Future Islands Australian Tour

From out of the flat grass comes the release of Baltimore’s rising FUTURE ISLANDS latest album On the Water – their third LP and one of the recent biggest selling releases for Thrill Jockey in the USA. The crashing waves also wash in their debut Australian tour for late September. See dates below.

Baltimore trio Future Islands’ romantic synth sound scales new heights with third album On the Water, submerged currents of Simple Minds, Ultravox, Brian Eno, Japan, Talk Talk, David Bowie surface in their most ambitious and fully realized statement yet. Built around a song cycle exploring love, loss, and memory, the album finds the band continuing to deliver pounding rhythms, swelling melodies, and undeniable hooks finding new ways to probe inner space and tug at hearts.

A continual tide of touring across the US, Canada and Europe from 2006 at times with the likes of Dan Deacon, Okkervil River, Titus Andronicus, Javelin but more just coasting along the crest of their own wave has cascaded into an incoming tide of interest.

TOURING AUSTRALIA LATE 2012
On Our Water tour – tickets onsale now.

WEDNESDAY 19 SEPTEMBER – NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB, Melbourne
plus special guests
Tickets: www.northcotesocialclub.com

THURSDAY 20 SEPTEMBER – OXFORD ART FACTORY, Sydney
Plus special guests
Tickets: www.moshtix.com.au

Future Islands… on the water
Convening in March 2011 in Elizabeth City, NC’s historic, waterfront Andrew S. Sanders House, vocalist Samuel T. Herring, bassist William Cashion, and keyboardist Gerrit Welmers lived together in a space that served as both studio and sleeping quarters. The band used this tranquil retreat to refine their most reflective and mature batch of songs to date, adding new material in the process.

What emerged is a lush yet visceral album about two parallel journeys–one physical and one psychological. On the Water’s narrator offers enough detail that their story feels personal, yet open enough that any listener can inhabit each twist and emotional pang as their own.

Travelling on foot, we seek something – an exorcism, an epiphany, an ending. Memories wash across us as in life: non-linear, linked by emotional resonance rather than conventional chronology. And so, the pain of letting go channeled by “The Great Fire” collides with a moment’s fleeting serenity in the Eno-esque “Open”; the triumphant rallying cry “Give Us the Wind, ” despite its confident declaration of individual strength, remains a mile away from final chapter “Tybee Island.” It is there the song cycle ends, and what is discovered in “Tybee Island” will be as different as the lives lived by each person who finds their way to this album.

On the Water may unearth aural memories as well. The mind may flash upon our first encounters with New Order’s “Ceremony,” David Bowie’s “Heroes,” or The Cure’s Disintegration, memories which, are continually reborn and re-imagined in the context of the here and now. And as the song-cycle’s narrator comes to terms with his own memories, his singular journey collapses into the collective experience of album-closer “Grease.” It is here that the “I” of the nine previous songs collapses into the “we” of Future Islands, now singing the literal journey of the people who came together by the ocean to deliver these songs into our ears. Far from just a narrative trope, the ocean played an integral role in On the Water’s creation. The bulk of the album was recorded with waves pounding sand mere feet away. The album opens and closes with field recordings made by the band on a nearby dock, and one pivotal track, “Tybee Island,” began with vocals recorded on the beach (subsequently fleshed out in the studio with additional instrumentation).

The ocean inhabits every note of these songs. On the Water is an addictive ride that demands repeat listens, eagerly awaiting the test of time. To produce these results, Future Islands fleshed out its sound with the additions of cello, violin, marimba, and field recordings. As with their 2010 breakthrough album In Evening Air, On the Water was produced by frequent collaborator Chester Endersby Gwazda, perhaps best known as producer of Dan Deacon’s Bromst. Noted guests include Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, who provides vocals on “The Great Fire,” and Double Dagger’s Denny Bowen on live drums and additional percussion.

For all its undeniable weight, On the Water is not a sullen concept album. Every track on the record works both as a contribution to the whole and as a stand-alone pleasure, evident in the insistent throbs, addictive melodies, and stirring vocals of tracks like “Close to None,” “Balance,” and first single “Before the Bridge.”

Make no mistake, On the Water is a record that aims to both break your heart and heal your wounds.

SPIN rated 8/10
“On this much-improved third album, synths swell, beat throb, and oceanic drones creep… Sam Herring is the true phantom of this synth-pop opera, still gruffly howling like he’s been forced to gargle rocks in the name of love…”

DROWNED BY SOUND rated 8/10
“…it’s the calming and contemplative atmosphere of abandoned shorelines in wan light which Future Islands evoke… On the Water is surely one of the most unconventionally beautiful records of the year”.

Q rated 4/5
“Samuel T Herring singing like he’s on the verge of emotional collapse is a big part of what makes On the Water so compelling.”

ARTROCKER rated 4/5
“Pitched somewhere between the gothic rumbles of Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy and the angelic delights of Anthony Hegarty, he takes the listener on a nrrative journey throughout this concept album. “On the Water” submerges you into the depths of 80s synth-pop with moments of light and dark so starkly contrasting that the synergy feels almost imaginary.”

UNDER THE RADAR rated 7/10
“… gurgles of casio and cinematic washes of synths, bringing to mind some of Brian Eno’s mid-‘70s experimental works.”

NME
“The Baltimore trio’s unsurprisingly stellar third LP is a thing of no small beauty, flecking its tidal rumble with enough summery, cerebral oomph to knock you into the Jacuzzi.”

PITCHFORK rated 7.7
“…more invested in wide-open spaces. It’s less intent on bringing the drama or the fury than In Evening Air was, but its reflections on aging and memory accumulate into something surprisingly moving… Herring’s signature affect communicates something about the operatic sadness of life’s everyday banalities”.