15 Feb 2014 — Kelsie Brown
Philadelphia sweethearts The Interest Group have been off the radar for a while since the release of their debut 7" single The Passenger. Fortunately, they've decided to warm our hearts this Valentine's Day with their newest single. "Wire" starts off with a hazy period of ambiance, reminiscent of something Mutual Benefit would dream up, before dropping into a smooth and catchy melody. Borrowing from their roots in 60s psychedelia, "Wire" is a dreamy and expertly crafted psychedelic pop song. As always, they don't disappoint.
"Wire" is taken from The Interest Group's forthcoming 5-track EP, the first of two, to be made public on February 24. Listen below:
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14 Feb 2014 — Henry Schiller
Channeling Scott Walker through Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks soundtrack, Missouri’s Phil Diamond – who records music as Scammers – is the pop martyr we didn’t know we desperately needed until his hands were nailed to a keyboard in the shape of god's mightiest, most succulent minor chords. “A Song that Can Exist” is the tautest seven-and-a-half minutes of iterative dream pop that anyone has probably ever thought to record; a sensual elegy of molting synths, chest-cracking bass, and a snappy jazz beat that swings carefully from resuscitative sharpness into melancholy ambience.
Diamond’s voice invokes the comfortable surprise of getting to the center of a Creamsicle in a dark movie theater. Each new eruption of lyrics is a cool swoop of doom, a frosty glisten to burst through the already icy darkness. This is the sound of the lights coming on so slowly that you’ve convinced yourself you’re only seeing things, all the while Diamond wraps you tighter into the cosmic joke of his existential pain. His confrontational softness and lyrical self-possession put Diamond in league with out-of-step new wave groups like Tears for Fears or Talk Talk. A charming, subversive elegance that pop music has ignored for far too long.
“A Song That Can Exist” is accompanied by experimentally cut home footage of snowy mountains, ski-lifts, and desolate beaches. The track almost seems to fill the video’s bleakness, coloring every frame of black and white footage with the warm tones of baked earth.
Sad people who are not Phil Diamond, please take note: apparently you have been feeling things wrong.
Scammers’ album, A Song That Can Exist, is out February 17 on Jehu & Chinaman.
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11 Feb 2014 — Parker Bruce
Alison Valentine, New York based singer and florist recently released the beaming, Chrome Canyon produced track "Curious", and we're happy to present the first remix courtesy of another chrome-inspired artist — fellow New Yorker and NFOP favorite Chrome Sparks. Here, Chrome Sparks' Jeremy Malvin lifts the original production off the ground, giving the composition a dramatic touch. Expect another remix of "Curious" coming up soon, by none other than the magnificent Blood Diamonds. But first, as promised, Chrome Sparks:
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11 Feb 2014 — Henning Lahmann
This Friday, February 14 (for the lovers), we're happy to welcome back one of our favourite Canadian/Italian human beings on planet Earth, Jonathan Clancy aka His Clancyness. After spending some extended time with his band A Classic Education, he returns with more of those wonderfully blurry-eyed, wistful slacker pop tunes of his solo project. No need to dig out the old, worn out classifications such as bedroom pop, those who follow this humble site are aware that we here at NFOP have always been enchanted by Clancy's impeccable knack for writing simple yet consoling little gems. It makes sense then, we think, to present his concert at Kreuzberg's Monarch this week, and to accompany his presence with a selection of some of our current favourites. It's gonna be an early show, starting at 8pm sharp, and if you want to dance while DJ, you'll even need to come an hour earlier – just the perfect to start into your weekend, we hope you agree. See you there!
Check out the event details over on Facebook. We're giving away 1x2 tickets for the show. To win, just send an email to submissions@nofearofpop.net with the subject "His Clancyness" before Friday, 12pm CET.
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11 Feb 2014 — Evelyn Malinowski
I am so relieved to come across this type of music, this death metal electronica. A local figure in the music scene, his speciality being electronica, was lecturing me the other day about how dubstep has changed the standard design of electronic music forever, and that from now on sustained bass is a must, causing a rather gritty, black metal attitude to join the ranks. While I didn't agree with him at all, especially because he was narrow-mindedly looking over house archetypes and other factors that haven't participated in the dubstep movement, I feel somewhat satisfied in finding his examples almost spot-on available in The Body's "Hail to Thee, Everlasting Pain." With their cut-and-pasted compositions, lain over with proper guttural metal screaming and sometimes perforated guitar, I'd say it's laughable how convincingly this work qualifies as an actual metal release.
The Body's full-length I Shall Die Here is out via RVNG Intl. on April 1.
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07 Feb 2014 — Henry Schiller
If Dent May had come out of South London and not Mississippi, he might sound something like Trudie Dawn Smith. On "No Pop", Smith drums every ounce of warmth and joy that she can into slick, "rock group" instrumentals - like May, she's working with fairly standard equipment, but never lets anything sound so canned or obvious as to induce a hipster cringe. Even the stray, deliberate cough strikes more as an instance of pristine pop excitement than some lame attempt at studio authenticity. "No Pop" is a crisply produced post-punk (think Police, not Joy Division) meditation on a cycling, but never not unsurprising bassline. "No echo of you will be left here" repeats Smith into the increasingly scuzzed out chamber of drum, bass, and cauterwauling electronics she's built around herself. Smith and drummer/producer Tom Skinner deliver a track that is minimally obscure and pop-sharp. Already drawing comparisons to The Slits, "No Pop" does show a similar rhythmic focus and groove-influenced melodic drive to the famous British punk band. Indeed, this may be the "Typical Girls" of the post-dub era.
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05 Feb 2014 — Parker Bruce
Aloe Music, who put out the great ILLS album last year, are set to release a new EP in March by New York supergroup of sorts, Shorts, which is headed up by Scott and Charlene's Wedding's Mikael Caterer. The EP's first track (and also the title track), "Berlin 1971", features the choice line: "I've been thinking about getting old with you," which is probably one of the nicest things one human can say to another in this day and age. Shorts fill their tracks with a sense of lost optimism, that rides the whole thing into the sunset — and let's say that it might be the perfect track to play for your significant other on the upcoming Valentine's Day. Don't forget to pre-order the vinyl, which comes with a beautiful zine in three sweet colors.
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05 Feb 2014 — Trey Reis
From the label:
"OBENGE RECORDINGS is a collection of field recordings by Roger Peet, recorded in the Congo in a now vanished village called “OBENGE”. It has since been burned to the ground by military. The village was very small, and unfortunately neighbor to a ruthless ivory warlord who terrorized them and put them in harms way. EWE OF NOW was fortunate enough to capture these songs on cassette for your listening enjoyment. They are full of life, from a place where life is more real than we are accustomed to. All proceeds from the sales of this cassette go to Roger’s relief work in the in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and hopefully this isn’t the last volume."
If you haven’t stopped reading and bought the tape already, did you ever listen to that 26 Shores of Choral mix that Dolphins Into the Future guy did for Underwater Peoples? It’s all crackly and pulled from some pretty rough vinyl. All the more charming, really. This OBENGE RECORDINGS tape is the same thing, only the crackles are sticks breaking and reverberating into the microphone this guy was there holding, collecting it all, as the dancing rhythm and waves of voices twirled and twisted in the omnidirection of the mics criss-crossed, metal pattern. This music would no longer exist without this guy. Let’s throw him some support.
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