Brooklyn’s Snowmine are set to release their new album – Dialects – through their own imprint Mystery Buildings on February 4th, 2014. The album was entirely written and produced on their own, and recorded by Jake Aron (Grizzly Bear), and Yale Yng Wong (Here We Go Magic) in a church in Uptown Manhattan. Today the band has announced a spring tour spanning March through April supporting peers Small Black. The full list of tour dates are below.

The album chronicles a disoriented period in singer Grayson Sanders’ life, when after the band’s first record, he spontaneously left his job, and spent the following year wandering with a single bag. The lyrics are pulled entirely from the journal he kept during his travels.
Dialects is about communication: with the self, with others, with society. It’s about its breakdown, its triumphs, and its misgivings.

Growing off of the band’s previous release, Laminate Pet Animal,  Dialects marks a subtle shift in the band’s sound. From the optimistic, tribal undertones of Laminate Pet Animal, to a more ambient, meditative nostalgia.  Recording in a church afforded them the opportunity to record real reverbs, and gather true ambiances one can feel in their headphones. Combine a stronger presence of vintage synthesizers with the beautiful 1960’s cinema-inspired string, woodwind, and choir orchestrations, and you are left with a surreal retrofuturism beckoning you inside for a fireside chat.

The Brooklyn quintet formed out of a longtime friendship between bassist Jay Goodman, drummer Alex Beckmann, and lead singer/composer Grayson Sanders. They soon met guitarist Austin Mendenhall after his then recent move from the DC jazz scene, and finally invited their old friend, guitarist Calvin Pia, to complete the five-piece.

From the band: “To give you some background on the recording, there are no foreign samples on this album.  Every single sound and orchestral moment was written, arranged, and recorded by us.  The goal of the album was to capture a surreal ambiance that married hyper modern ambient synth tones with vintage 60’s sounding cinematic orchestral motifs.  We recorded a choir, strings, woodwinds, and reamped synths in a church to capture truly real stereo reverbs, so in headphones you can feel physical, not artificially created space.”

Snowmine
Dialects
Out February 4, 2014 via Mystery Buildings

Tracklist:
To Hold an Ocean
Rome
Columbus
Further Along, Farther Away
You Want Everything
Safety in Your Open Mind
Glide
Plans
Courts
Silver Sieve
Dollar Divided

SNOWMINE 2014 TOUR DATES:
Wed 2/5/2014 Allston, MA @ Great Scott*
Thu 2/6/2014 Brooklyn, NY @ Glasslands (Album Release Show)*
Fri 2/7/2014 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s (Co-headline with Norwegian Arms)*
Sat 2/8/2014 Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery*
Fri 3/21/2014 San Diego CA @ Casbah
Sat 3/22/2014 Los Angeles CA @ Bootleg Bar
Mon 3/24/2014 Santa Cruz CA @ The Crepe Place
Tue 3/25/2014 San Francisco CA @ Rickshaw Stop
Thu 3/27/2014 Portland OR @ Bunk Bar
Fri 3/28/2014 Seattle WA @ Barboza
Sat 3/29/2014 Vancouver BC @ Media Club
Sun 3/30/2014 Spokane WA @ The Bartlett
Tue 4/1/2014 Salt Lake City UT @ Kilby Court
Wed 4/2/2014 Denver CO @ Hi Dive
Fri 4/4/2014 Des Moines IA @ Vaudeville Mews
Sat 4/5/2014 St. Paul MN @ Turf Club
Sun 4/6/2014 Chicago IL @ Schubas
Tue 4/8/2014 Columbus OH @ Double Happiness
Wed 4/9/2014 Detroit MI @ Magic Stick
Thu 4/10/2014 Ithaca NY @ The Haunt
Fri 4/11/2014 Montreal QC @ Club Lambi
Sat 4/12/2014 Burlington VT @ Signal Kitchen
Sat 6/21/2014 Toronto ON @ NXNE

https://www.facebook.com/Snowmine