Halves‘ new album Boa Howl is out on July 5th – have a listen to first single ‘Tanager Peak‘ which features guest vocals from Gemma Hayes.
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‘Boa Howl’ is the follow-up to Halves‘ 2010 Choice Prize-nominated debut album ‘It Goes, It Goes (forever & ever)’, and sees the Irish trio return with a bolder, more experimental second offering.
Boa Howl features a mix of confident upbeat tracks side by side with slow experimental pieces, resulting in a cinematic, surreal journey over eleven songs. Guest vocals appear courtesy of Gemma Hayes, a fan of the band for some time. Canadian musician Elaine Kelly-Canning features on harp and added string performances come courtesy of local Swedish players. ‘Boa Howl’ refers to a summit on a mountain in China dubbed ‘White Boa Howl’, which the band felt captured the surreal nature of the songs. Musically, the album was inspired by a wide range of influences – from The Flamingos and Joe Meek, to Clouddead, to traditional Malian music and the 1950s orchestral arrangements of Gordon Jenkins.
Recorded over two weeks at Svenska Grammofon Studion in Gothenberg, and produced by Halves themselves, Boa Howl was created with the use of a vast collection of instruments, amps and vintage microphones. Eleven songs were recorded live on 2″ reel-to-reel tape by Oskar Lindberg, Gyorgy Barocsai and Halves’ live engineer Ciaran Mangan. The album was recorded using the infamous Neve analog mixing console previously owned by Queen and used by the likes of Johnny Cash and Aretha Franklin.
Halves have also announced details of an 11-date tour for July & August:
Sat 6th July Tower Records, Dublin
Sat 13th July Button Factory, Dublin with Overhead, The Albatross & Bantum
Fri 19th July Billy Byrnes, Kilkenny with Bantum
Sat 20th July The Model, Sligo with Bantum
Thur 25th July Bourkes, Limerick with Bantum
Fri 26th July Cyprus Avenue, Cork with Bantum
Sat 3rd August Indiependence Festival
Sun 4th August Castlepalooza Festival
Wed 7th August Voodoo, Belfast with Rachel Boyd & Affleck
Thurs 8th August Roisin Dubh, Galway with Bantum
Fri 9th August The Water Rats, London with The Dying Seconds
