Atlanta music news: Qurious returns with a minimalist ruse

Catherine Quesenberry and Mike Netland, aka Qurious, have announced that their second album will be released on Atlanta label Stickfigure Recordings in 2012. The follow-up to 2010's concept album Planet Plant doesn't have a title yet, but Quesenberry says it will have something to do with "translations."

Between Netland's starry-eyed, experimental hip-hop production and Quesenberry's spellbinding voice — a combination that earned them the award "Best Ambient Composers" in CL's 2011 Best Of Atlanta issue — Qurious has spent the last few years drifting deeper into the realm of atmospheric drones, beats, and elegant abstraction.

Some of the newer songs that are nearing completion are reportedly taking shape as minimal constructs based around a fixed set of sounds. Netland is working primarily within the confines of an 808 drum machine, and Quesenberry is working up a strong oral aesthetic steeped in layers of sound, rather than complex textures.

These layers will carry the bulk of the album's new direction, and while it may seem more accessible, it's not pop. By design the new album lures listeners with auditory constructs that seem easier to digest than Qurious' past efforts, but it's all a ruse. "We'll let you get comfortable with the music, and then we'll really start messing with your mind," Quesenberry adds with a laugh.

The album is coming together as another concept-driven release, but with a less-defined narrative element. "The more we've practiced the new material, the concept has become clear, easier to write, and easier to fathom," Quesenberry says. "It's the natural result of a lot more time spent in practice, rather than sitting and planning it out."

Following the release of his latest Atlas Sound album, Parallax (4AD), Deerhunter's Bradford Cox is launching an East Coast tour on Dec. 14, and he's taking local acts Balkans and Carnivores along for support. The shows will also serve as a test run for a grip of new Carnivores songs the group is currently recording with Ed Rawls at the Living Room Studio.

CJ Bargamian of cinematic rockers A Fight to the Death recently released a five-track EP with a new project called Tele Noir. A complete 180 degrees from his work with AFTTD, it focuses on electronic beats and synths while maintaining an element of acoustic instrumentation. "I got bored with what I was writing for AFTTD and needed to shake things up," Bargamian says. "I picked a style that I liked but had very little experience in and started writing songs. Plus, I wanted more crowd interaction than I could get with AFTTD. I'm bored with garage rock and that type of guitar-driven music, and sleazy electro-dance stuff seemed like the best type of energetic music for me to be making right now. ... And frankly, I'm just having a bit more fun with it."

NEW RELEASES: Keep an eye out for Soulphonics & Ruby Velle's new single "My Dear" which arrives this month on iTunes. Amityville, N.Y., transplant Rozewood has a new album dropping on Christmas Eve titled Neon Paradise (Digicrates Records). Bestial rapper 4-IZE has a new mixtape in the works titled Attack of the Sea Monkeys. It's being mixed by local DJ/producer Mudfish and will be honored with a Jan. 5 release party that will reportedly be staged like a musical. And Of Montreal's next album, Paralytic Stalks, will arrive Feb. 7 on Polyvinyl.