Press Release

El Ángel Exterminador: the new album by The Beige

Announcing El Ángel Exterminador, the second independent release by The Beige. The atmospheric roots quintet's new recording charts a journey through some surreal landscapes, offering glimpses of madness, hunger, love and death along the way. With El Ángel Exterminador, The Beige presents the great Canadian feel-not-so-good album.

The songs of El Ángel Exterminador were penned by singer-songwriter/author Rick Maddocks. After publishing his fiction collection Sputnik Diner (Knopf Canada) and crafting songs for The Beige's 01, Maddocks found his writing shaped by a growing fascination with rhythm, the darkening cloud of news headlines, and the films of Luis Buñuel. The Beige's lush sound was soon coloured by minor keys, murmurs of field recordings, and surreal imagery. Maddocks co-produced El Ángel Exterminador with The Beige guitarist Jon Wood (whose other credits include Herald Nix and Rodney Decroo). The result is a unique, "apopalyptic" and sometimes funky brew. Yet for those who thirst for comparisons, the songs on El Ángel Exterminador could call to mind such distant touchstones as Calexico and Lyle Lovett, or maybe Van Morrison tailing Dark Side-era Pink Floyd down a Guadalajara backstreet.

On Saturday, January 23, 2010, The Beige performed a special CD release concert for El Ángel Exterminador at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Vancouver. A beautiful Gothic revival church known for its labyrinth, St. Paul's provided an ideal environment for The Beige's layered, complex but moving music. The memorable performance featured "Road", "The Exterminating Angel" and other songs from the new record, plus older curios such as "Lord I Wish I Was" and "Hammer in a Bell". Guest musicians Matt Brain (percussion) and Marc Lindy (tuba and sousaphone) added colour to The Beige's already rich palette of songs, as well as to the euphoric encore, the old spiritual, "The Last Mile of the Way".

El Ángel Exterminador is a response to the dream-like, gentle sound of 01, the quintet's independent debut cd which prompted The Vancouver Sun to proclaim, "The Beige is a new musical force." In the summer of 2006, 01 was unveiled in a sold-out show at Vancouver's MacMillan Space Centre, where the band played in darkness beneath projected constellations. 01 went on to receive extensive airplay on CBC radio and garnered widespread critical praise, both at home and abroad, while The Beige maintained a devoted underground following through performances on eclectic bills such as the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and The Vancouver Steel Guitar Festival.

The Beige's music is subtle, moody and complex. More introvert than extrovert, more deep and mysterious than flashy and loud. This is serious music, with literary trappings, but it also knows a good groove when it hears one. The quintet's live shows feature broad strokes of improvisation, weaving together off-kilter roots and jazz, narrative and groove, traditional and avant-garde. The Beige may appeal to a great uncharted audience out there, in the wild dark yonder, where they welcome one and all.

Downloadable Hi-Res Photos and album cover: www.thebeige.ca/press
Song previews: www.thebeige.ca/themedia
Publicity contact: Dave Gowans, lonesomecowboymusic@telus.net, (778) 238-1290
The Beige contact: info@thebeige.ca