miguel_myriad
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Intergalactic disco in this Irish debut by Kelley Polar. The former NYC-dwelling exquisite pop composer, and now New Hampshire-based semi-recluse, follows his cult 2005 release Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens with his second full-length album, I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling.
"Strangely alluring… genuinely doesn't sound like anything else before it" 8.4 Pitchfork
"Kelley Polar offers a masterclass in intergalactic disco" I-D
"A fascinating journey" Plan B
"These tracks aren't just good, they're as stellar and transporting as music gets" Fact
POD Concerts presents
KELLEY POLAR
Support: TBA
Friday September 5th
CrawDaddy – Harcourt St – Dublin 2.
Doors – 11.30pm
Tickets €14 (inc. booking fee) available from Ticketmaster, Road Records, City Discs, Sound Cellar and usual outlets. www.ticketmaster.ie
www.kelleypolar.com
www.myspace.com/kelleypolar
Kelley Polar - Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens
Press Quotes
"As unique as the cascading lights of a mirrorball" 4/5 The Guardian
"Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens sounds like nothing else around… these are solid, late-night dance-pop songs" The Observer
"Bright. Innovative electronic pop… unlike anything you've heard before, it's one of those rare dance projects that really does seem to have a little something for everyone" 4.5 DJ 'Album Of The Issue'
"It's a weird and wonderful set that should establish it's author as one of the most celebrated talents of the modern disco era… heartfelt nuggets of impeccable space-pop and deliciously crafted next-level classicism" 4/5 iDJ 'Album Of The Month'
"Polar's AMAZING debut pop album sounds like Christmas in Heaven" Vice Magazine
"Descending from Giorgio Moroder, Love Songs guides Polar's clear falsetto through spacey sonnets, then compresses everything in romantic, no-gravity dance pop" SPIN
"This classically trained violist may have been expelled from Juilliard, but he's got a sparkling symphonic-disco debut to show for it" Entertainment Weekly
"The album is an aberration – a disco record that is not giddy, but instead is searching, sentimental and yes, often beautiful" Fader
"Every vine's alive, wrangling and untangling, via black holes of recent musical history and the clever now-new of the best pop, its way clear to sunlight… one of 2005's great unsung gems" Pitchfork
"traffics in a good bit of rhythmic sizzle and bump, but its main focus is the swirl that rises above. It's homey, personal disco given to restraint as much as release" The Onion
Kelley Polar – the former NYC-dwelling exquisite pop composer, and now New Hampshire-based semi-recluse, follows his cult 2005 release Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens with his second full-length album, I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling.
Born in Dubrovnik, Croatia to parents in the US Diplomatic Corps, Polar was a musical prodigy, playing violin at age 3 and composing soon after, his early musical studies involving a stack of LPs and a plastic Fisher-Price turntable. He would enjoy long afternoons on his parent's bucolic New England estate, listening primarily to symphonic compositions like "Magic Bird of Fire" and the works of Rinder & Lewis.
By the mid-nineties, Polar was pursuing an advanced degree at the illustrious Juilliard School in NYC, and cementing his reputation for general deviance. By day, he took classes and held a job as a Teaching Fellow in Electronic Music; by night, he busied himself in the school's tiny, ill-equipped studio.
His future was signaled by a freak meeting in the early 2000's with Morgan Geist, head of the Environ record label and esteemed Metro Area producer, alongside Darshan Jesrani. The duo was deep into the production of their first album and looking for live strings to complete their signature sound. Thus began the relationship that left a deep impression on Metro Area's oeuvre. Kelley Polar and his viola, usually supplanted by various Juilliard concertmistresses, began recording for Environ under the name Kelley Polar Quartet. KPQ would be heard on some of Metro Area's biggest tracks – the all-time classic 'Miura', 'Caught Up' and 'Dance Reaction' to name a but a few – and even performed live with Metro Area on occasion.
