Victorious Combinations

A few more select photos from our Muster Studio gig.  Thanks to Stefan Sigerson for the photos.

Just found this on the weekend (thanks for the head's up Magnus), our Crumbling Hearts ep got a very good review in the Province: The Garage CD of the week Combine The Victorious has always captured something grand in its music, beginning a few years ago with an LP that referenced classic rock in a contemporary setting. Whittling down essentially to the duo of Isabelle Dunlop and Mark Henning, Combine The Victorious has refined its sound to a more focused keyboard based pop on its Crumbling Hearts CD. It's no less grand for this pop orientation as it sometimes recalls progressive-rock in a light framework. The singing is gently effective and the duo's sense of melody is sharp. Seductive. Tom Harrison - The Province Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/Artists+walks+have+place+flourish/7951424/story.html#ixzz2LPa4w8dz

Thanks to Rob Edmonds for this glimpse of our show this past Friday at Muster Studio.  That is in fact Isabelle singing thru effects to create the voice you're hearing.  We've decided to try out a couple new ideas for the new songs.  You'll note near the end that we'd spliced in a section of the studio version of the song.   The recording is going really well, writing with Juice and Misty has been a total pleasure.  Our music is sounding better than ever and we now have a blinding lineup for our live shows too! Stay tuned, more new music shall be revealed in the coming weeks as well as a few new videos too. M

We just performed as part of the Lust exhibit at the Muster Studio here in Vancouver.  It was confidently the best show that Combine has ever performed.  Joining us on stage were Juice and Misty (formerly of the Yoko Casionos).  This new lineup sounds incredible! It was a fantastic night, Combine the Victorious , The Population Drops , and Tyranahorse all played exciting sets and the vibe in the room was so much fun!  Great crowd,  cool venue, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.  Thanks to Oswaldo from CiTR, the fine folks of VanMusic, CJSF and everyone involved with putting on this event.  It was a great night, can't wait for the next one. Here are a few photos from our show. Thanks to ChukFoto of Blacklettuce.blogspot.ca for the photos. please "like" the Combine page on facebook if you're on there.  it helps get gigs!

We just received a new remix of our track Crumbling Hearts .  This one was done by producer Lin Gardiner (she's worked with Peak Performance 2012 winners The Boom Booms among many other artists).  It's a very different version from our original but we both think she's found something quite fun with this mix. Have a listen! We are now almost done the writing and recording of the tracks that shall complete our next full length.    With the help of Juice and Misty (both of the now defunct Yoko Casionos) we have come up with some of the most exciting new songs Combine has ever written.  The four of us make an interesting writing team, and our true potential is just starting to be hinted at.  I expect we'll go into mix mode very shortly, so a few new songs shall be making their debut fairly soon! Thanks for reading,  M

We started January with four new song ideas and several snippets of songs all the result of one crazy night of jamming.  I guess a few of those ideas will make the album but what's been so interesting is that we've now written three more new songs in the past week.  Most of these are a little more personal than our initial ideas and all of them seem more substantial too. We've been in the studio everyday except one so far this month and the new music is starting to take shape.  It's exciting to think of how the entire full length is going to sound.  It's our intension to collect a few songs from our Crumbling Hearts EP and combine them with these brand new tracks to tell the complete story.  Musically I think we've solidified our sound, the beats are bigger and more solid than before and the instrumentation is both simpler and more immense.   Lyrically it's a much wider playing field, we've got songs covering an array of serious topics but all seem to...

Just wanted to say thanks to the fine folks at VanMusic for listing us on their top 25 bands to watch in Vancouver.  We are proud to be included with such fine company as The Population Drops, Sex With Strangers, Fine Times, Japandriods, No Sinner,  The Pack AD, The Matinee, Said the Whale, Bend Sinister, The Boom Booms and tonnes more great bands. It's a cool list, check it out.  You may find yourself watching some of these bands very soon. Cheers! The best 25 (plus one) indie Vancouver bands of 2012