Xeno & Oaklander - Sentinelle

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5...according to our Brian on Thu 21 Jan, 2010.

There was some humorous words uttered about the Xeno & Oaklander album that made me giggle inside a bit. A South Park episode where the kids laugh at some people dancing to some lame "Goth Electro" was also mentioned. I don't give a fuck, I've unfortunately found myself present at numerous goth clubs over the years (this IS Leeds!!) and they don't play anything that remotely pulses, buzzes & zings like 'Sentinelle'! So yeah, another album full of sparky, fizzy melodies, a drum machine that sounds almost insectoid and M/F vocal harmonies that just suit the mood beautifully, the ladies voice being more ethereal than gothic really. Once again the early 80's are a valid reference point, the tunes here twirl & scuttle round your head like Soft Cell, early Adult, or underrated Gigolo stars Crossover. You're just constantly bombarded with maddeningly catchy synth lines throughout , reedy low-end basslines that hum like crazy & the aforementioned spindly drum machine is just flat out like a tiny brittle jackhammer. Oh yeah, get them both, these Weird records, they're REALLY spoiling us!

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The long-awaited full-length debut album from Xeno & Oaklander is now available! Functioning as the absolute core of the electronic wing of the Wierd world since their beginnings in 2004, Miss Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride here present a carefully composed, restrained and complex form of moody electronic pop music that is simultaneously romantically melancholic and affirmatively aggressive. Recorded entirely live in the studio with exclusively analogue instruments, Sentinelle situates itself as a series of highly crafted cinematic vignettes which takes as its vantage point a fictitious era in a long-passed distant age: a time of wandering desert travelers, forgotten underwater cities, and exquisitely sculptural objects; of arid land, sea-farers and ferrymen, blinding light and lonely rooms, precious metals and poisonous corrosion. Themes of paranoia and disaffection associated with the transformation felt during the industrial revolution(a stand-in for our contemporary digital malaise), as well as odes to the many gifts of its legacy - motion pictures, cameras, synthesizers, and voltage control, are traversed throughout the epic journey of this minimal electronic masterpiece, allowing the listener to gaze out of the frozen cold window onto the many radical paradigm shifts of the twentieth century, and is a true sonic portrait of this eminently fragile era in transition. For fans of : Indie/wave/pop, electro/electronica, minimal electronic

music (Absolute Body Control, Twilight Ritual, Martial Canterel), early industrial music (Throbbing Gristle, SPK), new wave (early OMD, Human League). WEB: www.myspace.com/xenoandoaklander "Incredible! By the end of their set, the icy synths had melted more than a few closed minds and the head nodding went from minimal to a little more real. Xeno & Oaklander were one of the most meserizing acts of the weekend at No Fun Fest this year. Expect to hear more of them in this spot in the future." – FADER / "Fantastically bleak electropop made out of vintage keyboards and clanking beats!" – NME / "Xeno & Oaklander combine the beauty of a synthwave chanteuse with a D.I.Y. artpop charm." - OTHER MUSIC, NYC / This is the eighth release from Wierd Records. The label was started in 2006 by acclaimed artist/DJ Pieter Schoolwerth (Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York/Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris). / Tracks : 1. Saracen 2. 4th Wall 3. Preuss 4. Move I 5. Toho Picture 6. Nuit 7. Shadow World 8. Sentinelle 9. Rendezvous d'Or 10. Werke 11. Another 12. Vagabond

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