While some of our states threaten to secede from the Union, we continue to cleanup and rebuild post-Sandy and look to what distracted our nation's divided attentions this week. We continue to mourn the loss of Fax Records electronic pioneer Pete Namlook, watched as Rihanna brought the #seapunk steez to SNL with “Diamonds” with Azealia Banks in toe with her “Atlantis” video, while the Bieb and Selena G. are splitsville…we guess. But moving on, we pump up the volume and our kicks for this week's picks in no particular order.
Angel Haze dropped one of our week's highlights in production-conjunction with Lunice for “Gimme That”. Maybe we were first smitten from Angel's cover of Lauryn Hill “Doo Wop (That Thing)” or her reign at CMJ this year and now is taking what is hers, telling the expired hip-hop gentry to retire, “kickin' on some asses like a temper tantrum.” 2013 is looking more and more promising as word has it that Haze will release her full-length debut in May.
Fat Tony shines a light on Brooklyn, NY, with the Ryan Muir directed video for “BKNY”. Cruz keeps the production rolling like summer time boombox vibes. Follow Tony and Tom as they sling potent Nutcrackers at the Labor Day Parade and all over with Mr. MFN eXquire. While the lazy afternoon juice works its magic, keep your eyes peeled for camoes from Das Racist ace Kool AD, Dark Sister, Children of the Night's Nasty Nigel, Nick Catchdubs and more local personalities. Enjoy the first listen from the Fat Tony's forthcoming Smart Ass Black Boy LP due spring 2013 from the imprint on the rise, Young One.
Irvin Dally has subtracted the 'J' prefix from his name and gave an Ice Cream Session with Tune Parade where Dally covers Bob Dylan's “Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You” with soaring colors. What is even more compelling than channelling the mystique of Bobby D is that Dally performs with that road earned voice that might inspire some to throw around cavalier comparisons to a certain famous son of Tim Buckley. But in lieu of reductive language, the allure Irvin work has captured audiences from his recent cassette release of The Countryside of Southern Illinois and the Daydreams That Almost Got Me to 19 Years has us waiting with patient ears to hear more heart from Mr. Dally in 2013.
DC's Teen Mom dropped by their new single “Say My Name” that engages in waves of guitar crunch that assuage the lonely soul and never offend. The interludes between the gentle chorus crush give a playful exhange before the strummed eletrics kick into a gear that can only be related to those dreams where the ceiling caves, and you awaken to find yourself cocooned beneath the security comfort of sheets. Teen Mom's Mean Tom EP comes out November 27 from Analog Edition.
Treasure Hunt's “One Fungi” is the sound of growing porous fungal offerings from the earth, the sound of aquifers quenching the roots through the delta passage ways springing forth life birthed from the earth's soil. Treasure Hunt's album Toys Unatic is available now from Moon Glyph.
Just in time for the holidays, Volar Records presents the Strange Mutations 7″ series box set. As the label's first proper 7″ disc set, prepare yourself for new singles from Beaters, Eat Skull, Stalins of Sound, Far Corners, and the Audacity / Big Eyes split gathered together in this volume 1 set of five colored discs. Coming to you in time for Christmas, pre-order is available now from your indie-daydream-believers at Volar Records.
Shlohmo remixes Little Dragon's “Sunshine” that provides some trapped atmospheres and captures the directions that have us wondering with wide eyes and minds on the future LD disc.
While on the topic of the Swedish electro charmers, Freeze-Tag gives Little Dragon a run for the remix with their cover of “Twice”. What is nice to hear along with the smooth electronic groove trim is the understated and underrated songwriting abilities of one of Sweden's great hopes…and ours.
Iamsu! dropped the $uzy 6 $peed mixtape for download via Livemixtapes and in case you mixed we bring you Su and the HBK Gang in the short flick, “Two Eleven”. Richmond represent!
Lifelike and A-Trak dropped the clubbed up basher, “Don't Stop (Club Mix)” from the forthcoming EP of the same name from Kitsuné, out November 26.
OverDoz rolled through with a new track produced by Futuristiks called “Dear God” that keeps things inspirational, asking Jehovah for a sign while we await further word on the OD album coming in early 2013.
