Fragile Animals - Tullycraft - Pure Bathing Culture

We have featured Fragile Animals just once before back in 2017 and the new song 'Come Down' makes for a pleasing return, as the trio mix indie pop and rock styles together in a dreamy manner. In December we shared the video for 'Passing Observations' from Tullycraft. We now have a couple more music videos from the new album (The Railway Prince Hotel) of which we previously commented - "the band seemingly tear their way through the album with some highly original indie pop songs, that consistently have the bands unique and adorable sound". Another band making their second appearance on Beehive Candy is Pure Bathing Culture. Their honed and polished indie based music has feeling, originality and plenty of variety.  

Fragile Animals - Come Down.

Following the warm reception late last year of single 'Landing', Sunshine Coast-based dreamy rockers Fragile Animals reveal stunning new single 'Comedown', stepping closer to the release of their forthcoming EP - but more on that soon.

For the particularly observant followers of Australian indie music, Fragile Animals have proven to be a rare treat coming out of the Sunshine Coast and seemingly ready for the big stage. Since 2017 when they released their first single 'Signals' and subsequent EP Light That Fades, their star has steadily grown and led to this point. 'Comedown' precedes a full EP release and is a subtly hooky highlight of the piece with an uncanny familiarity that ropes you in immediately.

Frontwoman Victoria Jenkins says of the song: "It was a song I’d sing in my head while I was gritting my teeth or dead-eye staring my way through my day job. It was written about how it feels coming down after something good happened with the band and having to fall back into ‘reality’. I seriously hate that feeling."

'Comedown' is the second track lifted from their forthcoming second EP (due for announce in the next couple of weeks) and is yet another meticulously executed affair  produced by local Sunshine Coast producer Elliot Heinrich (Ayla, High Tropics) at Heliport Studios in Buderim. It's simply the perfect follow-up to their previous efforts and subsequent achievements. It's anything but a retread of paths once followed. Instead, it's the graduation with flying colours every band looks to strike upon. It's a luscious layering of shimmering guitars with Jenkins' subtle yet hooky melodies at the forefront - part indie pop, part shoegaze paragon.

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Tullycraft - It's Not Explained, It's Delaware / Has Your Boyfriend Lost His Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?

Tullycraft is known for writing indie pop anthems. Over the years they've penned a handful of songs that practically define the twee movement in America. The chorus "Fuck me, I'm Twee!" was the refrain that launched a thousand t-shirts, “The Punks Are Writing Love Songs” introduced bratty punk to hummingbird twee, and "Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend’s Too Stupid to Know About" encapsulated an entire music scene in a single song. And yet despite this, for most, the band exists somewhere near the edges of obscurity.

Occasionally they receive a nod, like when their song “Superboy & Supergirl” was featured in the critically acclaimed Netflix series The End of the F***ing World, but these spotlights don’t tend to happen as frequently as one might think.

While the mainstream has largely ignored Tullycraft, their status in the indie pop underground is undeniable. Formed in 1995, they are considered to be one of the genuine pioneers of the American twee pop movement. Touring relentlessly during the last gasp of the truly independent indie-underground, they influenced countless young bands. They were once called “the Johnny Appleseed of Indie Pop - making their way across the country, leaving new bands, promoters, zines and record labels to sprout up in their wake." In recent years the band has stopped performing live, instead shifting their focus to their personal lives, while still writing and recording music together.

The Railway Prince Hotel is Tullycraft’s seventh album, their first since 2013’s Lost in Light Rotation. This new batch of songs sees Sean Tollefson and Jenny Mears continue to share most of the vocal duties, while long time musical stalwarts Chris Munford and Corianton Hale create most of the music. It would be selling Tullycraft short to say that The Railway Prince Hotel picks up where their last album left off. These new songs have a modestly different sound, somewhat due to the fact that long-time drummer (and original Tullycraft member) Jeff Fell, doesn’t make an appearance, but also because of the fresh approach the band took to recording this record. Equipped with lyrics, vocal melodies and rough bass lines (provided by Tollefson) the band composed many of the new songs from the ground up in the studio. This was an untried approach for Tullycraft. The result is an extraordinary album of 12 ultra-catchy, whip-smart gems that take aim at everything from failed relationships to the danceability of Billy Joel songs.

