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MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS
–In New York City on Wed., Sept. 13th at PIANOS, 9pm–
“Existential Beast is a big, absorbing and sonically wonderful album. Miranda Lee Richards has created an image of perfection to strive for, and it is in itself perfect.”
(10/10 album review, August 2017)
“San Francisco native Richards is renowned for the uncanny authenticity of her throwback sound. But on Existential Beast, her fourth LP, this second-gen bohemian ingeniously employs recreations of baroque folk and psychedelia to bring context to the songs that intimate striking parallels between the political upheavals of 1968 and 2017.”
–Bud Scoppa, UNCUT
(8/10 album review, August 2017)
“Richard’s ambitious ‘Existential Beast’ finds solace in flowing melodies, lush arrangements and instrumentation, and soft harmonies aglow with a pearly luminescence.”
–Peter Lindblad, ELMORE MAGAZINE
(94 rating album review, July 2017)
“…edging deeper into psychedelic folk-rock while hanging onto a country influence and her distinctly Laurel Canyon-esque sound.“
(4/5 star album review, July 2017)
 Miranda Lee Richards, photo credit: Graham John Bell
Following her sold-out European tour, MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS returns stateside for a performance in New York City on Wednesday, September 13 at Pianos (158 Ludlow St, New York, NY 10002). She’ll then join Spiritualized, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions and more at the Desert Daze Festival 2017 on Sunday, October 15 in Joshua Tree, CA.
Beautifully constructed with her signature ‘1970s-influenced, country-tinged psychedelia, MIRANDA’s new album EXISTENTIAL BEAST was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Rick Parker (BRMC) and is available now via Invisible Hands Music. Listen to her first single “Lucid I Would Dream” on YAHOO (HERE) and via YouTube (HERE).
Stream the full EXISTENTIAL BEAST album from MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS on the private link below (for review purposes only):http://bit.ly/2lEFyVk
The new album follows a busy year for MIRANDA which included the release Echoes of the Dreamtime (LP, 2016), U.S. and European tours and creating songs for the new Viceland series “Jungletown.” EXISTENTIAL BEAST is a political album, examining the current issues of our time, with the intent of tackling tough and taboo subjects in a poetic and heartfelt manner. The title, EXISTENTIAL BEAST, is a mash-up of terms, referencing the existential crisis that has risen in this pivotal moment in time.
WHAT: MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS– In New York City
WHEN: Wednesday, September 13th
WHERE: PIANOS (158 Ludlow St, New York, NY 10002)
SET TIME: 9:00PM
Critical soundbites for Miranda Lee Richards’ new album EXISTENTIAL BEAST:
“San Francisco native Richards is renowned for the uncanny authenticity of her throwback sound. But on Existential Beast, her fourth LP, this second-gen bohemian ingeniously employs recreations of baroque folk and psychedelia to bring context to the songs that intimate striking parallels between the political upheavals of 1968 and 2017. The intricate ‘Golden Gate’, with its radical tonal and tempo shifts, comes off like Love’s Forever Changes with Judy Collins signing lead, while the blistering ‘On The Outside Of Heaven’ charges along like a modern-day ‘All Along The Watchtower’. ‘Another World’ a lavishly orchestrated 12-minute outpouring contrasting the American dream with post-election reality, provides a mind-bending climax.”
–Bud Scoppa, UNCUT (8/10 album review, August 2017)
“A protest album free of blind, impotent rage, but one that uncomfortably-and intimately-questions just about everything, the singer-songwriter’s fourth album doesn’t shy away from racism, the environment or gender equality, to name a few. …Richard’s ambitious ‘Existential Beast’ finds solace in flowing melodies, lush arrangements and instrumentation, and soft harmonies aglow with a pearly luminescence. Used to chaos and confrontation, having survived the bedlam of Brian Jonestown Massacre early in her career, Richards doesn’t mind getting lost in a laid-back 70s Laurel Canyon reverie in ‘Ashes and Seeds.’ She emerges from the mists of lovely English folk traditions in ‘Oh Raven’ as aspectral presence, arranges a stunning vocal flight of fancy in ‘Back To The Source’ that would render Fleet Foxes speechless, and, just to show that not everything revolves around politics, Richards wanders the desert in a nocturnal ‘Lucid I Would Dream’ before stumbling upon a secret, peyote-fueled jambetween the Grateful Dead and Hawkwind. …‘On The Outside Of Heaven’ offers subdued, relaxed hooks and crisp pacing and ‘Autumn Sun’ features deft finger-picking, whereas the deep, folk sprawl of the epic 12-minute closer ‘Another World’-practically a study of current affairs-seems to go on forever, like an Appalachian forest. ‘Existential Beast’ roams freely and never stays in one place too long.”
–Peter Lindblad, ELMORE MAGAZINE (94-Rating album review, July 2017)
“Miranda Lee Richards has created in Existential Beastan album of some astonishing beauty. Profound of lyrics, gorgeous in the playing, sung with a voice which embodies an unearthly allure. Every song has an emotional resonance, a soul satisfying lyrical depth, even as Miranda Lee Richards dances elegantly and effortlessly across styles, claiming each one as representing her own special musical affinity, before pirouetting to another with which she sounds as equally at home. Existential Beast is a big, absorbing and sonically wonderful album. Miranda Lee Richards has created an image of perfection to strive for, and it is in itself perfect.”
