Three Cheers for the Distant Observer, the new EP from Two Nice Catholic Boys, will be released digitally and on tape by Bluestack Records on November 21st.
Two Nice Catholic Boys formed in the Spring of 2020 as a collaborative music project between writer and illustrator Ruairí McCann and writer and filmmaker Maximilien Luc Proctor, both co-editors of the film and music website Ultra Dogme.
The band was formed and continues to grow as an act of friendship; fueled by the desire to make music that is ‘catholic’, in the egalitarian sense of the word. Their music pointedly and playfully wavers at the border between genres, combining rock and pop songwriting with an experimental approach to texture, structure and the inclusion of found sound bound together through the happy accidents of improvisation and the precision of laptop-based editing.
After self-releasing two albums in 2022, Two Nice Catholic Boys make their label debut with Three Cheers for the Distant Observer. Influenced by Loren Connors (from whose 2009 album with Jim O’Rourke the band found their name) this release finds the band exploring a minimalist sound and a semi-improvised approach within the productive limits of short, song-like structures. The results are four instrumental arrangements which oscillate between chance and control, evoking moments of intimacy, confusion and clarity—dimensions of the real world alongside an imaginative one.
"Evoking moments of intimacy, confusion and clarity, it’s an M.O. that sits front and centre on the EP’s lead track, ‘Never Wonder’. Like a long-lost early Kranky release by way of Basinski circa Melancholia, the instrumental hits like a sweet threnody for uniquely uncertain times. Here, oscillating synth spectres and the peal of sunken bells stick to soft tape hiss like dandelion spores on a cardigan." - The Thin Air
All songs composed, performed, recorded & mixed by Two Nice Catholic Boys
Two Nice Catholic Boys is: Ruairí McCann and Maximilien Luc Proctor
Mastering by Sam Regan
Drawings by Ruairí McCann
Cover design by MLP
Track 2 features samples taken from the Symphony for a Broken Orchestra Project.
Two Nice Catholic Boys would like to thank:
Nicholas Christenson, James Devine, Christian Flemm, Blanca García, Larry Gottheim, Malkah Manouel, Ryan O’Neill, Yoana Pavlova, Bart Versteirt, Elspeth Vischer, Mark Willis.
Ruairí McCann would like to thank:
Marek Alozie, Rose Asaf, the cast of Park Place, the cats of Ormeau Road, the rows and magpies of Ormeau Park, Aaron Donnelly, Noreen Donnelly, Dymphna Ferran, Stevie Lennox, the Leydon family, Laura MacLennan, the McCann family, Shona Millar.
MLP would like to thank:
phili c., Ece Akin, Duru Aygüven, Spencer Bible, Bobi, Martin Bremer, Phil Coldiron, Hasan Doguyel, Tom Grimshaw, Jack Katze, Tijana Perović, Sam Regan, žarko Urošević, Florian Weigl, Kris Woods, Charlotte Wynant.
And my family: Maman & David, Chris O., Pops & Anty, Rafi, Ray & Katie.
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Portland shoegaze that plays, as the best representatives of the genre do, with huge, hollow atmosphere against intimate observations. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 23, 2016