Our friend Tom Fec of Black Moth Super Rainbow dropped the track “Like a Sundae” that melts like a microwaved smile. Heralding from Pittsburgh with that electric sunlight sound, Fec spans his visions of technicolor sound on the new album that he is calling closer and realer to his original artistic, creative intentions than anything he has done before. And who are we to disagree? BMSR's latest entry, Cobra Juicy is available now from Rad Cult.
Swedish electronic wave-farers, Lust for Youth dropped their debut album Growing Seeds on Sacred Bones this week and give you a preview stream equipped with bonus tracks “Osk”, “Gently” and “First Touch”. This is the sound of the neo-no-wave that you never experienced firsthand until you hit play now.
Phillie's Freeway dropped the Sunny Dukes produced cut, “Numbers” featuring Neef Buck. Freeway's Diamond In The Ruff will hit stores worldwide November 27th on Babygrande Records. Put the dukes up, check the numbers twice and blast this in most residential environments.
Led Er Est drops their Joe Mascara video collage of smokey club settings where washes of reds and greens get met with super impositions of the urban with the natural for “Divided Parallel” off The Diver LP.
Check the Andy Madeleine video for J Bizzness's “Giraffes” featuring The Black Opera. The Bizzness brings the lifted spiralling exhaled smoke production while the Opera spills the complications of a relationship beset with chemicular complications. “But in her mirror she's Egyptian, a goddess, he's a god, can't nobody tell them different. Isis, and I'm sorry, she's his wife and she's his sister, they got each others' side, just like they bloodin' or they crippin', beside them the Titanic, Michael Jordan or Scottie Pippen, surviving on the planet where you dyin' or you livin', and love is an Egyptian.” Both J's Flight Plan and The Black Opera's Libretto: of King Legend are available now from the Mello Music Group.
Portland, Oregon's Blouse is Charlie Hilton, Patrick Adams, Jacob Portrait, and Paul Roper. Here we find them swooning elegantly through the standout track, “Videotapes,” directed by Greg Hunt. Blouse's self-titled is available now from Captured Tracks.
And we got the Closed Sessions with OF/Mellowhype's Hodgy Beats as he talks about not feeling famous while feeling for the best beat lick for “Break Ya Neck.” Check the following video for that action and their above tour dates with OF labelmates, Trash Talk.
We also have the Trash Talk live performances of “Explode” and “Dig” from Check Yo Ponytail 2 in LA, here for you to get inspired to tear 'ish up.
Holly Herndon gave a listen to voice dilation of “Dilato”, meaning, 'To spread out, extend, expand, increase' where the sound waves move across patterns enhanced from the advancement of electronic manipulations. From the frightful opening you almost forget you pressed play. Then those murmuring vocals quiver from the speakers, twisting your intake of vocal sound supporting a ghostly showdown that turns playful, before revealing the song to be heading toward the territory of new Latin schools of music theorems and potential categorizations. Holly's album Movement is out now from RVNG Intl.
Watch Lymbyc Systym's iPhone image captures of life and nature's fabrics up close and personal in the Blair Neal directed video for “Prairie School”. Lymybc Systym's Symbolyst LP is available now from Western Vinyl.
Child Actor presents their dazzling electric mind mirages in the “I Will Be Video”, animated, directed and edited by central audio oscillator, Max Heath with titles drawn by Natalie Plaza. Child Actor's album Victory is available now from Circle Into Square.
Labelmate Blue Sky Black Death gives a new trap-ist twist to Child Actor's “This Is It” before letting the bass synths breathe like a bottle of your stepmom's bourdeaux. Find the original track on Max Heath's Victory.
Holopaw gives a listen to their new song “Yearling's Darlings”, the B-side to their single “Golden Sparklers” out today from Misra. Isaac Brock from the Modest Mouse/Ugly Casanova camp and Sub Pop's John Orth bring together yearbook stories brought to the campfire while the guitars twang, drums bang and rises just like the embers and the smoke from the glowing, smoldering pit. The Floridians will release their album Academy Songs, Volume 1 January 15 also on Misra.
