Wednesday January 7 @ The Drunken Unicorn
Speakeasy presents…
Natural Palace, Night Heron [album release], Anticipation, Brainworlds
8pm / $15 / 21+
“Natural Palace is real wave, where the city lights have dimmers and adjust to the vision of the night. They get bright before an afterparty, can ease some shade for a cooldown celebration or spark the shine upon your day. It all started as a distant dream between four friends with a love for ‘90s dance, ‘80s AOR and ‘70s downtown. The dream started to become a fever during a self-imposed recording lock-in. Now, the doors of the Natural Palace are ready to be opened as a post-pan band with songs that could be welcomed on the mid-level of a three story German dance emporium and in the back rooms of laundromats on future retro nights.
RIYL: Throwing on “Dewdrops in the Garden” at the first signs of spring, smoke machines with extra fog juice, hanging out with Howard Jones in a HoJo lobby, Black Box dance parties with Neneh Cherry on top. “
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NIGHT HERON:
For over two decades, David Norbery has contributed to Atlanta's music scene through numerous projects, spanning angular rock (Moorish Idols), experimental pop (Nomen Novum), and sparse, spidery song-poems (Sisterwife). In 2021 he adopted the moniker Night Heron, and released Careworn, an album of loose, dubby electronic sketches, liberally colored by tape echo and other destructive processes. His forthcoming second album, Captive Listener, is his most ambitious work yet; exploring the intersection of music and listener across eight unfamiliar and haunting sonic landscapes. The aptly-titled intro track, "Marooned," wakes the listener to a disconcerting alien world, scored by an Eno-esque electric piano nocturne, soft thunder and distant fireworks. This gives way to "Worry Room," an unyielding, distortion-saturated jackhammer, juxtaposed with baroque piano vignettes and synthetic strings. Another standout, "Inverted Torch," feels like being trapped inside a Magic 8-Ball; staggering through a labyrinth of destroyed drum breaks, spectral piano notes, and a blurry, repitched memory of a New Orleans brass band. Self-released as a handmade limited edition CD, with striking cover art by Philip Spradley, Captive Listener distills decades of creative exploration into something vivid, immediate, and unforgettable.