Extra Life - Made Flesh

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3...according to our Brett on Thu 01 Apr, 2010.

Extra Life is a dude who used to be in Zs and their album is a funny one. It's super proggy, experimental art pop that's all over the fucking place. One minute he's making Jonathan Davis-style noises and the next he's doing some oddly vocalised chamber ballad and the next it's got some Morricone riffs delivered in a metal style and then he's repeating the same thing over and over again and then it's like melodramatic neofolk or something and then it's like Tool and then Larkin Grimm's on it. I don't like it very much. It reminds me of people who're too clever for their own good, like The Chap or The Mars Volta or Tim Exile. You might like it though.. That's the beauty of human beings - some are right and some are wrong.

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TRACKLISTING:

1. Voluptuous Life

2. The Ladder

3. Made Flesh

4. One of Your Whores

5. Easter

6. Black Hoodie

7. Head Shrinker

8. The Body is True

OVERVIEW:

Extra Life is the primary musical vehicle for Charlie Locker, singer, guitarist and composer, who has become one of the most intense and respected voices in the New York experimental underground. For years Looker was a core member of legendary brutal chamber ensemble Zs and has also worked with diverse artists such as Dirty Projectors, Glenn Branca, William Parker and the S.E.M. Ensemble.

Formed in 2007, Extra Life combines elements of Medieval chant, metallic hardcore, dark neofolk, abstract modernism and lush pop. The music is cosmic in scope, a sacred alchemical marriage of the earth’s crude, blackened weight and the ethereal light of the divine. Extra Life’s all-star cast also includes the following New York experimentalists: violinist Caley Monahon-Ward (Snowblink), bassist Anthony Gedrich (Stats, Ocrilim), drummer Nicholas Podgurski (Yukon), and saxophonist/keyboardist Travis Laplante (Little Women).

In 2009 LOAF Recordings released Extra Life’s debut full-length album Secular Works in Europe and the band did a month-long European tour, playing festivals including Primavera Sound (Barcelona), Villette Sonique (France), Kilbi (Switzerland) and Moers (Germany) and sharing bills with Sonic Youth,

Sunn 0))), My Bloody Valentine and Deerhunter.

In March 2010 Extra Life’s sophomore album Made Flesh will be released by LOAF Recordings worldwide. Both more accessible and more severe than their previous work, the record extends from fragile acoustic ballads to industrial symphonic assaults. Recorded by art-metal guru Colin Marston (Krallice, Behold the Arctopus) in collaboration with Extra Life’s own Caley Monahon-Ward, the sound of Made Flesh deepens the band’s signature heaviness while also exploring more psychedelic studio treatments, electronic textures and synths.