The most confusingly still-only-middle-sized band to have ever released a string of genre-tugging yet completely accessible singles and had both critical and radio-based praise thrown at them, without properly crossing over into what is condescendingly titled "the mainstream", will be releasing new single "The Rabbit" on July 12th to accompany a deluxe version of their debut album. The video, as we've come to expect, is mildly disturbing, exuding an eccentricity that is, apparently, in vogue with those middle aged blokes who make videos. "The Rabbit", on the other hand, without taking a great leap forward (pun intended), [...]
So, it's pretty much settled then. With highly anticipated releases from Beach Fossils and The Drums now out there, and some pretty fantastic stuff on the way from artists like Cloud Nothing and His Clancyness the soundtrack to the Summer of 2010 looks to be almost certainly dominated by the resuscitated Lo-Fi movement. I for one am not complaining. There's something romantic in the construction of the music, the rejection of today's crisp-cut clean production techniques, the fuzzy warmth of the riffs, that I can't help having fallen back in love with. It would [...]
From what passed by my ears on an exceptionally surreal ferry trip across the Mersey last week (will mention this when time allows), surreal due to the fact that the Mystery Jets were playing a gig onboard this ferry, or perhaps more down to the free bar, Mystery Jets' upcoming debut Rough Trade album "Serotonin" seems like it could well be their finest. You will, naturally, have noticed that this is their debut Rough Trade album, implying that they must have parted ways with major label subsidiary 679 in the lay-off between the sublime "Twenty-One", which I had observed received [...]
April seems a long time ago. And it probably is. So if you haven't yet listened to the Small Black EP released on Jagjaguwar (think Bon Iver; it's completely not) all those years ago in April, then now would be as good a time as any to introduce yourself to it. Suggested position for listening: lying down in a sunny patch between two large bushes (this is not a euphemism). And if you are lazy enough not to have got involved yet, then you will probably need more persuasion than summer based-fantasising, so observe the new video to standout track [...]
Ignoring the useless fact that both groups are male-female duos, Sleigh Bell's' debut album has proved that they do for sweetly menacing industrial rock what Crystal Castles do for seriously head-shredding and twisted electronica. And for the most part, "Treats" does this exceptionally well, juxtaposing shamelessly pop melodies with instrumentation more seedy than a Bradfordian brothel, and proving that Sleigh Bells are far more than the cool name in every Brooklyn hipster's back pocket. Sleigh Bells – Run The Heart Sleigh Bells – Rill Rill [...]
They might be opening for two of the leaders of the new Mancunian wave, but in many ways Egyptian Hip Hop have a completely unenviable position tonight. Not only are they unfathomably late, but they are late to a crowd half made up of middle-aged, jumper-round-the-waist sorts who have heard headliners Delphic being pummelled to death on the radio, and half made up of fidgety kids far too excited about being served the ends of an out of date barrel of Carling to do anything else than jabber at their friends. (This is a rough and unfair estimation. Oh well.) [...]
It's so tempting to say "we were wrong." The video to The Drums' debut single on their new label. Jonathan Pierce jerking around like the last person on Earth you would want to sit down and buy a pint with. Or even just sit down with. Sure, the music isn't seminal, but it's not bad either, it's just that if you're a band who goes around saying that image is as important as music, then you can't go around looking like complete twats, really. Bloody hypocriticisers. But then, we shouldn't [...]
The Delta Mirror are currently staking out a future as one of the year's most important bands, with their music being described by the hugely influential Pitchfork & Stereogum as somewhere between The Antlers and The Big Pink. As if that isn't enough description to warrant interest, an emotionally unstable George Mills stuck his ears in: Words: George Mills. Maybe I wouldn't have been listening as much to The Delta Mirror's "A Song About The End" had events in the last couple of weeks played out differently, but alas, David Cameron is now Prime Minister of [...]
Words: Peter Sinclair Oh! The perturbed electro-punk gods smile their crooked smiles down on us once more. The latest blood offering from the champions of said musical genre (Crystal Castles) is revealed. Extending the metaphor – "Lo and behold, a child unto us is given this day." To join Health's recent release of "USA Boys", and a particularly grisly video of "We Are Water" (male generative area dismemberment included), Crystal Castles entered the bloody fray last week with a remix of Health's "Eat Flesh" from the "Get Colour" album. Sounding characteristically sinister, the remix brings an [...]
I'm right on the critical knife edge with this one – possibly the next next-big-thing Lana Del Rey's "Diet Mtn Dew" is just so twee-quirk-pop with just slightly , possibly too much emphasis on the "pop" that I'm almost determined not to allow myself to like it, or at least admit that I do. But I just want to listen to it. Again. And again. And wonder just how long it's going to take this time before she's telling everyone what she had for breakfast on MTV and I'm telling everybody that I hate the woman. Guess [...]
"The Night Before The Funeral" took a few listens to sink in, but after it relaxed into casual familiarity it was an obvious choice for Song Of The Day over at The Line Of Best Fit. You can read the original article here , but here's the few things that I had to say just to make that scroll down to the mp3 a little more time consuming: "Almost never, at least very rarely, does introverted nostalgia sounded as good as it does on The Mary Onettes ' new single, 'The Night Before The [...]
