Artist: Shocking Pinks
Title: Guilt Mirrors
Label: Stars & Letters Records
Former labels: DFA, Flying Nun
Catalog: STARS011
Distributor: SDS, CTD LTD
Digital album release date: 02/18/14
12″ vinyl street date: 04/15/14
File under: Indie Rock, Electronic, Electroclash, Dance Punk, Ambient

Primary contact: Mark Roberts, Stars & Letters | [email protected]
Publicity: David Benge, Drunken Piano | [email protected]

Artist Facebook: http://facebook.com/shockingpinks
Artist Bandcamp: http://shockingpinks.bandcamp.com

Promotional album download: We’ll gladly send you download links! Please email Mark at [email protected] to request a promo copy.

Listen to “St Louis” via Pitchfork:

Listen to “What’s Up With That Girl?” via DAZED:

Listen to “Not Gambling” via Pitchfork:

Photo by Phil Platt

Unknown photographer

Former Flying Nun and DFA artist Shocking Pinks signs to Stars & Letters to release triple album Guilt Mirrors after six year hiatus and three major earthquakes

After a 6 year hiatus, the former Flying Nun and DFA artist Shocking Pinks (aka Nick Harte) has signed with Stars & Letters Records to release the trilogy album Guilt Mirrors on February 18, 2014.

New Zealander Nick Harte’s musical exploration of pain, diaspora, and obsession are woven into a sprawling triple album that reconnects audiences with his dark, discordant, and intimate brand of “dream-pop-miserablism” (as Harte puts it). Somewhere between pastiche and mix-tape aesthetics, Guilt Mirrors is a bigger-than-life expression of the artistic process, exposing the white bones of former drug abuse, personal failure, transcendent epiphanies, and musical breakthroughs. It’s a record shaped just as much by time and loss, as it is by chords and melodies.

After rocketing to fame with 2004’s stunning debut Dance the Dance Electric (which earned an 8.2 on Pitchfork), Harte was soon signed to James Murphy’s DFA label, where he released 2007’s critically acclaimed Shocking Pinks. Described by critics as “bittersweet or downright self-destructive,” Harte’s music earned rave reviews for bringing emotional intimacy and abusive tenderness to the electro-clash scene. In the ensuing years, Harte worked on a variety of projects, recording in different countries, studios, and houses as he traveled. As he tore through his lows (drug addiction, agoraphobia, insomnia) and soared through his highs (love, touring, artistic collaborations), Harte continued to compose a vast body of work, that was as much a personal journal, as it was a collection of songs.

On February 22, 2011 a magnitude 6.3 earthquake ripped apart Harte’s home town of Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 185 people. While the death toll was relatively low compared to earthquakes in Haiti or Turkey, the earthquake completely ravaged the city, flattening the town area—and damaging Harte’s recording studio. With it’s local economy and infrastructure in tatters, Christchurch’s dynamic musical community evaporated almost overnight. In nearly complete isolation, Harte remained, painting his windows black and recording for multiple days in a row without sleep. The songs recorded during this time were some of his most desperate, conceived as an attempt of self-therapy.

It wasn’t until friends and family intervened that Harte finally relocated to Wellington, and Guilt Mirrors truly began to take shape. Only after unpacking his boxes and notebooks did Harte realize the immense scale of the material he had recorded over the years. In his estimation, he had “over 7 or 8 albums worth of material” (more than 300 demos and complete works). Instead of polishing the songs up to give them a commercial gleam and an artificial theme, Harte envisioned a record that reflected the truth of his life as he had experienced it: with highs and lows, failures and successes, stops and starts.

Influenced by the cinematic structure of auteurs like John Cassavetes, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Nicholas Winding Refn, Guilt Mirrors is a sprawling, haunting, beautiful, and at times violent and alienating trilogy, that is much less a curated “album” than it is a personal mix tape. While Guilt Mirrors may be alienating to some, it is a work of singularity and bravery, chronicling life in a bold and truthful way.

The Guilt Mirrors digital trilogy releases February 18, 2014 on Brooklyn label, Stars & Letters Records. The limited edition color 12″ Vinyl releases April 15, 2014.

