Clearly his most ambitious work to date, Newcastle's Michael Bridgewater aka Waskerley Way's new EP La Magie Rouge is a lesson in world music afflatus gone fuzz pop, and this is not to be understood as a disparaging judgment. Bridgewater took "damaged and doctored sounds" from places as far-off as Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia and, well, Belgium, subsequently working them into carefully arranged dream pop songs situated somewhere between original glo-fi and shoegaze. With the dazzling tune "True Damage" the method turns out most successful - that is, if you are able to overcome those unsettling yet of course unjustified "Desert Rose" associations that are induced by the clarinet-like (it's probably a different instrument) sample toward the song's end.
La Magie Rouge is available on cassette via Ultra Friends and digitally for pay-what-you-want on bandcamp.
Waskerley Way - True DamageRead more →
Brand new jam by Ford & Lopatin's former project Games that we thought was now gone for good. Anyway, the moniker alteration in fact makes an awful lot of sense, as "No Disguise" is stylistically way closer to late 2010 That We Play material than to this year's Channel Pressure. Not sure if this is an old outtake or the first glimpse on a new proper Games release, but in any case it's pure MIDI splendor.
Read more →
Sometime this fall (which has technically started today), our dearest pals over at Bathetic are gonna drop Lately, the proper debut LP by Cough Cool aka Philadelphia's Dan Svizeny. The first 50 orders of the vinyl will go out along with an additional and strictly limited cassette named Basement.
Below, you may take a first quick glimpse at the tape via its track "Run Slow", a mellow and distinctly lo-fi guitar instrumental that showcases a wonderfully smooth amount of forgotten summer haziness, a pure bliss we actually haven't encountered in quite a while.
Also, check out the recently unveiled video for "Months", one of the tracks off Lately:
Read more →
Easily being one of this year's most eagerly anticipated records, Gem Club's debut full-length Breakers is finally out September 27 via Hardly Art. To celebrate the occasion, the duo is holding an exclusive contest on our pages: Simply enter a comment below as to why you think you should win the following items. A winner will be chosen by Christopher and Kristen on September 30th.
And here's what's waiting for you:
- Breakers on both CD and limited-edition white vinyl
- Acid and Everything CD digipak
- Three color T-shirt in the size of your choice
- Gem Club stickers and Breakers poster
Find Gem Club on Facebook: http://facebook.com/gemclub
Previously:
Gem Club - BreakersGem Club - TwinsRead more →
Copenhagen-based trio Thulebasen have already made quite a few blog rounds this year since the release of their second full-length Gate 5 in March, but also not least due to the fact that they're part of that Danish capital collective behind Escho, that recently profiled imprint that has brought us this year's most opinion-splitting buzz phenomenon Iceage.
In my humble opinion Thulebasen themselves are actually the more interesting project of the lot, with their relentlessly powerful and aggressive yet full-blown and distinctly artsy take on 80s to 90s stadium rock. I have absolutely no doubt that this music can get only more impressive and mind-blowing when performed live on stage, so it's a pleasure to officially recommend tonight's Noisekölln-curated Berlin show together with Strange Forces and Macaco Mau at Raum 20 (Ziegrastr. 11, Neukölln). Don't miss this one.
In very much related news, Noisekölln is also gonna host Iceage's Berlin debut (if I'm not mistaken) in November. More info on that soon.
Thulebasen - Gate 5Thulebasen - Raga-GeminiRead more →
I was enjoying life in the remote areas of France recently so I missed the last one of those classy, wordless mails by Hype Williams (as ever written by the project's faceless keeper "Denna Frances Glass") that as usual included nothing but a Soundcloud link that of course only remained valid for a few hours, so I was quite happy to learn that our friend and fellow HW admirer Ian Nelson has been quick/aware enough to cop "But Life Goes On Nahmean", the duo's latest track that's actually not been dropped as a "proper" Hype Williams tune but that is, as Nelson rightly points out, way more exciting than a lot of stuff the two have been putting out as of late. Don't know if this points into a new direction or merely is a one-time excursion into "fun pop-rock" (Nelson), but in any case I dig it.
Update: Last night, another version of the track popped up, apparently the final one, and this time it's tagged as Hype Williams. What's more, according to the ID3, the tune is part of another forthcoming full-length, once again prosaically named Untitled (2012).
Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland Hype Williams - But Life Goes On Nahmean (final)Read more →
Completely fallen for this devastatingly beautiful song that silently dropped into my inbox last night with no link or pic or info or anything else that could've shed some light on the authors of this raw gem. By now I know that [bird]bones is the brand new project of Julie Kell and "her friend Matt", both Saskatchewan natives who are now residing in Canada's metropolises Toronto and Montréal, respectively, collaborating over the internet, but honestly all these bare facts still may not sufficiently explain how someone could make something this fragile and pretty. But perhaps we don't have to know everything after all.
(Photo)
[bird]bones - Meet Me There, On a HillRead more →
High Sea is Rochester, New York native and current Boston resident Cameron Potter, whose utterly amazing tune "Don't Tempt Me" literally caught me off guard last night with its slow-burning, folkish rhythm section and those mildly aching, distant and washed-out layers of vocalization, subtly raising to an almost climactic finale that's yet never quite reaching the top. Hence reminiscent of a sonic Sisyphus, if you like.
