Tagged: latest

Another new track from Phedre's incrementally released album Eterna . It's short and reminiscent of Portishead variety trip hop - so in other words it owns. Definitely rocking a cool new cinema (e.g. Godard) vibe.

Smith Westerns have always been able to craft the most catchy and seemingly effortless melodies.  The band started as a couple of kids in high school singing in unabashed earnestness about what they knew—parties and girls and having fun.  That was one of the things so intriguing and engaging about them.  Now as they're growing older they're beginning to drop these associations.  "3am Spiritual", the opening track of their upcoming album  Soft Will out June 25th, shows this slight shift.  The melodies are as good as they always were while the production is even more cleaned up than their [...]

Of all Daft Punk’s new material from Random Access Memories , their collaboration with Panda Bear, “Doin’ It Right,” had to be one of the most highly-anticipated. The slow-burning track is peppered with alternating vocals- both robot and human- that somehow feels like the perfect halfway point between the two artists’ distinctive sounds. "If you lose your way tonight/ That's how you know the magic's right," Panda Bear says, a bold, anthemic statement sung over a chilled-out, perfectly breezy groove.

  This would be single #2 from the latest album by producer Zo!, ManMade.  The track is called "Count to Five" and it features vocals from FE+ label mate Phone as well as Gwen Bunn (whose voice sounds heavenly on this track). This single could not have dropped at a better time - with its summertime, feel-good vibe we'd like to hear on a sunny day. The time signature of this song is what I find most interesting, as it deviates from most R&B/soul tracks and is played [...]

Here's a highlight from a recent covers compilation of early Lilys stuff curated by Clicky Clicky Music blog.  Boston based noise rockers, Soccer Mom chose "Ginger", the opening track of Lilys' 1994 EP,  A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns.  They offer a faithful rendition, bringing out the more shoegaze side of Lilys while suppressing slightly the dreaminess of Kurt Heasly's original vocals in favor of a low baritone doubled with octave female vocals which gives a slightly different ring to "she comes and she goes but she mostly goes".  The rest of the compilation is available here .

Compton's Problem dropped the throwback West Coast jam "Like Whaat" back in March; minimal but laced with one-liners and ultra-compressed claps 'n kicks, the original is perfect music to bump while cruising around in the 'Lac. But now international badman and selector Salva - the trap lord of Friends of Friends fame - has taken the original and tweaked it into a club-friendly jam, complete with shifty, staccato drums, cleverly chopped vocals, and a bevy of reverb-laden synths. Salva keeps the minimal spirit of the original alive, but isn't afraid to pair it with saccharine party-vibe maximalism.

Aspiring pop star Sean Holloran recently dropped his first big attempt at a summertime bubblegum track on SoundCloud. It's a bit too cheery for my darkwave tastes, but I bet it'll get some of you humming along the chorus and the updated rockabilly guitar work. Actually, kinda reminds me of that Andy Grammer song with some rifts... Check out the music video too along with his Twitter :

Ultra-new indie act Bel Air recently hit the scene with no doubt one of the better songs this month, "Song A." It's raw, sad, acoustic, melodic and the perfect cure for a brutally sunny day.

Disco made for a shimmering underwater cave in Super Mario 64 ; something you can swim through and dance against but also something that presents a sinister violence as disarming beauty. Stay Positive makes the kind of dance music that is as structurally deep as it is entertaining, and "Leipzig" is no exception.

Two excellent new electronic acts- New York duo MS MR and Scottish trio CHVRCHES- unite for the first time on "Hurricane." On the light, breezy remix, CHVRCHES whip MS MR's debut single into a delightful, danceable frenzy.  Courtesy of an infectious, synth-inflected chorus, this is one you won't be getting out of your head anytime soon.

"Once" is one fifth of the title track from Laura Marling's upcoming album,  Once I Was an Eagle (which seems like it could be a weird Bill Callahan reference ), and the song is the very slight and very singular acoustic meditation that its name implies. Marling's voice buzzes with an adulthood that she is physically incapable of having experienced and grown tired of (the singer is only 23). The profundity of the line "I was a child once" - sung in a reflective whisper - seems like it should be lost on someone like Marling, but the [...]

