Sparkle Sparkle / A Beautiful Universe That Would Just As Soon Swallow Us Up / Galaxies Rearranging / We Will Knock The Spirits On Their Heels / You Live A Hard Life / This Place Doesn't Have The Balls To Kill Me / Leadfoot / Quiet Moment At The Factory / Spare Change For The Wretched / Waiting For The Searchlights To Come

BLANK RECORDINGS

Following on from their 2005 debut EXPLODING TEENAGE BODY PART, Los Angeles based dreampoppers The Distortions are back with their latest album of warm fuzzy guitar work and narcotic melodic glee. MACHINES AT NIGHT builds on the previous efforts and expands The Distortions musical vision to embrace a more full bloodied and varied experience.

Opener SPARKLE SPARKLE is a dreamy affair where hypnotic melodies, gentle guitar brushes and complex drum patterns caress the senses, the perfect blend of Slowdive, Ride and the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. With a similar lazy ease, A BEAUTIFUL UNIVERSE THAT WOULD SWALLOW US ALL UP is another song that favours languid guitar work and narcotic vocal crooning, militaristic drums underpinning frontman F's swooning vocal asides. With GALAXIES REARRANGING, The Distortions work in a janglesome riff that conjures up images of The Byrds raised on The Jesus And Mary Chain whilst the tauter sounding WE WILL KNOCK THE SPIRITS ON THEIR HEELS rides an urgent bass rumble and driving drum beats, a cascading chorus beating at the songs dark heart.

YOU LIVE A HARD LIFE is a gentle, hypnotic affair that lets The Distortions slowly create pretty guitar riffs and delicate melodies, the noisier THIS PLACE DOESN'T HAVE THE BALLS TO KILL ME on the other hand, a song that indulges the bands more chaotic urges; shoegazing guitar abuse and narcotic melodies colliding on a song that finds its influence in the likes of My Bloody Valentine, the Drop Nineteens and Chapterhouse. The similarly glorious walls of noise that herald LEADFOOT find The Distortions in that same sonic territory, F again crooning narcotically against dark feedback, spiralling drum patterns and rumbling bass lines.

The post-rocking QUIET MOMENT AT THE FACTORY is a song that rides along on shimmering guitar haze and gentle atmospherics, just think Explosions In The Sky meets Snow Patrol while with SPARE CHANGE FOR THE WRETCHED, things are developed in similar ways, moody slide guitars and sparse riffs building a sense of atmosphere and space. Epic album closer WAITING FOR THE SEARCHLIGHTS TO COME is a suitably soaring climax, a song that slowly builds to its shimmering choruses with deliciously dark menace and beguiling majesty.

Another work of darkly brilliant dreampop from The Distortions, MACHINES AT NIGHT is a warm, gloriously realised affair that finds the band building from previous experience to deliver a collection of songs that realises their potential and then some. Somewhere between the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, My Bloody Valentine and Snow Patrol, The Distortions have found a sound that echoes with dark majesty and narcotic intensity.

At last, the long-awaited second album from LA indie rockers The Distortions is finally here. And it's already been labelled "One of the standout records of the year so far".

"Machines at Night" begins where the first record left off, but quickly speeds off to places unknown yet familiar, like a dreamy road trip through your own head. Sparkling guitar layers, tambourines, sleigh bells, lush backing vocals, walls of fuzz, haunting Theremin, primitive drums and hypnotic bass are merely the vehicles here; what drives them are the ten darkly hopeful & brightly cynical songs, written, arranged and recorded in their downtown LA rehearsal room. The new CD was painstakingly produced by Distortions frontman F, and engineered by Colin Studybaker, known for his work with various Sub Pop acts, including Iron & Wine and Holopaw.

The hard-to-categorize Machines at Night was never an attempt to fit into any particular genre or style. While the density and spaciousness of its shimmering layers suggest some sort if indie/shoegaze hybrid, it's unprecedented use of gothic pedal steel and variety of Theremin voices (all performed by F) immediately pull this record into somewhat uncharted territory. Where descriptions are necessary, this music could reasonably be described as Galaxie 500 on acid.

The Distortions was formed in 2004 by guitarist/vocalist F and bassist Michael Scott. Soon after, the band released its debut album "Exploding Teenage Body Part" on its own label, Blank Recordings. Music journalists routinely used adjectives like shimmering minimalist dreamy sweeping fuzz-bliss glittering post-rock to describe the album's sound. The CD got tons of college radio airplay, and it was even aired in its entirety one afternoon in Los Angeles on KXLU's "The record *YOU* need to know about".

In summer 2005, the band teamed up with LA indie darlings Helen Stellar for a Northwest US tour, sharing a van and co-headlining nightly in cities between San Francisco, Boise, and Seattle.

It was after this tour that the band began the 18 month journey that led to the release of "Machines at Night". Regarding the need to make this particular record, F explains "The boredom, dull pain, and sheer filth of life has a sound to it. And to me, paradoxically, it all sounds strangely beautiful. For some reason, I see it as my job to mirror that in a musical way. I guess that's why I have to use all these difficult instruments and exact rhythms to capture that sound. If I don't get it perfectly, it's just useless and pointless. I felt like now was the time to finally do it right. With this new record, it feels like we actually got it right".

Machines at Night can be purchased/downloaded at CDBaby.com, downloaded on iTunes, or picked up at any Distortions show. Selected tunes can be streamed here on Myspace and at theDistortions.com. 2007 tour dates will be announced in the coming months.

The Distortions are a three-piece band from Los Angeles. We play dark music with a sparkly surreal sound. Locally, we play clubs like The Echo, Bar Sinister, and The Silver Lake Lounge. We've toured the northwest US, and plan on hitting the rest of the country to promote our new record "Machines at night".

F>Vocals/Guitar

Michael Scott>Bass

Ward Robinson>Drums

DISCOGRAPHY

EXPLODING TEENAGE BODY PART (2005>Blank Recordings)

Exploding Teenage Body Part

Getting What We Deserve

Books

Shoegazer

Hinterland

A System For Shutting Everything Out

The Dogs

Mansion

Into The Next

MACHINES AT NIGHT (Blank Recordings>2007)

Sparkle Sparkle

A Beautiful Universe That Would Just As Soon Swallow Us Up

Galaxies Rearranging

We Will Knock The Spirits On Their Heels

You Live A Hard Life

This Place Doesn't Have The Balls To Kill Me

Leadfoot

Quiet Moment At The Factory

Spare Change For The Wretched

Waiting For The Searchlights To Come

The Distortions>www.thedistortions.com

Blank Recordings>www.blankrecordings.com

Joy Division>Unknown Pleasures (1980>Factory)

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club>Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (2001>Virgin Records)

The Jesus And Mary Chain>Psychocandy (1986>Blanco Y Negro)