Amid the tragedies of the week, we looked to the pop culture tabloids for some lighthearted escapism and hope in avoidance of the 24-hour fear factory scare machines from the news media feed cycles. We heard will.i.am knocked off Mat Zo & Arty’s Anjunabeats cut “Rebound” with “Let's Go“, which of course had to rope in conflict magnet Chris Brown. And while King Krule's Archie Marshall may have canceled all shows for this month of April, he took the time to drop his mental hip-hop project, Edgar the Beatmaker. Now even though Jay-Z's new role as talent scout for his Roc Nation Sports line may have forced him per NBA regulations to sell his share of the Brooklyn Nets, we were reminded via Life + Times in an un-“Open Letter” that; “…it’s not about ownership. Congratulations to The Nets on a great season and making the playoffs! I will always be a Brooklyn Net.” But now we draw your attention to what got us lifted this week, in no particular order.
D. Black, aka Damian Black is back to making music as Nissim, fresh from his conversion from Christianity to Orthodox Judaism and full of that PMA energy. Having brought us an invigorated dose of chutzpah with his single, “God Like” and the the album All 'Yah, Nissim presents the inspirational anthem for all beliefs with “Unbelievable” from his future mixtape Miracle Music, slated for release May 15 followed up by his self-titled full-length due July 16. A song that could have not been more timely, Nissim ignites sparks within the hearts with life affirmations like, “we be who we are and we ain't got to front, unbelievable us, and we only begun”. In the events of tragedies and unjust, encouragement like the following break down verse presents some of the most uplifting joy you have felt all week as we bring you the good Rabbi's words and new tractates with chalices raised and lots of l'chaim: “I just want to say just look inside yourself and see how beautiful you are, each one of us have something remarkable, something unbelievable, and just the mere fact that you are able to be right here right now is a complete miracle, so just breathe, and live!”
Pressed And just dropped their single, “Creed Unlove” with some crests of sliding piano synths that relay off the diving board and into a summer pool of love for the disbelievers. The synergy of Mat Jones and Andrew Hamlet brings the balance of North Carolina tranquility and vast pastures with vocal quips cut from the rhythm machines of Brooklyn that gives a nod to the cat culture sect with interjected meows. The electronic treatment trickery will also have your mind focusing on the piano elements that lead the understated electric guitar currents within the piece to morph into keyboard-like cadences if you are not paying attention. The much anticipated Pressed And LP, Stone Candles comes out June 4 from Mush Records.
Solar Year dropped the single “Global Girlfriend” from their forthcoming debut Waverly coming June 25 on Ceremony in the States and on Splendour in the EU. The drums shake like mechanical maracas played on beaches of the Balearic in a single that echoes like spirits on hallowed grounds, suitable for girlfriends the globe over. The 'psalmgazing' duo of Ben Borden and David Ertel echo voices like the specters of all who have inhabited the spaces between earth and the unknown metaphysical dimensions throughout the lost ages. The song works in ways like indigenous lives singing beyond the passage of times in ghostly ways, still roaming the old countries in manners in which time feels neither in the present nor in the past.
“['Global Girlfriend'] is not referring to a romantic girlfriend, it's more about platonic sisterhood.” Ben explained. “There is a dark to light redemptive progression in the track, it's about healing 'white lies sealed with love”. David further elaborates on this transcendance: “The trend towards transcendance culminates at the end of the track with: 'Soon this life will be lived again / Calling for love, to pull into him”. Balancing the elements of light and dark, the redemptive and transcending processes draws a sense of healing from global sound elements, all gathered together in their Canadian backyard as described by Ben. “[The album title]Waverly refers to the street where David and I lived in Montreal where we made most of the tracks on the album.”
Sea Cliff, NY based Turnip King releases the single “Rooms/Fleece” in celebration of their recent signing to Fire Talk. The band of Lucia, Cal, Nick and Christian stir a noise that through seven and a half minutes of expressions like a galactic bound starship blasted from a canon into the solar system in search of new lunerian frontiers. The guitars sound like clothing looms spinning forward various threads where the vocals exist in between the stitches as fabric noises of melodies that pour out with enough length to cover apartment rooms in fleece sourced materials. The Turnip's album, Moon Landing? will be available May 28 on both cassette and digital from Fire Talk.