Throughout the album the music has an exciting urgency which is likely attributed to both the band’s spontaneous recording process and the enthusiasm each member brought to the new material. Are the wonderfully snarky, self-referential indie pop lyrics still here? Of course they are, this is Tullycraft after all. A deep dive into the lyrics uncovers an embarrassment of obscure indie references to be discovered. It’s hard to imagine a band or artist genuinely hitting their stride on their seventh outing, but much like Achtung Baby (U2’s 7th album) or Blonde on Blonde (Bob Dylan’s 7th album) somehow Tullycraft has hit the sweet spot between deliberate and daring. The result is a truly great batch of songs. With standout tracks like “Passing Observations,” “Has Your Boyfriend Lost His Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?” and the much too short “Lost Our Friends to Heavy Metal” – the question needs to be asked: Could The Railway Prince Hotel be Tullycraft’s true masterpiece? Honestly, it very well could be.



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Pure Bathing Culture - Devotion.

Pure Bathing Culture have announced their first original release since 2015. New album Night Pass will be released April 26 on Infinite Companion. The highly anticipated, third studio album is the most distinguished demonstration of this Portland duo's intensely unique musical identity to date. Over the course of their young but eventful career, vocalist Sarah Versprille and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Hindman have done more than establish a sound; they've honed a sonic virtue.

Night Pass emerged from emotional tumult as the band parted ways from their label and team in quick succession. In a perplexing professional moment, the duo discovered a safe haven in the studio of friend and producer Tucker Martine (REM, My Morning Jacket, Neko Case, Spoon). With Tucker, Sarah and Daniel transformed dramatic change into creative power. The indie pop pioneers' spirit of resilience beats through ten impassioned tracks, exploding into songs like “Devotion,” a danceable canticle in praise of partnership.

Beginning in May, Pure Bathing Culture will embark upon support tours for Lucius and American Football before headlining a run down the West Coast.

Night Pass is preceded by hard-earned reputation. Pure Bathing Culture have worked with legendary producers Richard Swift and John Congleton, toured extensively with Death Cab for Cutie, The Shins and Lucius by headliners' personal request, and contributed to studio albums for Damien Jurado, Foxygen and Jessie Baylin among others. Tennis' Alaina Moore perfectly articulates the band's level of indie world renown: "As a fan, I can’t even feign objectivity … they have made a cult following out of the biggest names in indie."


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The Curls - Wovoka Gentle - The Underground Youth - Malihini - Post Louis

With a steady rhythmic vibe The Curls interact beautifully in terms of musicianship, add in the melodic dual vocals and this psych pop song is extremely catchy. We featured Wovoka Gentle a couple of times last year and their return with 'Sin Is Crouching At Your Door' where psychedelic vibes are everywhere on this charmer. The Underground Youth deliver some solid rock and roll where the distinct vocals swirl above the momentum adding some angst and emotion. Malihini offer us some refreshingly creative lo-fi pop, where the hooks gradually work their way in deep. It's getting on for a year ago when Post Louis were featured here twice, and the new song is another good one, where the musical textures are fabulous as are the vocals and harmonies.  

The Curls - Isn't It Funny (ft. Sophagus).

Chicago, Psych-Pop band The Curls have shared their new single "Isn't It Funny". The track features experimental artist Sophagus on lead vox and is one of the band's first songs solely written by their multi-instrumentalist Jen Marhsall. It was produced by long time collaborator Michael Mac.

The sextet group, led by vocalist and guitarist Mick Fansler, is comprised of Jenny Marshall on keys/trumpet/saxophone, Rami Atassi on guitar, Anna Holmquist on vocals, Matt Puhr on bass, and Carl Swoveland on drums. As they continuously experiment with blending genres, their music has been labeled Psych Pop, Art Rock, Nu-Angular Guitar and even Hardcore Experimental Power Adult Contemporary.

