5 Years of NFOP

Come celebrate with us: Urban Spree, May 24, 4pm

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Every Friday at 4pm CET

Baby Lips: “No Blood”.

27 Jun 2011 — Henning Lahmann
Charleston, South Carolina's Mirror Universe gained some decent interweb fame when the widely buzzed-about so-called "cassette revival" seriously took off sometime between the summer of 2009 and this, mainly due to the coincident hype around chillwave/glo-fi that initially happened to involve quite a few South Carolina artists, most significantly Toro Y Moi and Washed Out who both had their first releases on Mirror Universe in July and September 09, respectively. Both tapes are of course long sold out now, and since the buzz around that certain microgenre has started to fade it has gotten rather quiet around the small imprint, which of course doesn't imply that they've stopped dropping gems on magnetic material. To the contrary, without a big fuss the dudes have kept on doing what they do best, unearthing the most incredible new leftfield pop stuff both homegrown and from across the States or even the world (most notably releases by His Clancyness and the heart-melting Weakend by Yu(c)k/Oupa), and they've hardly ever failed. Baby Lips belong in the "homegrown" category. Charleston-based Joel T. Hamilton (who also has a solo project) and his girlfriend have just dropped their debut C26 Nineteen Ninety Ching via MU, and it's just another proof of the imprint's impeccable sense for rad fresh voices. Sporting rather peculiar outfits on stage, the duo has created five baroque pop tunes that despite their obviously lo-fi production means feature an almost pompous demeanor, constantly leaning towards the dark side with opaque organ melodies and eerie, at times deliberately clownesque vocals. A very worthwhile debut altogether, and another pleasant surprise hailing from the Old South. The tape is available for pre-order over here. You may also stream/purchase it digitally via Baby Lips' bandcamp. Baby Lips - No Blood Read more → Charleston, South Carolina's Mirror Universe gained some decent interweb fame when the widely buzzed-about so-called "cassette revival" seriously took off sometime between the summer of 2009 and this, mainly due to the coincident hype around chillwave/glo-fi that initially happened to involve quite a few South Carolina artists, most significantly Toro Y Moi and Washed Out who both had their first releases on Mirror Universe in July and September 09, respectively. Both tapes are of course long sold out now, and since the buzz around that certain microgenre has started to fade it has gotten rather quiet around the small imprint, which of course doesn't imply that they've stopped dropping gems on magnetic material. To the contrary, without a big fuss the dudes have kept on doing what they do best, unearthing the most incredible new leftfield pop stuff both homegrown and from across the States or even the world (most notably releases by His Clancyness and the heart-melting Weakend by Yu(c)k/Oupa), and they've hardly ever failed. Baby Lips belong in the "homegrown" category. Charleston-based Joel T. Hamilton (who also has a solo project) and his girlfriend have just dropped their debut C26 Nineteen Ninety Ching via MU, and it's just another proof of the imprint's impeccable sense for rad fresh voices. Sporting rather peculiar outfits on stage, the duo has created five baroque pop tunes that despite their obviously lo-fi production means feature an almost pompous demeanor, constantly leaning towards the dark side with opaque organ melodies and eerie, at times deliberately clownesque vocals. A very worthwhile debut altogether, and another pleasant surprise hailing from the Old South. The tape is available for pre-order over here. You may also stream/purchase it digitally via Baby Lips' bandcamp. Baby Lips - No Blood

Yung Life: “I Be Scared”.

27 Jun 2011 — Henning Lahmann
It's been almost a year since we last heard news from thriving Knoxville, Tennessee duo Yung Life, but here they are finally returning with yet another lush and dense shoegaze-informed new wave anthem that immediately sticks on your eardrums with its upbeat drum machine pattern and very 80s-leaning washes of distorted and heavily reverberated synth layers. Expect more to come soon. Yung Life - I Be Scared Read more → It's been almost a year since we last heard news from thriving Knoxville, Tennessee duo Yung Life, but here they are finally returning with yet another lush and dense shoegaze-informed new wave anthem that immediately sticks on your eardrums with its upbeat drum machine pattern and very 80s-leaning washes of distorted and heavily reverberated synth layers. Expect more to come soon. Yung Life - I Be Scared

ole torjus / himstregims split.