New Zealand’s Shocking Pinks, AKA Nick Harte, burst onto the scene in 2004 with the seminal dance pop record Dance the Dance Electric, which shared with the world Harte’s peculiar brand of uncomfortable dance punk intimacy. With dirty lo-fi production, sweet melodies, and unexpected aggression, Harte channels the demons of obsession and emptiness into darkly lyrical art. Managing to conduit James Murphy, Fleetwood Mac, and My Bloody Valentine through the swagger of Scott Walker, Shocking Pinks have perfected the sound of bittersweet melancholia that teeters on the edge of self-destruction.

A fixture of New Zealand’s burgeoning DIY scene, Harte has spent the last 20-odd years playing in some of New Zealand’ most prominent bands (The Brunettes, Solaa, The Incisions, CM Ensemble, Hiatus). After releasing his first album in 2004 (which earned an 8.2 on Pitchfork) Harte was quickly signed to New Zealand’s historic Flying Nun label, which released Mathematical Warfare and Infinity Land in 2005. Shortly thereafter, Shocking Pinks landed an international deal with New York’s DFA label, first releasing a series of limited-edition vinyl 7” with remixes by The Glimmers, Deerhunter, and Eluvium, and then issuing the full-length album Shocking Pinks in 2007. Harte’s self-titled DFA debut compiled some of the best songs from Harte’s previous albums, and showcased his ability to carve out a raw and intense emotional space, that served as a stark counterpart to the party anthems of DFA electroclash label-mates.

While Harte did not formally release any music after 2007, they were years of great productivity. In a recent interview with Under The Radar, Harte said: “I ended up with 386 tracks … I’ve got eight CDs with me at the moment”; he also toured, wrote for magazines, and collaborated on films. Yet they were also years of significant struggles, among them agoraphobia, insomnia, and past substance addiction. The biggest influence on Harte’s music, however, was also the greatest catastrophe. On February 22, 2011 a magnitude 6.3 earthquake tore through Christchurch, his home city, killing 185 people and completely destroying the downtown area. Harte coped with the tragedy by painting his windows black and staying awake for days at a time, writing songs like “Take me (Lower)” in the abandoned rooms of his ruined home. Three massive earthquakes and hundreds of aftershocks later, with no buildings and no infrastructure left, Harte was eventually evacuated and forced to relocate to the city of Wellington and try to rebuild his life.

After the destruction of his city and the diaspora of Christchurch’s vibrant youth culture, Harte used music as a therapy to deal with his isolation. Influenced by the cinematic structure of auteurs like John Cassavetes, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Nicholas Winding Refn, Guilt Mirrors is a sprawling, haunting, beautiful, and at times violent and alienating trilogy, that is much less a curated “album” than it is a personal mix tape. Chronicling the loss, the love, and the limbo of the last 6 years, Guilt Mirrors is due to release February 18, 2014 via Brooklyn-based imprint, Stars & Letters Records. A limited edition 12″ Vinyl release is due out April 15, 2014.

“An artist who knows as much about loneliness as he does noisy pop classics… His heartache, our pleasure” — Pitchfork (8.3)

“Virtually all of his songs are gems in their own way” — Stereogum

“Bittersweet, deliriously urgent indie-drone pop anthems” — NME

“This refreshing, smarter side of the late ’80s has yet to be co-opted into a hipster fashion show” — SPIN

“Bittersweet or downright self-destructive” — Pop Matters

“Lovesick and often melodramatic pop and fucking wild dance/disco-punk” — Rose Quartz

“Raw, energetic, emotional” — Clash Music

“There’s no denying the magnetism of his best work” — Prefix Magazine

“Harte’s little fingerprint-smudged slivers, so lovingly composed, are precious things, and you’ll fast find yourself addicted to his sweet, glum love stories” — BBC

“Inheritors of the national pretty-noise gene” — Rolling Stone

“Drenching guitar sounds” — NPR All Songs Considered

“It rips” — XLR8R

“Shocking Pinks’ brittle, noisy production also harks back to the golden age of college rock in the late ’80s and early ’90s; in the best possible way” — All Music Guide

“Flick-knife aggression… lovelorn ruminating… unexpected depth” — Drowned In Sound

“Shocking Pinks sounds like the most idyllic rainy day ever… It’s perfect for anyone who couldn’t wait for summer to end” — IMPOSE