![[New] Kele – Rise & Walk Tall](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/2546819_lg.jpg)
Bloc Party's "Silent Alarm" was such a seminal turning point in the British wave of post-Strokes guitar noise that you can expect to have your online eyes overpowered by information about Kele's forthcoming album "The Boxer", regardless of whether your information sources think the material is actually worth listening to. This is yet another of those posts. Struggling (but not necessarily failing) to establish himself as a separate entity beyond Bloc Party, Kele tonight released two more tracks from the debut album. Upon first listen, "Rise" definitely appears to be the stronger of the two, initially resembling "Intimacy" [...]
Though our naive formative days saw us carting out the fake dance music that littered hypem.com with a regularity that would convince you that our musical environs didn't travel beyond those "Popular" pages, within the past year music tastes have definitely matured, though this definitely wasn't a conscious decision. That said, whilst we'd all like to pretend like we're now "intellectually above" dance music , when its as perfectly put-together as Hervé's newest mix CD "Ghetto Bass 2", all is quickly forgotten in a flurry of infectious house more pelvis-spasm-inducing than myocardial infarction. You'll have to forget [...]
Bang. "Chinatown" is the most jaw-droppingly sublime track that we've heard in a week full of them. Absolutely not to be missed if you even remotely have a slightly flirtatious relationship with liking music. The album "Gemini" is equally brilliant and still being digested fully by us over here, and is out next week on Captured Tracks so keep an eye out. Wild Nothing – Chinatown Wild Nothing - Chinatown from Jack Tatum on Vimeo .
Words: George Mills There's two reasons why I think you should check Darwin Deez's eponymous debut album out. Admittedly one of them has nothing to do with music: his hair is just well worth googling for the sake of it, somewhere between a youthful John McEnroe and Mika ... The other is for the kind of insanely catchy indie-pop songs that haven't been heard since The Strokes were at the heights of their powers in the mid-2000's. Yeah, maybe Deez and the band [...]
We really need to stop posting remixes of "I Am Not A Robot". Or, at least, people need to stop making remixes of "I Am Not A Robot". Especially remixes that surpass all the other, now embarrassed looking, mixes crafted by lesser humans. Unfortunately, though we had decided that the Fool's Gold remix was the pinnacle of remixery success, and were quite happy to move on from a topic that has been floating around now for over a year, Clock Opera decided to throw out his own effort which has been not-so-subtly whispered about for a good few months of [...]
![[New] Tokyo Police Club – Wait Up (Boots Of Danger)](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/2519755_lg.jpg)
New tracks from the well established names who are still pounding the alternative music treadmill have been falling out onto the internet at an almost cruel pace recently, but none are more exciting than Tokyo Police Club's airing of "Wait Up (Boots Of Danger)". I'm not going to lie; this sounds almost exactly like what we've come to expect from Tokyo Police Club; a band that was always obviously insanely talented, but perhaps struggled to express that talent throughout debut "Elephant Shell". However, the visceral bite of "Wait Up", is seriously suggesting that the band, without the crushing expectation of [...]
Having seen the incredible reception that Twin Sister are receiving from seemingly anyone who hears their music, it's likely that they're not going to stay an undiscovered talent for long. Hardly surprising when their free EP "Colour Your Life" is so, so good. Here's what I wrote about it for The Line Of Best Fit, originally here : "The whole eye-gougingly cringy "MAN, what are they putting in the water in Brooklyn, RIGHT?!?!?!" exclamation has become an enormous journalistic cliché, although I gather that it is an attempt at humour. Right… Anyway, to explain a [...]
Words: George Mills. A few days back, I came across the video to Treasure's latest single 'Canada' on The Music Ninja. Since then I've watched the video again, maybe 10 or 11 times, trying to decide whether I liked it or not. It's not that the song is particularly difficult to listen to or challenging in an auditory way at all; in fact, quite the opposite. There is something hypnotic about 'Canada', which makes you feel like you never want it to end. At first I thought it was just because of the video, [...]
![[Stream] Kele // Tenderoni](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/2510747_lg.jpg)
Kele's new single "Tenderoni" was debuted, as ever, by Zane Lowe this evening. Many listens later, I've been through many stages of initial optimisim, disgust with try-hard dance music, apathy and confusion. At the moment, I'm stuck at the "love-it-but-know-it's-awf ul" stage, and am quite happy to remain there. Tapping into the hard wash of synths that acts like MSTRKRFT perfected "back in the day", there's no questioning that Kele knows what he's doing, but is he just four years too late? Either way, to quote Kele himself, "Well, I certainly like it". Kele – Tenderoni (Radio [...]
Not Many Experts
No Church In The Wild
Nas - Daughters
The Rains of Castamere by The National
CHROMATICS "THESE STREETS WILL NEVER LOOK THE SAME"
DIIV "How Long Have You Known?" (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
Princesse - Tell Me | MP3
Prince – Controversy (Mighty Mouse Re-Edit)
Beck - 'I Just Started Hating Some People Today' [Listen]
[LISTEN] Gotye (Passion Pit Remix)
Azealia Banks – ’1991′ & ‘Van Vouge’
