How many bands out there have three qualified
aerospace engineers (two of whom met working at NASA in Los Angeles), an afro-beat
hip hop DJ cellist and a Swedish jazz drummer?
Chances are it's probably
just the one. Beaten By Them is made up of two Aussies, two African Americans
and a Swede living between San Francisco and Melbourne, providing a melting pot
of backgrounds, musically and culturally.
Beaten by Them hail from San
Francisco, California, although two of five members now reside in Melbourne, Australia.
Since playing their first show in San Francisco in late 2005 the band have released
one EP and one full-length album and toured widely across the United States. Truly
independent, the band releases all material through Logicpole, the label run by
Melbourne-based guitarists Andrew Harris and Max McCormick. 'Signs Of Life' is
released through Thrill Jockey in the US (Sea And The Cake, High Places, Tortoise,
Trans Am, Firey Furnaces).
Musically, Beaten by Them wanders bleak landscapes
of the kind cleared by Godspeed You! Black Emperor and A Silver Mt Zion, but also
harness light and motion, its interest spanning from improvisational jazz to electronic
scuffing. A deeper look into the family tree might reveal its kinship with modern
classical music and minimalist German bands like Kraftwerk and Neu!. At any rate,
the space it's in always feels wide open, thanks to slow-building grandeur, swelling
cello, and some impressively patient drum work.
Recorded at San Francisco's
Tiny Telephone Studio by Aaron Prellwitz (Neil Young, Sun Kil Moon), 'Signs of
Life' has received critical acclaim:
"Ominous debut" -
Stephen M. Deusner, Blurt Online
"Slow-building grandeur with plenty
of sudden left turns" - The Onion
"Pulverizing and fascinating"
- San Francisco Bay Guardian
"Like a river that breaks a mountain,
Beaten evoke the grandeur of eternity" - Denver Westword
"Classical
brilliance and rock and roll at its best" - NeuFutur Magazine
With
its Australian release through AmpHead and the band's upcoming tour, you may be
hearing a lot more of Beaten by Them in 2009.
http://www.beatenbythem.com
'Signs Of Life' (physical CD) is in stores now through AmpHead;
digitally available through AmpHead/The Orchard.
