Atom Sounds Music News

Like many other bands, “The River” springs from a shared passion for music. Davide Leone (voice/guitar/piano) and Andrea Cignarelli (electric guitar), both from Trani on the south-east coast of Italy, spent many an evening talking about their musical inspirations (mainly British groups) and aspirations and exchanging albums. As their friendship grew so did the idea of forming a rock group of their own. The long and arduous task of completing the line-up finally came to an end when two young musicians, Massimiliano Di Lauro (bass) and Tommaso Sgarangella (drums), both with plenty of experience both live and in the studio, joined the band. The initial enthusiasm led them to compose numerous tracks, eight of which were recorded in November 2007 in a three-day recording session in their hometown and became part of their first demo “The River”. On the strength of their local popularity, obtained thanks to the demo and to a series of concerts and radio interviews in the local area, The River started to gain recognition on a national level, coming third in the “Contaminazione 2007” contest in Bisceglie, reaching the semifinals (together with nine other groups from an original 800 groups from all over Italy) in the “RockContest” in Florence, obtaining a prize as ‘revelation band’ in the 2008 “Italian Wave” contest, and winning another prize for the best track in the Prove di Rock” in Salerno. A year has passed since the initial formation of the band and without doubt “The River” is flowing well: they have shared the stage with artists such as The Niro, Les Fauves, A Toys Orchestra, Project Komakino (UK) and Violet (UK) and have even attracted the attention of EMI with their single “Don’t Give Back”.

Listen & Links @ IMIsound

Northcape has a superb following and currently has well over 100,000 scrobbles at last.fm and has a strong following of loyal fans.

Northcape is the ongoing work of a British artist (currently living in Brighton, England) who has been producing electronic music for quite some time. Northcape’s music is mainly instrumental and blends influences from a wide range of different styles, in particular trance, beats and breaks, IDM, ambient and downbeat electronica, always with a strong melodic element. The music is made in a very intuitive way instead of attempting to create a specific type of track or to fit into any particular genre. Nevertheless, Northcape has developed a distinctive and unifying style, which although it sometimes faces the dark side of life normally retains an essential optimism. Although most tracks (so far) don’t have lyrics, they are all drawn strongly from personal experience. This approach leads to something that is both enjoyable to listen to and refreshingly different.

Places you can fine Northcape:

The Official Website, Last.FM, Reverbnation, Musicfreedom

La Sornette first saw the light in Novara in the year 1980. Since then the group has evolved and enriched its production with prestigious artistic collaborations to the point of becoming, by the year 2000, one of the most interesting folk groups on the Italian musical scene. In 1983 the band played at Transitaliana in Cervia in front of thousands of spectators and went on to participate in the concerts held by the Institute of Corona in Livorno. The band has also played several times at the Folkermesse festival. The artistic turning-point came for the group when they won the special prize for ethnic-jazz music at the International Val Tidone Competition in 2000, showing that they had reached complete artistic maturity. In 2002 the label Red Ediz. offered the group national distribution for a 14-track album representing the essence of traditional Piemontese music. The album was received with great enthusiasm by the specialised press and sold well. In the wake of the album the group set out in a more personal direction, broadening their repertoire to include ethnic-folk music from all over northern Italy and a number of original folk compositions by Emanuele Cadario. For two consecutive years, 2003 and 2004, the “Suoni e Voci dell’Altra Musica” tour brought the group’s new sound to the attention of the general public throughout Italy. In 2004 the group was asked to produce some tracks for the German label Dejavu Retro’s “Gold Collection” edition of global ethnic music, giving La Sornette the opportunity to appear alongside numerous well-known international folk groups. Two further tours in 2005 and 2006, “Siamo qui da voi, signori” and “Venti di Musica Etnoacustica” were received with great enthusiasm both by the general public and by the critics. At this point the group had found its distinctive sound and was sufficiently mature to express a certain stylistic autonomy: the genre ‘Etnoacustica’ was born (La Sornette’s official trademark) with the aim of evoking a visual image of the sound. The contribution of musicians coming from other areas such as classical, easy listening and jazz has without doubt given added dignity to the overall sound without repudiating its more humble origins. It is thanks to the mixing and matching of these different genres and styles that every listener is able to find his own interpretation, his own particular tie with the past, a completely new and highly suggestive musical style. The group’s live tour continued in 2007, receiving further accolades both from the general public and from the critics in eighteen Italian cities. The 2007 tour served as a promotion vehicle for the new album “Etnoacustica” in which La Sornette have solidly confirmed their musical identity, moving easily between traditional and original folk compositions. The new album was produced by the “Etnoacustica” and “Re Nudo” labels and has been distributed throughout Italy, Austria and Germany.

Listen & Links @ IMIsound

It’s a new craze sweeping the globe, big named signed artists are giving away tracks for free all over the internet to help promote their music, bands such Coldplay, Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead are at it, but so what!

Millions of unsigned artists have been doing this for years for their loyal fans, so it’s nothing new, some of the press seem to think that it’s never been done before, yeah right!

We can quite honestly say that a lot of the unsigned artists/bands out there are far better than some of the big named signed bands and they haven’t given in to the fat cats quite yet

The “UnderScore” came to life in the spring of 2003 when Pasquale (bass and vocals) and Antonio (former guitarist) decided to set up a cover band. The duo were soon joined by Diego (drums) and Carlo (keyboards) and before long, in the summer of 2004, the group gave up cover songs and started to write their own material, coming out with its first demo in 2005. In April 2006 Antonio left the band and after a number of unsuccessful experiences with other guitarists, the band decided to experiment with a new, melodic and distinctive, guitar-free sound. The experiment proved successful and the sound was at once captured and used to great effect on the four-track “Children On Birthday” EP.

Listen & Links @ IMIsound

This months recommended CD is the truly outstanding prog rock album Echoes in Time by Port Mahadia, this ten track CD features Atom Sounds very own artist William as guest keyboard player.

“Echoes in Time from the band Port Mahadia. This album not only features some of the best musicians in the world of progressive rock but also marks a new step forward for some American musicians who have finally received the opportunity to explore their love of the progressive genre.

Echoes In Time was written by guitar virtuoso Cameron Castle alongside bassist and lyricist Erinn Waggoner. This first collaboration of the two resulted in an album with dramatic musical shifts from the sublime and upbeat song, “Distant Shores,” to the dramatic and heavy sound of the track, “Requiem of the Mind”. Lyrically the interwoven story tells an exciting tale while leaving room for the listener’s mind to discover their own meaning at the conclusion of the album. Waggoner states, “I have never done anything more complicated than this, writing an album that leads the listener and yet forces them to resolve the story in their own mind.”

Echoes In Time features radio friendly tracks as well as tradition elongated progressive centerpieces that are sure to please diehard fans. Look for Port Mahadia’s, Echoes In Time to be a must have for any lover of progressive rock.” - CDBaby

Check out this informative “How to..” on the BBC - One Music website on how to promote your music including, recording, performing live, promoting your music, distribution, digital audio and much more.

It’s certainly a valuable collection of information that any artist/band that is just starting out or is looking for that extra bit of help will certainly want to read.

Big thanks to Jay for putting us onto this, cheers mate

Spleen was formed in 2004 when 6 musicians came together for the first time: Mimmo Di Cicco (drums), Antonio Isernia (bass), Stefano Formato (guitar), Alessandro Nunziata (guitar), Francesco Pirone (keyboards), Alessandro Granato (vocals). In June 2005 they won the first “Rock Contest” and strated recording the demo “Ghost Note (E)xperiment”. September of the same year saw the first line-up change with Alessandro Nunziata leaving the band to continue playing with a classical progressive quintet. After a number of live gigs and various disagreements over the musical genre of the group, the lead singer Alessandro Granato also left the band, shortly followed by the keyboard player Francesco Pirone. It was not a good moment for the group, but the three remaining founder members remained hopeful and eventually put together a new quintet with the singer Enzo Conte and the talented keyboard player Adriano Aponte who was to become a key figure in the future of the band. Having regained a certain stability, the band started composing and playing live once again, participating in the “Harley Davidson” motorbike rally in Agerola in April 2006 with bands such as Up The Irons, Marshall and Rain. In June of the same year, with Rosario Vitiello replacing Enzo Conte as lead singer, the group won the “Rock Contest” 2006 and received the opportunity to record a new demo with the voice of Marco Mangiapia. Another period followed with no lead singer until the arrival of Olga Mangiacapra and the participation in April 2007 in one of the major festivals in southern Italy: Heavy Naples – Dual Beat – Agnano, sharing the stage with Paintbox, Gorgeous, Savior from Anger, Loadstar and Marshall. The perennial line-up problem persisted until September 2007 when the band finally found its definitive formation with the return of Marco Mangiapia as lead vocalist ad the arrival of Davide Amodeo on bass. In May 2007 the live compilation CD, “Heavy Naples Fest 2007” (produced by “PMP”) was released and in the following months received reviews in numerous specialized magazines. Spleen opened the show for “Heavy Naples 2008” in March and are still in the running for the finals of the prestigious “Festival di Saint-Vincent”. Meanwhile the group is working hard on a brand new and soon-to-be-released demo CD.

Listen & Links @ IMIsound

“Strip in Midi Side” came to light in the summer 2007 as the brand new project of Luigi Buonaiuto (Giotto), Emanuele Sirica (Maks), and Marco DeFilppo (Amon). The team, already tried and tested with years of experience collaborating in various cover bands, immediately focused on an intensive phase of song-writing, searching for a sound that was able to blend a rock/metal/post-punk background with an electronic sound (synths and drum-machine), heir of two decades of avant-guarde Anglo/American but mostly German sounds. Since December 2007 the band has been giving amazing live performances in which the “show-entertainment” feature, together with powerful rhythms, has created a mix of rock, avant-guarde electronica and entertainment that has become the band’s trademark: known as the “stripping experience”.

Listen & Links @ IMIsound

We are proud to announce that we now have LiSA & KMP on the Atom Sounds ReverbNation Roster, we have uploaded several tracks which you can stream via the player below, you can also become a fan, purchase their outstanding CD and much more.