After two great cassette EPs, out on GoldMold Records in 2023, Dancer returns with their debut album, 10 Songs I Hate About You out on Spanish label Meritorio Records, out MArch 15th.
Written throughout 2023 and recorded over a weekend in August of that year, Dancer returned to Green Door studio and recorded this debut LP live to tape with Ronan Fay, as with their 2 proceeding EPs. Looking to strike the perfect balance between these previous extended plays and something more, they attempt to truly define a Dancer sound in the long play format. The 10 songs in question push, pull and then elaborate on former characteristics – only now they are skewed into greater pop forms; caressed by jittery rhythms and searing guitar-isms that dive into passages of melodic wool and warmth. All using an energy that even the band themselves are surprised to muster.
The first single out the album is Passionate Sunday and today we have the honour to premiere its beautiful video.

2024 marks 40 years of Pete Astor making records, a suitable anniversary point at which to take stock and double back on songs that first appeared on records by Astor-fronted combos such as Creation Records trailblazers The Loft and The Weather Prophets and Matador recording artists The Wisdom of Harry, as well as selections from solo albums that appeared on labels such as Danceteria and Static Caravan.
Astor’s motivation for Tall Stories & New Religions, his new album, which will be out on Tapete Records March 15th, 2024, is manifold: some songs are effectively re-examined in the way one might linger over a resonant picture from a box of old photographs -connecting with the essence of a younger self-, other songs are newly recast in wiser and more reflective hues, while others simply demanded exhumation from wilfully opaque, lo fi non- production.
The songs chosen are not the obvious ones – there’s no Up the Hill and Down the Slope or Almost Prayed here – but have been selected for more interesting, often esoteric, reasons.

Francesco Amoroso per TRISTE©

“I could call out when the going gets tough
The things that we’ve learnt wasn’t enough
No language, just sound, that’s all we need know
To synchronize love to the beat of the show
And we could dance
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio“
(Joy Division – Transmission)

Ci sentiamo davvero un po’ a casa, ormai, nel salotto virtuale di Matteo Maioli.
Sarà che da qualche tempo anche lui si sente a suo agio su TRISTE©, sarà che a Indi(e)pendenze si crea la stessa aria familiare che si respirava quando ci si incontrava nei negozi di dischi o negli studi delle radio libere, o, ancora, nei locali dove si svolgevano i concerti.
Che fossero luoghi piacevoli e confortevoli o (come spesso accadeva) fatiscenti, freddi e poco accoglienti, il solo fatto di essere insieme e condividere una stessa passione rendeva quei posti e quei momenti unici e indimenticabili. E, adesso che pressoché tutto è virtuale, anche molto rimpianti.

Postal Blue first started out as a 4-piece in 1998, setting out to be a return to the golden standard of songwriting of the sixties and eighties exemplified by The Byrds, The Zombies, The Smiths and The Go-Betweens. The band quickly attracted a following and the attention of American labels, including Drive-In Records, which released their self-titled debut CD-EP, released in 2000. Shelflife Records released Postal Blue’s Weather Sensitive CD-EP two years later (2002). International Breeze, the band’s 2004 debut LP was all recorded and mixed at home and marked a change in the band’s sound: what was once very direct guitar indiepop was replaced by a softer bossanova-infused folk pop. The band went on to put out another CD-EP in 2006, Road to Happiness, on Canadian label Humblebee Recordings and in 2008, the band had already been in a hiatus which ended up being final for the 4-piece formation, and singer and lead songwriter Adriano  decided to carry on under the name Postal Blue releasing a 3″ single on Cloudberry Records, Laughing and Crying. Despite the single’s warm welcome, the band was once again put on hold for a few years, until Adriano decided, in 2012, to get back on the horse and finish the much vaunted second album. In 2013 Postal Blue released a 7″ as part of the Dufflecoat Records / Jigsaw Records Singles Club co-release. After 11 years, the band’s sophomore album Of Love & Other Affections finally saw the light of day on Jigsaw Records in 2015. Now after 8 years, Postal Blue is back with a new single, Chance Occurrence, which will be out on November 2nd, and a slew of releases planned for the next several months extending into 2024.