcof hurried into the studio after returning from a holiday along the west coast of the US with Thom Yorke" (..KindaMuzik.net..) .. "Really beautiful and interesting new music, grabs you from the first hearing" (Apostolos Varnas @ ..Soul Magazine.. ) ..
Influences
Susanna and The Magical Orchestra - Midlake - Paul Wirkus - Elizabeth Fraser - Sufjan Stevens - Jan Jelinek - Low - Juana Molina - Iron and Wine - AGF/Laub - Joan As Policewoman - Fennesz - Laura Nyro - Bon Iver - Vladislav Delay - Judee Sill - Jon Hassell - Robert Wyatt - Joanna Newsom - Oval - Phoenix - Barbara Morgenstern - St. Vincent - Kate Bush - Eliane Radigue - Thom Yorke - Henryk Mikolaj Górecki - Burial - Smokey Robinson - Arvo Pärt - Kraftwerk - Mathematiques Modernes - Bjork - Igor Stravinsky - Matmos - Nico - Pole - The Books - Apparat - David Crosby (+ Stills & Nash, but not Young) - Deathprod - The Cinematic Orchestra - Samadhisound - Colder - Spacek - Aqualung - Laurie Anderson - Curtis Mayfield - Animal Collective - Rickie Lee Jones - Tod Dockstader - Broadcast - Kings of Convenience - M83 - Jean-Marc WEBER - King Creosote - William Basinski - Mark Hollis - Radian - John Taverner - Adem - Lali Puna - Holger Czukay - Dntel - Scritti Politti - Colleen - Craig Armstrong .. Bela Tarr - Guy Maddin - Werner Herzog - David Lynch - Jim Jarmusch - Stanley Kubrick - Krzysztof Kieslowski - Alfred Hitchcock - Michelangelo Antonioni - Alain Resnais - Joel Coen - Andrei Tarkovsky - Roy Andersson - Terry Gilliam - Gus Van Sant - Ilya Khrzhanovsky - Billy Wilder - Godfrey Reggio .. David Foster Wallace - Thomas Pynchon - George Saunders - W. G. Sebald - Don DeLillo - Michel Tournier - Laura Albert/J.T. LeRoy - Rick Bass - Cormac McCarthy - Bruce Chatwin - Stephen Millhauser - Chris Bachelder - John Banville - Colson Whitehead - J.M. Coetzee - William Goyen
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