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- SEE TOUR DATES PAGE FOR INFO - NEWS - THIRD TUCKER ALBUM 'PORTAL' OUT NOW!
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Vinyl >> or eMusic >> or iTunes >> - EARLY REVIEWS: “symphonic textures and miasmic chord changes that will grab your attention...a hybrid between ancient sounds and the psychedelic capacities of one man.” – Pitchfork 7/10, “everyone’s tripping out and no one really needs drugs anymore” - Vice “It doesn’t sound quite like anything else I’ve heard this year, which is probably why I’ve been playing it so much.” – Mapsadaisical “a steady grower...a meticulously disorienting, blissed environment...very pleasing” – Uncut “his guitar work hints at everything from Led Zeppelin's most stately to My Bloody Valentine's most cryptic, no bad place to be.” – Plan B Top 10 Record for June – XLR8R “Portal displays the talent of Alexander Tucker in its exquisite beauty.” – Trust 8/10, “An extremely resonant album.” - Ox “Tucker is on great form...it’s the marriage of compositional and production disciplines that sets him apart from his peers. Excellent stuff.” - Boomkat ALBUM OF THE WEEK, “continues to grow on me to the point that I want to declare that the man is a total genius...such is the power of this mans sound...Marvelous, timeless stuff and very highly recommended.” – Norman Records “Pushes his songwriting talent to the fore.” – De:bug PRESS RELEASE: On 9th June 2008 ATP Recordings release the third album from Alexander Tucker, Portal. The album is available on CD and LP, featuring artwork from Tucker (see above). "Texts of this nature usually require the author to make fashionable or wilfully oblique references to artists past and present. Portal, the third Alexander Tucker long player for ATP Recordings is a work of such bewitching splendour that any such comparisons would read like hyperbole, thus doing it a great disservice. Even Tucker's Previous albums (Old Fog and Furrowed Brow) seem like stepping stones in the wake of Portal. But if we must draw comparisons then lets say Chicago musician/composer Jim O' Rourke both are unparalleled in their pairing of the 20th Century avant-garde techniques of composers like Stockhausen and Steve Reich with the archaic sounding free-folk of John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Loren Connors. The late Karlheinz Stockhausen envisaged music where "instead of very precisely formed single notes there are little complexes little crystalline blooms that pass through a register form". During Portal, Tucker's finger-picked guitar lines become indistinguishable from the more traditional string arrangements and voice. These melodic clusters interweave like the paths incurved by a figure skater. This is still to say nothing of Tucker's voice, which sounds as if it is emanating from a ghost channel on an ancient mixing desk rather than appear sung on top of the epochal arrangements. It's a voice comparable perhaps to Meddle era David Gilmour or John Martyn on Solid Air. These are big claims of course but then Portal is a work of such extraordinary majesty that even trying to surmise it in words seems like a heresy. If you disagree after listening, then I'm sorry to inform you that you are spiritually dead." - Tony F Wilson. Tracklisting: 1. Poltergeists Grazing ---- NEWS - TUCKER RELEASES CUSTOM MADE SINGLE. UPDATE: NORMAN RECORDS SINGLE OF WEEK
ATP Recordings is pleased to announce the second instalment in our Custom Made series from English free-psyche wunderkind, Alexander Tucker. Custom Made invites artists to submit 4 songs which will be released on limited edition double 7" and will also be available as a digital download from April 21st 2008. * Side A. Something old - Phantom Rings (New recording of this old song from the album Old Fog) "I chose Phantom Rings because I didn't have a recorded version of the way I play it live," states Alexander. "Live, the track features a heavier riff and a harmonised vocal cycle as opposed to the original, which is mostly acoustic and has two other parts to the song." "Veins to the Sky is one of my favorites from the new album 'Portal'. It's an attempt at writing a more linear song whilst still using some psych electronics. On the new material I use an electric mandolin to create bowed symphonic layers which gives the music a more classical edge." "Rodeo in the Sky is one of my favourite Fursaxa songs. It appears on her self-titled Ecstatic Peace LP. It really struck