Alps of New South Wails.

03 Feb 2011 — Henning Lahmann

Seriously! Did somebody say "summer"? Outside my window, the sky has decided to showcase its "Berlin grey", which is, in case you've never been here in January, the greyest grey imaginable, yet my inbox is slowly turning into a beach. After Colorado's Moon Tides yesterday, a couple of hours ago I received another pretty sandy mail, this time by New South Wales resident Chris Hearn, who has been making music as Alps for the last six years. Chris is about to release his fourth album Alps of New South Wails (after Alps of New South Wales in 2006 and Alps of New South Whales in 2009, oh yes indeed), and the two songs he sent over are purest, sundrenched and hazy bedroom indie pop goodness, slightly distorted with an all-over lo-fi feel to it, but most strikingly with melodies that are mind-meltingly pretty to an extent that one could almost suspect some kind of sneering at us Europeans and North Americans who are still stuck in deepest wintertime. The album itself - which you can stream and pre-order here - is considerably more diversified, with some other tracks where Chris' lush guitar play gets superseded by synth or organ patterns, but it never completely abandons its concept of being made for days of sunshine, going to the beach and swimming in the deep blue sea - or, indeed, for just sailing away. Alps - I Get So High Alps - Sail Away Read more → Seriously! Did somebody say "summer"? Outside my window, the sky has decided to showcase its "Berlin grey", which is, in case you've never been here in January, the greyest grey imaginable, yet my inbox is slowly turning into a beach. After Colorado's Moon Tides yesterday, a couple of hours ago I received another pretty sandy mail, this time by New South Wales resident Chris Hearn, who has been making music as Alps for the last six years. Chris is about to release his fourth album Alps of New South Wails (after Alps of New South Wales in 2006 and Alps of New South Whales in 2009, oh yes indeed), and the two songs he sent over are purest, sundrenched and hazy bedroom indie pop goodness, slightly distorted with an all-over lo-fi feel to it, but most strikingly with melodies that are mind-meltingly pretty to an extent that one could almost suspect some kind of sneering at us Europeans and North Americans who are still stuck in deepest wintertime. The album itself - which you can stream and pre-order here - is considerably more diversified, with some other tracks where Chris' lush guitar play gets superseded by synth or organ patterns, but it never completely abandons its concept of being made for days of sunshine, going to the beach and swimming in the deep blue sea - or, indeed, for just sailing away. Alps - I Get So High Alps - Sail Away

Haze for Daze.

03 Feb 2011 — Henning Lahmann

Some really fine tropical jams coming to you from the town of Washington, North Carolina, where Robert Thompson is recording synth-based psychedelic drones under the moniker Mohave Triangles, experimental yet easily digestible, evoking warm and lush feelings that make his latest tape Haze for Daze an excellent score for your January daydreaming, longing for those summer days to come. Haze for Daze is out on Digitalis Ltd. Also, you can stream/download the whole thing over here. Mohave Triangles - Mango Haze (Excerpt) Mohave Triangles - Tropical Daze (Excerpt) Read more → Some really fine tropical jams coming to you from the town of Washington, North Carolina, where Robert Thompson is recording synth-based psychedelic drones under the moniker Mohave Triangles, experimental yet easily digestible, evoking warm and lush feelings that make his latest tape Haze for Daze an excellent score for your January daydreaming, longing for those summer days to come. Haze for Daze is out on Digitalis Ltd. Also, you can stream/download the whole thing over here. Mohave Triangles - Mango Haze (Excerpt) Mohave Triangles - Tropical Daze (Excerpt)

Video Premiere: Fostercare - Sunfreeze (Refix).