Following their 2017 debut full-length album Super Unit, The Curls will be releasing their sophomore album Bounce House out April 2019 on Diversion Records. The Curls are slated to play their first SXSW shows in March.

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Wovoka Gentle - Sin Is Crouching At Your Door (Radio Edit).

London trio Wovoka Gentle have announced the release of their debut album 'Start Clanging Cymbals' on 7th June through Nude Records.

After releasing singles '1,000 Opera Singers Working in Starbucks', which was included in the official soundtrack of FIFA 19, and 'Peculiar Form of Sleep' at the end of last year, they share a new track from their upcoming debut. Of 'Sin is Crouching At Your Door', a psychedelic piece of cinematic experimental pop, the band say : "It could maybe be seen as the soundtrack to a sense of dread, a sense of being out of control. Tuning all the strings of your guitar to D and thrashing as hard as you can to try and regain the feeling that things can make sense. You then look within yourself, though, only to find desolation and destruction disguised as creativity; the metropolis has been bombed by individuals, and the only escape hatch down below leads to the middle of the waste land. Hopefully you don’t end up where you began."

The track comes accompanied by a video directed by Lies Scheps. The director said: "Working on this video with Wovoka Gentle, it was the song's build up of energy that immediately drew me towards it. As we all loved the idea of working with a dancer to emphasise this energy, we brought in choreographer Franka Marlene Foth to work with us. The band and I share a love for colour, so we turned the video into a playful outburst of colour and movement".


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The Underground Youth - Last Exit To Nowhere

On March 29th, Berlin via Manchester outfit The Underground Youth  will be releasing their ninth album, Montage Images of Lust & Fear, on Fuzz Club Records and it’s undoubtedly their most sincere work in an extensive, decade-long discography with which they’ve picked up a cult following across the globe – made evident in their millions of YouTube streams and relentless international touring. Following the album announcement just over a month ago, The Underground Youth are now sharing the second single from the album 'Last Exit To Nowhere'. Talking about the track, vocalist/guitarist Craig Dyer explains: "In an album divided between images of lust and fear, 'Last Exit To Nowhere' deals with the latter. Like the civil unrest and violence on the streets, as reported by the news, it's raw, fast and aggressive."

‘Montage Images of Lust & Fear’ is The Underground Youth’s most intense and honest record yet - in the ambitious songwriting and live recording (a first for the band), as well as the lyrical subject matter. Talking about the album, Craig explains “Montage Images of Lust & Fear is inspired by the succession of experiences we are increasingly dealt by the  media. Sex, violence, love, suspicion, desire, distress, etc. The album acts as a montage itself, the subject of each song dealing with an aspect of either lust or fear. Like flicking through the channels on a television. Until in the end you are overcome by white noise. Static.”

In its rawest moments (‘The Death of the Author’, ‘Blind II’), The Underground Youth’s haunting post-punk melancholia recalls the abrasive banshee-like noise of The Birthday Party and Suicide; jagged, shrieking guitars twist and turn as Craig Dyer’s dour vocals jerk from morose and impassioned to macabre screams. Though this is an album of two sides; the more intense and challenging songs punctuated by heartfelt and solemn ballads (‘Too Innocent To Be True’, ‘This Anaesthetised World’) that are aided by the additional lap steel guitar of Kristof Hahn (Swans) who plays on six of the album’s nine songs.

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Malihini - If U Call.

Lo-fi pop duo Malihini, a.k.a. Rome-based Giampaolo Speziale and Federica Caiozzo, have unveiled their new track 'If U Call', taken from their forthcoming debut album 'Hopefully, Again' (out through Memphis Industries on 8th March). ‘If U Call’, produced by Richard Formby (Ghost Poet, Wild Beasts) sees a lover’s plea get a stark domestic reality check (“If you call, my heart will go on dreaming / But my mum is betting that you won’t come”), as Federica explains:

“The song is about the beginning of a relationship, with grown-up behaviours hiding teenage feelings. She speaks to herself, asking him not to play games, and she doesn't want to be taken for granted. We wrote the synth refrain on the little toy Yamaha we used to write half of the songs on this album and recorded the vocals after a few drinks. It felt totally right and we tried to preserve that mood on the following recording sessions at Giant Wafer studios with Richard.  We played around on the modular synth with Richard to add some deep bass and replaced the original toy synth with our Korg faux horns”.