27 Jun 2011 — Tonje Thilesen

From Norway's rainy west coast city Bergen, comes a new label that has just emerged from the surface; Unn Records, run by the beardy friend couple Ole Torjus Hofvind and Søren Andreasen, whom is also behind the first split release of this new-born project. Wishing to convey 'some sort of closeness to the everyday thing' through warm and minimalistic electronica tunes (as they state themselves), the ole torjus / himstregims split is a sweet little album aiming to warm our hearts on a rainy summer day with their pure and honest sound in the veins of Kim Hiorthøy. Other exciting future releases are already in the making, so don't forget to stay tuned over at their facebook page for more updates. That is, if you somehow know Norwegian.

Download or grab one of their delicious physical copies over at bandcamp.

ole torjus - lotst

himstregims - tingeltangel

Read more →

From Norway's rainy west coast city Bergen, comes a new label that has just emerged from the surface; Unn Records, run by the beardy friend couple Ole Torjus Hofvind and Søren Andreasen, whom is also behind the first split release of this new-born project. Wishing to convey 'some sort of closeness to the everyday thing' through warm and minimalistic electronica tunes (as they state themselves), the ole torjus / himstregims split is a sweet little album aiming to warm our hearts on a rainy summer day with their pure and honest sound in the veins of Kim Hiorthøy. Other exciting future releases are already in the making, so don't forget to stay tuned over at their facebook page for more updates. That is, if you somehow know Norwegian.

Download or grab one of their delicious physical copies over at bandcamp.

ole torjus - lotst

himstregims - tingeltangel

Katie Kim: “The Feast”.

25 Jun 2011 — Tonje Thilesen

Our dearest friend John of the Irish electronic duo Solar Bears sends us a new music recommendation every week or so, which has almost become a tradition ever since I stumbled over their splendid record She Was Coloured In last year, a record that also made one of our Best Of lists back in December. Ireland's Katie Kim, the solo project of  singer-songwriter Katie Sullivan was this week's name-drop, and as the melancholic pop lover I am, I was instantly captivated by Katie Kim's mellow, delicately wistful tunes combined with her husky voice, as if we were caught in a meltdown between Zola Jesus and Braids, with a hint of lesser-known Anana's underwater pop in the middle of it all. We were lucky enough to have a sneak peak at her forthcoming album Cover and Flood, which will supposedly be released on vinyl sometime soon, but a final date of the release is yet to be set. Stream a few more songs off the album here. Katie Kim - The Feast Katie Kim - Heavy Lighting Read more →

Our dearest friend John of the Irish electronic duo Solar Bears sends us a new music recommendation every week or so, which has almost become a tradition ever since I stumbled over their splendid record She Was Coloured In last year, a record that also made one of our Best Of lists back in December. Ireland's Katie Kim, the solo project of  singer-songwriter Katie Sullivan was this week's name-drop, and as the melancholic pop lover I am, I was instantly captivated by Katie Kim's mellow, delicately wistful tunes combined with her husky voice, as if we were caught in a meltdown between Zola Jesus and Braids, with a hint of lesser-known Anana's underwater pop in the middle of it all. We were lucky enough to have a sneak peak at her forthcoming album Cover and Flood, which will supposedly be released on vinyl sometime soon, but a final date of the release is yet to be set. Stream a few more songs off the album here. Katie Kim - The Feast Katie Kim - Heavy Lighting

Seabright: “Sea Samba”.

