"Saying it sounds like Grizzly Bear as produced by Autechre wouldn't be inaccurate." RCRD LBL

"Imagine Syd Barrett and Smile-era Brian Wilson tripping out and transporting themselves into a 2010 studio" TEXTURA

“beautiful, haunting, and remarkably original” Agit Reader



The Internal Tulips is a project from Los Angeles native Brad Laner who has performed in groups like Savage Republic, Medicine, Steaming Coils, Lusk, Electric Company and North Valley Subconscious Orchestra, as well as on records by Brian Eno, Caribou, Kid606 and many others. He’s joined by Alex Graham aka Lexaunculpt. Both have also separately released electronic music on Planet Mu in the past but this new project sees them moving away from pure instrumental music and into a full blown incorporation of classic vocal pop song values into their sound experimentation. 

Alex and Brad met in 1998. Brad was in retreat from a life playing guitar in noisy rock bands, publicly learning how to make electronic music. Alex was a rising star in the international electronic music scene, secretly harbouring an epic fascination with The Beatles. 

The two, realizing they had much to learn from one another, were determined to find a way to make music together. This took more than a few years to figure out, and it wasn't until the two conjured up the song "Arlie" in 2004 that the Internal Tulip's sound world began to congeal. A mutual fascination with melody and harmony as well as a serious disregard for the conventions of recording and composition marked the direction of the remaining work. Alex and Brad pieced this record together at a glacial pace, one micron at a time. The devil is in the details.

The music has a Beach Boys/Brian Wilson/Beatles influenced sound, but it manages to avoid being another exercise in retro comfort music, with the whole project having a very modern, psychedelic production, treating their slow burning but gently arranged Americana to unusual treatments that blur the layers between acoustic and electronic sounds, cutting and editing vocals and instruments and adding depth and clarity to the arrangements, giving them an extra sense of the dreamlike. 

It’s an album that feels immediately familiar; we’re used to Grizzly Bear and the Fleet Foxes, bands you could superficially compare to Internal Tulips, but after a few listens the modern abstraction and production at the heart of the album will pull you in and take you somewhere else.

Track Listing
01. 1/2 Retarded Tuner Of Hurricanes
02. Bee Calmed
03. 9 Tomorrows
04. Arlie
05. Dead Arm Blues #b510
06. Talking Hoshizaki Blues
07. Mr. Baby
08. Songbird
09. Parasol
10. Fixed Confidence
11. Long Thin Heart
12. Invalid Terrace
13. We Breathe

Listen to album here (important note release date there is not USA release date)
Brad Laner timeline

The Internal Tulips - Arlie - video by Josh Laner


The Internal Tulips - 9 Tomorrows - video by Josh Laner