Anyway, the track is part of Potter's recently dropped four-track EP Studio Improv Treats, a wonderful little collection of sketches and mellow songs that's available for free via bandcamp.
High Sea - Don't Tempt MeRead more →
Clearly his most ambitious work to date, Newcastle's Michael Bridgewater aka Waskerley Way's new EP La Magie Rouge is a lesson in world music afflatus gone fuzz pop, and this is not to be understood as a disparaging judgment. Bridgewater took "damaged and doctored sounds" from places as far-off as Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia and, well, Belgium, subsequently working them into carefully arranged dream pop songs situated somewhere between original glo-fi and shoegaze. With the dazzling tune "True Damage" the method turns out most successful - that is, if you are able to overcome those unsettling yet of course unjustified "Desert Rose" associations that are induced by the clarinet-like (it's probably a different instrument) sample toward the song's end.
La Magie Rouge is available on cassette via Ultra Friends and digitally for pay-what-you-want on bandcamp.
Waskerley Way - True Damage
Read more →
Brand new jam by Ford & Lopatin's former project Games that we thought was now gone for good. Anyway, the moniker alteration in fact makes an awful lot of sense, as "No Disguise" is stylistically way closer to late 2010 That We Play material than to this year's Channel Pressure. Not sure if this is an old outtake or the first glimpse on a new proper Games release, but in any case it's pure MIDI splendor.
Read more →
Sometime this fall (which has technically started today), our dearest pals over at Bathetic are gonna drop Lately, the proper debut LP by Cough Cool aka Philadelphia's Dan Svizeny. The first 50 orders of the vinyl will go out along with an additional and strictly limited cassette named Basement.
Below, you may take a first quick glimpse at the tape via its track "Run Slow", a mellow and distinctly lo-fi guitar instrumental that showcases a wonderfully smooth amount of forgotten summer haziness, a pure bliss we actually haven't encountered in quite a while.
Also, check out the recently unveiled video for "Months", one of the tracks off Lately:
Read more →
Easily being one of this year's most eagerly anticipated records, Gem Club's debut full-length Breakers is finally out September 27 via Hardly Art. To celebrate the occasion, the duo is holding an exclusive contest on our pages: Simply enter a comment below as to why you think you should win the following items. A winner will be chosen by Christopher and Kristen on September 30th.
And here's what's waiting for you:
- Breakers on both CD and limited-edition white vinyl
- Acid and Everything CD digipak
- Three color T-shirt in the size of your choice
- Gem Club stickers and Breakers poster
Find Gem Club on Facebook: http://facebook.com/gemclub
Previously:
Gem Club - Breakers
Gem Club - Twins
Read more →
Copenhagen-based trio Thulebasen have already made quite a few blog rounds this year since the release of their second full-length Gate 5 in March, but also not least due to the fact that they're part of that Danish capital collective behind Escho, that recently profiled imprint that has brought us this year's most opinion-splitting buzz phenomenon Iceage.
In my humble opinion Thulebasen themselves are actually the more interesting project of the lot, with their relentlessly powerful and aggressive yet full-blown and distinctly artsy take on 80s to 90s stadium rock. I have absolutely no doubt that this music can get only more impressive and mind-blowing when performed live on stage, so it's a pleasure to officially recommend tonight's Noisekölln-curated Berlin show together with Strange Forces and Macaco Mau at Raum 20 (Ziegrastr. 11, Neukölln). Don't miss this one.
In very much related news, Noisekölln is also gonna host Iceage's Berlin debut (if I'm not mistaken) in November. More info on that soon.
Thulebasen - Gate 5
Thulebasen - Raga-Gemini
Read more →
I was enjoying life in the remote areas of France recently so I missed the last one of those classy, wordless mails by Hype Williams (as ever written by the project's faceless keeper "Denna Frances Glass") that as usual included nothing but a Soundcloud link that of course only remained valid for a few hours, so I was quite happy to learn that our friend and fellow HW admirer Ian Nelson has been quick/aware enough to cop "But Life Goes On Nahmean", the duo's latest track 
Completely fallen for this devastatingly beautiful song that silently dropped into my inbox last night with no link or pic or info or anything else that could've shed some light on the authors of this raw gem. By now I know that [bird]bones is the brand new project of Julie Kell and "her friend Matt", both Saskatchewan natives who are now residing in Canada's metropolises Toronto and Montréal, respectively, collaborating over the internet, but honestly all these bare facts still may not sufficiently explain how someone could make something this fragile and pretty. But perhaps we don't have to know everything after all.
(Photo)
[bird]bones - Meet Me There, On a Hill
Read more →
High Sea is Rochester, New York native and current Boston resident Cameron Potter, whose utterly amazing tune "Don't Tempt Me" literally caught me off guard last night with its slow-burning, folkish rhythm section and those mildly aching, distant and washed-out layers of vocalization, subtly raising to an almost climactic finale that's yet never quite reaching the top. Hence reminiscent of a sonic Sisyphus, if you like.
Anyway, the track is part of Potter's recently dropped four-track EP Studio Improv Treats, a wonderful little collection of sketches and mellow songs that's available for free via bandcamp.
High Sea - Don't Tempt Me
Read more →