Ciara's killer fucktune "Body Party" made big waves when it dropped a couple weeks ago - the steamy video featured a big-haired and big-panted C putting the moves on the always-eloquent Future. Now the reigning king of autotune and Atlanta knight B.o.B. help the r'n'b princess out with an Atlanta-bass inspired rework. F. Hendrix, Esq., worms his way through a silky-smooth intro and Bobby Ray shows up at the end of the evening to lay in an (only so-so) guest verse. Check it out below (and do yourself a favor and skip the other official remixes ).

From the opening of this track, you think you've got Cheatahs pegged, they're another fuzzy shoegaze revival band, then the rest of the group comes in, you immediately peg them as smooth and expansive dream poppers, and then the vocals come in and throw you off again.  The beautiful harmonies float through strange chord changes, sounding a bit like prog-rockers, King's X.  And before you have a chance to really take in what you've heard, the song is over.  Give it a couple listens...  Apparently this is not even the final version of the song, their soundcloud says it is [...]

Retro-soul man Mayer Hawthorne is set to release a LP coming this July titled Where Does This Door Go?  Here's the first single from that album, "Her Favorite Song" featuring none other than Jessie Ware , who is one of my favorites from the UK right now. This soul/funk/bossa nova influenced track is quite smooth, as Hawthorne croons about a lonely lady making her escape with her 'favorite song'. That lonely girl would be played by Ms. Ware, who says very little words on this track - but in this case, less is more! Have a [...]

Phew, looks like Fol Chen didn't forget how to put on a horror show after all. The band thankfully released a remix of their uptempo (but still amazing) "Boys in the Woods" that is completely devoid of the original's chippiness and instead channels some downright eerie vibes. The stretched track is a testament how sparseness paired with frightening noises can make for a good extended scare. They still got it!

Obvious Nirvana references aside - and believe me, there have been many - Baltimore's Roomrunner make music that's pretty original; nobody's really doing the aggressive, fuzz-laden garage-grunge thing at the moment- at least, not in quite the same way. "Bait Car" is the opening track of the band's forthcoming debut, Ideal Cities, out May 25. Nostalgic for the 90s? Even if you're not, "Bait Car" sounds pretty promising either way.

"Swoon" starts with a maelstrom of digital dissonance.  What at first sounds like a careless upload of a terrible quality mp3 you realize is made up of finely crafted overdrive, chorus and tons of reverb.  It takes awhile for the vocals to come in but that makes their entrance all the more pleasing.  Whirr, formerly known as Whirl, have been touring extensively since last year's full length,  Pipe Dreams.   This cut, considerably darker than anything they've previously done, is from their upcoming EP, Around , out on Graveface July 9th.

Fresh off of releasing their 7-inch a few weeks ago, Northhampton MA snack-rockers Speedy Ortiz share this track from their upcoming full length, Major Arcana, out July 9th on Carpark.  Sadie Dupuis' vocal melody writhes around the peculiar chord changes in a way that they sound self-conscious, trying to escape their own skin while she "laugh[s] out of habit" and sings "my face is unable to convey how very awfully i'm doin'".  The guitars produce a fair amount of sludge that mixes with the thick lyrical malaise from sadie's vocals while the drums get the crap beat out of them.  The [...]

Los Angeles slow-burner Azizi Gibson just dropped a new track fresh from the Brainfeed labs. "SSB (100MPH)" has all the percussive energy of ATL trap with Gibson's OFWGKTA-meets-Eddie-Murphy delivery and the retrofuturist sampladelia characteristic of Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder crew. A few hiccups in what is not an entirely natural combination, but Gibson knits it together: he's a charismatic rhymer with a confident cadence. Look forward to his new tape .

• Azizi Gibson - Ghost in the Shell- Azizi Gibson

Feature Cuts has done it again: Produced a remix tastefully arranged with tamed dubstep elements and time-honored house beats. This time Empire of the Sun's recent "Alive" got the uptempo treatment without having the catchy-as-hell vocals intact. I really hope I hear this or some other Feature Cuts EDM while clubbing this summer.