New Akron/Family Album The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT

Discussion
1

Good times coming as Akron/Family have a new album in the bag…

(Akron/Family, S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT album artwork)

Finally, after over a month of unanswered emails and text messages, blown deadlines, and pleas to finish and turn in their new album, last week, a large brown cardboard box showed up at the Dead Oceans doorstep. It had “SHINJU TNT” scrawled across the bottom of the box in black magic marker, and the return address read only “AK, Detroit.”

Opening it revealed a sincere but poorly made diorama of futurist swirling spaces filled with toy astronauts and dinosaurs, four blown out song fragments on a TDK CDR in a ziplock bag, three pictures, a track list written in crayon, and a typewritten note from Akron/Family. A post-it on the bag declared the band refused to send the full album to anyone but the vinyl pressing plant, for fear of leaking and possible lost revenues.

From the note and a short video that arrived days later, we’ve pieced together that the album was written in a cabin built into the side of Mount Meakan, an active volcano in Akan National Park, on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. It was recorded in an abandoned train station in Detroit with the blackest white dude we all know, Chris Koltay (Liars, Women, Deerhunter, Holy Fuck, No Age). Chris, on tour after finishing the record, commented: “this album will transcend the internet.”

Akron/Family spent the end of 2009 and half of 2010 exploring the future of sound through Bent Acid Punk Diamond fuzz and Underground Japanese noise cassettes, lower case micro tone poems and emotional Cagean field recordings, rebuilding electronic drums from the 70’s and playing them with sticks they carved themselves. Upon miraculous resuscitation of the original AKAK hard drive, the album layers thousands of minute imperceptible samples of their first recordings with fuzzed-out representations of their present beings to induce pleasant emotional feeling states and many momentary transcendent inspirations.

This album is titled S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT. We have no idea what that means. After the jump you’ll find a photo of the note found in the brown box delivery with the song list, video, and an mp3 of the song fragments retrieved from the TDK CDR, relics of a new tomorrow and a brighter Akron/Family filled future. These are the beginnings, hell or high water you’ll find S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT in stores in the U.S. on February 8, and March 14 in the U.K.

2

YES!!!

3

Listen to some of the new stuff here…

http://deadoceans.com/blog/2010/11/transmissions-from-the-great-beyond-akronfamily-announce-new-album/

4

I couldn’t be bothered waiting for the physical release so I purchased the album from iTunes today and it’s awesome.

It actually just came out today on iTunes…the vinyl/cd comes out here in the UK mid March…not sure when the States get it???

But yeah anyway it’s great.

5

Everyone’s being totally gay for yet another Radiohead offering while overlooking Akron/Family??? BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Akron/Family is Michael Gira’s favourite band on the planet…for me this kind of makes up for everyone being gay for Radiohead and ignoring a band that makes much better records. Michael & I are obviously totally tight as we both think Akron kick ass.

Here’s the first review I’ve read…describes the new Akron/Family album pretty well.

"When I first heard Akron/Family’s 2007 album Love Is Simple, I was walking the streets of Santiago, Chile. Loaded with nothing but my wits, a rucksack and an mp3 player, I hadn’t long flown into the city before gracing its concrete jungle walkways and trying to figure out in which direction I was facing. An enormous feeling of loneliness loomed over me.

Love Is Simple (with soft, squidgy lyrics like “Go out and love, love, love everyone”) filled me with confidence. It taught me to wear a loving smile on my face to everyone I would meet. The album’s unhurried pace was the antidote I needed to contrast the bustle of the busy South American city.
Perhaps as a step away from previous slow-burning offerings, Akron/Family’s new LP S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT kicks off with a surprising boom. Jolting with anthemic deluge first track “Silly Bears” charges into existence. Hammering tribal drums and a rolling bassline infuse brilliantly as all three Family members harmonize to perfection and with a touch of despair.

Third track “A AAA O A WAY” evokes the bonfire spirit of Love Is Simple’s “There’s So Many Colors,” followed by the big, crunching blues medley “So It Goes.” This track shows how Akron/Family can quite often hit out with lyrical gems that are so delicious you have to rewind and play them again.

/ Just like them, I stopped giving my change to all the homeless people out on the street /
/ But I changed back /
/ I give my change again to anyone who asks so long as I have a pocket /

As “So It Goes” trails off to a quiet close, “Another Sky” explodes with futuristic, high-pitched guitar and crashing percussion. “Fuji I (Global Dub)” chants out full-scale crunching, sing-a-long blues while “Canopy” proffers beauty through a bittersweet Spanish guitar.

Listening to Akron/Family’s cunning use of merry, folk-influenced psychedelia can sometimes compliment life itself. Leaving my house to walk along the cold, snowy sidewalk, second track Island tumbled into my earlobes. The trio sent their dreamy, majestic number packing by chiming the phrase “the gulf of Mexico”, at which point the breeze outside picked up and flung a handful of snow from a tree branch into the ether.

Similarly, on my walk home down a dark, icy lane, a tiny grey rabbit bounded across my path and then continued to sprint ahead for a good while into the shadows as the wistful “Cast A Net” floated all around me. On pondering each occurrence, I couldn’t help but feel that they had helped to accentuate the meaning of the song – or perhaps the song had helped to accentuate the meaning of the occurrences. Either way, it reminded me that Akron/Family create the kind of organic wonder that easily transcends from manufactured sound into nature.

While previous albums have had a strong focus on acoustic experimentalism, this new record makes room for radio-friendly blues and seems to have been written with a more indie-pop audience in mind. Akron/Family have deserved a wider fanbase for a long time, entertaining as they are, and so issues like this are easily forgiven. Thankfully, they don’t drop their ability to shake things up and still pour in a healthy amount of bizarre – like the record’s title. The phrase S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shunju TNT should induce puzzlement from the off as even the band themselves admit that they are unsure as to what it truly means.

S/T II flows a logical course from start to almost finish. Final track “Creator” is surplus to requirement since penultimate number “Canopy” ties things off so well. As a scene-buster, this album could well be the one that breaks Akron/Family into the big time. The pop world wouldn’t regret letting them in either: this album positively begs to be played live."

http://prettymuchamazing.com/reviews/albumreviews/akronfamilyii

6

My gayness for Akron continues…

http://younggodrecords.com/Artists/?C=28

"For those of you who have seen my simpering, slavishly devotional blurbs and press releases in the past re Akron/Family, wherein I make ridiculous claims about them (which I happen to believe!), it should come as no surprise to you now when I reiterate they are one of the best bands on the planet. I don’t recall seeing such fantastic live shows ever, except maybe Pere Ubu at the Whisky in LA circa 1978 or Pink Floyd circa Umma Gumma era 1968/9. Take those unrelated reference points and mix in The Beatles, Chicago Art Ensemble, Credence Clearwater Revival, The Grateful Dead, The Hollies, The Butthole Surfers, Led Zeppelin, and you might get a notion - probably not. Best thing is to see them live and listen to their recordings and leave it at that…

Below is the first press release about them from 2004 and a review from the time as well. It’s a true pleasure to have seen them grow from complete obscurity into the screaming music engine they’ve become – and they’re just beginning now to reach the wide audience they deserve." – Michael Gira/YGR 2008