Bogan Via dropped their single “Afternoon Wonderland” from their Wait Up EP. They bring the “be happy now” serum for this cold, wet, windy and miserable winter. With the combination of strings and lyrical prose working together, this afternoon is turned into a wintry wonderland where life goes on despite the elements.
LA electro-dance-theorist Jack Duff operates as Glass Theory and this week delivered the remix of Bogan Via's song “Manny” from the recently released new EP Wait Up, out now on their Bandcamp.
Lindstrøm dropped by a new version of “Vōs-sākō-rv” with a vocal edit, bringing a chorus of “do do do do dahs”, originally off his recently released album Smallhans from Smalltown Supersound.
Alek Fin dropped the percussive strewn atmospheres of “Waiting Like A Wolf” from his forthcoming Mull EP dropping December 1.
DeVotchKa drops “All the Sand in All the Sea” presented in live, big time choral fashion from the Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony.
Maria Cecilia directs Parakeet's title track from the forthcoming Shonen Hearts EP. Look for Parakeet's debut EP November 19 from Rough Trade. Not only does this indie supergroup, comprised of Yuck and The History of Apple Pie members exudes the 90s energies and styles on their sleave but reinforce the aesthetic with Maria's visual help.
Lady Lamb The Beekeeper is the energetic project of fanciful musical flights from Aly Spaltro who brings her new single “Rooftop” from the forthcoming album, Ripely Pine, due February 19, 2013 from Ba Da Bing Records. The games begin with her initiative of, “If I'm the cop then you're the robber” where the musical composition begins to spin like an ornamental hive buzzing from the hum of the bees and the shared imaginative effect music has on animals, insects and humans alike.
WHY? released the video for the orchestral, stimulus overload track “Paper Hearts” directed by both Scott Fredette and Yoni Wolf, featuring Mr. Wolf front and center amid a bevy of backdrops. Their recent album Mumps, etc. is available now from Anticon / City Slang.
Kacey Johansing, formerly of Geographer, lent us a listen to “Honey” from her forthcoming album Grand Ghosts, slated for release February 26. If this classic is any indication of further things to come from the San Francisco's artist's second solo album we can expect chanteuse ballroom vignettes of love, loss, remembrances that exist in places out of time and mind.
We just got the memo that Lost Animal will be playing December 4 & 6 in Australia with Spiritualized and bring around their big single “Say No to Thugs” from the debut album Ex Tropical coming January 29, 2013 from Hardly Art.
Black Bananas continues the ongoing adventures of Jennifer Herrema and wrecking crew on their Drag City release Rad Times Xpress IV. Catch the following BrainDrain directed video with wild motion titles and effects from Chris Swirski + pretzelworld for “It's Cool” which goes to prove they'll never need more than bad ass assemblage shots of stock footage, bikers in the desert, the Bananas on stage and plenty of pool cue breaks.
Kid Smpl's debut album Skylight is available now on digital from Hush Hush Records while the physical CD/2xLP vinyl is coming soon, we celebrate with two official album track streams with “Star Ocean” and “Nearing”. First up is “Ocean”
Simpl's “Nearing” turns the voice into fragments to drop down the well chute like coins for light percussive match flip switch exhalations.
Alright, so maybe we arrived to the Stones Throw documentary party a little late but we just got a wire that Madlib will be scoring Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton: This Is Stones Throw.
And what's more, you can contribute to the Stones Throw doc by helping out filmmaker Jeff Broadway raise $35,000 to make this documentary happen via Kickstarter before November 29.
Speaking of the ST imprint, Homeboy Sandman's album First of a Living Breed has hit the shelves from the good people at Stones Throw and we got your Joseph R. Neigh IV directed video for “Sputnik” featuring production from Howard Lloyd here. Sandman drops a smart flow of references from Patrick Picard to yonic euphemistic themes in the works of Georgia O'Keeffe while decked out like a 1950s private eye.
Say 'what up' to your Neon Indian boy Alan Palmo who has been scoring and writing an animated short for MOCA. So to get you geared we bring you the less than a minute trailer for “Outer Osmo Ghost Mode” directed by Palmo and Johnny Woods. Watch this column for further details.