Hype Williams, aka Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland turns PVT's “Vertigo” into an off-beat after school special with the “Slapback Remix”. Williams' treatment keeps those synths on the eternal rise with samples from John Hughes Sixteen Candles of candid cheerleader-chic conversation piece on black men, black Trans-Ams, with warped DAT tape effects. It's like smoke signal patterned soul that gets hi-jacked by your sister and her loud friends. PVT's album Homosapien is available now from Felte.
Yolke dropped the single “Tough Times” this week from their recently released EP Syrup, from the imprint Fallopian Tunes. Let Yolke give you an antidote for these trying times with songs as smooth as both the EP's title track and those viscous, warm jelly-like feelings that get stirred from within.
Dizzy Wright dropped the title track video for “First Agreement” Ft. Nikkiya & Manny Scott, directed by On Point Films. The Funk Volume crew's own Dizzy is out on the Fight To Unite Tour, spreading the word for his The First Agreement EP.
Also catch Dizzy Wright's a capella “Freshman Freestyle” with some sick, minimalistic chops, production free and courtesy of XXL.
Tempers dropped a listen to their single “Strange Harvest” ahead of the single's release April 24 from Pendu Sound. “Harvest” follows up their recent Eyes Wide Wider single, with a stranger programmed ballroom keyboard blitz that tunnels it's guitars and everything else into sounds from the deepest subterraneans of public pipeline utilities.
Catch the breeze and more of the Tempers' duo Jasmine Golestaneh and Eddie Cooper in the video for “Eyes Wide Wider”.
Follow Mykki Blanco down that rabbit hole in the back seat and in the front of the car headlights in the “Feeling Special” video directed by Danny Sangra for Academy Films and District MTV. Following up the Cosmic Angel: The Illuminati Prince/ss Mixtape mixtape, the EP debut, Betty Rubble: The Initiation drops May 21 while The Initiation Tour runs through August 10 at the Dockville Festival in Hamburg, Germany.
VIDEO | EXCLUSIVE Mykki Blanco ‘Feeling Special’
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Currently on tour with METZ, Toronto's Odonis Odonis bring us the video for their title track, “Better” from the same-named EP available as of this week from Buzz Records. The b/w video from Cameron Tomsett and singer/guitarist Dean Tzenos presents a gathering of creepy masked-monk oddities taking part in some strange initiation hazing per the songs instructions of, “hands in alignment” with “fingers pointed out like knives in the sunshine” performed in accusatory fashions before throwing about leaves with twisted glee accompanied by demonic-ish dagger threats.
Jesse Kivel and Zinzi Edmundson of Kisses present what is their own definition of what the youthful sound of Los Angeles indie should sound like. Their single “Air Conditioning” takes cues from international tastemakers like Sweden's The Embassy as evident in their recent remix of “Everything I Ever Wanted“. This application can be heard in their choice of drum machine arrangements and keyboard choices that bring Europe to the shores of Venice Beach or a long, solitary and lonesome walk down the Santa Monica pier. Kisses' new album Kids In LA comes out May 14 from Cascine.
With Illogic & Blockhead's Capture the Sun out now from Man Bites Dog, get “Behind the Album” and behind the duo's dichotomic synergy and process with Episode 3.
But the party don't stop here, as for a limited time you too can Captured the Sun with Illogic & Blockhead with the following album stream.
New Mexico invites you to take the trip to their southwest shores of San Diego (not New Mexico mind you, despite the State of cactus rock allusions of their moniker) on their debut LP Malpaís available next week, April 23. Drinking the sweet of the desert seeking sun between the salt of the So Cal beaches, the concrete spells dissolve the asphalt paved world for mind spaces beyond the state lines of the mind.
Ski Lodge delivered the Ian Perlman and Ted Greenberg directed video for their single “Just To Be Like You” which just dropped from Dovecote Records. The honest-to-goodness-indie-pop perfection project of Brooklyn based band leader Andrew Marr gets a surreal video about trying to join the cool clubs that involves a rural cult scene and their nefarious rituals. Listen and watch as Marr's words of caution that pain him to say our met with consequential yet endearing visuals. Catch the Ski Lodge crew on tour this month of April and May with Chad Valley.
Hayze lets you know why he wears his “Eyes Low” feat. Freck Billionaire from the The Smoker’s Section tape dropping tomorrow, April 20 from Man Bites Dog Records. Go on a stroll with this track jumping out of your jeep's woofers and when the man gives you static, politely remind him that “this is the only life for me”.
