Posted on: January 2, 2009 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

Brooklyn-based five-piece Extra Life has announced the release of their second album, Made Flesh, on LOAF Recordings in March 2010. Extra Life is the primary musical vehicle for Charlie Looker, singer, guitarist and composer, who has become one of the most intense and respected voices in the New York experimental underground. Looker was a core member of legendary brutal chamber ensemble Zs and has also worked with diverse artists such as Dirty Projectors, Glenn Branca, William Parker and the S.E.M. Ensemble.

Formed in 2007, Extra Life combines elements of Medieval chant, metallic hardcore, dark neofolk, abstract modernism and lush pop. The music is cosmic in scope, a sacred alchemical marriage of the earth’s crude, blackened weight and the ethereal light of the divine. Extra Life’s debut CD, Secular Works, was released in the US in 2008 on Planaria Recordings and in Europe in 2009 on LOAF Recordings to wide critical acclaim. Their month-long tour of the U.S. included bills alongside Carla Bozulich, Abe Vigoda, the Dead Science, Excepter, Thrones and Rain Machine. Extra Life also did a European tour, playing festivals including Primavera Sound (Barcelona), Villette Sonique (France), Kilbi (Switzerland) and Moers (Germany) and sharing bills with Sonic Youth, Sunn 0))), My Bloody Valentine and Deerhunter.

Both more accessible and more severe than their previous work, Made Flesh extends from fragile acoustic ballads to industrial symphonic assaults and deepens the band’s signature heaviness while also exploring more psychedelic studio treatments, electronic textures and synths.

The band is currently offering a free mp3 download of their song, “Black Hoodie,” taken from a limited edition split 12″ with Nat Baldwin, which will be re-recorded/re-imagined for Made Flesh.

Extra Life Selected Press:

“Every so often there’s a record so accomplished that it makes most albums of its type sound ridiculous, and Secular Works is one of those … Remarkable for its scope, depth and technical accomplishment, Secular Works is a devastating record that has the power to change minds, if only people hear it. Don’t miss out.” – Dusted Magazine

“In Extra Life, Looker taps into a mesmerizing form of avant-rock raga, repeating words, and shifting into a windswept, entrancing post-punk throat singing … these are master works.” – Stereogum

” … scarily focused and ruthlessly complex in a post-prog sort of way, but it also flirts with a dark, sumptuous art-pop vibe. The end product is relentless, enveloping and frequently gorgeous.” – Time Out New York

“…Looker’s sense of arrangement and composition melds each sound into a gripping work where fear and urgency loom within each track … It creates an aesthetic so grave and completely realized that it’s with the best sense of anxiety that I anticipate where Extra Life goes next.” – Tiny Mix Tapes

For more info, please visit:
http://l-o-a-f.com/
http://www.extralifeblood.com
http://www.myspace.com/extralifetheband

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