We are really thrilled to welcome back to our shores US duo HIGH PLACES, as special guests of THE BOOKS on their Australian tour kicking off on Friday night.
High Places – aka Robert Barber and Mary Pearson – are very recent visitors, having bowled us over with their magnificent performances on their co-headline tour with Xiu Xiu back in September 2010.
As well as joining The Books on all East Coast shows, High Places will be playing one special headline show in Sydney at the Bondi Beach Road Hotel TONIGHT!
High Places’ songs contain a fascinating range of aural layers: bells and bird calls over a wash of ocean waves; mallets hitting mixing bowls over treated guitar and glockenspiel; Mary’s reflective vocals over Rob’s homemade beats. The result is an imaginative and spacious amalgamation of sounds with a unique, almost Caribbean undertone that is as immediate as it is refreshing.
High Places vs. Mankind – released in May 2010 – is the second long-playing album from the terrific twosome. Guitars play an important role, and here the band has often kept them sounding like guitars. Mary’s vocals are less effected and more present. But many aspects of the High Places sound and aesthetic remain intact. One hears dance rhythms, stereo effects, accessible melodies, dub influence, and as always, a love of layering and of combining the unexpected into something cohesive and new.
There’s been a tonne of praise for the album:
“Intriguing, enigmatic and one of a kind.” FOUR STARS, UNCUT
“It seems impossible that the same band that started out so ramshackle could deliver an album as splendid and tighly wound as this.” 8/10, PREFIX MAG
“High Places vs. Mankind is their most complete work to date, which ends much as it began, with the band’s love of outright pop.” 8/10, DROWNED IN SOUND
“High Places have moved on, positioning themselves on the fringes of the ongoing chillwave explosion with enough invention to outlast most of its central protagonists.” FOUR STARS, BBC MUSIC
THE BOOKS, WITH SPECIAL GUESTS HIGH PLACES
Wednesday February 16 | Bondi Beach Road Hotel, Sydney (High Places only)
Friday, Februray 18 | Seymour Centre, Sydney TIX: www.sydney.edu.au/seymour
Saturday, February 19 | The Zoo, Brisbane TIX: www.thezoo.com.au
Sunday, February 20 | Thornbury Theatre, Melbourne TIX: http://www.thethornburytheatre.com
Monday, February 21 | Thornbury Theatre, Melbourne TIX www.thethornburytheatre.com
