Silent Pictures releasing 'Let it Begin,' share "Behind the Scenes"

California’s Silent Pictures is the current band from Alexander Mann who has been a fixture of San Francisco shoegaze scene since the early ’90s. The band’s second album, Let It Begin, was made the old fashioned way:

Every instrument and microphone went live to the board and was mastered in analog with knobs and dials and not a bunch of digital emulations and approximations of what live music should sound like. There is no use of digital vocal pitch corrected by auto tune. What you hear is what you get. It’s what we sound like live, you will love it or not.

The band got an impressive list of people to help mix the album, including Creation Records co-founder Joe Foster, veteran producer Dave Schiffman (BRMC, Cass McCombs, Dandy Warhols), John Fryer (Depeche Mode, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil), and Brian Jonestown Massacre original member Ricky Maymi who mixed “Behind The Scenes.” That song premieres in this post and Mann had the following to say about working with Maymi:

“Recording and mixing Behind The Scenes with Rick Maymi was a true pleasure. When we both worked together in our former band Mellow Drunk we had a great affinity for New Zealand/Australian music such as The Go-Betweens and The Chills. This track came together quite naturally with some beautiful violin work by Christina Stanley. Ricky was able to put some of his other sonic influences on a few other mixes on our second full length Let It Begin. I hope our current fans and people new to Silent Pictures music will dig what we are into and enjoy the trip!”

There is definitely a little Go-Betweens (Robert Forster in particular) in “Behind the Scenes,” and you can stream it, plus a few other tracks from the album, below.

Silent Pictures will play the SubZERO Festival in San Jose, California on June 4 and more info is here. Tracklist, artwork and streams from Let It Begin, below.

Silent Pictures – Let it Begin tracklist
1. Let It Begin (A.Mann) mix Dave Schiffman
2. Twisted Smiles (A.Mann) mix Joe Foster
3. Behind The Scenes (A.Mann) mix Ricky Maymi
4. Time Has Broken (A.Mann) mix Joe Foster
5. Come Around (J.Green) mix Dave Schiffman
6. Far From Reach (A.Mann) mix Alexander Mann
7. Heaven Sent (A.Mann) mix John Fryer
8. Fake It (Till We Make It) (A.Mann) mix Dave Schiffman
9. Dear John (C. Stanley) mix Dave Schiffman
10. Forever Your Love (A.Mann) mix Dave Schiffman
11. Bad Experiences (A.Mann) mix Dave Schiffman
12. Dying For You (A.Mann) mix John Fryer