We also got your listen to Hayze's closer from the upcoming The Smoker's Section mixtape with the cut, “Cloud 9” featuring Alumni. With faded and smoked up rhymes from both H and A, they spill some words on emotions rolled up in a Swisher, with Hayze discussing the elevating effects of, “weed, sex, and liquor, whatever got me back to you quicker” with Sunday afternoon synthesizers and muted horns.
Watch and listen to Royal Canoe perform a number from the Beck Hansen Song Reader with “We All Wear Cloaks” full of enthusiastic common altruisms of presumed universally worn textiles to some sass and swank sax. The Canadian sextet will follow up their recent 2 EPs with the Royal Canoe debut full-length, Today We’re Believers, available June 25 from Roll Call Records.
Gobby's full-length album debut Fashion Lady's release has changed from April 16 to April 23 from UNO NYC, but you can get an advance listen of the latest electro fashions from the creative techno-ician here. This is not your mother's techno, nor your older brother. These will be the rhythm sequences of a future that has only begun to be written.
Psychic Twin drops the Jason Lester and Casey Stein video for “Dream State,” from their Strangers 7″ available from Polyvinyl. Watch as Erin Fein and Brett Sanderson transport a nightclub performance of a keyboard guided journey into the portals of the unconscious pop states of bliss and Eastern heralding chime tones.
Flume unveils the dark draped beats of “More Than You Thought” with hexagonal electro cloaked trance therapy visuals, directed by Toby & Pete. Flume's self-titled is available now from Mom+Pop and they can be found on the Infinity Prism Tour.
Team Ghost shares the Temazepam mix on the cloud as party of the ceremony for their album Rituals released this week on wSphere.
Youth Lagoon, Trevor Powers' project of journal drawn music released the video for “Mute”, directed by Tyler T. Williams. Youth Lagoon's Wondrous Bughouse is available now from Fat Possum Records.
Philly's Work Drugs teaches you how to do the “West Coast Slide”, reminding you that, “no one wants to live forever”, giving you some of those carpe diem vibes on their first single from their new album coming this Summer.
Veronica Falls gives you the Warholian Paul Kelly directed visuals for the title track, “Waiting For Something To Happen” from their second album from Slumberland / Bella Union. Kelly's black and white 16mm looking series of screen tests and over exposed films give the momentum of a carousel ride to match the anticipatory excitement of lyrics like, “everybody's crazy, what's your excuse baby? Standing in the middle for something to happen”. This is the o.g. indie sound that will never go away, as long as cassettes and sentimental sounds are revered within pop culture's canons.
Iamsu! 's co-headlining Million Dollar Afro tour With Problem is in effect and Su! delivers the video for “Losin” Ft. CJ from his $uzy 6 $peed tape. The HBKGADGET video presents the evening production from KLSH with lonely images of downtown San Francisco at night.
Touché, the duo of Alex Lilly and Bram Inscore tell the nightmares to be gone so their baby can get some peace and sleep tonight on the night terror chasing single, “Bad Dreams”. With their self-released It’s Fate debut LP dropping May 1, you can catch them on tour thorugh the end of June where they play 2 gigs with Twin Shadow June 28 in Pomona, CA at The Glass House as part of KCRW Presents and June 29, Los Angeles, CA at the Henry Fonda Theatre. Get some refreshing beautified-pop here and pencil in your beauty sleep later.
The-Drum drum up the percussion aligned single “Sirens” from their forthcoming disc Contact, available June 25 from Audraglint. With constant pulses of deep bass permeating the track's perimeter, the brilliance here is what the Chicago duo does in the blank spaces not presented with the sparse rhythms from ancient dub discs, electrified chants and noise samples.
Sweden's Andreas, aka AfterParty dropped the single “Lonely Reggae”, an electro turned restrained ragga number that he describes as, “a song about love, lost, hope and wishes”. Keep an ear out.
Catching TMBG at the Fillmore was one of the first concerts I ever went to when I was a kid, rocking the cool-geek-chic listened to devotedly along with the likes of my old scratched up Dimple Records bought CDs of The Bobs. Keeping the o.g. brainy pop going, we got the Liam Lynch video for They Might Be Giants' title track, “Nanobots” off their recent released Idlewild album, where lab manufactured nanorobotic-molecular machines go awry on unsuspecting scientists.