Malihini, which means ‘newcomers’ in Hawaiian, deal exclusively in the music of lived experience and time-honed emotional intelligence, their disarming musical universe never less than distinctive, yet resonating with a confessional, modern European pop sophistication of a kind elsewhere purveyed by the likes of Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jose Gonzalez and Our Broken Garden. Listening to the ten co-written songs that grace Malihini’s exquisite debut longplayer , 'Hopefully, Again', can sometimes feel like eavesdropping on a couple’s intimate emotional dialogues, such is the ingenuous honesty of the duo’s writing. Yet combined with their minimal, yet opulently textured arrangements crammed with subtle melodic hooks and an embarrassment of earworm choruses, they transform the personal into the universal with a delightfully unforced eloquence.


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Post Louis - Ghostwriter.

As spring starts to emerge, Post Louis have revealed a brand-new nostalgic pop gem, Ghostwriter. Originally a secretive late night phone recording by Robbie, this is the only Post Louis song for which he wrote most of the lyrics. The track then grew limbs when he shared it with the band. Robbie’s brother, guitarist Andy, sings lead vocals. His warm, sonorous, slightly ironic delivery embodies a pop sensibility and marks the track out as unique among Post Louis’s output. Bright 12-string guitars are layered with overdriven electrics while Mattis and Adam’s snapping rhythm parts underpin the track, crunching like gravel underfoot. On the recording Stephanie’s voice gently joins Andy’s as the band flirts with the form of classic male/female duets. As the song continues, her lines soar above his, exorcising the ghostwriter.

Discussing the song, Robbie said: “We sometimes think of Ghostwriter as the tracing or impression left behind by the rest of the tracks on the album we have been making. This ghostwriter is hiding in the shadows, shot through with hope and self-doubt, striving to tell someone else's story as a means of staving off his own collapse. It's a song about what it is to fabricate a life.” The lyrics reflect this, highlighting the interdependency between the writer and their subject: “ This past year I’ve been the ghostwriter who hides and slides and thinks he can cope I know my subject, my servant owes me everything but maybe that’s not enough”

Previously Post Louis released two EPs and a standalone single to immense critical acclaim. Following this and a European tour, they retreated to work on a long-player. This is a slow-burn, collective project built on intimacy, trust and patience. Robbie and Andy are brothers. Stephanie’s brother helps to produce their music. Mattis works at the beautiful, cavernous Norwegian church seen in Post Louis’ press shots. A base for many local musicians and a hive of performances and creativity, the church has been home for both Mattis and Adam and acts a second home and studio space for the whole band.

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Social Gravy - The Dream Syndicate - Historian

Social Gravy craft some excellent West Coast rock as is demonstrated by two fine songs that just get on with rocking in an unpretentious way. Spoken word, psychedelic vibes, and atmosphere are everywhere on The Dream Syndicate's 'Black Light' a gorgeous and hypnotic song. The new album from Historian is full of imaginative songs, where folk music of sorts is taken in all directions from psych to indie, and the quality throughout is notable.

Social Gravy - Let It Out / California.

This is the story of a Belarusian and a Britt who met in downtown Los Angeles. Two foreigners who live in the epicenter of contemporary pop culture, creating quintessential West Coast rock, spun from the same cloth as Hotel California.

Brad Kohn and Vee Bordukov’s collaboration started in 2014, with a couple of song ideas and jam sessions. When the duo realized that they shared a mutual love of melodic rock and luscious harmonies, they started work on their debut album—2017’s Behind Every Yes, an engaging and varied collection of songs that showcased their soulful sensibilities and smart, snappy hooks.