Sophia Knapp released the video for her ode to beauty “Evermore”, that further takes on the existence of being an enchanted realm built of Sophia's song and director Antonio Sobra's design. Shot on locale in Sao Joao, Brazil; prepare to take on sunsets, sun light bathed sonatas, candle lit memories, and lamps veiled in stars set to the disarming arrest of Knapp's voice and cadence from the strummed strings' resonance. Sophia's album Into the Waves is available now from Drag City.
Don Froth is getting the party flexing its stuff with the title cut, “REflex (Anthony “Shake” Shakir Remix) from the forthcoming EP of the same name, due November 27 from UNO. With the shake up from Mr. Shakir, we can hear the elemental beginnings of Froth's labor of love that combines the influences from the West Coast surf heads to the mental UK warehouse scenes.
We also got the new N.A.S.A. single 'Overdrive” to keep your party going in that over-riding gear featuring Maximum Hedrum. The space acronymed duo is made up of a collaboration between Brazilian DJ Ze Gonzales, or DJ Zegon along with producer Sam 'Squeak E. Clean' Spiegel where they leave behind their work behind the boards for the stars and focus on their album that is said to drop in Summer of 2013.
We cannot stop weird, syrupy dancevibes Tomas Barfod's “November Skies” remixed by Jerome LOL, also featuring Swedish vocalist Nina Kinert whose voice is strewn into edited samples of melodic shouts echoing amid an electronic hemisphere. Find the orginal on Mr. Bafrod's Salton Sea LP available now from Friends of Friends and the November Skies EP can be pre-ordered also from FoF.
Checking in with 12th Planet's John Dadzie who made sure we checked out the Antiserum collaborative track “Bass Salt” from their SMOG imprint's SMOG CITY comp. While the debate over this sect of the EDM geography is controversial to dance heads, the two electricans present warm keyboards that bring out the subtelties that often goes unnoticed by fans of this mode of dance vernacular that only the masters can bring. For further insight and listening into this realm of LED-altered-Ableton-enchaned buzz zaps, catch the mix from DJ Cruze at your cautionary discretion while you're gettin' down to the following MDPV-free jammer, “Bass Salt”.
NZCA/Lines, aka Michael Lovett released his self-titled earlier this year and brings along some of that desert-planet electro soul to keep you company while you enjoy from your memory foam chair inside your egg pod, with “Airlock”. Lovett's second album is slated to drop next year.
For some some sparse guitar electrics and rooftop moments, we recomend The Peach Kings' Paul Trillo video for “Lonely”. Cure your blues and embrace your invisible friends and lovers with the Handsome Moves EP available now on both digital and vinyl.
We knew something was up when Rihanna took the stage last week at SNL with a tumblr-punk friendly visual backdrop component that included all things sea-faring and Lisa Frank approved color palette for “Diamonds” from her forthcoming Unaplogetic album. So here we bring you the Zola Jesus cover of Ri-Ri's “Diamonds” with productions that glitters like best next waves of electronic imagineering. Zola is slated to perform at Sacred Bones' five-year anniversary gathering in the Mojave Desert with label mates Cult of Youth, Lust for Youth, Pop. 1280, Psychic Ills, Wymond Miles, and more, December 21.
Brooklyn's Autre Ne Veut brings a little bit of soul, some after dark keys, strange chorus sample chops and an accompanying visual involving what we imagine the “The Scream” to look like from the visual onset effects of psilocybin while perusing through a gallery playing alt-electro-soul of 2013. Autre Ne Veut's album Anxiety comes out February 11 from Software.
A-Wax feat. Killah L & Ice Meez got “Bail Money”, or 'get me out of jail money' with promises to be back messing stuff up for ya'll. The Sigmond IV Multimedia video is the first visual from their #PIERXMUZIK from Wax's Pie-Rx Recordz. Listen as they stress the important of the one call you can ever make when locked in the pen with one of the dopest and definitive Clams Casino “I'm God” sample that bridges the rhyme clouds from NYC to the Bay.
