Two years after releasing their debut album ‘Reverence for Fallen Trees’ (2009) our very own folk-rockers The Black Atlantic are set to release their new EP ‘Darkling, I Listen’.

From the near classical guitar intro of the opening, brooder-song “The Aftermath”, it is clear that ‘Darkling, I Listen’ is a much different sonic animal than the intimate, and mostly acoustic, affair of The Black Atlantic’s debut album. Clocking in at 23 minutes and 23 seconds, ‘Darkling’ contains  five fully sculpted songs with a wide array of elements and in uences, from 70’s psychedelic folk–rock to Phil Spector-esque orchestrated chamber pop and 60’s Motown soul sensibilities. It also takes informed cues from current indie epitomes such as Grizzly Bear, Fleet Foxes, and Bon Iver.

The Black Atlantic wears these influences on its sleeve without sounding inauthentic. ‘Darkling I, Listen’ is an immersive listening experience, rustic and pastoral, but without the obvious pretty embellishments. It is impressionistic in its scope, full of wide-open vistas and cavernous sonic swells.

The artwork is created by visual artists Tracy Maurice and Matt Moroz, known for their artwork for Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade.

We’ve released the EP on CD today, wrapped up in a beautiful 6 page digipack including an 8 page booklet. The 12″ vinyl version is expected to arrive later this month.

Wreck that piggy bank and head over to our shop to pick up this beauty!

DOWNLOAD ALBUM (mp3, free)
BUY THE CD (for € 7,-)
BUY THE VINYL (for € 12,-)
SHARE ALBUM (bandcamp player)

1. The Aftermath (Of This Unfortunate Event)
2. The Flooded Road (Built on Sand)
3. Darkling, I Listen
4. An Archer, A Dancer
5. Quiet, Humble Man

Beep! Beep! Back up the truck
Beep! Beep! Distribution

BEEP018-2012
CC BY-NC-SA

In. Your. Face! Kapow! The Black Atlantic released 5 brand new songs today. Their extraordinary EP titled ‘Darkling, I Listen’ will hit stores January 13th 2012 but they decided to let you stream this beauty as off today. If that isn’t enough they also released the complete artwork made by Tracy Maurice and Matt Moroz who previously worked on Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible. We’ve included three panels in this post, but you can check out the rest here.

You can help the band pay their many bills by pre-ordering a CD or a 10″ vinyl on their website. We suggest you do so. Quick.

Darkling, I Listen by Beep! Beep!

If you like these new songs we suggest you do yourself a favour and go check out these guys live in the next two months:

08.12.2011 – NL – Haarlem @ Patronaat *# Buy tickets
10.12.2011 – NL – Zwolle @ Hedon *# Buy tickets
11.12.2011 – NL – Tilburg @ 013 *# Buy tickets
14.12.2011 – NL – Venlo @ Joriskerk *# Buy tickets
15.12.2011 – DE – Lüdenscheid @ Eigenart **
16.12.2011 – NL – Middelburg @ De Spot *# Buy tickets
17.12.2011 – NL – Lelystad @ Underground “Stille Nacht Festival” *% Buy tickets
18.12.2011 – NL – Amsterdam @ Paradiso *# Buy tickets

18.01.12 – DE – Hamburg @ Molotow **
19.01.12 – DE – Hannover @ Bei Chez Heinz **
20.01.12 – DE – Berlin @ HBC **
21.01.12 – DE – Leipzig @ Conne Island
22.01.12 – DE – TBA
23.01.12 – DE – Munich @ Kranhalle **
24.01.12 – DE – Karlsruhe @ Cafe Nun **
25.01.12 – CH – Basel @ Parterre **
26.01.12 – CH – Yverdon-les-Bains @ Amalgame **
27.01.12 – DE – Wiesbaden @ Walhalla Theater **
28.01.12 – DE – Cologne @ Subway **
29.01.12 – DE – Dortmund @ Hafenliebe **

*# w/ Rue Royale, Kim Janssen
** w/ Rue Royale
*% w/ Rue Royale, AA Bondy, Tom McCrae, The Bony King of Nowhere, The Felice Brothers + more

The Black Atlantic is back and grooving it in 6/8′s this time! It’s been two years since releasing their successful debut album which brought them all over the world, from Holland to the US to China and back. During those two years these guys aged musically like a fine wine. Their new single The Flooded Road which was released today, is a beautiful nostalgic track that makes us want to slow dance with our high school sweethearts.  And we will do exactly such a thing tonight!

The full EP titled Darkling, I Listen will be available as a free stream as off December 5. The physical copies – CD / Vinyl / Playbutton –  will be released January 13th during Europes best showcase festival Eurosonic. Get with it!

Are you a smart little Internetter? Then you best pre order a copy of Darkling at The Black Atlantic’s website asap! You’ll be holding your Darkling a month before the official release. Whop! Whop!

We’re extremely proud to present the music video for The Black Atlantic’s Walked-on Wood. The guys re-recorded and re-arranged this song earlier this year to be included as one of the two bonus tracks for the re-release of the album on Haldern Pop Recordings. As of today this extended version of ‘Reverence for Fallen Trees‘ is also available at our webshop.

The video was written and directed by Canadian couple Tracy Maurice and Matt Moroz who previously did videos for Arcade Fire, Islands, Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs and more. It was produced by Greencard Pictures in collaboration with Turbo Turbo and financed with help of the TAX videofonds.

Enjoy!

