No Fear Of Pop

Low, Heroes, Lodger.

08 Jun 2010 — NFOP

"Everyone wants to make their Berlin record, and everyone's got a Berlin album in them, so we wanted to put ours out. (...) There's something happening there that isn't happening in New York and is totally exciting." (via NME)

Hm. Well, what the guy wanted to say was that the incredible Brooklynites of !!! have a new album coming, Strange Weather, Isn't It? (indeed), to be released August 23 on Warp.

And now, I'm gonna spend the rest of the day looking for that special something and probably finally record that album that's apparently somewhere deep inside me.

!!! - AM/FM Read more →

But beautiful.

08 Jun 2010 — NFOP

And once again, Yuck. Tuesday morning melancholy.

Yuck - Automatic Read more →

Fan talk.

08 Jun 2010 — NFOP

Sometimes it's just good to stalk the artists you admire, though this might actually be a little obsessive. Anyway, tonight our much hyped friends from Yuck raved on their blog about their London pals that form an apparently extremely fresh band named Fanzine and how unbelievably wonderful their song Susan was. And oh, how right they are.

Fanzine - Susan Read more →

Breaking the waves.

07 Jun 2010 — NFOP

Inevitably I suppose, the chillwaves have finally crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the shores of the Old World. But why not, right? Anyway, our fellow Swede Christian Niva, hailing from Stockholm, used to make pretty straight and danceable electronic music under the moniker The Quiet Boy. Since recently, he not only prefers his own surname but has most notably seen the writing on the wall. Now, he composes blissful summer tunes that he himself referred to as "chillwave" in the mail he sent to me, so we probably shouldn't argue about that genre tag.

In any case, the track he's made available, Ghost In My Head, is without doubt beautiful electronica and definitely worth a listen. It will appear on NIVA's forthcoming debut EP Feverish Dreams (mind the chillwave connotation!), to be released towards the end of August.

NIVA - Ghost In My Head Read more →

Still painful.

07 Jun 2010 — NFOP

Our much adored indie pop darlings The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are about to release their next 7 inch, Say No To Love b/w Lost Saint. The single will be out on June 22 via Slumberland.

Needless to say: another treat, and exactly what we've expected. Listen to the b-side below.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Lost Saint

We are Scientists.

06 Jun 2010 — NFOP

Most times, unfortunately, such ambitions fail. Or at best, those self-ascriptions are to be considered a bit of an overstatement. But sometimes, projects that start as a genuine fusion of visuals and music turn out to be just amazing. And apparently, South East London's BRETON actually is one of those rare examples. Originally the idea of the musicians/filmmakers Roman Rappak and Adam Ainger, BRETON_ now has expanded into a five-piece collective.

Their second EP in a trilogy, Sharing Notes, will be released by youWILLBEfollowing on July 5, and the physical version will come with a hand-made circuit board that will actually work as a neat little synthesiser. In the startling yet staggering video below, which is accompanying one of the EP's tracks, 15X (download below), you can watch the artists creating one of those rare items.

The music is dazzling, too, suggesting some kind of Foals-like math rock put into schemes of high-level electronics. Irresistible.

Edit: I was just asked to add the information that the physical EP (i.e. the limited circuit board) will be available via Rough Trade, so watch their website for ordering opportunities.

BRETON - 15X

As BretonLABS, the guys are also busily creating remixes and videos for rising artists such as Penguin Prison. After the jump, you can watch his video for Something I'm Not, together with BretonLABS' remix of the track.

Penguin Prison - Something I'm Not (BretonLABS Remix) Read more →

Crowd the cabin.

06 Jun 2010 — NFOP

Now that Bon Iver's Justin Vernon is seems extremely busy collaborating in rather strange, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony inspired neo-soul Minneapolis all-star projects or almost equally weird garage-blues duos (and let's not forget last year's splendid experimental endeavours), his bandmates appear to have found some spare time at last. Bon Iver's percussionist/pianist Sean Carey has taken that sudden opportunity in the most fruitful way, recording an album under his own name. And the smooth vigour of Carey's debuting song In the Dirt shows an astonishing amount of songwriting talent and musical craftsmanship, exhibiting subtle intimacy that could once more be the result of an extended escape into the woods on his own.

S. Carey's debut full-length All We Grow will be out in late August on Jagjaguwar.