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You+I/Cool for Chaos
Artist/Band: Nostalghia
Label: 110 Records/INgrooves
Review Date: January 19, 2014

With early fans that run the gamut from Skrillex to Marilyn Manson, The Orb to Gogol Bordello, Amy Lee and Terry Balsamo of Evanescence, producer/film composer Tyler Bates, System of a Down's Serj Tankian and Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Los Angeles-based Nostalghia will release its first album, Chrysalis, on April 1, 2014 (110 Records/INgrooves).  The release is preceded by the premiere single "You + I," which is already getting airplay on specialty programs at Alternative radio, including L.A. powerhouses Indie 103.1 and KCRW.  With a brand new music video for "You + I" imminent, the video for the track "Cool for Chaos" is a perfect introduction to the music and artistry of Nostalghia.  You can check that out here.

For the uninitiated, Nostalghia's music is compelling, provocative and cinematic, and its vocalist and heart-and-soul, Ciscandra Nostalghia, is an art-pop adventurist with a flair for the dark and dramatic.  Vancouver's Georgia Straight put it this way: "[Nostalghia's music is] loaded with fried-circuit synths, metal-clatter percussion, and funereal cellos...new tracks such as "Homeostasis" and "Stockholm Syndrome" draw heavily from nightmarish-side-of-the-'80s new wave and '90s-issue industrial, with Nostalghia's theatrical vocals never less than captivating."

The band is comprised of co-founder and keyboardist/drummer Roy Gnan, touring cellist Adele Stein, and Ciscandra who is one of those rare complete artists, adept as a musician, lyricist, painter and illustrator, photographer, fashion designer and poet.  She was raised in an ultra-conservative setting in Los Angeles by her Persian mother, Jamaican stepfather, Irish-Russian father and Persian-German grandmother, and spent summers with her relatives in Tehran, Iran.  Ciscandra rebelled against her conservative upbringing when she decided she wanted to focus on music, art and dance.  "It scared and frightened my family," she admits, "but it was something that I had to do, so there was no leverage for them to say otherwise."

In addition to her work with Nostalghia, Ciscandra's vocals have been featured in the most recent God of War video game, on the Seven Lions' track, "Serpent of Old," released this past November on Skrillex's OWSLA label, and, along with her multiple fashion show appearances, she was featured in Los Angeles Magazine as well as a Los Angeles Magazine video fashion feature, "Made in L.A."  In 2013, Nostalghia played several shows as direct support for Gogol Bordello, performed at Rifflandia Music Festival in Victoria, British Columbia, toured with The Orb in California, and wrapped up the year with a Main Stage performance at Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City.  Nostalghia will inaugurate 2014 with a handful of dates in Mexico opening for 30 Seconds to Mars, will then perform at all five of the Soundwave Festivals across Australia, and will be announcing more touring plans shortly.