Exray's have been sending out map clues to select participants in an electronic experimental research study pertaining to the outer limits about the globe and this week sent everyone an “u l t r a v i o l e t” ray of synth shine. Jon Berson, Michael Falsetto-Mapp, Jason Kick, sending signals from the outer dimension as 'vessel XII'. With a scientifically trained forensics team pining over the details, analogue minutiae, video tape, the hottest bit of evidence exists within the latest single “u l t r a v i o l e t” is rumored to be a fragment from the forthcoming Exray's XII full-length. In this transmission, we learn that they intend to stay in their new found electronic amplified worlds and go very far. “We could live in a world of dreams, half divine, half obscene, half give up, half can win, have to part, have begin, not today, not tonight, out here another light covers everything in ultraviolet…”
With the “Rat” single getting us all riled up and excited, we wanted to drop you Wise Blood's video teaser for the full-length ID dropping June 25 from Dovecote Records. Watch as you get a dose of Dog the Bounty Hunter doing double duty as filmed in slow-mo in heated doppelgänger chase mode.
With Adventure's Friday Night Mix streaming live, Benny Boeldt drops an electrified, “Laser Blast” with the new single from the upcoming Weird Work LP out April 30 on Carpark Records. Let the synthesized bolts fill you with 8-bit MIDI feelings before the sentimental synth treatments come in and calm the nerves amid the beat onslaught. Adventure plays a homecoming gig in Baltimore on May 25 at Metro Gallery with oOoOO, Braider, and Sick Din.
Maps' album, Vicissitude comes out on July 8 from Mute but we have a listen to the new Boomkat released 12″ single, “I Heard Them Say” that is also remixed by Andy Stott. So get electric, get the highs and all the lows and all the hearsay rhythms you desire.
Neon Neon give you a “Mid Century Modern Nightmare” to hoist on top of your post-millennial anxieties, concerns and fears with electronic guided processing. Their album Praxis Makes Perfect comes out April 30 from Camden, London's Lex Records.
Italy's Vaghe Stelle gives us a preview of modern day disco elements set to the atmospheres of Italo suspense and horror flick soundtracks. Vaghe's Out Of Body EP comes out May 6 on Danse Noire that includes remixes from Peaking Lights and Nguzunguzu.
Man Or Astroman? are back, heralding their upcoming and first album release in 12 years time with Defcon 5…4…3…2…1 slated for release May 21 from Communicating Vessels. Back with longtime bro Steve Albini, Birdstuff, Coco and Star Crunch bring what sounds more like cool minor chord disaffection than the motions of reformation with “Diintegrate”. Catch them on a massive national tour that begins April 26 in Dallas, TX at Club Dada and ends June 23 in Washington, DC at the Black Cat.
Brooklyn spirit searchers NYMPH have signed to Northern Spy, with plans to release their album Millenium Prayer on June 25. As part of the signing ceremonies, catch Tyler Ludowitz and John Appleton's video filmed in India and Southeast Asia (as seen on their documentary, “A Quiet Place in the Universe”) on Super 8 for “U.F.O. Over Dome Rock”, to get you into those spiritual head spaces through Eastern mantras, the dancing plucks of guitar strums and far away horns.
So Drowners drowners have signed to Frenchkiss Records for a full-length this fall and are planning tour dates with The Vaccines along with an April 21 show at Brooklyn Bowl. Get excited and wear your hair down with the Alan Del Rio Ortiz video for “Long Hair” full of summertime in NYC vibes here.
The Young Adults duo of Lazy Brow and Deepbody dropped their own mixed up version of their brand new House Slippers compilation available now from their Young Adults Recordings imprint. Listen as the big beat gets handled with movements from The Socialites, Tesla Boy, Closed Paradise, Suzanne Kraft, NYCPARTYINFO, Grown Folk and more.
Rodion G.A., born Rodion Ladislau Roșca the Romanian 80s experimentalist is getting a proper release via The Lost Tapes, on May 28 from Strut Records in conjunction with Ambassador’s Reception and Future Nuggets. Dive into the lo-fi drum machine structured world of synths that fortell of futures to come from an era lost to the closed Communist iron curtain.
As Rodion G.A. gives you contemporary flashes of modern day prophecies sent from a past guarded in silence and steel obstructions of the Cold War quagmire; also check out this trailer for the release of The Lost Tapes from Strut here.
