 NEWSJANUARY 5, 2010 Happy new year to you all! The new year brings another special addition to the Division 68 catalog in the form of an expanded release from DARCY FRAY. From Los Angeles, Fray currently helms the I Am Thinker graphic design company, which creates CD, t-shirt, sticker, logo and web site designs. In 2002 Fray released the Speak And Spell EP which was welcomed as “a blast of freezer air, cool crisp and bracingly refreshing...ice-queen voice...brittle drum-machine backing and occasional bouts of brutal shoe-gazing guitar” according to Splendid. Fray continued by releasing The Firebell EP in 2004 on her own ThinkTank! imprint. While music now takes a backseat to her current graphic design work, Fray has graciously allowed Division 68 to re-release The Firebell in a deluxe expanded edition. The original EP contains five songs and we are adding the two 2009 iTunes bonus tracks plus four previously unreleased exclusive bonus tracks for a total of eleven Fray originals, clocking in at forty minutes long. This new edition of The Firebell is released today, January 5, 2010. As per usual policy here at Division 68, you have the option to buy DRM-free 192kbps MP3s or lossless FLACs. For those that prefer a physical object, we have a limited supply of custom CDRs. See the SOUNDS page to sample all eleven songs and then surf over to the Division 68 STORE page to order. DECEMBER 21, 2009 Paste Magazine is one of the few quality music magazines still available on newsstands and have decided to get to know Bell Horses a little better in their "Getting To Know" feature today. Kind thanks to Paste and Emily Riemer.  DECEMBER 3, 2009Reviews are coming in for This Loves Last Time from BELL HORSES and the praise is heartwarming to us and the band. Thank you to everyone who is writing about the band on their sites, blogs and magazines! Read a few of the kind words below... 'Surrounded in watercolor washes of sound, string arrangements and hovering, manipulated vocals ; crackling static and spattering percussion appear and vanish with inscrutable timing. No one monopolizes the foreground; the point is to share the gorgeous disorientation.' - The New York Times 'Bell Horses’ first album, This Loves Last Time, may qualify as one of the most pleasantly surprising album of the year.' - In Your Speakers 'Sounding very much like the proverbial labour of love, This Loves Last Time ultimately registers as a polished and special recording that identifies Bell Horses as a band to watch.' - Textura 'A majestic piece, abounding with subtleties' - Other Music 'As mellow as it is catchy, and as accessible as it is labyrinthine' - Agit Reader 'It’s hard to pinpoint the exact sound Bell Horses is going for on this experimental pop album, but that’s what makes it so enjoyable' - Access Hollywood 'In the end Xian Hawkins has efficiently done what many electronica producers try to do with less impressive results' — Stereo Subversion '4.5 / 5 Stars' - NYU News.com Also, A new interview with Xian Hawkins is up at online culture site Verbicide. Read it HERE. SEPTEMBER 8, 2009 Division 68 is proud to release high quality MP3 and lossless FLAC downloads of the debut album from BELL HORSES. The band is primarily a collaboration between Xian Hawkins & Jenny Owen Youngs. The name Bell Horses is taken from a turn of the century children’s song about horses passing in the night, strung with bells so as not to collide. It’s an apt analogy for the working methods of the group whose members all live in different cities. Instrumental and vocals tracks were emailed back and forth taking the creative process on an indirect route. Xian Hawkins records as Sybarite - making distinct & lauded electronica for a variety of labels - most notably 4AD, Temporary Residence & Ghostly International. Jenny Owen Youngs is a singer songwriter who signed to Nettwerk Records in 2006 and recently released her sophomore record, Transistor Failure, to critical acclaim. This Loves Last Time from BELL HORSES is available now on MP3 and FLAC and will be available on CD starting October 13, 2009. This album is a joint venture between the band's own label Trysquare Records and Division 68.  AUGUST 3, 2009STELLAR were part of the initial signings on 4AD's mid-90s Detox Artifacts imprint. While only one EP was released by the band (a self-titled four-tracker which you can find at 4AD's download shop), interest in the band has been renewed as the core members have started a new band called The Sleepless. Led by founders Ronan O'Hanlon and Martin Carroll with vocals from Sarah Mason along with Graham Tonks (bass) and Shane Johnson (keyboards), Stellar caught the attention of Detox Artifacts. Their EP for the label was released in October 1996 and featured From Disant Vessels as its anchor song. Stellar carried on for a while after the EP but stopped playing live shows in 1997. The band eventually folded in June 2000. Both O'Hanlon and Carroll carried on writing and rehearsing under the name Grand Unified Theory and, more recently, have renamed themselves as The Sleepless. They are recording and hope to have a release readied in the not too distant future. Division 68 contacted the band and asked if any unreleased Stellar songs existed in the vault and indeed there was. O'Hanlon and Carroll agreed to let Division 68 release some highlights from this collection of recordings, including some demos made for 4AD and original versions of songs from the Detox Artifacts EP. One Extended Moment is the title of a special download-only compilation from Stellar, compiled and remastered especially for this release by the band. Division 68 is offering the One Extended Moment in high quality MP3 format as well as the lossless FLAC format, with beautiful new printable PDF cover art from The Mystery Parade. Please visit the SOUNDS page for MP3 samples and if you like what you hear, please visit our Division 68 STORE page. The release date is August 4th. One Extended Moment is available via PayPal for fast and safe transactions.  APRIL 28, 2009Welcome to the official web site of Division 68, a music label whose mandate is to seek out rare recordings and bring them to a wider audience. Our first release is a CD single and download by RED ATKINS, one of the first musicians to appear on the legendary UK label 4AD back in 1980. In the future Division 68 has plans to release music by another former 4AD band called STELLAR. We also have plans for other releases and will post them here as details are confirmed. Be sure to bookmark the Division 68 home page. Check out our SOUNDS page for MP3 samples and if you like something, please visit our Division 68 STORE page. You can order our CDs and downloads via PayPal there fast and securely. If you are a band that would like to see your rare or out-of-print recordings available again or if you'd like to have your new music sold as high quality downloads, please CONTACT us. Division 68 releases are primarily available in download format. We offer MP3s at 192 kbps and for the best quality we also have lossless FLAC files. We do not use any form of DRM on our downloadable files. All downloads come with printable PDF artwork. |