Untitled #23 | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 6 March 2009 | |||
Recorded | Spacejunk III Studios, The Orange Room Sydney, New South Wales 2008-2009 | |||
Genre | Alternative rock, neo-psychedelia, psychedelic rock, dream pop | |||
Length | 50:28 | |||
Label | Unorthodox, Second Motion | |||
Producer | The Church | |||
The Church chronology | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
Pitchfork | (7.0/10) [1] |
Untitled #23 is the 23rd album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in March 2009. It was their 23rd Australian album-length collection of original studio recordings, counting the four outtakes albums (A Quick Smoke at Spot's, Parallel Universe, Beside Yourself & Back with Two Beasts ), the covers album A Box of Birds and the acoustic albums El Momento Descuidado & El Momento Siguiente .
Alternative rock is a style of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1980s. In this instance, the word "alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream rock music. The term's original meaning was broader, referring to a generation of musicians unified by their collective debt to either the musical style or simply the independent, DIY ethos of punk rock, which in the late 1970s laid the groundwork for alternative music. At times, "alternative" has been used as a catch-all description for music from underground rock artists that receives mainstream recognition, or for any music, whether rock or not, that is seen to be descended from punk rock. Although the genre evolved in the late 1970s and 1980s, music anticipating the sound of the genre can be found as early as the 1960s, with bands such as the Velvet Underground and artists such as Syd Barrett.
The Church, an Australian alternative rock band, formed in Sydney in 1980. Initially associated with new wave, neo-psychedelia and indie rock, their music later came to feature slower tempos and surreal soundscapes reminiscent of dream pop and post-rock. Glenn A. Baker has written that "From the release of the 'She Never Said' single in November 1980, this unique Sydney-originated entity has purveyed a distinctive, ethereal, psychedelic-tinged sound which has alternatively found favour and disfavor in Australia." The Los Angeles Times has described the band's music as "dense, shimmering, exquisite guitar pop".
Beside Yourself is the seventeenth album by the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, released in October 2004. It consists of material recorded during the sessions for their 2003 album Forget Yourself and was only released in Australia, with a limited pressing of 500 copies. Some of the tracks had already been made available in the United States on the iTunes Exclusive Tracks EP and on the bonus disc given away with the U.S. release of Forget Yourself.
The album was released on the band's own label, Unorthodox Records, in Australia and on Second Motion Records in North America. Praised for its moody yet strong songwriting, it has yielded some of The Church's best reviews of their career, including a 5 star review from Australia's Rolling Stone.
MGM Distribution is the largest independent distributor of Australian music and music related merchandise and was established in April 1998 by Sebastian Chase.
Second Motion Records is part of Second Motion Entertainment based in Carrboro, North Carolina. The Label was founded in Chapel Hill, NC by Stephen Judge, who is the former manager of the rock band Athenaeum as well as the former General Manager/A&R Director of Redeye Distribution and Yep Roc Records. Judge has also worked with such artists as: Liam Finn, Bell X1, John Doe, Paul Weller, Public Enemy, Daniel Lanois, Martin Sexton, Sloan, Concrete Blonde, The Supersuckers and others.
The album is rare among the band's catalogue in that all of the lead vocals are sung by Kilbey.
In March, 2009, the band released a teaser EP entitled "Pangaea", featuring the title track and three outtakes: "LLC", "Insanity" and "So Love May Find Us", which featured lead vocal contributions from Koppes and Willson-Piper.
Untitled #23 was released almost simultaneously with the "Pangaea" EP on 6 March 2009.
The "Operetta" EP followed on 27 November and included the title track plus three jams/outtakes from the Untitled #23 recording sessions: "Silhouette in Meltdown", "Moon Hangs in Black" and "Particles Matter".
In April 2010 the band embarked on their 30th Anniversary tour, playing an all-acoustic set chronicling one song from each album played in reverse order. At each show, a full color retrospective program was distributed to each audience member, along with the third EP from Untitled #23, "Deadman's Hand", which contained the title track plus four outtakes: "Stardust", "The Kicker", "Dakota" and "The Garden".
In June 2009 the band launched the "So Love May Find Us Tour 2009", a month-long tour of the United States and Canada in support of Untitled #23. The tour's name derived from the 17 minute track of the same name from the "Pangaea" EP.
In 2011 the album, along with Priest=Aura and Starfish , was played in its entirety on the band's 30th Anniversary "Future, Past, Perfect" tour.
Priest=Aura is the eighth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in March 1992. It peaked at No. 25 on the ARIA Albums Chart.
Starfish is the fifth album by the Australian rock band The Church, released in February 1988. The band's breakthrough album, Starfish went gold in America and has remained their most commercially successful release. The album sold 600,000 copies in the United States alone. The first single, "Under the Milky Way", charted well in the American Top 40, peaking at No. 24 and No. 2 on Mainstream Rock Tracks, leading to significant exposure of the then relatively underground Australian act. In Australia "Under the Milky Way" climbed to No. 5, and Starfish reached No. 7 on the album charts, the band's highest positions ever in their home market.
