Blog: Bowlegs Music Review

Montreal duo Valleys are set to drop their new record, Are You Going To Stand There And Talk Weird All Night? , at the end of the month (via Kanine). Here's the second single to be released - and it's gonna give Chromatics a run for their money - pop perfection.

• kaninerecords - 02 Hounds

Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer of Generationals have a knack for the highly addictive, overtly catchy pop hook. Back with third album Heza and the duo are bringing summer through your speakers. Heza opens with the jangly pop stylings of Spinoza , full of Surfer Blood-esque beachy undertones and shimmery guitars. Followed by the care-free electro synths of Extra Free Year and the infectious laid back grooves of You Got Me complete with a simple vocal refrain that's sure to echo through the sound systems of coffee shops [...]

Excavation , the sophomore from UK producer The Haxan Cloak (aka Bobby Krlic), drops next week via Tri Angle Records. It sees the artist continue his journey into derelict backdrops and darkly atmospheric electronics. You can listen to the record now over at Pitchfork Advance - just come back to us afterwards.

OK so this video is a few months old - we hear you - but Solar Year's debut, Waverly , is getting a re-release via Splendour Records this June. And not only that - but it's been entirely re-mastered, newly mixed, and re-sequenced - so yeah we feel this is a good time to get the Emily Kai Bock directed video film back on the screen.

Yeah yeah...we know....you've probably listened to it a hundred times already..but come on...it's The National... we gotta post it. Sounds exactly like you think it's going to sound - which in their case is a good thing. The album, Trouble Will Find Me , drops next month via 4AD.

We've tried but failed to pigeonhole Helsinki Blonde - their skewed songs of pop just refuse to fit. The duo have been quietly dropping tracks via Soundcloud but we wanted more - so we sent a personal invite across for them to join us at the studio. The band played their latest gem - Cod Liver Lover - which for the title alone deserves extra points.

It's been a few years since Anika's coincidental meeting with Geoff Barrow - a meeting that saw the Portishead man and his Beak> cohorts help create the wonderfully dark and uncompromising debut from the artist. Thankfully Anika returns next week with a new EP - once more working alongside Beak> - to create a series cover songs - from Chromatics to The Kinks - that lurk in the shadows and remain uncompromisingly raw. Bowlegs: What’s the thinking behind releasing an EP of covers? Are you saving your own material for the next album? Did Geoff [...]

• Anika - In the City
• Anika - Love Buzz

With the recent surge in popularity of Brooklyn label Captured Tracks – purveyors of blissful and enjoyable yet, unfortunately for me, often forgettable nostalgia-filled guitar pop – it was with great apprehension that I received the debut album from one-man guitar project Bored Nothing. Not only is the album described in the press release as having the charm of Captured Tracks artist DIIV, but hell, even Wild Nothing’s name makes half an appearance. But Bored Nothing’s Fergus Miller proves that first impressions can be misleading. While the reverb-laden guitar and simple, prominent basslines come as no surprise, [...]

A Hawk and a Hacksaw continue to explore the sounds of Eastern Europe - this time in the shape of a double record entitled You Have Already Gone To The Other World - which was produced by Deerhoof's John Dieterich). The duo, Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost, had previously scored a live soundtrack to the 1964 film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Ukranian director Sergey Paradjanov - and during the tour for those songs the new record was born. As for the video - it's a tale of lost love and finding solace in [...]

We've fallen into the slipstream - this new swirling electronic cut from Jesse Ruins has been looping for the last hour and now we can't find our way home. It's lifted from the band's forthcoming album, A Film , which drops on Lefse Records next month. We'll keep you posted

• Jesse Ruins - Laura Is Fading

Just a few lines in on the opening track and you’re gracefully reminded on why James Blake is perhaps the finest of all the modern R&B artists currently reducing the music blogs to salivating fan-boy wrecks. It’s his natural and effortless flow, his subtle and refined intonation - and of course those intuitive and downright beautiful songs. Lifted from the singer’s deepest secrets and put out in the cold to fend for themselves – James Blake’s sensitive soul is the centrepiece to what is a stunning sophomore. Retrograde stands as the centrepiece [...]

Takako Minekawa & Dustin Wong have teamed up to make a new record - it's called Toropical Circle and is out May 15 via PLANCHA. Takako is a Japanese artist who has been around for a while - she made some electronic records back in the 90s. But with Ex-Ponytail man Wong they create a series of songs that build with guitar loops, effects and Takako's pretty vocal - and it's all sounding pretty damn good to us.

Seatraffic's latest track rolls onwards with a stirring rhythm and wavering backdrop of synths - the band have said it "explores the balance between life and art while finding contentment with what you've created". The best part is you can get it for free right now over at their website . Nice.

• Seatraffic - Tempo of Regret

Four drumkits, more energy than you can throw a drumstick at and a taste for the experimental - yep Foot Village are back with a new record - and it's their best yet. Make Memories sees the band progressing their sound yet retaining their ability for immediate impact. We caught up with Grace and Brian to talk about the music, the journey and the end of the world. Bowlegs: So your first three records were about post-apocalyptic communities – and now on Make Memories you write a song called End of [...]

Producer Miles Whittaker’s debut album under this shortened name is a set of stark, glowering techno, an extension of his 2011 Facets EP. If that release passed you by, he’s more widely known via his many other Modern Love outlets, as half of the witchcraft inspired duos Pendle Coven and Demdike Stare and under aliases including MLZ and Suum Cuique. In common with much of Whittaker’s solo work, Faint Hearted posits a form of austere, windswept electronic listening music. These are compositions removed from the roots of club or home listening. Lebensform [...]

We've been kinda transfixed on this new video from Legs - once you catch the eye of guest singer Amelia Adams you'll find it hard to escape her gaze. Of course it helps that we're loving the song from the Oakland band. Their debut album, Pass the Ringo , is out later this month on Loglady Records.

Prepare for some all out dance-ready pop courtesy of Pick A Piper. Within the ranks is Brad Weber, a touring member of Caribou - so if you needed any encouragement there you go. The three-piece have made their self-titled debut and released it this week (you can get it over at Mint Records ) - so in celebration here's the lead track.

• Pick a Piper - All Her Colours (feat John Schmersal)

With their new record, Alone Aboard the Ark , The Leisure Society continue their engaging foray into the realms of Folk and Pop. It was clearly time to get the 6-piece into the basement and down on film - first up is the excellent The Sober Scent of Paper .

After successfully reinventing themselves and establishing a new and unified sound, Vondelpark (Lewis Rainsbury, Alex Bailey, and Matt Law) release their debut LP Seabed. That being considered, It’s not surprising that Rainsbury would call this record a coming of age album, and post-pubescence has never sounded so tactfully (and maturely) sensual. The ever-relevant Sade once again permeates a new release, with other stylistic choices resembling James Blake and The xx, done so in a detailed and personalized manner. Heavily influenced by trending Quiet Storm Soul and Smooth Jazz, and married to lyrics surrounding “closure, being young and [...]

Time for some irresistible and slightly skewed baroque pop from Rollin Hunt. This cut is lifted from the artist's forthcoming, and first proper full length album The Phoney which drops at the end of the month via Moniker Records.

• Rollin Hunt - In The Window