Already taking out "Album Of The Month" in The Age Magazine, Melbourne's premier broadsheet and online publication, khancoban arrive with their brilliant and beautifully executed new album "Arches Over The Sun".
Chris Johnston from The Age writes:
Real tunesmiths, delicate and pained and observant as can be; songs about the sun rising and the detail contained with the human heart and other such big and small truths. Songwriter Andre Hooke's voice is a thing of beauty. The music made here is so, so easy to fall for and fall into.
The album is due for release on August 12th. It will be available on vinyl, CD and in MP3 formats, initially from the Departed Sounds online store followed by iTunes and all good retail outlets.
Arches Over The Sun is a grand, sprawling affair which sees the band effortlessly melding musical styles and genres to produce an album which is both richly textured and deeply moving. It is also something of a departure from the style of khancoban’s previous alt-country and folk influenced releases.
This is most evident on tracks such as Until it Takes You Over, This Block and This Isn’t Madness where pounding drums, driving bass, ethereal synths and gritty guitars combine to form a swirling, edgy and heavy sound that manages to be both wild and perfectly controlled at the same time.
On tracks such as Cause and Chaos, Things I Can’t See and What The Heart Knows, the band give a nod to their past, managing – sometimes with a wry wink – to combine country, folk, pop and blue-eyed soul to produce a sound which is as uplifting as it is upbeat.
Carefully littered in between these extremes are simple and refined tracks of stark isolation such as No One Knows I’m Here, Do Not Trust The Horse and the darkly mysterious closing track, On Becoming.
It is in these quieter moments that khancoban’s greatest asset comes to the fore. Singer, songwriter and guitarist Andre Hooke’s voice, around which the album is woven, is gloriously unique. It a voice possessed of both great strength and a delicate fragility.
Essentially, Hooke’s voice represents what Arches Over The Sun - and khancoban as a band - have to offer the patient listener.
Like the album’s artwork, its myriad pathways and lights representative of the structure and function of the human brain, their music is a kind of map; certainly of the mind, but most especially and importantly, of the heart.
khancoban hit the tarmac in support of "Arches Over The Sun" in August. Don't miss them.
- Friday August 12 – X & Y Bar, Brisbane
- Saturday August 13 – Brisbane Powerhouse (Andre solo)
- Sunday August 14 – Brisbane Powerhouse
- Thursday August 18 – The Toff In Town, Melbourne
- Friday August 26 – Petersham Bowls Club, Sydney
- Saturday August 27 – The Front, Canberra
- Saturday September 3 – The Grace Emily, Adelaide.
Take a listen to the album here, download a free single here ... and be prepared to soon see khancoban everywhere.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 1:24AM 
