White Sails: Memory & Desire on Top 10 of 2014 / Review

Nick Leese of Heyday Mail Order in London, England has included “Memory & Desire” on his Top 10 of 2014 list!

Below is a writing/review of the album he wrote on his music blog a couple of months ago. Here’s a link to his blog.

Cheers Nick!

White Sails

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27.11.14

A CDR of the new White Sails album ‘Memory & Desire’ landed here a couple of weeks back. It’s expected for release pretty soon, so watch this space!

This is one beautiful piece of work!

It did take me a few listens to get into, mainly because White Sails are a very subtle listening experience. Nothing immediate hits you when you first hear something new by them. Everything appears understated. Listen more though and a whole other world slowly begins to open up!

Firstly, Ville Vilpponen’s guitar playing on ‘Memory & Desire’ is not only economical, but wonderfully fluid, weaving in and out of Leigh Gregory’s vocals and gentle drumming by brother Jaakko. After a few spins I was following the guitar lines totally track after track. This is the type of guitar playing I admire most. Inventive and meaningful without ever overdoing it. There’s also some nifty keyboard fills too, here and there, which I’m sure Ville is responsible for as well. A master craftsman.

Now back to Leigh Gregory’s vocals, not much louder than his speaking voice, but all the time drawing the listener in. Nowhere in the lyrics is there anger or bitterness, there’s always hope and love, without sounding trite. It might be a little ‘hippie’ to say all this, but it’s quite refreshing to hear actually. ‘Dream Of Flying’, ‘Come In From The Storm’, ‘And You And I’ – all wonderfully lyrical and uplifting!

Favourite track? ‘Cities Of The Plain’ – this wouldn’t sound out of place on ‘Born Sandy Devotional’ by The Triffids. Yes, it’s that good!

Oh, there’s also a beautiful instrumental to kick back too as well – ‘Lifelines’ . Listen and weep!

Thanks again guys, it’s been a long month for one reason or another, grey skies, rain, blah, blah blah…but ‘Memory & Desire’ has made it all bearable.

If you’re also in the mood for something to ‘listen’ to, you can’t go wrong with ‘Memory & Desire’.

White Sails: New album done!

New album shocker

Big news today… We have finished our second full-length album titled “Memory & Desire”. Took a couple of months longer to complete the work than we had anticipated since we decided to include a 10th song at the 11th hour. We are very pleased with the results and look forward to getting this music out there in the world. Special thanks go out to our friends in Seattle, Matt Brown and Levi Seitz for their great work (in mixing and mastering respectively). 

Track listing is as follows:

1. Dream of Flying
2. Come in From The Storm
3. Lost Again
4. October Fields
5. Lifelines
6. And You And I
7. Under a Northern Sky
8. In The Blood
9. Cities of The Plain
10. Sensations

Total running time: 39 minutes plus change

We’ll probably start streaming the album soon (watch this space), the digital and physical release dates are still tbd (possibly around Halloween for digital, CD mid-November…?). Hope everyone’s well and getting ready for the Winter. I know I am… Cheers, Ville / White Sails

White Sails debut receiving good feedback / New music coming up

Hey Guys,

Here’s a selection of the latest write-ups of White Sails and their debut. The album’s been getting quite a lot of praise on the internet, and we hope you’ll visit these cool e-zines/blogs that have been kind enough to write about the band.

http://www.isthismusic.com/white-sails (review of the album)
http://rocksucker.co.uk/2013/05/showcase-white-sails.html (showcase/interview)
http://seesound.co.uk/reviews/white-sails_white-sails (another review)

You can find more under our Press-tab. We’ll keep posting future reviews there as well.

 

Also, there’s a White Sails instrumental EP coming out on 7″ vinyl this fall!!! The four song record consists of two White Sails originals and two – unlikely and fascinating – cover songs. We’ll give you more details about that project a little later.

Thanks!

 

White Sails now on iTunes & Youtube, Levykauppa Äx carries Ruska releases

If you’d like to purchase a digital copy of White Sails’ debut album, it’s now available on iTunes, follow this link.