All songs written by Kilbey/Koppes/Powles/Willson-Piper
The vinyl edition of the album contains three bonus tracks, all from the Pangea EP: "So Love May Find Us", "LLC" (sung by Peter Koppes), and "Insanity" (sung by Marty Willson-Piper). The limited edition double vinyl LP was released through Second Motion and the band's own Unorthodox Records.
Steven John Kilbey is an English-Australian singer-songwriter and bass guitarist for the rock band, The Church. He is also a music producer, poet and painter. As of October 2014, Kilbey had 750 original songs registered with Australian copyright agency Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).
Peter Koppes is a guitarist, best known as a founding and almost-continuous member of Australian independent rock band The Church. He is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing mandolin, drums, piano, and harmonica. He has also released various solo albums and various recordings with his group The Well (1989-1995.) Koppes lives on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland where he also produces albums and conducts seasonal 'song writing' and 'performance for demo recording' short courses at Nambour TAFE, as well as offering private tuition in guitar, drums and song writing. His daughters are Tatiana 'O' Koppes and Neige Koppes who have their own band, Rain Party.
Timothy Guy Gerard Powles is a New Zealand music producer and artist. Also known as "timEbandit" Powles, his main instrument and first love was the drums and percussion in general, though over time he's become a dab hand on a medium-sized pile of instruments and gadgets, not to mention the studio itself- and virtual instruments as they occur.
with:
Cactus World News is an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in April 1984. Founded by Frank Kearns (guitar) and Eoin McEvoy (vocals), the first full stable lineup also included Wayne Sheehy (drums) and Fergal MacAndris (bass). They reformed in 2011 with a new lineup of Kearns, Sheehy and MacAndris, with Eoin Scott and Eoin Watkins. Their early influences were The Clash, Ramones, Talking Heads, U2, The Waterboys and R.E.M.
Electone is the trademark used for electronic organs produced by Yamaha. With the exception of the top end performance models, most Electones are based on the design on the spinet electronic organ. Current models are completely digital and contain a variety of sounds, effects, and accompaniments, on top of the ability to store programming data onto memory devices.
The Blurred Crusade is the second album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in March 1982 by EMI Parlophone. Moving away from the new wave leanings of their debut, it was stylistically more complex and "a smoother, fuller release". "With its mystical lyrics the second album ... brought the group's own style more into focus". The album peaked at No. 10 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart and "Almost With You" reached No. 21 on the related Singles Chart.
Sing-Songs is the second EP by the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, released in December 1982.
Heyday is the fourth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in November 1985. The album marked the first occasion when group compositions dominated one of the band's releases. Steve Kilbey has said: "The demo situation was getting to us - me writing the songs on my eight-track and bringing them along to the band. It sounded too stiff. We'd reached this new energy level on stage which by far superseded anything we'd ever recorded, so we knew the only way to get sounding like that was for the whole band to write together."
Gold Afternoon Fix is the sixth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in February 1990. It was their second album for Arista Records in the US and was expected to capitalise and build on the success of 1988's Starfish. The album saw considerable promotion upon its release, but despite moderate success in the US, with the single "Metropolis" reaching the top of the Modern Rock Tracks chart, the release failed to deliver mass commercial appeal.
Forget Yourself is the fifteenth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in October 2003. It was recorded at drummer Tim Powles' Spacejunk studios in Australia and features many straight-to-tape recordings with few overdubs.
Sometime Anywhere is the ninth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in May 1994.
Uninvited, Like the Clouds is the 20th album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church. It was released in Australia on 20 March 2006 and internationally on 17 April.
Back With Two Beasts is the nineteenth album by the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, released in November 2005. The material was recorded during the Uninvited, Like the Clouds sessions but released first, as a teaser for that album, and was originally only available from the band's website or at their gigs. It was re-released by Unorthodox Records in 2009. The title is a play on the euphemism for sexual intercourse, "the beast with two backs", to which both of the track titles on the band's previous self-released album, Jammed, also referred.
Hologram of Baal is the eleventh album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in September 1998.
Jammed is the sixteenth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in August 2004. It was their second album of entirely improvised material, following the Bastard Universe bonus disc from Hologram of Baal and consists of only two extremely long tracks. It was only available from the band's website or at their gigs and is now out of print.
Magician Among the Spirits is the tenth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in August 1996. The album title was inspired by a book written by Harry Houdini and C. M. Eddy, Jr. (uncredited) in 1924, in which the famed magician discussed his investigations of spirit mediums. A photographic negative of Houdini is incorporated as the centrepiece of the album artwork. The album was reissued with a revised track listing as Magician Among the Spirits Plus Some in 1999.
A Box of Birds is the twelfth album by the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, released in September 1999. It consists of cover versions of tracks by artists who were influential on the group's music.
El Momento Descuidado is the eighteenth album by the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, released in November 2004.
After Everything Now This is the thirteenth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in early 2002. It was produced by group member Tim Powles and the rest of the band.
"The Refo:mation" was a de facto reunion of the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church with their original guitarist Peter Koppes, but without other guitarist Marty Willson-Piper.
Further/Deeper is the 24th album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in October 2014.