UK alternative music pioneers The
Underground Balloon Service are releasing their first single recorded
in mainland Europe, “Out Past Wijgmaal.”
UK alternative music pioneers The
Underground Balloon Service are releasing their first single recorded
from Belgium, “Out Past Wijgmaal.” The track represents the
re-founding of the Underground Balloon Service in mainland Europe and
is the first from UBS since founder Ashley (Ash) Coupland's move in
2005. It serves as the launch point for a body of future releases
that will include much of Underground Balloon Service's previously
unknown back catalog, as well as new material recorded in their
current studio in the old Flemish university town, Leuven.
“Out Past Wijgmaal” itself pulses
with a warm spaciousness that is at once ambient and direct. It
features up-front but unobtrusive clean-channel guitar melodies, and
a ghostly vocal track that seems to come from everywhere, yet never
sounds unclear. Coupland's singing is patient and carefully intoned,
with all the quality of alternative-music favorite, Morrissey, but
with none of the Smiths singer's ostentation. The lead guitar sounds
much like the guitar work in the famous, and gorgeous, theme from the
surf film, “The Endless Summer.” Crystalline and space-age
effects form the delicate and dreamy background. The overall feeling
is one of comfort, mystery, and quiet groove, like a relaxed version
of The Beatles' far-out classic, “Tomorrow Never Knows.”
Officially
founded in Hull in the United Kingdom, 1990, Coupland writes that The
Underground Balloon Service is “a musical collective that has
absorbed influences from the entirety of the musical spectrum.”
They have performed with the likes of Radiohead and New Orleans' Dr.
John, and have a copious collection of original material that
stretches into the late eighties, previous to the actual formation of
the band.
The creative and unlikely name of The
Underground Balloon service comes from a fascinating discussion
between band founder, Coupland and a WWII veteran named Peter, whom
he was teaching about the Internet. In the war, Peter and his fellow
soldiers worked with barrage balloons that defended against bombing
raids. For entertainment at night they had a crystal radio. Being a
rudimentary radio, however, it didn't receive well, so the men took
copper wire from a mine detonator and strung it up on one of their
balloons, instantly producing one of the world's highest and most
sensitive radio receivers, capable of listening to transmissions from
throughout the western hemisphere. They named it the Balloon Service.
Upon learning that the Internet was based on modem technology that
utilized copper telephone wires underground, Peter saw a parallel and
suggested, “So it's the Underground Balloon Service, then.”
In
releasing this flagship single, Ash Coupland writes, “The hope is
that The Underground Balloon Service will finally see its strange
name recognized as a creator of music in the alternative genre, and
will continue to flourish for many years to come.”
-S. McCauley
Staff Press Release Writer
MondoTunes
The single “Out
Past Wijgmaal” is distributed globally by
MondoTunes (www.MondoTunes.com)
and is available at iTunes for convenient purchase and download
MondoTunes
(www.mondotunes.com)
supplies the largest music distribution in the world and provides
upstream services for many major labels in search of breakout
artists. While most independent distributors reach only 45-50
retailers despite charging needless monthly and yearly fees,
MondoTunes reaches over 750 retailers and mobile partners in over 100
world regions without any monthly or yearly fees.
ARTIST
CONTACT INFO:
info@undergroundballoonservice.com
website -
www.undergroundballoonservice.com
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