me with its dreamy imagery of night skies and nocturnal yearnings. The original is just guitar and voice and I always imagined what it would sound like if Tara had a whole band playing." "Florence Blue was written and recorded on 8 track in a house on Florence Street (and yes I had the blues when I put it down). I'd also been listening to this amazing Neil Campbell and Richard Youngs LP 'How the Garden Is' - where they build up these swirling vortexes of acoustic instrumentation. The basis for my track includes small nano loops of bowed mandolin phasing across each other, accompanied by a sort of doom-y classical guitar pulse and a melancholic vocal drift" Limited to just 1000 pieces, 100 of them will be special edition silk-screened printed covers, numbered and signed by the sleeve designer, Alexander Tucker. The first review of Custom Made: Norman Records Single Of The Week Alexander Tucker has done it again with an astonishingly good 4 track EP called Custom Made . This is part of ATP's custom made series of expensive double pack 7"'s. Expensive but nice.... Like the extra special range in your supermarket, this is as extra special, if not more so. His last album was good but after the genius of 'Old Fog' the young man Tucker had a lot to prove. This is a proper return to form though with 4 absolutely stunning tracks. The 1st time I heard this I was absolutely blown away as the songs are amazing. The 1st track (Phantom Rings) is usual Tucker territory with his medieval thing pervading through the music but the vocals have a very slight Beta Band ish thing going on. But 2nd track 'Vein's To The Sky' steals the show.... the high pitched vocals.... the layers of wonky sounded guitars, and that melody does it for me every time I hear it. Seriously this is the best thing I've heard by the guy... there's 2 more tracks on here that are great but I have to press repeat one more time to hear that tune... Damned it's good. If you like your folk all medieval and wonky this is for you!! 'Rodeo In The Sky' sounds almost like a slowed down 'Love Will tear Us Apart'. And there's still one more track I'm not gonna mention so you've got a bit of a surprise like. Check it out folks.... I'm a sucker for tucker.... I think I ruined the review with that line.... - Phil x ---- Visit Alexander Tucker on Myspace Alexander Tucker began as the vocalist in post-rock hardcore 5-piece 'Unhome' who released one album "A Short History of Houses" (Unlabel) and a split single with Papa M. Unhome split in late 1999 and Tucker went on to tour with Detroit space-rockers 'Fuxa'. Simultaneously, Tucker had been developing his interest in improvisation using detuned guitars, tape loops, mini disc player and fx pedals. In early 2000 Tucker recorded a solo self-titled album of acoustic finger-picking, experimental electronics, field recordings and spooked vocals, which was picked up by Tom Greenwood of Jackie-O-Motherfucker and released under his U-Sound Archives label. Tuckers' ability to combine compositional song structures, drones, layered vocals and improvisations culminated on his 2005 album "Old Fog" (ATP/R), a collection of spectral moods, eerie landscapes and fragile emotions. His commanding live performance has led to collaborations which include working with Stephen O'Malley (SunnO))), Khanate) on his Ginnungagap side project (Southern Records limited Latitudes series), providing the soundtrack to Lali Chetwynd's performance piece at Tate Britain and playing as a part of JOMF, Duke Garwood, and Little Wet Horse. Tucker's second studio album "Furrowed Brow" (ATP/R) was recorded in his home county of deepest darkest Kent. For this new recording Tucker combined harmonised vocal patterns, layered instrumentation and heavy sonic bliss riffs to create a cross-between David Crosby, doom metal and Terry Riley. It was released in November 2006.
Alexander Tucker is also a visual artist, creating artwork for all of his album covers and side projects, including ongoing drawings and comic artwork for 'Sturgeon White Moss' (White Moss Press) and the album cover for Nordic doom-master Wolfmangler'(Aurora Borealis). More recently he has written the soundtrack to art film 'Wordland' (http://www.word-land.info/) sung vocals on the new Guapo song 'Twisted Stems : The Heliotrope' on the album 'Elixirs' (www.guapo.co.uk), and continues to regularly collaborate with Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O))).
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