27 Dec 2013 — Andrew Wagner
Another holiday treat for you all: Mykki Blanco has just dropped a new track, “Booty Bamboo.” The track finds Blanco returning back to the aggressiveness of earlier songs like “Join My Militia” – a move underscored by the accompanying Soundcloud description: “Will hip hop ever accept me? Who gives a fuck. Will the gay community turn their back on me if I stop dressing in drag? Who gives a fuck. Will I get signed? Who gives a fuck.” With its pulsating, noisy, and static-y beat, “Booty Bamboo” delivers on the sort of danceable yet in-your-face rap that Blanco’s become known for. Blanco’s intermittent yells of “Booty Bamboo” take on a quasi-ritualistic feel, and the song is no doubt bound to inspire more to join the ranks of Blanco’s “militia”.
Download "Booty Bamboo" here.
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26 Dec 2013 — Evelyn Malinowski
The Boy and Sister Alma are yet another female singer/male producer group we'd like to introduce you to. They take on new age, synthwave structures familiarized by CFCF, School of Seven Bells, Dungeonesse, and, at times, like in their debut EP's closing track “Brightly,” the Arcade Fire. The musical rather than the vocal side of their production is convincing and engaged, archetypal but unpredictable, and, above all, cozy.
What makes TB & SA unique apart from their cozy musicality is that they broadcast from Helena, Montana. While it is the capital city of our gorgeous state, it is rarely seen as a hub for music.
Locally known as Jennifer Murphy and Lenny Eckhardt, TB & SA surpass the external expectations of Montana's – especially Helena's – alternative culture. Featured song “It's You” glows heartsickness. It marches with a warm melody backed by cello and a pleading chorus which overrides the need for more than one verse: it is a humble masterpiece, haunting like the way living in Helena is living only on Sundays. Other songs like “Lizard Eyes” and “The Devil” will take listeners to a wintery dance party in a barn, to some location where such beats were never thought to be found, which accents a semi-alternate dimensional experience. TB & SA have also just released a Christmas song which embodies the same aforementioned glowing hauntedness and a generally impressive command over the synthscape.
You can stream the whole EP here.
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24 Dec 2013 — Parker Bruce
One third of Montreal group, Syngja, Aleks Schürmer, hosts concerts in Montreal under the awesome name, Rich Uncle-Skelleton. Just in time for Christmas, he's made a mix called "Bone Soup for Christmas" for The House of Grizzly Andrews, an arts house in Montreal officially launching in the spring that helps to fund artists' projects as well do their own projects. Schürmer said the mix was for all the art kids he knows who were leaving their art families to go back to their real families for Christmas. There's Syngja's now pretty much classic, "Pink Prism," with its unforgettable "you can't just leave a good thing" lyric as well as something from d'Eon's "Blackout (Music for Keyboards Vol. IV)." It also has amazing Montreal duo UN on it as well as ¡FLIST!, Bantam Wing, a remix of The Baby-Sitters Club theme song by Schürmer himself, and a bumping Hua Li chopped and screwed take on an Akua song. It all ends with the surreal "God Is An American" by Jean-Pierre Ferland which sounds like the theme song to a 70s cop show, a Broadway show tune, and a church hymnal all at different points. In other words, it sounds like a song on "Yeezus." It's the perfect ending. Stream the mix below and download it here. Tracklist below.
Peyotiki "Sunflower"
Syngja "Pink Prism"
Akua "Gravity (Hua Li 化力 Chop & Screw)"
Rich Uncle "Babysitters Club Theme (Parker bb Remix)"
d'Eon "The Birds Eat Our Corpses"
Mourning Coup "Eye'll Be Your Mirror"
Bantam Wing "You Keep Going On"
Dirty Organs "All Kinds"
UN "Wicked Child"
¡FLIST! "Tuberculoma (Live)"
Jean-Pierre Ferland "God Is An American"
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24 Dec 2013 — Tonje Thilesen
Here's a lush track from London based producer Flecs, just because you know, it's Christmas eve, there's a storm outside, and I have nothing else to do than browsing through music submissions. No, but seriously though, it's a good one, even with the rather predictible (and strangely familiar) vocal samples aside. But it works for me. Merry Christmas.