“70s L.A. studio mafia in her employ, this music sounds more organic. Plus the production has a strong modern psychedelia flavor: bashy drums, excessive reverb, the whole nine yards. Richards is at her best when she unleashes her inner Marianne Faithfull circa ‘Tears Go By,’ as on ‘Oh Raven’ or the closing acoustic waltz ‘Another World.’ Then her voice’s purity shines.”
–Tim Stegall, MAGNET (July 2017)
“Country music heard through psychedelic headphones…”
–Danny McCloskey, THE ALTERNATE ROOT (3/31/17)
“On her fourth album, Existential Beast, Richards enchants with a distinctive blend ofspacey, harmony-laden pop (‘Back to the Source’) and intimate folk balladry (‘Autumn Sun’). But she also trips out amid the swirling psychedelic guitars and jazzy dynamic shifts of the hard-rocking epic ‘Golden Gate.’“
–Falling James, LA WEEKLY (May 23, 2017)
“If you’re a fan of songs like ‘Tam Lin’ by Fairport Convention, then you’ll love Miranda Lee Richards‘ ‘Another World’ a 12-minute politically driven epicfrom her new album ‘Existential Beast’.
-John Diliberto, ECHOES, (6/15/17)
“Take one listen to chamber-folk singer-songwriter Miranda Lee Richards’s wistful, winsome fourth solo album, Existential Beast, and some of her influences are evident: classic English folk troubadours like Nike Drake, Pentangle, Fairport Convention, and protest singer Shirley Collins; cosmic psych collectivethe Brian Jonestown Massacre, with whom Richards has performed off and on since the late ’90s; Buffalo Springfield and other ’60s California country-rockers; and dreamy alterna-poppers Mazzy Star.”
–Lyndsey Parker, YAHOO! (6/13/17)
“Richards brings her substantive, poetic lyrics together with a psychedelic, folk-tinged country sound (reminiscent of Los Angeles-based, early 1970s band Spirit) to deliver a powerful look at today’s post-election political climate….think of Richards’ latest as a fairy tale for adults. ‘Ashes And Seeds’ serves as a thoughtful reminder that history is constantly repeating and that conflict is essential to positive change. The smooth sounds of pedal steelhighlight Richards’ laid back, fluid vocals ‘Lucid I Would Dream’ evokes the dream-like state with the effective use of strings and Mellotron while lyrically imagining that with clarity, fears would diminish. Existential Beast closes, as it begins, with hope in the ethereal, string-laden and aptly- titled ‘Another World’. It is epic in length (over 12 minutes) and in breadth with its uplifting call to contribute to solutions. There is much to discover in the beauty of the vocals, the poetry in the lyrics and the uniqueness of the production foundin Existential Beast.”
–Harriet Watkins, THE DAILY COUNTRY (5/1/17)
“warm and precise, ethereal…”
–Kevin Bronson, BUZZBANDS.LA (3/31/17)
“Richards’ latest, ‘Existential Beast,’ offers a beguiling hybrid of the dulcet sounds she dubs ‘dusty country’ and ‘fairy folk.‘ It’s also an overtly political album (there’s even an 11-minute protest song) that embodies its times.”
–Susan Moll, STOMP AND STAMMER (3/31/17)
“Musically the album draws from several ’70s sources–Laurel Canyon country-rock royalty (‘Ashes And Seeds’), Joe Boyd’s Witchseason productions for Island Records (‘Autumn Sun’, ‘Oh Raven’), through to the spoken word sections of David Axelrod’s Earth Rot (the end section of ‘Lucid I Dream’). Subtle use of echo throughout the album adds to the continuity of sound and aids its woozy intoxicating power. The album’s tour de force is saved till the end. Clocking in at 12 minutes, ‘Another World’ is the most overtly political song, calling out those in power and offering a vision of how things could be. Clever stuff.”
–Duncan Fletcher, SHINDIG! MAGAZINE
(four-out-of-four star album review, U.K., MAY 2017)
 Cover artwork for Miranda Lee Richards’ EXISTENTIAL BEAST (link).  Miranda Lee Richards photo: Link. About MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS:
Born in San Francisco after the summer of love and before the dawn of disco, MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS grew up in an artistic and bohemian environment that has informed her adult life and work. After graduating from San Francisco School Of The Arts, she began to pursue a musical career. She met Kirk Hammett from Metallica who taught her to play Mazzy Star songs on guitar. Her early demos reached Anton Newcombe and she joined his band, the Brian Jonestown Massacre. MIRANDA then signed to Virgin Records and released her debut album The Herethereafter, a mix of folk, psychedelia, country and indie pop, and found fans worldwide. The critically acclaimed follow-up album Light Of X–the title of which comes from a dream about harnessing beams of light to travel in time–followed in 2009 via Nettwerk Records. In 2016, MIRANDA unveiled Echoes Of The Dreamtime on Invisible Hands Music, which received rave reviews across in the U.K. and U.S., as well as national airplay with MOJO giving the album 4 stars and hailing the first single, “The sublime ‘First Light Of Winter’ is the moment it all comes together, Richards transcending her influences and, no longer constrained, arriving at psychedelia’s higher plane” (1/2016). EXISTENTIAL BEAST is yet another confident and inspiring piece of work from MIRANDA, sure to excite her ever growing fan base. Known for her enchanting live performances, look for MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS to perform the new album in venues across the U.S. and U.K. throughout the year.
Miranda Lee Richards in the California poppy fields (LINK).
For music and media inquires re MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS or to receive download of EXISTENTIAL BEAST, contact:
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