Press Release

El Ángel Exterminador: the latest album by The Beige

With El Ángel Exterminador, The Beige presents the great Canadian feel-not-so-good album. The atmospheric roots quintet's second independent release journeys through surreal landscapes, catching glimpses of madness, hunger, love and death along the way.

Singer-songwriter/author Rick Maddocks penned the songs. After publishing his fiction collection Sputnik Diner (Knopf) and recording The Beige's debut 01, he found his writing shaped by the darkening cloud of news headlines and the surrealist films of Luis Buñuel. Cue minor keys, strange murmurs of field recordings, and troubled imagery. El Ángel Exterminador was co-produced with guitarist Jon Wood (credits: Herald Nix and Rodney Decroo). The result is a unique, "apopalyptic" and sometimes funky brew. If you want comparisons, think Calexico via David Lynch, or maybe Harry Nilsson tailing Pink Floyd down a Guadalajara backstreet. Several album tracks have already featured on CBC'Radio's "The Signal" and other shows across Canada.

El Ángel Exterminador follows the dream-like, gentle 01, the quintet's debut cd (2006) that prompted The Vancouver Sun to say, "The Beige is a new musical force." 01 was unveiled at Vancouver's planetarium, where the band played in darkness beneath projected constellations. It received extensive airplay on CBC radio and garnered widespread critical praise, while The Beige maintained a devoted underground following through performances on eclectic bills such as the PuSh Festival and The Vancouver Steel Guitar Festival. El Ángel Exterminador was unleashed with a show at St. Paul's Anglican, a Gothic Revival church in Vancouver. Celebratory yet brooding, sold-out yet intimate, with some eerie singing along.

The Beige's music is more introvert than extrovert, more deep and mysterious than flashy and loud. This is serious music, with literary trappings, but it knows a good groove when it hears one. El Ángel Exterminador is a major work from nowhere, as the press attests:

Some Reviews of EL ÁNGEL EXTERMINADOR

"The Beige's El Ángel Exterminador is a flat-out gem of sweeping melancholia…This is smart and angry songwriting, given a perverse sheen of beauty. There couldn't be a classier soundtrack for hoarding water, tinned food and ammo. 4/5." –Adrian Mack, The Georgia Straight

"Incredibly atmospheric fare from this Vancouver quintet that employs eclectic instrumentation...lyrics are pure poetry that bend and shape to fit the angular rhythms. A truly original sound. 4/5" -- Greg Potter, TV Week

"The album sinisterly uses a smooth and almost playful ambient jazz-pop sound, juxtaposed against apocalyptic-flavoured lyrics of death, squalor and disassociation. Like some bizarre alchemy, this strange combination works incredibly well, creating a balance between dark and light that is surprisingly uplifting and joyful. 4/5."—Jim Dean, Vue Weekly

"El Ángel Exterminador is a CD I could listen to all day long...If you are looking for some original music that's anything but boring, with intense imagery, theatric or cinematic compositional style, and a wide range of elements, this album will not disappoint (5/5)" -- Nathan Stafford, The Skinny Magazine

"CD of the Week: moody, atmospheric, orchestral and, well, depressing. But it's also swinging, marching and altogether a joy to listen to. Songwriter Rick Maddocks knows how to craft a tasty dirge." – Stuart Derdeyne, Vancouver Province

"Latin, rock and alt-countryish explorations that delve into the darker, sometimes uncomfortably quieter corners. There's poetry to the pastiche, method to the melancholy. Sophisticated songwriting that could probably use a hug. 4/5." –Jamie O'Meara, The Hour

Downloadable Hi-Res Photos and album cover: www.thebeige.ca/press
Song previews: www.thebeige.ca/themedia
Publicity contact: info@thebeige.ca, (604) 873-4356