03 Feb 2011 — Henning Lahmann

Hailing from the darkest streets of Brooklyn, Marc Jason aka Fostercare delivered some brilliant, considerably gloomy stuff via Disaro and Clan Destine last year, making him one of the most exciting exponents of that certain genre whose name is banned from these pages. In any case, Marc hit us up with exciting news the other day, announcing a new label he has set up to release a few artists a year, thereby focusing on music "that is experimental and works outside of a singular genre, while also having a distinctly pop aesthetic", which sounds more than noteworthy to us. The first work dropped via JI9X is Refixes, a collection of Fostercare material that's been, well, "refixed", which in the artist's description means that the jams have been reworked to make them more complex and to add a "screwed rave aesthetic". Considering the terrific result re Sunfreeze, the title track of last year's EP on Disaro, he has obviously been successful, as his Blown Out Refix is five minutes of deepest black that nonetheless makes you wanna dance in strange ways, and hasn't this kind of music always been all about that in essence? Below, watch the exclusive premiere of the video for the refix of Sunfreeze, an adequately dark piece that indeed is terrifying by all means, a flickering, restless collage of all nightmares you possibly had as of late. You probably shouldn't watch this right before going to sleep. We've warned you. Fostercare - Sunfreeze (Blown Out Refix) Read more → Hailing from the darkest streets of Brooklyn, Marc Jason aka Fostercare delivered some brilliant, considerably gloomy stuff via Disaro and Clan Destine last year, making him one of the most exciting exponents of that certain genre whose name is banned from these pages. In any case, Marc hit us up with exciting news the other day, announcing a new label he has set up to release a few artists a year, thereby focusing on music "that is experimental and works outside of a singular genre, while also having a distinctly pop aesthetic", which sounds more than noteworthy to us. The first work dropped via JI9X is Refixes, a collection of Fostercare material that's been, well, "refixed", which in the artist's description means that the jams have been reworked to make them more complex and to add a "screwed rave aesthetic". Considering the terrific result re Sunfreeze, the title track of last year's EP on Disaro, he has obviously been successful, as his Blown Out Refix is five minutes of deepest black that nonetheless makes you wanna dance in strange ways, and hasn't this kind of music always been all about that in essence? Below, watch the exclusive premiere of the video for the refix of Sunfreeze, an adequately dark piece that indeed is terrifying by all means, a flickering, restless collage of all nightmares you possibly had as of late. You probably shouldn't watch this right before going to sleep. We've warned you. Fostercare - Sunfreeze (Blown Out Refix)

Moon Tides.

02 Feb 2011 — Henning Lahmann

This little gem has just dropped into my inbox, right in time for the apparently eventual return of winter, and I will dedicate To Be in particular to all my people stateside that are stuck in that blizzard now or in the coming hours. Moon Tides' first song is nothing too spectacular, but this is actually exactly the quality that makes it outright perfect for my wintry mood. Moon Tides are Act So Big Forest affiliates and thus presumably hail from Colorado, and since Tennis, we know that the citizens of this particular landlocked state have a special affinity towards the sea, and To Be is just this: a summery surf tune that instantly dispels all memories of snowy days, even if the weather forecast suggests otherwise. With its beautiful melody, the innocent and simple guitar riff and the washed-out, slightly distant male/female vocals, this is short song promises to be the first sign of yet another Colorado group devoted to make us happy simply be the means of purest pop perfection. Summer will come again. Moon Tides - To Be Read more → This little gem has just dropped into my inbox, right in time for the apparently eventual return of winter, and I will dedicate To Be in particular to all my people stateside that are stuck in that blizzard now or in the coming hours. Moon Tides' first song is nothing too spectacular, but this is actually exactly the quality that makes it outright perfect for my wintry mood. Moon Tides are Act So Big Forest affiliates and thus presumably hail from Colorado, and since Tennis, we know that the citizens of this particular landlocked state have a special affinity towards the sea, and To Be is just this: a summery surf tune that instantly dispels all memories of snowy days, even if the weather forecast suggests otherwise. With its beautiful melody, the innocent and simple guitar riff and the washed-out, slightly distant male/female vocals, this is short song promises to be the first sign of yet another Colorado group devoted to make us happy simply be the means of purest pop perfection. Summer will come again. Moon Tides - To Be

Premiere: Local Winds.

