Paul Skomsvold's very worthwhile project Former Selves, which has always been as much about sound as it has been about vision, returns with a new tape of contemplative ambient meditations on LaGrange, Georgia imprint Hooker Vision. The below video for title track "Many Moons", premiered on Tome To The Weather Machine on Tuesday, is another example for Skomsvold's impressing comprehension of the correlation of our visual and aural senses. Made with a technique called "video feedback", the muffled, warm synth meanderings blend smoothly into the faintly psychedelic frames that are almost exclusively held in soothing pastel shades. Truly mesmerizing.
Many Moons is now out on Hooker Vision.
Read more →
For someone who seems to have been around forever, not least on this blog, it came as a surprise to read that Soft Terminal is actually to be considered the proper debut LP by Seattle drone/ambient mainstay Norm Chambers aka Panabrite. What I've always admired most about his music is that despite all his playful experimentalism that frequently results in breathtakingly complex arrangements and layer over layer of analogue synthesis, each single track always remains instantly accessible and almost effortlessly enjoyable, and the eight tracks on Soft Terminal are no exception to this. In fact, maybe his music has even never been more accessible than on tracks like "Janus", which adds a finger-picked acoustic guitar to the mix, or the sublime album opener "Rainbow Sequence", which you may listen to below, that starts with a heavily processed voice and simple, delayed chords before the composition develops a massive, sprawling soundscape that can only be called jaw-dropping. This is a superb effort, something we cannot recommend enough.
Soft Terminal is out today on Digitalis Recordings. You may order directly from the label
(US and Canada) or via Boomkat (rest of the world).
Read more →
I can't believe it's already been two years since James & Evander dropped their splendid mini-album Sunlight & Cicuirty, an album cover so beautiful that it was easily recognized on several blogs' 2010 end of year lists, even though the hype around them wasn't exactly massive. Since then they've grown a little bit out from the synthpop pond and into bigger, glitchy waters, leaning more towards disco pop now than ever. Somehow they have still managed to keep their cape of spacey darkness intact, making you feel like your body is rushing through cities in fast-forward motion, with lines of light streaming towards you from every corner.
"Let's Go" (below) is the A-side taken from a 7 inch vinyl that will be out on March 20th via Gold Robot Records.
James & Evander - Let's GoRead more →
You might want to add these aching, Baths-meets-Shlohmo beats of Maundrie Fox on your list of new musical discoveries today, as we can guarantee it will not be the last time you'll hear from this guy. Originally from Philadelphia but currently based in South Korea working at the booking agency Super Color Super, the producer and multi-instrumentalist Eric Anderson creates soundwaves variying from minimal, organic flows to the slightly more synth-infused, Slow Magic esque future pop, but performs it in an elegant, exploring way. It might just as well have come out of Australia.
His first self-titled EP release can be purchased via Bandcamp or streamed below.
Read more →
I know we're awfully late on this, but anyway we'd like to at least mention briefly that whatever you might be up to these days, you definitely shouldn't miss the latest full-length by Florida duo Hear Hums. These folks have constantly enchanted these pages their unique approach towards contemporary weirdo pop with their blend of shamanic, vocal-centered mystique and thriving rhythmic spectacle. This is convoluted, sprawling, and at times rather bulky, but all in the best way possible - it's hard to find something more playful and explorative today.
Opens is available now via bandcamp.
Hear Hums - ShrinesRead more →
Distinctively shoegaze-informed, mildly melancholic dream-pop by Australia's Colours, here with a brand new video for the new track "In the Summer" (which is still about right if you're down under) which will appear on the forthcoming compilation by Electric Voice Records, that will also feature artists such as Femminielli, D'eon, Jef Barbara, or The KVB, or in other words, quite a few of our favorite artists. The compilation will be out on cassette as well as 12 inch vinyl, and pre-order will start March 10 over here.
Watch the aptly colorful and psychedelic video below, made by Toto Vivian.
Read more →
Imagine the most tropical cocktail you can. Now put that cocktail in a coconut, sip it and mellow out as you float down stream on the back of your hippopotamus tour guide. With bongos, easy-going synth leads and an amazing EWI USB wind instrument solo, "Wedding Theme" by Seattle, WA via Franklin TN artist Tony Scumbag (aka Grey Johnson) sounds a bit like a "Coconut" to "Kokomo" instrumental interlude that Harry Nilsson and The Beach Boys could have concocted in a tiki lounge during an early evening beach party some time in the late 70's. Found video footage of swimming pools, beaches, and river guides, sequenced by Joe Norkus, blends perfectly with the track, forming a nearly irresistible, cheesy aesthetic that keeps you locked in, listening and watching with a grin. If you're into this collaboration, check out "Suspended Romance" and the 80's inspired video titled "Pump It" featuring sexy fitness video shots, bodybuilders, action sequences and other audio-visual goodness.
Read more →
Norway's electronic producer Torkelsen magically emerged on the roster of the Oslo based label Sellout! sometime last year, who soon after also released a 7 inch split with South Carolina's Hard Mix. As we've reported earlier, his self-titled album is finally set to release on March 6th, and we've gotten the honor to give you all an exclusive first listen to the whole thing below.
Even though Torkelsen is not exactly breaking any grounds with his glitchy, sunkissed sound that goes through the entirety of the record, it is rather his way of telling stories through these pure, instrumental pop tracks that might catch your interest. Visually, every single of his tunes has different atmospheres to them: the feeling of hopelessness or boredom in "Lavkarboår", the playful sound and feeling of lightweightness in "Simple", or what seem to be memories of childhood excursions in "Markjordbær". Listening to this while walking in a sour, dusky weather through the chaotic Berlin capital, it of course hits me that this record would've been a lot easier to enjoy under roadtrips with friends on a sunny day of July. And maybe isn't the lack of a red line so important after all, who knows. But I'll forgive him for that.
Read more →
For someone who seems to have been around forever, not least on this blog, it came as a surprise to read that Soft Terminal is actually to be considered the proper debut LP by Seattle drone/ambient mainstay Norm Chambers aka Panabrite. What I've always admired most about his music is that despite all his playful experimentalism that frequently results in breathtakingly complex arrangements and layer over layer of analogue synthesis, each single track always remains instantly accessible and almost effortlessly enjoyable, and the eight tracks on Soft Terminal are no exception to this. In fact, maybe his music has even never been more accessible than on tracks like "Janus", which adds a finger-picked acoustic guitar to the mix, or the sublime album opener "Rainbow Sequence", which you may listen to below, that starts with a heavily processed voice and simple, delayed chords before the composition develops a massive, sprawling soundscape that can only be called jaw-dropping. This is a superb effort, something we cannot recommend enough.
Soft Terminal is out today on Digitalis Recordings. You may order directly from the label
(US and Canada) or via Boomkat (rest of the world).
Read more →
