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::k4:
a r t i s t :: ARMS
t i t l e :: EP
d a t e :: 2010-03-16
l a b e l :: n/a
g e n r e :: Indie
s o u r c e :: FREEWEB
b i t r a t e :: 320 kbps avg
e n c o d e r :: LAME
t r a c k s :: 5
p l a y t i m e :: 19:53
s i z e :: 48.66MB
tracklist
1 Floaters 4:39
2 Heat & Hot Water 3:43
3 High Heels 4:31
4 Emily Sue, Pt. 2 3:23
5 Homelife 3:37
releasenotes
ARMS is what happens when the back burner bursts into flame. A one-time side
project transformed into a full band, ARMS synthesizes Todd GoldsteinÆs years
of bedroom experimentation and sharpens them into a single bright blade. ARMSÆ
full-band debut, Summer Skills, explodes the lo-fi pop of 2008Æs Kids Aflame
into a widescreen epic, telling a fractured tale of love under supernatural
circumstances. Sonically generous and emotionally raw, ARMSÆ Summer Skills
lures listeners like a siren song and then pulls them into the deep.
Todd Goldstein has been writing and recording songs as ARMS since 2004 ù
although never quite like this. During his years playing guitar in NYC-based
indie rockers Harlem Shakes, Todd quietly self-released his own music as ARMS,
sneaking home-recording sessions in his rare spare time. ToddÆs first album as
ARMS û the luminous, ramshackle pop of Kids Aflame û was released on Melodic
Records (UK) / Gigantic Music (US) in 2008 to enthusiastic Internet-praise.
When Harlem Shakes disbanded in the summer of 2009, Goldstein expanded ARMS
into a full band with the addition of Tlacael Esparza on drums, Matty Fasano
on bass / vocals and David Harrington on keyboards / electronics. The group
immediately began writing the songs that would become Summer Skills, holing up
with producer Shane Stoneback (Vampire Weekend, Sleigh Bells, Cults, Fucked
Up) in StonebackÆs Treefort Studios in Brooklyn.
On Summer Skills, ARMSÆ former emotional directness is abstracted and expanded
into something more ambitious and ambiguous: a keenly observed fictional
universe that shows more than it tells. With Stoneback behind the boards,
drums pop and shimmer, analog synths cast audible shadows and ambient clouds
glow on the horizon, rendering ARMSÆ golden guitar pop something both lovelier
and more ominous than before. ToddÆs unmistakable baritone is the anchor; it
swoops and slides into view, veering between vulnerable, seductive and, maybe,
a little bit dangerous. The resulting noise calls to mind the atmospheric
clarity of British pop experimentalists like Talk Talk or Kate Bush, with a
nod to the minimalist melancholy of Red House Painters and the end-over-end
urgency of early REM. But ARMS æ noise is all their own, taking the
no-nonsense bones of tight songcraft and covering them in shining skin.
Amid the life-or-death stakes of Summer Skills, noses drip kerosene, chill
winds blow sweet and razor-sharp teeth gleam in the darkness. ItÆs this
terrain of texture and mood, set among the long purple shadows of August
afternoons, that underpins the albumÆs sequence of haunting moments ù little
nightmares lit with the blurry shine of dreams. With Summer Skills, ARMS
manages the elusive trick of weaving these threads into something both lush
and beautifully, painfully alive.
http://www.armsarms.com/
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ARMS-EP-FREEWEB-2010-k4_int