press for saint timothy's:

early press for needle 

Every so often, a band comes around that makes you reconsider how you listen to music.  It is easy to fall into the pratfalls of “music must have a hook, it must have an edge if I am to enjoy it! If it doesn’t, then it is soft or boring and does not deserve my attention!”  If I were one to make such regal claims, I would cease after listening to Needle.

The duo of Steve Beck and Julia Sea have carefully constructed their sophomore EP with the care and grace used to build a church, much like the one which inspired the songs within Saint Timothy’s.  Songs feature pensive yet gentle fingers over piano and organ keys, watery guitars, subdued drums and the captivating melancholy of Sea’s voice.  Her vocals tell tales of loss and atonement behind a backdrop of meditative ambience.

The band shares with us that the album was “written from a very solitary place like a private journal,” a simile that is very fitting – listening to these seven songs, I feel almost like a voyeur who is eavesdropping on a private performance between Beck and Sea.  I sit and hold my breath because I feel like any loud noise would disrupt their playing and the listening experience would be over.

The experience is an exercise in meditation, as Needle’s soothing tones create a trance-like state; one that leads to personal reflection and a feeling of ease.  After the twenty five minutes of the EP are up, you are left thinking: where did all of this time go?

Whether religious, or personal, or trying to reach a trance-like state (or perhaps all of these things), Needle has hit on something.  They have touched a nerve and created a truly unique sound that is so beautiful in its simplicity.  Enter their church and experience the haunting beauty yourself.

- Nanobot Rock Reviews (Clay's Take)

Spirituality can come from the most obscure places as much as it can come from the most obvious. Concurrently, the spirituality of music holds the same characteristics.

For the California based Needle, spirituality and simplicity go hand in hand. Their follow up to 2006’s Songs Your Mother Never Sang You single handedly slows down life’s often hectic pace. Saint Timothy’s grafts together a complete lack of urgency and turns into itself to find beauty – a beauty finely sculpted from keyboards, organs, drums and ethereal vocals. Identifying the vision and direction laid out by Steve Beck and Julia Sea, world renowned Kramer mastered Saint Timothy’s, adding just the slightest touch of experience to an otherwise masterfully constructed piece. 

You’d be hard pressed to recognize that this is just their second album. Although the seven tracks are laid out as separate entities, they are placed in exactly the right place to help the album flow in a superb fashion. There is a seasoned fluidity about each composition that enables you to drift unknowingly from song to song. The composition of each song is far from complex; at times a chord will linger in space by itself, though not without purpose. The themes of grief, new beginnings, and redemption are expressed through minimalistic elements. Though minimal, the effort is no less impactful.

Needle has found elemental beauty in Saint Timothy’s, expressing a sound developed in the solitude of a high desert California church, through seemingly effortless elegance. The dance of enchanting instrumentals and vocals meticulously placed by Beck and Sea creates an intimate escape.

One which, sadly, lasts just over 25 minutes.

- Nanobot Rock Reviews (Greg's Take)

Has there ever been any positive, upbeat music made that referenced needles? I mean, the first track that springs to mind is Nine Inch Nails‘ “Hurt”, after all. Hardly uplifting. The closest I’ve managed is Rammstein‘s “Rein Raus”, which features the sumptuous piece of imagery, “Ein Elefant im Nadelohr” – “An elephant in the eye of a needle”. Yes, that would be a charming sex reference; no, I’m not convinced that counts as positive or upbeat either.

Needle are not about to change that state of play. The San Francisco duo can knock out a lovely track, but it’s not going to be the ray of light that pulls you out of a pit of depression. Frankly, though, I couldn’t care less, because like I say: they can knock out a lovely track. Composed of singer and multi-instrumentalist Julie Sea, and multi-instrumentalist Steve Beck, they make an understated, lo-fi brand of folky rock that will have you in tears one moment, and dozing off with a great, dopey grin the next.

To these ears at least, Julie’s voice is a breathier Emma Pollock, or (who’d have thought it?) Hope Sandoval. There’s actually an official treaty amongst everyone who writes about music to mention Mazzy Star whenever an artist makes vaguely folkish, vaguely psychedelic rock. I don’t feel too guilty since Needle did bring it up themselves. Another immediate similarity is Cowboy Junkies, and the lead track (“Oceans”) from their new EP (“Saint Timothy’s”) bears more than a passing resemblance to Yo La Tengo‘s sublime “Autumn Sweater”. That’s about as high as praise gets from me.