Polar's interest in music of the 18th and 19th centuries increasingly transformed into a desire to formulate and codify the "disco orchestral" string playing technique of the 70's and 80's. Access to Geist's singular record archive filled his brain with a strange and wondrous cross section of all things electronic. Refusing to specialize, he listened to both Kraftwerk and Schubert, Thomas Dolby and Dvorak. A suite of Kelley Polar Quartet 12"s, beginning with 'Audition' in 2002, became the buzz of taste-making DJs the world over.
Polar's Master's solo recital at Juilliard ended in catastrophe, as the basslines of his newest Environ tracks boomed out over Julliard's recital hall to an audience that included his enraged teachers, sparking a riot that saw the musical miscreant expelled. The violist was now free to indulge his artistic impulses to their fullest extent.
Despite his recording career flourishing, Polar could no longer handle his self-destructive city lifestyle. Desperate for some sort of personal redemption, Polar severed ties with New York and began playing chamber music under an assumed name in rural New Hampshire, while working on what would become his 2005 solo debut Love Songs of The Hanging Gardens. Lush, embellished and brimming with high-pitched emotion, further evoked by his singing, the album received rave reviews for its unique and overwhelmingly beautiful sounds.
The new album, I Need You to Hold On While the Sky Is Falling, further crystallizes his bejewelled vision. Whereas Polar's first album had moments as cold and mysterious as deepest space, I Need You to Hold On… is more intimate, more inviting, revealing arcane secrets and deeper levels befitting a talent as gifted as this.
Ever the mischief-maker, Polar does not forsake fun: fantastic rhythms and infectious basslines are woven into the intricate tapestry, and since it is once again mixed by Morgan Geist (Metro Area), I Need You to Hold On… sounds just as good as it feels, driving onward to even headier euphoric highs.
Today, Polar is the violist for the Apple Hill Chamber Players, a group known worldwide for playing primarily in conflict areas such as the Middle East, Northern Ireland and the Caucuses. Like his late nights producing records back in NYC, he still spends most of his time in a tiny cube, this one made of aged gray wood and surrounded by hay fields, living in a farmhouse basement studio, and is the caretaker of a herd of Scottish Longhair cattle
"Strangely alluring… genuinely doesn't sound like anything else before it" 8.4 Pitchfork
"Kelley Polar offers a masterclass in intergalactic disco" I-D
"A fascinating journey" Plan B
"These tracks aren't just good, they're as stellar and transporting as music gets" Fact
POD Concerts presents
KELLEY POLAR
Support: TBA
Friday September 5th
CrawDaddy – Harcourt St – Dublin 2.
Doors – 11.30pm
Tickets €14 (inc. booking fee) available from Ticketmaster, Road Records, City Discs, Sound Cellar and usual outlets. www.ticketmaster.ie
www.kelleypolar.com
www.myspace.com/kelleypolar
Kelley Polar - Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens
Press Quotes
"As unique as the cascading lights of a mirrorball" 4/5 The Guardian
"Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens sounds like nothing else around… these are solid, late-night dance-pop songs" The Observer
"Bright. Innovative electronic pop… unlike anything you've heard before, it's one of those rare dance projects that really does seem to have a little something for everyone" 4.5 DJ 'Album Of The Issue'
"It's a weird and wonderful set that should establish it's author as one of the most celebrated talents of the modern disco era… heartfelt nuggets of impeccable space-pop and deliciously crafted next-level classicism" 4/5 iDJ 'Album Of The Month'
"Polar's AMAZING debut pop album sounds like Christmas in Heaven" Vice Magazine
"Descending from Giorgio Moroder, Love Songs guides Polar's clear falsetto through spacey sonnets, then compresses everything in romantic, no-gravity dance pop" SPIN
"This classically trained violist may have been expelled from Juilliard, but he's got a sparkling symphonic-disco debut to show for it" Entertainment Weekly
"The album is an aberration – a disco record that is not giddy, but instead is searching, sentimental and yes, often beautiful" Fader
"Every vine's alive, wrangling and untangling, via black holes of recent musical history and the clever now-new of the best pop, its way clear to sunlight… one of 2005's great unsung gems" Pitchfork
"traffics in a good bit of rhythmic sizzle and bump, but its main focus is the swirl that rises above. It's homey, personal disco given to restraint as much as release" The Onion
Kelley Polar – the former NYC-dwelling exquisite pop composer, and now New Hampshire-based semi-recluse, follows his cult 2005 release Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens with his second full-length album, I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling.