Buffalo, NY Lemuria brings “Brilliant Dancer” to the dance floor off their forthcoming full-length, The Distance is So Big available June 18 from Bridge Nine. The vocalist pairing of Sheena Ozzella and Alex Kerns stir infectious energy encouraging tiny and tall dancers, to dance, dance, dance with a production assist from J. Robbins of Against Me!, Jawbreaker, and The Promise Ring fame.
Check out Dandy Teru's studio session with Quiet Dawn and Supafuh, ahead of his album Adventures coming April 23 from Ubiquity Records.
French duo BeatauCue drops a listen to “Lyrel”, “Kicking Back” and “Red Blocka” in a mix to celebrate the release of their Lyrel EP on Kitsuné. This is a little something for all the clubsters around the globe that are sick of their pre-gig dance mixes that fail to bring all the overstimulation needed before getting all wild for the night and stuff.
Hear Natasha Kmeto's single “Take Out” from her Crisis LP dropping June 18 from Dropping Gems. It's like Natasha calls out for take out via a 14.4K dial-up modem that goes connects the order to the best synth dish deluxe to go delivered hot to you in 4 minutes.
John Grant's Pale Green Ghosts comes out from Partisan on May 14 and drops the Hercules & Love Affair remix of “Black Belt”. With epic synthesizers and swift dance moves, your shoulder will be shaking and swimming while dancing “the walking man”, swiftly in place.
Enjoy the Alice Moitié et Virgile Texier video for LOGO's “Cardiocleptomania” of the same titled EP from Kitsuné. Get down to the progressive dance hype and get your bod on the bike track with Niels Schneider and Joseph Schiano Di Lombo in some over-heated passions turned violent and rave-y-wave-y.
Gold Panda has declared the forthcoming arrival of the future album, Half of Where You Live, slated for release June 11 from Ghostly International and delivers the single, “Brazil”. Chanting the South American's country's name over and over, the track is a tribute to the Goldster's visit to Sao Paolo made in order to “soundtrack my ride from the airport to downtown”. The track balances the organic arrangements with the more urban club tricks that keep audiences and participants listening and moving.
Club 8 gives you the Andil Dahl video for “Stop Taking My Time”, from the forthcoming Above the City LP out on May 21 from Labrador Records. Like a silhuotted synth-pop show of shadow theatrics, the production team of Jari Haapalainen and Johan Angergård turn time forward to give a sample of what Swedish indie pop sounds like in the near future of Summer 2013.
UK's Paul White dropped the Plastic Horse animated video for the Dabrye remix of “Street Lights”, featuring Danny Brown. Watch as the disembodied cheshire mouths boast big talk from the air, amid three dimensional drawn sketches of shapes of all sorts descend.
Elestial Sound (not a typo, but an imprint) is dropping their label comp at the end of the month on April 30 and give you digital ambient vibes to enjoy in the meantime with Chromadadata's “In The Sky”. Get yourself caught up to what Gainesville, FL electronic-experimentalism sounds like with a collaborative that features the talents of MSRNA, Euglossine, Emily Reo, Floating, Ghost Fields, Jane Jane Pollack, Orchal and Vir, Pospulenn, and more.
The Mohawk Lodge's frontman Ryder Havdale has an epic shredder to wail out to with, “1,000 Violins”, bringing a confessional tale of a wild life on the go brought to the crossroads of possible new beginnings and new rebirths with a backing choral AA/NA vocal group to 12 step along with. Find this album closer on The Mohawk Lodge's Damaged Goods, available out May 7.
Vacation's new single “Pyro Hippies” gets things started and lit up in passionate-pop-distorto-punk from their forthcoming Candy Waves, available June 28 from garage dream believers, Don Giovanni Records.
Listen to the unreleased Speck Mountain B-side “Lies”, that brings the band's grit-gaze frontier toughness with the resilience of Marie-Claire Balabanian's torch like vocals bonded by the slow wave streamed guitars. Their album Badwater is available now from Carrot Top Records.
With Parquet Courts debut album, Light Up Gold lighting up the world via What's Your Rupture?/ Dull Tools, you are invited to join the “Borrowed Time” rockers with Andy Capper's documentary, “Light Up Gold Road Trip”. Get the intimate portrait of the band as you join them over breakfast discussing cereal marketing plots, the Home Alone 2 Talkboy recorder, and revisitations of their recent SxSW and Festival NRML appearances and performances.
