* * * * * Liars * * * * *
Liars were conceived in November 2000 after two friends and ex-Los Angeles art students, Aaron Hemphill and Angus Andrew, reunited in New York City. They responded to a “musicians wanted” ad posted in a local record store by two Nebraskans, Pat Noecker and Ron Albertson. The lurching Aussie Andrew took on the vocal/frontman duties while Hemphill became their guitarist and drum machine programmer.
Bassist Noecker and drummer Albertson make up the Liars rhythm section. Combined, they write music — surprisingly formulated after the beats are laid down on the drum machine — exhibiting fundamental elements of punk rock. Synthetic keypads, vocal modulation, and interspersed, prearranged compositions, mixed with their guitar-bass-drums equation, create angular yet melodic songs. Liars are reminiscent of U.K. groups that embraced dance music during the late ’70s/early ’80s (A Certain Ratio, Gang of Four, the Slits) — bands that are all known for insidiously adding danceable rhythms to punk.
Only months after forming, the group played its first show. Liars’ debut album, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top, was released on independent Gern Blandsten Records in October 2001 and was later reissued by Blast First/Mute. The album was recorded in just two days by producer/engineer Steve Revitte, who’s best known for this work with the Beastie Boys and Lee “Scratch” Perry. Late the following year, Noecker and Albertson left the band and percussionist Julian Gross was recruited as a replacement. The trio began recording the second Liars album at Andrew’s house in the forests of New Jersey with friend and co-producer Dave Sitek.
The results, They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, which was inspired by experimental electronic music and German legends about witchcraft, arrived in early 2004. After moving to Berlin, Liars got even more ambitious on Drum’s Not Dead, a concept album revolving around creativity and doubt accompanied by short films by the band and other filmmakers. The band took a much more stripped-down approach for 2007′s self-titled album, which featured more structured songwriting and a harder-edged sound. For 2010′s Sisterworld, Liars returned to Los Angeles and mixed their high-concept atmospherics with blistering outbursts. The trio went in another very different direction for 2012′s WIXIW [ pronounced "wish you" ], opting for relatively soft, textural electronics that drew comparisons to their previous tourmates [ Radiohead ].
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[ WIXIW ]
Anyone familiar with Liars knows that each album feels like a reintroduction to the band, and WIXIW (pronounced “wish you”) is no exception. On their sixth album, the trio bring the electronic undercurrents that have been lurking in their sound since They Were Wrong, So We Drowned to the fore, but in a softly hypnotic fashion that’s all the more surprising and striking given the sheer volume of the band’s previous two albums, the gnarly rock of Liars, and the dense sprawl of their confrontational L.A. opus Sisterworld.
Even WIXIW’s lone rocker, “Brats,” has a touch of disco shimmy to its beats while synths buzz and zap like a laser show. At the time of its release, WIXIW’s electronic leanings drew comparisons to In Rainbows-era Radiohead, and in some ways Liars sometimes felt like the American-Australian equivalent to Thom Yorke and company in their willingness to defy boundaries and expectations. While there are certainly similarities to Radiohead’s approach here, most obviously on the eerie, floating “His and Mine Sensations” and the bleary, blurry menace of “Octagon,” this is distinctively and definitively a Liars album. “Flood to Flood”‘s taunting refrain “teach me how to be a person/I refuse to be a person” is another prime example of the defiant streak that’s always present in their music, while “A Ring on Every Finger” digs deeper into the percolating grooves they’ve explored since Drum’s Not Dead’s “It Fit When I Was a Kid” and Liars’ “Houseclouds.”
Indeed, WIXIW’s insularity often recalls the whispery parts of Drum’s Not Dead, another album where the band proved that they do quiet just as thrillingly as they do loud, perhaps even more so. Nowhere is this clearer than on the single “No. 1 Against the Rush,” which is drawn taut with rippling keyboards and bass, creates dread with negative space instead of distortion, and still manages to be one of Liars’ most accessible songs. A few carefully chosen motifs, such as the acoustic guitar and found sounds on “Ill Valley Prodigies” and the synth flutes on “Who Is the Hunter,” draw listeners further inward in a seductive, almost feminine manner.