When your to-do list is longer then Mr. Zijlstra’s list of planned cultural cutbacks, you can be hella sure ‘reminiscing’ isn’t on there. That’s how it can happen that while you’re doing your business on the potty (yes, that other kind of business) and your staring absent minded at your calendar, all of a sudden it hits you: Holy crap shit! It’s our birthday!

Yes, good friends. Beep! Beep! Back up the Truck turned 3 years old!

No time to reminisce though. Time for a mind blowing party!

The festivities will take place on Sunday, August 28 at Utrecht’s main venue, Tivoli Oudegracht and will not merely involve eating cake and sipping coffee. No sir, there will also be music! Please behold our humble line up!

Blonde Redhead (us)
Moon & Sun (swe)
The Black Atlantic (nl)
My bubba & Mi (is/se/dk)
Het Gloren (nl)

The evening will start early as doors open at 17:30. The first act will play at 18:30 (order will be announced soon). Good to know: the party will take place at two different stages. The bottom three of the above mentioned acts will kick things off in ‘The mirror room’ while Moon & Sun and Blonde Redhead will carry on the awesomeness at the main stage.
Tickets giving access to both rooms are limited to 200. Tickets for the main hall are available through Tivoli.nl but do not give access to the mirror room. In case you already bought a main hall ticket you can mail info@beepbeep.nl to get info about how to get access to the mirror room.

Tickets go by the price of €20,-
What are you waiting for!

While you can already pre-order The Black Atlantic’s upcoming release ‘Darkling, I listen‘ on almighty vinyl we must not forget that their beautiful debut record ‘Reverence for Fallen Trees‘ is still out there. We’re happy to share with you that we’re still pushing the cd’s (new batch coming soon!) and the vinyl. Each pressing get’s their own special color and after green and orange now it’s time for:

Order your copy HERE.

Our boys of The Black Atlantic have kicked off the pre-sale of their new EP today with an interactive website. Fans that purchase the EP, titled ‘Darkling, I Listen’, on this site are rewarded by the band with an exclusive behind-the-scenes look. Moreover, the band asks its fans to get creative and make short videos to accompany the lyrics of ‘Darkling, I Listen’. These shorts will be integrated in the background video of the website.

The four-track EP follows the successful debut album ‘Reverence for Fallen Trees‘ (2009) and will be released on 11.11.11 by us in the Netherlands and America and by our friends Haldern Pop Recordings in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. On the new website v of the band however, fans can buy their copies of ‘Darkling, I Listen’ on CD, 10″ vinyl, Playbutton or as download from today onwards.

Those that purchase the EP during pre-sale are offered to create an account on the website of the band, giving access to exclusive content. The band promises these early birds to deliver a behind-the-scenes look during the recording and producing of the EP through videos and photos from the studio, as well as raw demos of new songs, lyrics and other extras. The documentary of the tour throughout China earlier this year will also be exclusively available to those with an account. The money raised with the pre-sale will be invested in the production of the EP.

The background of the new website consists of a full-screen video. Lead singer Geert van der Velde writes on the subject:

“The background for this website is interactive. It is a movie screen! We’d like to ask you to upload your very own video material to our website so that we can combine all of your videos into one great, giant film.”

Every month the band will post the lyrics to one of the songs on the EP and ask fans to create their own images to the song and upload them to YouTube. These videos will be integrated in the background video of The Black Atlantic’s website, creating a time-lapse of impressions.

Canadian filmmakers Tracy Maurice and Matt Moroz – renowned for their videos of Arcade Fire, Islands, Wolf Parade – kicked things off and produced the first background video. They are currently working on a video clip for The Black Atlantic, due in August.

Only one thing left to do: Go pre order that baby and support your favorite folk-poppers here!

The Black Atlantic starts a thirteen day tour around the Baltic Sea performing in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. See the complete tour schedule below.

The guys have of The Black Atlantic have extensive experience on the road with their steady diet of +100 shows per year and multiple tours through Europe, the United States of America and most recently: China. During the upcoming tour though the band will make their first acquaintance with many of the countries bordering the Baltic Sea. The band hopes to expand their network and lay a solid foundation for many future collaborations in this new territory.

Check that schedule!

16.05.2011 – DE – Hamburg @ Uebel & Gefährlich Dachgarten, venue | map
17.05.2011 – DK – Copenhagen @ KB18 Kødboderne, venue | map
18.05.2011 – SE – Gothenburg @ Teater UNO, venue | map
19.05.2011 – SE – Stockholm @ Debaser, venue | map
20.05.2011 – FI – Turku @ Dynamo, venue | map
22.05.2011 – FI – Helsinki @ Bar Loose, venue | map
24.05.2011 – LV – Riga @ NABAKLAB, venue | map
25.05.2011 – LV – Vilnius @ Pub Artistai, venue | map
26.05.2011 – PL – Warsaw @ Powiekszenie, venue | map
27.05.2011 – PL – Poznan @ Meskalina, venue | map
28.05.2011 – DE – Dresden @ Groovestation, venue | map

Routing on Google Maps

The tour diary of The Black Atlantic in China is almost done. Perfect an edit here, fix some sound issues there, throw in some subtitles, you know the drill. We’ve seen a preview of the film and man(!) does it look beautiful. Worth the wait for sure.

Speaking of beautiful things. We already showed you the first video session the guys of dabaoge.net did (this one). Now, the DaBaoge-guys released the second song they recorded in the mighty city of Shanghai, and we can’t keep this lil’ gem from you.

Without further ado: enjoy the video and don’t be afraid to throw this puppy on your lovely facebook wall.