25 Jun 2011 — Tonje Thilesen

Here's a fine little summer jam for you all which dropped in my Soundcloud inbox yesterday morning. Behind the moniker Seabright is California resident Justin Morales, producing shiny little pop gems without a care in the world. Justin recently released his fourth mini-album over at Bandcamp, containing a fine little collection of summery tunes, spiced with samples by everything from Mariah Carey to Velvet Underground. Fetch it here. Seabright - Sea Samba Read more →

Here's a fine little summer jam for you all which dropped in my Soundcloud inbox yesterday morning. Behind the moniker Seabright is California resident Justin Morales, producing shiny little pop gems without a care in the world. Justin recently released his fourth mini-album over at Bandcamp, containing a fine little collection of summery tunes, spiced with samples by everything from Mariah Carey to Velvet Underground. Fetch it here. Seabright - Sea Samba

Field Dress: “Spiral Arms”.

24 Jun 2011 — Henning Lahmann
Totally psyched-out after listening to this "cloudsurf/krauthop" tune by Austin, Texas outfit Field Dress. This is rather experimental and kinda dark but also strangely catchy in all its noisy lo-fi demeanor, a combination that will always convince the folks over here at the NFOP offices, even on a Friday night when they should be out having some lush times in this big old city. Spiral Arms is the first single off the forthcoming debut full-length Holy Field which will be dropped August 3 "through the usual outlets", which we guess means bandcamp, and probably somewhere else though (so far) there's no label whatsoever. Field Dress - Spiral Arms Read more → Totally psyched-out after listening to this "cloudsurf/krauthop" tune by Austin, Texas outfit Field Dress. This is rather experimental and kinda dark but also strangely catchy in all its noisy lo-fi demeanor, a combination that will always convince the folks over here at the NFOP offices, even on a Friday night when they should be out having some lush times in this big old city. Spiral Arms is the first single off the forthcoming debut full-length Holy Field which will be dropped August 3 "through the usual outlets", which we guess means bandcamp, and probably somewhere else though (so far) there's no label whatsoever. Field Dress - Spiral Arms

Premiere: Cough Cool - “Parting Friends”.

24 Jun 2011 — Henning Lahmann
I've long been an admirer of Dan Svizeny aka Cough Cool's work that so deliciously alternates between ultra-mellow bedtime pop splendor (see here, for example) and more demanding, experimental sound collages that don't care for your average listening behavior, and I love in particular how Dan manages to leave all those different sounds sitting neatly side by side, without opting for the oh-so common contemporary schtick to hide behind a zillion different monikers. Parting Friends in a way belongs to both categories of Dan's ouvre, a laid-back seven and a half-minute drum loop that slowly meanders along some distant and indistinct vocal samples, all mashed into one hazy sonic pattern. The tune is part of Cough Cool's new cassette entitled Clausen, a highly recommended thing that is out right now on Not Not Fun. Cough Cool - Parting Friends Read more → I've long been an admirer of Dan Svizeny aka Cough Cool's work that so deliciously alternates between ultra-mellow bedtime pop splendor (see here, for example) and more demanding, experimental sound collages that don't care for your average listening behavior, and I love in particular how Dan manages to leave all those different sounds sitting neatly side by side, without opting for the oh-so common contemporary schtick to hide behind a zillion different monikers. Parting Friends in a way belongs to both categories of Dan's ouvre, a laid-back seven and a half-minute drum loop that slowly meanders along some distant and indistinct vocal samples, all mashed into one hazy sonic pattern. The tune is part of Cough Cool's new cassette entitled Clausen, a highly recommended thing that is out right now on Not Not Fun. Cough Cool - Parting Friends

Mind Over Mirrors: “I’m Willing to Stagger”.

24 Jun 2011 — Henning Lahmann
More heavy harmonium excursions by Jaime Fennelly's new solo endeavor Mind Over Mirrors. High & Upon is the "companion cassette" to the recently introduced The Voice Rolling LP on Digitalis, out now via Gift Tapes. Preview the twenty-minute burner I'm Willing to Stagger below. Previously: Mind Over Mirrors - You Ain't Reeling Read more → More heavy harmonium excursions by Jaime Fennelly's new solo endeavor Mind Over Mirrors. High & Upon is the "companion cassette" to the recently introduced The Voice Rolling LP on Digitalis, out now via Gift Tapes. Preview the twenty-minute burner I'm Willing to Stagger below. Previously: Mind Over Mirrors - You Ain't Reeling
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