Perhaps WIXIW’s biggest surprise is just how pretty it is, particularly on the luring opener “The Exact Colour of Doubt,” where Angus Andrew’s singing is nearly as lovely as the sea of strings and electronics engulfing him, and on the album’s title track, where shoegazey drones mirror and deepen the song’s confusing blur of emotions. While WIXIW might be a shade less ambitious than some of their previous albums, it’s still fascinating to hear Liars wield beauty and delicacy just as formidably as they’ve used force and noise in the past.
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Artist – Liars
Album – wixiw
Release Date – 2012
Genre – Experimental, Math-rock, Ambient
Tracklist
01. The Exact Colour Of Doubt
02. Octagon
03. No. 1 Against The Rush
04. A Ring On Every Finger
05. Ill Valley Prodigies
06. WIXIW
07. His And Mine Sensations
08. Flood To Flood
09. Who Is The Hunter
10. Brats
11. Annual Moon Words
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Liars – wixiw
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Artist – Liars
Album – They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top
Release Date – 2001
Genre – Experimental, Post-punk, Math-rock, Ambient
Tracklist
1 Grown Men Don’t Fall in the River, Just Like That 3:03
2 Mr. Your on Fire Mr. 2:27
3 Loose Nuts on the Velandrome 2:19
4 The Garden Was Crowded and Outside 2:44
5 Tumbling Walls Buried Me in the Debris With ESG 4:05
6 Nothing Is Ever Lost or Can Be Lost My Science Friend 3:03
7 We Live NE of Compton 3:01
8 Why Midnight Walked but Didn’t Ring Her Bell 0:51
9 This Dust Makes That Mud 30:07
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Liars – They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top Password – SirensSound.blogspot.com
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Artist – Liars
Album – They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
Release Date – 2004
Genre – Experimental, Post-punk, Math-rock, Ambient
Tracklist
1 Broken Witch 6:09
2 Steam Rose From the Lifeless Cloak 2:49
3 There’s Always Room on the Broom 3:04
4 If You’re a Wizard Then Why Do You Wear Glasses? 2:11
5 We Fenced Other Gardens With the Bones of Our Own 5:27
6 They Don’t Want Your Corn – They Want Your Kids 2:38
7 Read the Book That Wrote Itself 3:09
8 Hold Hands and It Will Happen Anyway 4:50
9 They Took 14 for the Rest of Our Lives 4:08
10 Flow My Tears the Spider Said 6:10
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Liars – They Were Wrong, So We Drowned Password – SirensSound.blogspot.com
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Artist – Liars
Album – Drum’s Not Dead
Release Date – 2006
Genre – Experimental, Post-punk, Math-rock, Ambient
Tracklist
1 Be Quiet Mt. Heart Attack! 3:28
2 Let’s Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack 4:31
3 A Visit From Drum 4:19
4 Drum Gets a Glimpse 4:14
5 It Fit When I Was a Kid 4:02
6 The Wrong Coat for You Mt. Heart Attack 3:59
7 Hold You, Drum 4:42
8 It’s All Blooming Now Mt. Heart Attack 3:09
9 Drum and the Uncomfortable Can 4:45
10 You, Drum 1:15
11 To Hold You, Drum 4:04
12 The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack 4:43
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Liars – Drum’s Not Dead Password – SirensSound.blogspot.com
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Artist – Liars
Album – Liars
Release Date – 2007
Genre – Experimental, Post-punk, Math-rock, Ambient
Tracklist
1 Plaster Casts of Everything 3:56
2 Houseclouds 3:21
3 Leather Prowler 4:25
4 Sailing to Byzantium 4:02
5 What Would They Know 3:12
6 Cycle Time 2:17
7 Freak Out 2:31
8 Pure Unevil 3:53
9 Clear Island 2:39
10 The Dumb in the Rain 4:24
11 Protection 4:30
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Liars – Liars Password – SirensSound.blogspot.com
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Recommendations: Mutyumu | Komas Mida | Coma Stereo | Revival Kensuke | You Slut!
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