Taken from their latest two-track EP, Tastes Like Magic, Three Red Birds showcases mr. Gnome’s most appealing characteritsic; their gorgeous handling of the masculine vs the feminine. While this would make sense, seeing as this is a male/female duo, the actual execution of the theme is impressive. Sludgy, aggressive guitars sparring with the haunting, delicate vocals of Nicole Barille make for an immediately engaging listen that should have you rifling through the rest of their discography. Kinda like a heavy Land of Talk, sans the boring.
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Starkey is a Philadelphia producer who is releasing his second full-length LP, Ear Drums and Black Holes, on April 19 with Planet Mu Records. Starkey’s bouncy, major-key sound is a bit out of place on the usually abstract Planet Mu, but the convoluted details in his production and the active, heavy beats fit in nicely. The two tracks below represent the two distant poles of Starkey’s sound. “OK Luv” is ever-changing and throbbing like any good club banger, whereas “Stars” is introspective and sidereal, which works well with Anneka’s guest vocals. Make sure you also check out the Lala sidebar because I’ve uploaded an alternate version of “OK Luv.”
Starkey – “OK Luv”
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I’ll be honest: I wasn’t attracted in the least bit to Best Coast because of their music. This isn’t because their music is bad, of course (well, it mostly isn’t) – “The Road”, found on the band’s Something in the Way EP, is one of the best songs of this young year. But what intrigued me was that Bethany Cosentino, the muscle behind the project, was also affiliated with a Cali band called Pocahaunted, which is a totally psychotic psych-folk band that doesn’t sound like it should have any associations with something as phosphorescent as a band like Best Coast. Questions brewed in my mind: why would someone like Cosentino want to take part in a lo-fi, unapologetically trendy project like this? For fleeting recognition from bloggers? (She succeeded in that regard.) Or, perhaps, and this is what I believe to be the case, Cosentino got hung-up in the confines of Pocahaunted, a band so experimental that doing something more traditional would seem like a cop-out. Thus, a new moniker, and a new beginning from those who don’t discover your music through means that involve your former band, was born.
It won’t surprise me, however, if Cosentino totally defies her past allegiances; “The Road” is a step towards doing so. While “Something in the Way” and “Wish He Was You” were sunshiney to the point of being vexatious, “The Road” is immediately a different beast: its opening riff is hard and instant, and propels the rest of the song…
Last month, Pantha Du Prince released “Stick to My Side”, a collaboration with Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) of Animal Collective, as a single. The song comes from his superb February release Black Noise. With the single came five remixes, two of which are posted here. The former is a Four Tet remix, which brings the song closer to a dancefloor jam a la “Love Cry” with enhanced bass and synths. The second takes a completely different spin on the song and makes it more of an Explosions in the Sky cum Toro y Moi affair, emphasizing the hidden guitar riff in the song and altering Panda Bear’s vocals with heavy delay and modulation. Both are excellent interpretations of an already great song.
Blame it on my peers (who have been a bit slow to this new genre reveal), but dubstep has been infecting the air lately. Spreading to this disease is former Seattle-based producer Deceptikon (Zack Wright), whose latest release Mythology of the Metropolis has dropped the womp-womp kick right into his chill electronic work. The result is nod-worthy tracks like Mythology’s propulsive opener, “Tokyo Burning,” which shows just how far dubstep has come at creating a legitimate and uniform sound, and how artists like Deceptikon are splaying it across their own influences. “Tokyo Burning” even bangs a bit like old school hip-hop, flopping seamlessly between a woodpecker beat and a two-step jig worthy of the illest Biggie verse never recorded. Makes one wonder what might happen if Flying Lotus decided dubstep was his thing.
Mythology of the Metropolis was released March 16 on Daly City Records
As if a song from a guy named Gonjasufi could sound like anything else. Today’s song of the day is a hazy, stoner friendly trip hop track off Gonjasufi’s latest release, “A Sufi and a Killer.” The track, “Ancestors,” is one of the tops off the album, a hypnotic, mysteriously ominous prayer catering to Gonjasufi’s weirdly desperate voice. Produced by Flying Lotus, this shit’s pretty fuckin good. Toke UP.
Gonjasufi- “Ancestors”
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In a world where nothing is taken seriously, everything is fair game, multi-media marketing is of paramount importance, and postmodernism runs rife enough to allow us to see intelligence and subtlety in just about anything, the man who samples Lil’ Wayne and slaps it over a Disney sample, forcing ‘Stuntin’ Like My Daddy’ to be a part of one of the most famous father/son stories of all time, making macho thuggery child-friendly, and making nostalgia current, is King.
Face it; DJ Doyou is what 2010 really sounds like.
Broken Social Scene may own the world’s biggest welcome mat (along with revolving door) for their band members, but Broken Social Scene are consistently one of the class acts within the indie rock landscape. Their way of toying around with ideas as they move through an album, or even a set list, are one of the main attractions to Broken Social Scene’s art-rock style, as they make it work so effortlessly and elegantly. On May 4th, Broken Social Scene will release their newest album Forgiveness Rock Record, one that surely rival the band’s impressive discography, judging from their single, “World Sick,” provided below.