We are happy for our new collaboration with Levykauppa Äx, a Finnish record store that now carries Ruska Records releases in all of their branches! You can find all kinds of cool rarities on their shelves – no matter what genre – and they support small record companies and bands. Very nice! So if in Finland, go visit and check out what they got to offer.

Also, White Sails’ first music video Seaside is up on our youtube channel. We dig it, and hope you’ll enjoy it too!

More news soon, stay tuned!

White Sails’ debut CD released today

That’s right! To celebrate this event our own web-store is offering this great item for the introductory price of 12 euros, with shipping included anywhere! (Please note that delivery times to remote places such as Tristan da Cunha and McMurdo Station can be excessive- Everyone else should get theirs within a week). Just drag the image of the cover to the “Shopping Bag” to your right. At checkout the payment can be made with PayPal. If you have any questions about using the store e-mail us at info@ruskarecords.com and we’ll make sure that you’ll get your products.
                                                                                                             Also about White Sails: Nick Leese of Heyday Mail Order in London, England has included the band’s first single on his Top 10 of 2012 list… This is great, cheers Nick! The guys are in good company with the likes of Bill Fay, Steve Kilbey and um… George Harrison. Cool!
                                                                                                             Check back for more Ruska news soon.

Finnish review of Break The Light

The Finnish online-rag desibeli.net has a review of The Bias’ Break The Light posted. For those of you who can’t read Finland, here’s a brief summary:
                                                                                                              The reviewer praises the band’s “threatening dark rock color palette” as well as “unpolished energy” and chops, although he was unable to find any “hits” within. We’ll make sure to have the band cover Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody” next time they enter the studio to ensure that this will not happen again.
Jokes aside… it’s a well written piece, and worth your time so check it out:
                                                                                                               http://www.desibeli.net/arvostelu/5954

The Bias getting some love from babysue

Ruska Records artists The Bias’ album Break The Light is featured in the January 2013 reviews section of the babysue / LMNOP. Granting the album a “top pick” status, the review goes on to state that “this is easily one of the best hard rock albums we’ve heard in months.” Thanks guys, we like it too! Here’s the link for the review:
                                                                                                      http://www.babysue.com/2013-Jan-LMNOP-Reviews.html#anchor401115

White Sails News:

The mixes for White Sails’ self-titled debut are finished! This is exciting to us all here at Ruska. The mastering date is tomorrow (12/28/2012) and we’re looking at a mid-January release date. The track listing is as follows:

1. The Turning of the Tide
2. Dare to Shine
3. Slipping Away
4. All of My Days
5. Years
6. Departed
7. By Your Side
8. Sunday Afternoon
9. Just One Wish
10. Seaside

Also, the band will start shooting a video for the song “Seaside” in the first week of 2013. Watch this space for developments!

Ruska store is now open!

We have opened our web store. And just in time for Christmas! You can find the in-print Ruska Records’ releases there and we’ll add more products as they become available. The prices, in Euros, include shipping within the EU. If outside of Europe, please add 2(two) Euros to your order for shipping costs. Go ahead- fill up that bag!
                                                                                                                   In North America you also have the option to use faceless, giant web-retailers Amazon who sell The Bias’ Break the Light. Here:
                                                                                                                   Be warned, however, as their estimated delivery time listed is quite ridiculous. We are trying to find out why this is and also looking for other channels for distribution, always. We’ll keep you posted! Thanks for reading.

White Sails single reviewed in Luna Kafé

Anna Maria Stjärnell from the great e-zine Luna Kafé did a nice write up about our very own White Sails. It reads:
                                                                               “Leigh Gregory has a new project with Ville Vilpponen and so far it’s yielded these two songs. “Slipping Away” is reflective and excels in the kind of melodic pop Gregory has always been good at. Vilpponen’s guitars add a lovely quality. “Just one wish” is a dreamy, cool song that showcases the bands’ talents well. Gregory’s voice is a as good as ever. The imminent album should be a treat.”
                                                                                                                   If you’ve never checked out the site… well, you should. Go here: