24.12.09

This twitter thing...

...we are in it.

...click it

23.12.09

"A Glimpse To The Days That Pass"

...this is the title of our full-length. Or better our retrospection between the years 2004 and 2008.

Eight tracks with total run of ~50 minutes, most of them recorded in totally different sessions, places and period. We are going to upload the full release at myspace, one track at the time, so stay hooked for bulletins, tweets and status updates ;)
500 copies of hand-packed, stamped and painted folders, with love and care of friends and us. 500 copies each one different from the other. Photos will be up soon (as soon as we have them ready actually...). Here's track list and some (maybe boring) liner notes:

1. Will Teasle Hopes (3:17)
2. Countryside Somnambulist (5:41)
3. A Tide Before The Flickering Sun (9:22)
4. Riding Tigers/Taming Waves (3:19)
5. Zgy-kix (7:17)
6. Lugano (6:14)
7. Do (7:45)
8. Self-killing Intruders (5:12)

Well, there is actually a story of each one. In case you are interested or have some time to kill, go ahead. I'll try to keep it short. Promise.

1. Will Teasle Hopes
Written while I was digging the awesome Minus The Bear, during a jam rehearsal. Nothing even close to them though, of course. It was like late 2006 I think. We call it "the hit", mostly because of the radio friendly character and duration. It was recorded at Rambo Studios (our own studio we don't have anymore...) for a free compilation given out to the first who show up at one of our shows back then. And, no, I won't talk about the title.

2. Countryside Somnambulist
Nothing much to say about this one. Drums recorded at Green Hill Dungeons and the rest at Architect Basement (yes, we like to give fancy names to our friends' spare rooms available for recording sessions hehe). Some guitars where recorded in the toilet, so that's the strange punchy sound in some lead parts.

3. A Tide Before The Flickering Sun
This one was recorded in summer 2006 (at Rambo Studios again) in order to print this demo CDr. It was limited to 200 copies and these were over in like three shows I think. People still ask us if there are any still available. Crazy! Here are the covers:



Actually Dennis joined the band when we asked him to record a lead part with his famous e-bow skills. After this session he stuck to us and us to him :) Most guitar parts recorded with an early-80s Roland guitar like this:



unique experience.

edit: I just remembered that a friend include it in a web compilation alongside with similar great greek bands like Misuse, Good Luck Mr Gorsky, S.Ink, Earthbound, Diafana Krina, Gardenbox, 2 By Bukowski, Monday Eternal and Absent Without Leave. Really nice compilation. I'll upload it sometime in case there's anyone interested.


4. Riding Tigers/Taming Waves
Recorded at the same "session" (and toilet) with Countryside Somnambulist. Tuned down a few hertz cause of a voltage failure, but we liked this way.

5. Zgy-kix
Our first full track composed ever. It's original form was in three parts: a drone-noise part, the postmetal-like part (that you can find in this release) and the postrock part, of total duration around 25 minutes. The plan was to be released as an one-song/three-tracks EP with bonus 5" vinyl with some more noisy stuff, but the label interested in founding this pull off, and it remained just a good idea. Recording the heavy-slow part at the end has some interest; two amps facing each other and four mics recording + one more at the empty loft of our friend's Geegor Abyssal Studios. Very noisy afternoon. Just like we like.

6. Lugano
Recorded at Lugano of Switzerland by Yuri at his Just For A Day Studios. The concept was to compose and record a song in a jam session of about ten hours split in two days, and release by On The Camper Records it in a split release with Far From The Madding Crowd. It was never released though because FFTMC broke up. We played at the Golden Zion Festival there too along with some really nice bands. We shot this at Tichino lake, right after disturbing some swans' peaceful sleep.



We love you swans! Word!


7. Do
Our only song, with actual vocals! Vocals performed and recorded by CH (National Pornografik, N3rse) at Amsterdam, Netherlands and music here in Athens at our Rambo Studios. I really like the way they blend into music. We have only performed once with vocals; very strange feeling. It was featured at Somehow Ecstatic Compilation CDr (limited to 200 screen-printed copies) along with songs from God Is An Astronaut, Nara, Long Distance Calling, Below The Sea, Absent Without Leave, Hues And Separation and others. It was sold-out pretty fast. Cover:



8. Self-killing Intruders
Another two-part track. Dealing with the kamikazes of WW1. Originally released by Spinalonga Records at In The Junkyard Vol 3 compilation along with many great greek bands like Callas, Expert Medicine, Misuse, Sigmatropic, Modrec, 2L8, Nightstalker, Deus Ex Machina, Down n' Out, Low Gravity and many more. I think we got some serious attention from this one. And of course the cover:



This one has been remixed by M5x6 and featured in an other compilation of Orila.net along with artists like Amnesia, Freon, Inverz, Sister Overdrive, Nokalypse, Phono, Eventless Plot and others. It's free for download at the label's site if you want it bad. I'm sure you do.

Oh, still reading? You're a hero (or just TOO bored or have A LOT of time to kill). Thanks for reading again. Expect photos, ordering details of the release and news on the tour very soon.

Cheers
-John

First post

Hi ya!

It took sometime to make this blog I think... Nevermind. Let's take it from the start:

You are reading the blog of the instrumental rock band Afformance. We are stated in Athens, Greece, Europe, Earth and have been around from like 2004. Five people are expressing emotions, pulling strings, smashing drum heads and -eventually- making some noise through this band.

We have released the demo CDr "A Tide Before The Flickering Sun" a few years ago that sold-out pretty fast actually. After this we took part in a couple of compilation discs from Spinalonga Records and Somehow Ecstatic, along with bands like God Is An Astronaut, Nara, Long Distance Calling, Absent Without Leave, Modrec, 2L8, Misuse, Down n Out, Nightstalker, Hues And Separation and many others.

Also, we have a full-length release coming up in a few days, it's mostly like a collection of past recordings, remixed and remastered. The name of this one will be "A Glimpse To The Days That Pass" and Catch The Soap / CTS Productions is putting this out. It comes in a beautiful hand-crafted folder, each one will be different from each other in a way. We are in the middle of the process of making these (they are crafted by us and very close friends-thanks guys, we love you) so, expect updates and pictures soon. Detailed info will follow as well.

We are really looking forward for our first Euro/Balkan tour, this January! From 17th to 30th, we'll visit and share stages with great bands from Germany, Poland, Czech Rep, Hungary, Serbia, FYROM (or Macedonia if you wish). You can find the venues and cities at our myspace profile. We still could use some help with a few dates, so in case you can help feel free to contact :)

There are thoughts of having a live release party here in Athens before we leave for Europe, but I don't know if it will work out yet. We'll keep you posted.

A tour with our dear friends Nechayevschina will follow in April around Greece and Balkans as well, but it's pretty early to talk about this I guess... But you definitely have to check them out if you are into this drone-like kraut rock. One of my fav bands at the time.

In the meanwhile:
you can send your love/hate-mails at afformance@gmail.com
listen to stuff and peek us at myspace
be-friend us at facebook
and follow us at twitter

There are not pretty much active actually, but they will pretty soon. Things are rolling. YEAH!

-John

PS:
Oh, and thanks for reading :)