MinionTV are a 5-piece atmospheric instrumental rock band from Liverpool. Heavily driven by ambient, electronic and rock genres the band also consider film as a major influence and have had their music used for TV and film worldwide.
MinionTV made a debut back in 2010 with a self-titled album, putting out a lush wash of highly atmospheric numbers that slotted into the dictionary somewhere between Soundscape and Soundtrack and saw their music being used in ads (Lexus jumped on Battleships) and TV dramas (early single Yardsticks was used in The Mentalist and CSI trailers).
Since then the band have been out on the road across the UK and the end of last year put out the 5-track EP Arecibo, featured here, which amongst other acclaims has been highlighted by ending up on Bandcamp as Pick of the Day recently.
Arecibo welcomingly steps up a gear in terms of production depth and allows clearer textures to come through compared with the debut. The title track especially is one that travels the outer bounds of ambient spacerock, somewhere down the kraut end of post-rock maybe, with a superb backing beat holding everything together as the rest soars. It appears that the EP also reflects more about 2011 than you'd expect at first, as the band explain in a recent interview;
"The EP was recorded during the [2011] riots which inspired us to counter-act the craziness of what was going on outside and come up with something uplifting and emotional. With good headphones you can hear police vans whizzing past outside at the end of 'Tomorrow Will Bring Bulldozers'."
2012 and MinionTV plan for the release of The Last Projectionist, a 6-track offering, set to become available on July 28th. First preview of the record comes with She's A Sleeper, which appeared on SoundCloud last week.
It appears that things are decidedly ratcheting up for the band, the track showing off talents increasingly honed and sounds building up a language more coherent than ever. This can only be a good thing. Roll on July!