02 Feb 2011 — Tonje Thilesen

Local Winds is the new-born dizzy ambient side project of Scott Dickson aka Closed Cassette, but all though it's easy to fall into the temptation of calling it 'chillwave' after listening to the track below, his upcoming EP In The World Of Ours has more to its sound than you may think behind this obvious tropical, day-dreaming surface. In fact, the rest of the EP differs quite a lot to his single Small Towns, which probably also makes it, in my opinion, not the most interesting pick when being compared to other slightly more atmospheric tracks on the EP. In The World Of Ours varies from the very humid beats on Small Towns to the more slow and mysterious Footprints, often mixed with a strong feeling of curiousness towards the unknown and unexplored, both in its physical and psychological form. If the rainforest had a soundtrack, however, it'd be this.

The EP is due to February 22 via Alchemist Records, but you can already pre-order and/or stream it here.

Local Winds - Small Towns

Read more →

Local Winds is the new-born dizzy ambient side project of Scott Dickson aka Closed Cassette, but all though it's easy to fall into the temptation of calling it 'chillwave' after listening to the track below, his upcoming EP In The World Of Ours has more to its sound than you may think behind this obvious tropical, day-dreaming surface. In fact, the rest of the EP differs quite a lot to his single Small Towns, which probably also makes it, in my opinion, not the most interesting pick when being compared to other slightly more atmospheric tracks on the EP. In The World Of Ours varies from the very humid beats on Small Towns to the more slow and mysterious Footprints, often mixed with a strong feeling of curiousness towards the unknown and unexplored, both in its physical and psychological form. If the rainforest had a soundtrack, however, it'd be this.

The EP is due to February 22 via Alchemist Records, but you can already pre-order and/or stream it here.

Local Winds - Small Towns

Ooze.

02 Feb 2011 — Henning Lahmann

While doing some research about White Car recently before posting Hunter Husar's incredible remix of No Better, I stumbled across the interview Fact Magazine had done with the outfit's mastermind Elon Katz, and though I had been aware of the fact that Katz was involved in other projects (The Pylori Program tape under his own name in particular), I sure hadn't heard about Streetwalker before, the duo Katz has started with fellow Chicago synth musician Beau Wanzer. And well, it turns out that they, too, have a cassette out on the incredible Catholic Tapes, and, moreover, that it's insanely amazing: Ooze is some seriously deep shit, an eleven minute trip that deals with every feature we could've ever asked for to be included in a dance track, some Roland driven minimal wave with dark, manipulated vocals, messing with a classic disco tune that has just about everything including handclaps, all coated with the finest Chicago House icing I've come across in ages. Terrific. Read more → While doing some research about White Car recently before posting Hunter Husar's incredible remix of No Better, I stumbled across the interview Fact Magazine had done with the outfit's mastermind Elon Katz, and though I had been aware of the fact that Katz was involved in other projects (The Pylori Program tape under his own name in particular), I sure hadn't heard about Streetwalker before, the duo Katz has started with fellow Chicago synth musician Beau Wanzer. And well, it turns out that they, too, have a cassette out on the incredible Catholic Tapes, and, moreover, that it's insanely amazing: Ooze is some seriously deep shit, an eleven minute trip that deals with every feature we could've ever asked for to be included in a dance track, some Roland driven minimal wave with dark, manipulated vocals, messing with a classic disco tune that has just about everything including handclaps, all coated with the finest Chicago House icing I've come across in ages. Terrific.

Video: Moddi - Magpie Eggs.

02 Feb 2011 — Tonje Thilesen

It's been exactly a year since we were blessed with one of my favorite records of 2010, Moddi's Floriography — a record which made my love for music flourish and grow like never before. In other words - today is a great opportunity to celebrate with sharing this lovely music video of Magpie Eggs, directed by the creative minds Simen and Synne of Apparatet, whom are also the brains behind the Einar Stray video Yr Heart Isn't A Heart. Read more →

It's been exactly a year since we were blessed with one of my favorite records of 2010, Moddi's Floriography — a record which made my love for music flourish and grow like never before. In other words - today is a great opportunity to celebrate with sharing this lovely music video of Magpie Eggs, directed by the creative minds Simen and Synne of Apparatet, whom are also the brains behind the Einar Stray video Yr Heart Isn't A Heart.