Brad Kohn is an award-winning producer, songwriter, artist and engineer has been playing music all his life, starting with the piano at six years old. Ten years later, he was fronting a band on the London circuit. The talented musician’s production skills have seen him work with some of the industry’s biggest names, including Foo Fighters and Neil Young (via Global Citizen) and The Prodigy along with drum and bass luminaries like Pendulum, Chase and Status and Liam Bailey.

With rock ‘n’ roll music being the dangerous thing in Belarus—then a part of the Soviet Union—it’s no surprise that the adventurous Vee Bordukov rebelled against the gray status quo and fell in love with the forbidden fruit. The guitarist’s influences are rooted in classic solos from Jimi Hendrix while mixing up the bluesy passion of artists like Eric Clapton and J.J. Cale, spiced up with a love of the social commentary of The Kinks, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan.

Their newest project, the digital 7” California / Let it Out, was recorded at the infamous EastWest Studios in Hollywood and pays tribute to their love of West Coast tunage, particularly the honeyed hooks of The Eagles and Tom Petty.


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The Dream Syndicate - Black Light.

Los Angeles’s The Dream Syndicate is thrilled to announce 'These Times', their second album of new music since their 2012 reunion nearly thirty years after they first influenced California’s Paisley Underground scene. Watch mysterious creatures move through the psychedelic “Black Light” in the album’s first new song and video.

“When I was writing the songs for the new album I was pretty obsessed with Donuts by J-Dilla,” lead singer and songwriter Steve Wynn explained. “I loved the way that he approached record making as a DJ, a crate-digger, a music fan wanting to lay out all of his favorite music, twist and turn the results until he made them into his own. I was messing around with step sequencers, drum machines, loops—anything to take me out of my usual way of writing and try to feel as though I was working on a compilation rather than ‘more of the same’. You might not automatically put The Dream Syndicate and J-Dilla in the same sentence, but I hear that album when I hear our new one.”

If 2017’s 'How Did I Find Myself Here' was a 10pm record, all swagger and cathartic explosion, then These Times is the 2am sibling, moodier and more mercurial with the band acting as DJs of their own overnight radio station as the listener drifts off into dreams and wonders the next morning if any of it was real.

The Dream Syndicate recorded 'These Times' once again at Montrose Studios in Richmond, Virginia. Co-produced by John Agnello (Phosphorescent, Waxahatchee, Hold Steady, Dinosaur Jr.), Wynn wrote all of the song’s lyrics in the studio after the band finished tracking, so that the words would be dictated by the sound rather than the other way around. This process contributed to the urgency of the album’s title.

“These Times. That’s it. It is all we’re talking about, all we’re thinking about. There is no avoiding the existential panic of a world that’s hurtling somewhere quickly, evolving, and shifting course by the hour.  It seems like a lie to not address or reflect the things that we can’t stop thinking about—the whole world’s watching indeed. The lyrics are just a mirror of the dread, panic, mania, speculation, melancholy and ultimately shrugging abandonment that just might follow. It’s just all about where we are.”


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Historian - Hour Hand (Album).

LA-based psych folk outfit Historian has always made music that is diametrically opposed ‘what’s happening’ in the local scene. “I’m obsessed with making albums in an era of streaming songs and playlists” says band spearhead Chris Karman. “I actually feel more comfortable when our music is a little out of step with the its surroundings.”

The name Historian was originally put forth as a moniker for Karman, whose encyclopedic knowledge of music became a party trick of sorts amongst the band. “It was so on the nose, it began feeling obtuse enough to encompass our sound” Karman reflects. After a defining moment lying on a beach during clear Maui night listening to OK Computer, Karman made a pledge to start recording, in hopes to capture something just as strange and mind altering.  The band began releasing material in 2013, dropping a series of striking albums, all tied together by Karman’s unfailing dystopian aesthetic.

Shelf Life, Current and Expanse drew positive nods from LA Buzzbands, Impose & Austin Town Hall along with opening slots for notable acts like Haunted Summer and Globelamp. 2018’s Distant Wells, found the band exploring even stranger waters with Bitches Brew-esque folk rock and melancholic mellotron-laiden ballads. Outlets like The Big Takeover, Culture Collide and God Is In The TV all praised it’s experimental nature, fanning the flames of Historian’s cult following.

