Ears Wide Open: Beginners

Kevin Bronson on March 18th, 2014

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Beginners are actually not … beginners, that is. Onetime bandmates in Malbec, Nick Ruth and Samantha Barbera reconnected at a concert headlined by Foster the People, for whom another ex-bandmate, Mark Pontius, drums. Since Malbec parted ways in 2010, Ruth and Barbera had taken divergent paths: Barbera was bassist-singer in the punk band Holy Fever; Ruth worked as a songwriter and producer (Mikky Ekko, Blaqstarr, Active Child), releasing some cool solo music and teaming up with Ken Oak and Ed Gorski from Oak & Gorski in the studio project Louis Friend. The pair’s songwriting sessions bore bountiful fruit – whooshing electro-pop that for all its sunshine seems to have a dark side. The duo’s debut EP is out next week.

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