10 years ago twin brothers Niels and Torsten Kinsella formed a band called God is an Astronaut, they recorded a few demos and were approached by labels, keen for them to add vocals to their sound. Niels and Torsten however weren’t too keen on the idea so formed their own label, Revive Records and released their debut album The End of the Beginning, which was originally intended as the bands farewell to the music industry. When asked about it they said, “We just wanted to finish on a release we were really proud of; we had no expectations at all.”
Now, if you don’t know who God is an Astronaut are all I can ask is where have you been these last 10 years? Their evocative sounds is a medley of the Cure’s dark, textural Gothic Rock layering’s (think Disintegration here) combined with that, now all too familiar, post-rock format of slow-burning dynamics, quiet lulls and clashing crescendos, all of which is given added force with their synced-up visuals. Visuals that they craft for each track and which have been known to reduce grown men to tears.
As I said, it was 10 years ago since God is an Astronaut formed and they have released 5 albums and an EP with a sixth due out in mid-2013. They’re currently on the final leg of a 10th Anniversary tour which has seen them perform in places as diverse as Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, Russia, Dundalk, Glasgow and Finland and in association with Last.fm they’ll be performing what promises to be an epic gig in London’s Heaven Nightclub on Wednesday 5 December 2012.
As you’d expect, tickets for that gig have been selling like hot cakes and when you consider that they’re being supported by Maybeshewill and Nordic Giants with tickets priced at a mere £16 including booking fees, it’s no great surprise.
However, Christmas is coming so why spend £32 on tickets when you can win a pair? Yes, thanks to those nice folk at Last.fm I have a pair of tickets to giveaway to one lucky reader. Just answer a super easy question and your name goes into the virtual hat. As always, you’ll get more entries by tweeting and liking the blog on Twitter and Facebook.