Ask For Joy are set to release their upcoming album “New Private Window” on Infinitely Recursive Records on March 14th. I would barely call this a shoegaze album per se. This is more of a sonic adventure in the form of beautifully crafted layers of aural attitude and sensual melodic form laced together with the pop sensibility of a band formed of sheer talent and reckless abandon.
@askforjoy [rotatingtweets screen_name=’askforjoy’]
About Ask For Joy:
Founded in 2005, Ask For Joy is the solo project of multi-instrumentalist and producer Aaron Rossetto. Based in Austin, Texas, artists like himself and Ringo Deathstarr are putting this city on the shoegaze map.
Combining the fuzzy warm shoegaze of Slowdive with the raw sonic power of bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine, Ask For Joy manages to create a divine cacophony of what can literally be called beautiful noise. This new album shines a light into a slightly darker corners of the mind through the themes it explores.
“It’s fair to say that the material on New Private Window tends to the seedier side: the lighter and darker sides of substance abuse; a couple’s murder-suicide; sexually suggestive expressions of love and desire. These are the types of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that one might want to keep hidden from friends or loved ones, tucked safely deep within the darkest reaches of the individual,” explains Aaron Rossetto.
“New Private Window explores these stories often kept secret. The title refers to the option in modern Web browsers that starts an untracked session, leaving no search or site traces behind for others to discover. Building up layers of guitar tracks, synthesizers, and thick choir-like background vocals gives the songs on the EP a sense of impenetrability and shelter from prying eyes (or ears) – in much the same way as, say, opening a private browser window would do.”
Inspired by the Phil Spector “wall of sound” style production fuzzy, pitch-bent, all-enveloping guitar-driven sound, as seen in Jesus and Mary Chain recordings, and equally by the poppy, harmony-laced sensibilities of the Beach Boys, this music fuses the rawness of the DIY esthetic with atmospheric waves of sound. The output is a lush textured and dreamy style of pop music.
‘New Private Window’ is preceded by eight other EPs, seven of which were released on Rossetto’s own Infinitely Recursive Records imprint, along with several singles. Ask for joy is also featured on numerous shoegaze compilation albums, including several in Japan.
The lead single ‘Pinprick Eyes’ is being offered as a free download via the artist’s Bandcamp at askforjoy.bandcamp.com, whetting the appetite for the forthcoming album. You can catch the full LP here too in early March as well as standard platforms such as iTunes, Amazon, etc.
“Just the right dose of reverberation for a track that seems perfectly hybrid between indie pop and shoegaze” – The Record Stache
“A windswept sonic island within a sea of reverberating melodic joy. A merry dance through golden peaks & troughs, stuffed full of shimmering layered reverb drenched guitars!” – Primal Music Blog
“Gives rise to a sweet euphoria. This single shows Ask For Joy to be a clever, calculated ambassador of gaze” – The Sound of Confusion
“Fullbodied reverb over popperfect drum machines and gorgeous harmonies… daydream induced escapism” – When The Sun Hits“Dream pop of the highest category… Ask for Joy shows that the dream world is eternal” – The Blog That Celebrates Itself
LINKS:
http://www.askforjoy.com/
http://facebook.com/AskForJoy
http://askforjoy.bandcamp.com/
http://twitter.com/askforjoy