Keeping the beat going we got a Joakim mix recorded Live at A Club Called Rhonda with an hour and a half set called “Radio Free Rhonda” that can begin to be described as stated in this quip grabbed from the soundcloud description field as; ” PUNISHING TRANSMISSIONS FROM YOUR PRIMALLY PANSEXUAL PARTY PALACE”.
Gold and Soil, the self-titled debut album from Anahita Navab (aka Ana Caravelle) and Ryan York (aka Asura) bring their trans-tropic Topanga Canyon musical realizations and revelations available now to the world on digital via iTunes and later this month on vinyl from Non Projects.
Starred are Matthew Koshack and Liza Thorn who bring a listen to their acoustic electro brand of West Coast eclectica with the following stream of their Prison to Prison EP featuring the duo with a full band. The EP is available now on digital via iTunes and the physical vinyl drops this Tuesday, November 20 from INSOUND in conjunction with Pendu Sound. Starred are also playing the following NYC dates, first December 7 at Brooklyn's Club Europa with Psychic TV and then December 9 in Queens at the MoMa PS1 with Gambles.
Lots of Love is Jessica Fleischer who brings us her title track “Come To Life” from her new EP of the same name. Jessica brings a whole lotta sunny day spirit with memorable lyrical wisdom hooks like, “Be careful not to give yourself a reason to be someone else” followed by a sea of life and love affirming, “I love you(s)”. The Lots of Love EP, Come to Life is available now while Fleischer's full length album, From the Start comes out in 2013 on California Dreamin'.
Kid Flicks gave the okay to stream his single “The Dirty Utopians” off Nickos Dervisis's recent album By Typing “I Talk”, You Don't Talk available from Inner Ear Records. Get into what sounds like a war-rallying-utopian cry for an idyllic society, perhaps created from the warm home made electronics that point toward new worlds of home grown music still dirtied from its soiled and earthly sprout.
Linus Pauling Quartet prepare their 3CD box set in time for Christmas with Assault on the Vault of the Ancient Bonglord coming December 18. And if the name alone was not enough to raise some eyebrows from mom and grandma alike when reviewing your holiday wish list; the collection also features the following classic “Drunkest Man”, an ode to Houston lushes with diets of “bourbon and gasoline” that will always lift you up and never let you down.
Misfit Mod is the name of Sarah Ann Kelleher's project of modern and modest electronic sequencing with her debut single “Sugar C” arriving in time for the holidays from Stars & Letters, limited to 200 7″ pressings. There is something in Sarah's choice of taking lyrical styles ripped from the suit clad two-cycle huffers of the mid 60s set to the electro minimalist escapism. “We talked some shit and made a pact, we said that we ain't coming back, Sugar Cane can you tell me how to get away from this town?” Kelleher's debut full length Islands & Islands drops February 19, 2013 from Stars & Letters.
Mister Lies' album Mowgli is on the way in early 2013 fom Lefse, but today Nick Zanca gives an early listen to line shifting key brass on “Align”.
More from The History of Apple Pie with their noisy new track “Glitch” that promises to have no trace of the glitch you all are thinking of. Their debut Out Of View comes out January 29 from Marshall Teller Records.
Meet Bad Breaks, the project of Chuck Kerr who brings his San Antonio famous percussion and Rhodes piano coolness draped with an electric guitar that sounds like it was recorded a room over on the Breaks' featured single, “Won't Come Home”. You can find the self-titled Bad Breaks album recorded as a plugged-in session from KRTU. Looking forward to hearing more from Kerr and company in 2013.
Feeding People brings the “Silent Violent” single from these desperado-dilettantes from their debut Island Universe LP coming February 5, next year.
With the Captured Tracks re-release of Naomi Punk's album The Feeling around the corner, the twenty-something trio of Travis Coster, Neil Gregerson, and Nicolas Luempert present the collaged visuals for their single “Voodoo Trust”. Originally issued in small brewed batches from Couple Skate earlier this year, prepare to have your fancy monitor speakers reduced to sonic treble fodder that has everything and VOX amps thrown into the PA feeder. All this and more will happen when The Feeling sees a wide release November 20 from Captured Tracks.