Hour Hand is the sister release to Distant Wells, and while it was recorded during the same session, the new LP operates as a leaner, more insular companion piece. There is ethereal folk, and mind bending orchestration with the now signature implementation of Quartetto Fantastico (whose members have worked with everyone from Father John Misty to Flying Lotus.) Possibly the strangest thing about the release is that Karman’s vision seems to now fall in step with the current cultural and political atmosphere.  “The American empire is slowly crumbling in front of us” Chris asserts. “Is it an ending or are we entering a new cycle? I don’t pretend to know.”

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The Astronots - Skye Wallace - Boo Boo Davis

The Astronots share a feisty and powerful rocker softened only by the more melodic layered vocals. Skye Wallace keeps the momentum going with a tornado of pure rock and roll, with storming vocals to match. Boo Boo Davis has been featured on Beehive Candy accompanying The Electro Blues Society, now we have some fresh material from him, where his superb blues vocals and musicianship can be sampled with five songs from the forthcoming album.

The Astronots - Settle Down.

The new single from The Astronots. ‘Settle Down’ narrates the feeling of anxiety and being trapped inside yourself. Featuring resonating guitars, throbbing basslines and eerie layered vocals the track truly packs a punch.

The Astronots are an American rock’n’roll outfit, spearheaded by its founding members, Niko Giaimo (Vocals/Guitar) and Allee Futterer (Vocals/Bass). The two are established musicians in their own right. Futterer has had years of cutting her musical teeth, backing some of the biggest names in the Los Angeles music scene, while Giaimo was an integral member of the scoring team behind productions such as Dexter and Dishonored II. The two come together on The Astronots, combining elements of their quintessential Los Angeles upbringing, classic rock, and west-coast cool. Now completed by guitarist Eddie Campbell, the group continues to wow audiences across the nation.

Inspired by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Alabama Shakes and Kings of Leon, the trio have crafted an EP oozing with gritty guitars, explosive percussion and raw energy. The highly anticipated Cotati is brought to life through its organic instrumentation and authentic lyricism. “We really wanted to capture something honest. The songs cover a variety of issues.. school/public mass shootings, anxiety, drinking, love, pain, passion, cheating.. I think we managed to create individual genuine stories in each song. I think the theme would be honest perspective on many of life’s challenges”, they reveal.

Leading single ‘Settle Down’ narrates the feeling of anxiety and being trapped inside yourself. Featuring resonating guitars, throbbing basslines and eerie layered vocals the track truly packs a punch. ‘El Dorado’ further showcases the band’s signature sound of rawkus rock’n’roll with vibrating soundscapes and raspy vocals.

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Skye Wallace - Coal In Your Window.

I wrote this song in a building in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland that used to be an old cottage hospital (Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital / Julia Ann Walsh Heritage Center). It was inspired by a story I heard about one of the young folks that used to work in the hospital and the boy that would throw coal at her window at night to beckon her down to their meeting place in the boiler room.

“Coal In Your Window” may be about a specific story, but it’s a truly universal concept of jittery, passionate love and doing whatever it takes to access that fire that another person ignites in you. I wanted to evoke an excited, dangerous, lustful energy that gets the heart pumping.

I’m so excited to put my new record out. It’s been a long time in the making – between writing it during two residencies in Newfoundland and the Yukon, and recording it in Toronto and Montreal. I am fiercely proud of the result. We’re going to tour the heck out of it this year to make sure it reaches as many ears as possible!


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Boo Boo Davis - Tree Man.

After a string of single releases of famous blues covers on KuvVer Recors it’s now time again for Boo Boo to release a new and ‘all original’ album.

Like most of the previous recordings with Boo Boo we captured everything live in one room without any overdubs.

Ten brand new songs and one new version from a song that was released earlier in 2002.

The title of the new album is TREE MAN and it will be out on Black and Tan Records just before the upcoming European tour in March 2019.


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