All in the Golden Afternoon is the brainchild of husband and wife duo Carlos Jackson and Rachel Staggs. Their first release, 2008’s self-titled EP, is an intimate collection of six songs; characterized by dreamy, psychedelic tendencies and vibrant instrumentation, it has since become one of my favourite EPs.
“In the Box” isn’t quite as upbeat as the material from All in the Golden Afternoon, but the reverb soaked piece maintains the breezy atmosphere that the duo does so well. And you gotta love the vocal interplay between Rachel and Carlos. “In the Box” will be featured on All in the Golden Afternoon’s full length album, Magic Lighthouse on the Infinite Sea, due for release some time in 2010. You can hear more at their Myspace page.
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Alright guys, I really have no idea about this one. Is it good? Is it bad? There are times when I think both. Gaggle is a British “choir” of women (trust me, it’s not what you’re thinking), “I Hear Flies” a catchy single that is either perfect for pregaming or an earworm hook comparable to the spice girls if they were angry drunk bitches (hence the title). Listen to those cockney accents hypnotically shouting over dubstep beats… mmmmmmmm………
Daníel Bjaranson is the Icelandic artist behind Icelandic music. The guy who conducted the choir in Sigur Ros’ “Ara Batur”? Bjarnason. The guy who conducts the Iceland Symphony Orchestra? Bjarnason. Although overshadowed by Nico Muhly on the Bedroom Community record label, Bjarnason is a leading musical figure in the circles that know him. In February of 2010, Bjarnason released a record entitled Processions, featuring three of his compositions. The first composition, Bow to String, is a three movement suite for multi-tracked cello, and its opening movement is a fiery rage of uneven time signatures, rapid melodies, and driving percussion from the bow of the cello. Check out Processions immediately.
To let everybody know, I was originally going to post something a bit more relevant for my first ‘track of the day’ feature, being a new Flying Lotus song from Cosmogramma (which is great, btw, even if its leak is in pretty shitty transcode; am definitely buying for the occasion when it’s released on April 20th). But I’m ultimately ruled by Lala, which is some fucking music service kind of thing that I have to add our Track of the Day to for I don’t know what reason, and Lala definitely ain’t reppin Flylo. Lala was also hard as hell to figure out, and that’s for damn sure.
But, alas, I’m forced to find some other song to quickly write about, and I ultimately landed on a Neil Young song, who I’ve been incessantly listening to and basically rediscovering recently, to great rewards. And in this process of rediscovery, I’ve decided that “Cowgirl in the Sand” is easily Young’s definitive and best song, a ten-minute bruiser that highlights why Young’s music is so great. His vocals, equally rough and effeminate, twist around lyrics that concern a lost love: the effect is something like listening to a drunkard bitch about his ex for ten minutes straight, but not annoying. The tale Young spins is interrupted with sonic booms of guitar feedback and hair-raising solos: a Young specialty, first perfected on this song after he stumbled through Buffalo Springsteen and a bland, unremarkable debut. You could say he peaked early, but…
Active Child is a songwriter from Los Angeles who creates haunting contrasts on his recent cassette release Sunrooms. Like many of his songs, “Wilderness” and “She Was a Vision” are sparse and moody, populated by brittle echoing drums patterns, lonely synth swells, and a kind of hipster castrati vocals popularized by Bon Iver. However, underneath these overly melancholic concepts are humming bass tones and shimmering echo pedals that undo Active Child’s calculated frigidity. These songs are seemingly about loneliness and isolation but are built from a tender warmth captured beautifully by the chorus of “Wilderness”…
It’s so cold but you know we belong here
to the sky and fire to keep us warm here
“Wilderness”
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“She Was a Vision”
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Anacrusis were a technical thrash band that started in the late eighties, but they only made it to the mid-ninties before breaking up. There are many reasons for their eventual demise – fans would say that they were too ahead of their time, but the band would tell you that there was much more to it than that (read their bio). Anyway, it seems to be the trend for old bands to get back together and Anacrusis have gone that route. In late 2009 they announced that their original line-up at reformed and that they were re-recording their first two albums. Listed below are four tracks – the first is the original and the second is the re-recording. The album is set to be released some time in April… until then, enjoy.
Stop Me (1990)
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Stop Me (2010)
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Present Tense (1988)
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Taken from their latest two-track EP, Tastes Like Magic, Three Red Birds showcases mr. Gnome’s most appealing characteritsic; their gorgeous handling of the masculine vs the feminine. While this would make sense, seeing as this is a male/female duo, the actual execution of the theme is impressive. Sludgy, aggressive guitars sparring with the haunting, delicate vocals of Nicole Barille make for an immediately engaging listen that should have you rifling through the rest of their discography. Kinda like a heavy Land of Talk, sans the boring.
Last month, Pantha Du Prince released “Stick to My Side”, a collaboration with Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) of Animal Collective, as a single. The song comes from his superb February release Black Noise. With the single came five remixes, two of which are posted here. The former is a Four Tet remix, which brings the song closer to a dancefloor jam a la “Love Cry” with enhanced bass and synths. The second takes a completely different spin on the song and makes it more of an Explosions in the Sky cum Toro y Moi affair, emphasizing the hidden guitar riff in the song and altering Panda Bear’s vocals with heavy delay and modulation. Both are excellent interpretations of an already great song.