Born in Dubrovnik, Croatia to parents in the US Diplomatic Corps, Polar was a musical prodigy, playing violin at age 3 and composing soon after, his early musical studies involving a stack of LPs and a plastic Fisher-Price turntable. He would enjoy long afternoons on his parent's bucolic New England estate, listening primarily to symphonic compositions like "Magic Bird of Fire" and the works of Rinder & Lewis.
By the mid-nineties, Polar was pursuing an advanced degree at the illustrious Juilliard School in NYC, and cementing his reputation for general deviance. By day, he took classes and held a job as a Teaching Fellow in Electronic Music; by night, he busied himself in the school's tiny, ill-equipped studio.
His future was signaled by a freak meeting in the early 2000's with Morgan Geist, head of the Environ record label and esteemed Metro Area producer, alongside Darshan Jesrani. The duo was deep into the production of their first album and looking for live strings to complete their signature sound. Thus began the relationship that left a deep impression on Metro Area's oeuvre. Kelley Polar and his viola, usually supplanted by various Juilliard concertmistresses, began recording for Environ under the name Kelley Polar Quartet. KPQ would be heard on some of Metro Area's biggest tracks – the all-time classic 'Miura', 'Caught Up' and 'Dance Reaction' to name a but a few – and even performed live with Metro Area on occasion.
Polar's interest in music of the 18th and 19th centuries increasingly transformed into a desire to formulate and codify the "disco orchestral" string playing technique of the 70's and 80's. Access to Geist's singular record archive filled his brain with a strange and wondrous cross section of all things electronic. Refusing to specialize, he listened to both Kraftwerk and Schubert, Thomas Dolby and Dvorak. A suite of Kelley Polar Quartet 12"s, beginning with 'Audition' in 2002, became the buzz of taste-making DJs the world over.
Polar's Master's solo recital at Juilliard ended in catastrophe, as the basslines of his newest Environ tracks boomed out over Julliard's recital hall to an audience that included his enraged teachers, sparking a riot that saw the musical miscreant expelled. The violist was now free to indulge his artistic impulses to their fullest extent.
Despite his recording career flourishing, Polar could no longer handle his self-destructive city lifestyle. Desperate for some sort of personal redemption, Polar severed ties with New York and began playing chamber music under an assumed name in rural New Hampshire, while working on what would become his 2005 solo debut Love Songs of The Hanging Gardens. Lush, embellished and brimming with high-pitched emotion, further evoked by his singing, the album received rave reviews for its unique and overwhelmingly beautiful sounds.
The new album, I Need You to Hold On While the Sky Is Falling, further crystallizes his bejewelled vision. Whereas Polar's first album had moments as cold and mysterious as deepest space, I Need You to Hold On… is more intimate, more inviting, revealing arcane secrets and deeper levels befitting a talent as gifted as this.
Ever the mischief-maker, Polar does not forsake fun: fantastic rhythms and infectious basslines are woven into the intricate tapestry, and since it is once again mixed by Morgan Geist (Metro Area), I Need You to Hold On… sounds just as good as it feels, driving onward to even headier euphoric highs.
Today, Polar is the violist for the Apple Hill Chamber Players, a group known worldwide for playing primarily in conflict areas such as the Middle East, Northern Ireland and the Caucuses. Like his late nights producing records back in NYC, he still spends most of his time in a tiny cube, this one made of aged gray wood and surrounded by hay fields, living in a farmhouse basement studio, and is the caretaker of a herd of Scottish Longhair cattle