What should quickly be coming apparent is that Needle are mellow. If they have a fault, it’s that they almost never break with that subdued mood for a bit of light relief, but there are enough changes of texture to keep things moving all the same. Their debut album, “Songs Your Mother Never Sang You”, actually came out back in 2006 – as always, nothing but the very cutting edge in new music here at LBYB – and it seems almost unreasonable that they’ve stayed so firmly under the radar since then.

Hopefully “Saint Timothy’s” will see them reaching a bigger crowd. They certainly deserve it. I’m not saying it’s going to convert the Saturday night pre-party warm up crowd, but anyone who enjoys some lo-fi downtempo is in for a treat. “Oceans” is available to download free via Soundcloud, or you can follow the links to stream the whole shebang.

- Listen Before You Buy

Needle remain comfortably under the radar, but if their latest EP, Saint Timothy’s, has anything to do with it, they’ll soon be having their indie pop breakthrough. Strains of Sufjan Stevens and hints of the early experimental songwriting of Lindsey Buckingham permeate these seven slow-burning pieces of raw pop beauty, showcasing the intricate songwriting of Julie Sea and Steve Beck.

“Let It Go” gets its hooks in quietly and asserts the duo’s ability to craft memorable melody from its most simple elements. “Slip your hand into my little world and let it go,” Sea and Beck harmonize, providing a chorus which is both bare-bones and evocatively beautiful in its simplicity. “The Scenery” is quietly ominous thanks to the echoing vocals and plodding piano, intimately haunting: “Memories will follow me,” sings Sea mournfully, and you’ll want to put the song on repeat so you can let it roll over you and soak in.

This is meaningful, raw pop music for those among us who appreciate the delicate structure of avant-pop for its fundamental beauty. Saint Timothy’s is as rewarding a listen as you can expect to find as we head into 2012.

- Hear! Hear!

From Kramer, who has notably produced for Galaxie 500, Gwar, Low, Half Japanese, White Zombie, Urge Overkill, and many others, comes a new and exciting band called Needle. We, at Migrate, have recently received their newest EP titled: Saint Timothy’s, and we highly recommend you check them out. Saint Timothy’s will be officially released on January 10th, 2012, but you can check out and download their song “Ocean” above.

Needle has been flying under the radar for quite sometime now. Falling somewhere in between indie rock and an almost neo-contemporary pop, Needle takes the hand of the listener and pulls them through a slow poetic portrayal of sadness, loss, and breaking out one’s monotony. Hailing from San Francisco, California, the band just released Saint Timothy’s, their new seven-song EP. It’s the follow-up to their debut release: Songs Your Mother Never Sang You. Needle is a male/female duo comprised of members Sea and Beck. Their music is composed of “acoustic guitars and distortion, analog synthesizers, old time pianos along with toy xylophones and a cocktail drum.” This vast array of instruments yields a lullaby of simplicity that is both soothing and intriguing. The band’s simplicity doesn’t take anything away from their overall sound.

- Migrate Music

Today's Introducing feature is a duo that lured us in with their tranquilizing melodies. In relation to the serenity of Beach House, Steve Beck and Julia Sea are members of California's Needle. Beck provides warm piano textures as Sea voices sweet harmonies. Together, they have compiled seven songs under an EP titled Saint Timothy's, scheduled for January 10th, 2012.

The band says Saint Timothy's was "written from a very solitary place like a private journal,these songs are as sparse as a winter tree. Concepts of grief, searching and starting over, then longing for redemption are explored with an old pipe organ, haunting vocals and a selection of keyboards and pianos".

"Oceans" is the first track and you can expect the same mellow tones throughout the EP. Enjoy Needle while sunbathing under those thick winter layers.

- Earmilk

this band got in touch with us via our inbox, and i’m liking what i hear. to compare them to another band is to mention beach house without any others. and we like beach house. needle is a lush pop group from the deserts of california, who plan on releasing their album saint timothy’s on january 10th. for now, download a new cut (oceans) from the album and stay tuned for more posts.

- weworemasks

I got sent this lovely song (Oceans) from a San Francisco band called Needle, super dreamy. A little Daughter ish too. You can download this for free.

- flying with anna