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Douga share new single ‘Footprints’ ahead of Sweet Baboo Shows – New album ‘Hidden Tapes & The Golden Tide’ – 8th December

November 20, 2017

DOUGA  – HIDDEN TAPES & THE GOLDEN TIDE

Released 8th December 2017 – Do Make Merge

 

Manchester quartet Douga have shared new single ‘Footprints’ from their second album ‘Hidden Tapers & The Golden Tide’ due on the 8th of December.
The follow up to their acclaimed debut album ‘The Silent Well’, ‘Hidden Tapes & The Golden Tide’ documents the bands further exploration of sounds and styles to fuse with their wide eyed psychedelia and driving Americana. The album was recorded at Seed Studios in Manchester. Seed Studios is a community home for people with mental health issues, where Johnny from the band is a volunteer while he trains as a therapist and counsellor.
The band will be heading out for some shows with Sweet Baboo –
  • 23rd November – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
  • 29th November – Picture House Social, Sheffield

Manchester quartet Douga have announced their sophomore album ‘Hidden Tapes & The Golden Tide’ which will be released on Do Make Merge records on the 8th of December.  The follow up to their acclaimed debut album ‘The Silent Well’, ‘Hidden Tapes & The Golden Tide’ documents the bands further exploration of sounds and styles to fuse with their wide eyed psychedelia and driving Americana. 

Hidden Tapes and the Golden Tide is an album that reflects our troubled times. It is a record that channels opposites – the conscious and the subconscious, the concrete and the abstract, despair and hope. In a world that seems increasingly conflicted and chaotic, it is a reminder that for every moment of darkness, there is light. 

It is perhaps unsurprising that psychology underpins the record. Uniquely, the album was recorded at a community home for people with mental health issues called Seed Studios, where lead singer Johnny Winbolt Lewis volunteers. He is also training to be a counsellor and psychotherapist, and uses his experience to explore the interplay between the conscious and the subconscious mind throughout the record.

Talking about the decision to work at Seed Studios, Winbolt-Lewis explained “Recording at Seed Studios freed us from time pressures. Something you experience in most studios. It also gave us so many different spaces to record in – from a stairwell perfect for atmospherics and a basement room with a low ceiling for a tight 70s drum sound. There’s definitely an aura in that building on a weekend!”

The record also marks the band in transition. Two new members joined as recording commenced in earnest. This has helped both expand and stretch their sound.

The record builds on the band’s love of melody, Americana and psychedelia which they melded with ease on their debut. And with the addition of two new band members, they’ve both expanded their sound and made it more accessible.

Setting this record apart from Douga’s debut album, Golden Tide flows in and out of a number of interlude tracks – the Hidden Tapes… These tracks were cut from extended improvised jam sessions recorded over two days at Salford University. The band edited the long-form improvisations, and included them as a way of threading a narrative through the record and adding an extra layer to the record.

“Subtle, melancholic and hugely promising” – Gigwise

“A rich mix of warm psychedelia, Americana and more European experimental influences…” – Fame Magazine

“The band channel a psychedelic vibe that feels like Kurt Vile tripping at a summer festival—glorious stuff.” – The Vinyl District

Twitter:@dougauk

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Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/dougauk

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