Blog: Playground

Domino Records kicks off the new year with a new signing. On 21st February, "Beat and the Pulse", the three-track single –halfway between black electro and leftfield pop– announces the debut of Austra, a Canadian project by Katie Stelmanis (voice and composer of the trio), Dorian Wolf (bass)...

Here's the second preview of "We're New Here", the album by young Jamie Smith, dedicated to the reinterpretation of the songs of "I'm New Here" (XL, 2010), the comeback album of legendary black poet Gil Scott-Heron. While on his revision of "NY Is Killing Me" Jamie paired footwork with...

It faithfully documented the start of house in Detroit. Not only musically, but also with regards to the aesthetic and dance. "The New Dance Show" is the inspiration for the tsunami of eighties house revival, and "My House" –the first single off Hercules And Love Affair's second album–...

Now that we know the ending, the title of the song seems prophetic. Losing colour... The magnetic Rebekah Raa and her bandmates in Stricken City must have felt something like that, because the band, on the eve of releasing their second album, have split up. The record will be called "Losing...

The G.O.O.D. Fridays are over (and how does that make you feel, happy or sad?), but who needs them when you still get presents on Fridays? For example, you can now download for free, via Bandcamp, the "Skin Fox EP", a collection of remixes by Patten, Twin, yuk. and Dem Hunger of "Skin Fox",...

From inside to outside, from micro to macro. After fixing his gaze on the intimate games and the world of a young pair of Angelinos falling apart for the clip of "Would Know", photographer and filmmaker Tyrone Lebon, (the man who made the photo on the sleeve of "Crooks & Lovers" ...

Dirty laundry is best done at home. Maybe that's why, when it came to extending the lifespan of their affair with La Roux, P-Thugg and Dave 1 chose Duck Sauce, the revivalist project shared by Armand Van Helden and A-Trak (Dave 1's little brother). In their hands, Chromeo's electro-funk is...

To put Discodeine (Pilooski and Pendile) and Jarvis Cocker together on a single is a guarantee for success. And if they both come up with a piece of poison disco-pop candy like "Synchronize", smiles on the dancefloor are guaranteed as well. On DFA they know their stuff and that's why they have...

In the face of the domination of modern transgenic pop, ever more dependent on digital threads, Inc. present themselves old school style, without tricks. Their first official video is no more, no less than the recording, with two cameras in one take and without overdubs, of one of their rehearsals, ...

The German word "Kaputt" is used to specify anything that is broken, fallen to bits, not working the way it should. And the video of "Kaputt", seen until the end, seems to be just about that. Don't be fooled by those first shots that make you think of "Revenge of the Nerds" (with their...

What does one feel when one's visual work is said to be "the best" by one of the most personal and revered filmmakers of recent history? Ask Arnold de Parscau (and his collaborators Jonathan Bertin and Antoine Bon) and Tamar Drachli (and her team Tom Goldwasser & Nadav Gordon), because...

Yes, we know James Blake's debut album was leaked a couple of weeks ago; even before its tracklist (the one displayed below) was officially confirmed. We would rather not play that game but better avoid hastiness and keep enjoying, for a few weeks more, the expectation Blake has generated with a...

If you know Alec Feld's previous work as Expensive Looks (between psychedelic noise, shoegaze rock and Kraut-influenced bedroom electronica), you're going to get a surprise when you click play below. Feld seems to have discovered the healing powers of light reflected in a mirror ball, and he now...

Friedrich Nietzsche was ace at motivating the people. He said: "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." The story could continue as follows: water will turn into a dark liquid, you will rot inside, little by little and...

We've been waiting for this for months. Last Autumn, constant searches on the web led to the discovery of an intriguing video –now deleted by its creator– that announced the arrival of "Saskatchewan Suite", a new EP by Carlos R. Pinto from Seville, under his moniker Lost Twin. "Lost Twin...

Take a look at your archive of last year's "most unjustly underrated records" lists, focus on EPs and look for the name Walsh. You will probably find "Smoke Weed About It", a collection of six tracks –you can hear them here– that could be a perfect cross between Games, Com Truise, Hype...

Their preference for American rap hasn't yet born fruits via the double j's productions. The Swedes might be fans of T.I., Dre and Yeezy, but unlike them, when they give us a date, they deliver, for arriving late is only fashionable in rap and in the South. In case you've been too busy...

After bulking up –his productions may sound dynamic, light and fibrous, but you know that muscle weighs more than fat – the catalogues of Rush Hour, Fifty Weapons and Planet Mu in 2010, FaltyDL is back on Ramp Recordings. While we're waiting for his second album, the New Yorker offers us two...

Right now in Australia, it's sunny; and if it isn't, at least the temperatures is guaranteed to be nicer than in the frosty Northern Hemisphere. This minor detail contextualises the latest single by electro-pop duo Bag Raiders. The infectious good vibes of "Sunlight" –the second single off...

Catwalk is the personal project of Californian Nick Hessler. This boy of 19 years has been making songs for five years already, maturing in his garage an unpolished talent for pop that is much indebted to Phil Spector, Alex Chilton and the early Creation Records catalogue, from the days when Primal ...