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…
For those of you who haven’t checked out one of Japan’s most endearing songwriters (and why haven’t you??), now is certainly as good a time as any to seek out Shugo Tokumaru who, for this lowly critic’s money, released one of last decade’s strongest pop collections. Shugo is gearing up to release his fourth album, Port Entropy, in Japan on April 21, three years after Exit‘s sugar rush. Based on the new video below, we are in for some more indelible, colorful, very foreign folk music. No news yet on release dates around the world, but that shouldn’t stop you from eating up the rest of this man’s discography. It is weird and humble in a very, very good way.
Sputnik Music would like all of you to join us in congratulating Kiran Soderqvist (Kirgasm), Adam Thomas (Redskyformiles), and Rudy Klapper (Klap4music) on their promotions to staff.
Note: Contributor promotions are still scheduled to take place later in the Spring.
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.
Thera is a 5-piece band out of Alaska. Their core sound could most generically be described as alternative or emo, but there’s more to it than that. Thanks in large part to the vocals of Stephanie Plate, the band’s music takes on an epic feel despite the short duration of the songs. Her voice is very unique and capably conveys the raw emotion of her lyrics. Musically the band creates pieces that can move from uplifting highs to crushing lows within the span of a single song. I know it’s still early, but this may very well be one of my top 3 albums of 2010.
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— The Aftermath
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— The Downpour
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— Don’t Hesitate
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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
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Eyes Set to Kill have always occupied a weird niche that left people a lot of room to dislike (or dismiss) their style of music. It was always too poppy for the metal crowd (and having a female vocalist never helped), but it was always too heavy for the mainstream rock fans (mainly due to the screams). With the release of the band’s first single “All You Ever Knew” from their upcoming album Broken Frames it’s not certain whether or not they’ll be able to break from that niche, but they’re definitely trying. This track is more powerful than anything the band has ever done before. The screams are finally not a hinderance (as they’ve been pretty poor on every other album), and even Alexia Rodriguez has stepped up her vocal performance. Behind them is music that finally has more in common with metal than the pop of the past. Listen and judge for yourself. The album comes out on June 8th through BreakSilence Records.
Read an interview with Alexia Rodriquez about the new single at RevolverMag.com.
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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A music video that makes you enjoy a song you’d otherwise hate is a rarity. It only occurs once in a great, great while (usually, once a month, but hey sometimes it can even be two months!), and it’s usually accompanied by either a pop-culture reference typhoon, or Lady Gaga. The new video for Hot Chip’s “I Feel Better” off of their newest One Life Stand breaks this convention by being an entirely serious, stylish affair replete with incredible production values and hypnotizing camera work and dance moves. Before you blow this off as hipster garbage, I implore you to take a look at the world Hot Chip create in “I Feel Better”.
By the time Angel Dust came out in 1992, Faith No More were already an established band. Their previous album, The Real Thing, had gone platinum but it wasn’t enough to make the band rehash the same sound again. Angel Dust almost seemed to be a reaction against the fame that the band were receiving. They took the metal and funk of the previous albums and combined them with some of the most off-the-wall elements — and it worked. Faith No More, and Angel Dust in particular, went on to influence a whole generation (or two) of new musicians and when you listen to this album you’ll understand why.
The last time we checked in with German-born, English-based Irish songwriter (get yer head around that one) Yngve Wieland, he was a solo artist, having just released his debut album on his own Posttone Records in late 2008. Tell Men This was good enough to earn a glowing review and the #6 spot on my best of 2008 list, but that was small change compared to the groundwork Wieland was doing on the live circuit in the UK and Ireland.
There has been much change since the album’s release. Yngve made the transition from solo project to full-time band, taking up the moniker Yngve & the Innocent, in 2009, and Nothing Was Delivered is the first formal product of this union (although that year’s Have You No Love was recorded by the band, it was released under Yngve’s name).
‘You’ve Been Released’ continues in much the same vein as his previous recordings, making liberal use of modern Americana and classic influences, from Bright Eyes to Neil Young, with a hefty dose of blues guitar and barrel-house piano adding weight to the already up-tempo arrangement. Check the single out below, and stayed tuned to Yngve’s MySpace for new songs over the coming weeks.
Nothing Was Delivered is scheduled for release on April 23.
Yngve & the Innocent – ‘You’ve Been Released’
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This smiling gentleman from the American Apparel catalog is Mark Ronson. Since Ronson happens to be a mild-mannered DJ, it would be safe to assume that any of his songs featuring Ghostface Killah & Nate Dogg would consist of a remix compiled from the safety of his living room. Alas, you would be wrong. Mark Ronson is clearly a BAMF, and he uses an assortment of hats, headphones, and shaved head art to prove that he belongs on the same set with the Killah.
Upon an initial listen, it would be hard to distinguish this track from anything that the Hood Internet is churning out on a daily basis. Interestingly, however, this song is not a recent product of the booming alternative hip-hop scene. Rather, it was released to limited acclaim (and quickly forgotten) in 2003. Goes to show that some genres can arrive well before their time.
Sick of it All is a hardcore band out of New York. These guys are about to come up on their 25th anniversary and are planning to release their ninth album, Based on a True Story, on April 20th.
The two tracks that have been released from this album are already proving that the band haven’t lost a step during those 25 years. They still play no-frills hardcore that can kick your ass, and although they’ll probably never surpass their 1992 album, Just Look Around, this one looks to come very close. That’s all the review these songs need – check them out.
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.
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.