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23 Dec 2013 — Andi Wilson
One of my favorite current publications occurring in Brooklyn right now is The Le Sigh. This strong group of ladies are killing it in every aspect by covering feminism through new music, zines, features on rad local women/artists, beautifully curated mixes, and an abundance of interviews. In November, the site announced "The Le Sigh Vol. 1" on cassette with a zine released and printed through Birdtapes, the unstoppable and newly one-year-old label . The mix features a soft (A) and hard (B) side featuring some of the best twee, lo-fi pop, and punk female acts happening right now. Get ready to cry a little, crack a smile, and sway around your room. I wish I could have heard these songs when I was seventeen; dealing with highschool boys, rebelling from my parents, and smoking that very first cigarette.
The tape and zine are sold out, but now available to stream and download below. Some of us from No Fear of Pop were able to attend the release party at Silent Barn in Brooklyn last month and had the time of our lives while watching Whatever, Dad, Baby Mollusk, Lizard Kisses, and Frankie Cosmos! We wish the best to the lovely Le Sigh gals and can't wait to see what the future holds for them.
The Le Sigh Vol. 1 Tracklist:
SIDE A
1. "Nessa's Theme" - Whatever, Dad
2. "Empty Hands" - Baby Mollusk
3. "Being Cool Is Super Hard" - Morgan Spaner
4. "Duh" - Infinity Crush
5. "Apart" - Yohuna
6. "See You Soon" - R.L. Kelly
7. "Dark Skies" - Frankie Cosmos
8. "Little Things" - Lizard Kisses
9. "Find Me" - Winter
SIDE B
10. "Never What You Wanted" - Bam! Bam!
11. "Fuck It" - Numb Bats
12. "Dream Lover" - Love Cuts
13. "The Spins"- Potty Mouth
14. "Open My Eyes"- Burnt Palms
15. "Ice Age" - Loveover
16. "Sweetie" - Tomboy
17. "Watch You (Party Mix)" - Priests
18. "No Right" - Young Trynas
19. "Le Sigh (Theme Song)" - Mannequin Pussy
Photos by The Silent Barn and Jeanette Wall
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17 Dec 2013 — Andrew Wagner
Berlin husband-and-wife duo UMA has just released a strangely enchanting new video for the Claude Speeed remix of their track “Vanity”. The original “Vanity” is a song that’s at once delicate and dangerous, with singer Ella delivering the vocals as though in a trance. In its casual darkness, the track conjures up moving through a city late at night, when the streets feel both peaceful and eerie in their isolation. While the Claude Speeed remix feels similarly suited for the late-night hours, his take on “Vanity” brings you to a dark and foreboding dance floor rather than the city. Speeed’s version adds powerful, booming bass synths while pitching Ella’s vocals down an octave or two and chopping up other of her vocals into rhythmic elements. There’s something oddly unsettling about the way Speeed manipulates the original track, mirrored by the grotesquely beautiful, grainy black-and-white video. In it, a man and woman (Ella and her husband Florian) rub their faces against a plane of glass. Mouths, noses and flesh become squished and distorted into strange forms, their bodies becoming uncanny in the process. If some gorgeous shots of pigeons flying away suggest a sliver of hope in “Vanity’s” otherwise hopeless soundscape, the last shot, of Ella’s face multiplying and then degrading, ends the track on a purely bleak note.
Watch “Vanity (Claude Speeed Version)” below. A full LP is forthcoming from UMA via Seayou Records in early 2014. Get the digital single of "Vanity" over here.
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16 Dec 2013 — Lukas Dubro
People with a heart for experimental music are having a great time at the moment. Not only did sound ecologists Oneohtrix Point Never and Laurel Halo drop two fabulous albums in the last months and did star producer Burial upload a new fantastic EP last week; Bill Kouligas' dancefloor/experimental imprint PAN also got back to life with some great releases lately, most significantly Heatsick's sophomore LP "Re-Engineering".
Today, two well known faces are gonna return to PAN with new albums for the label: producer Jar Moff from Athens and Osaka-based musician and drawing artist NHK'Koyxen. While Jar Moffs second full-length album Financial Glam is said to feature "carefully wrought collage music, crafted from samples and field recordings" with comments on the politicial situation in Greece, NHK'Koyxen will pursue his dancefloor explorations on the third part of his Dance Classics series.
A prove for that is "762", the final track of NHK'Koyxen's eight-track LP. Here, the Japanese artist creates avant-garde techno music using highly resoluted and therefore ear-cutting sound samples and shakers and deeply pulsating bass and drums. Check it out below.
Jar Moff's Financial Glam and NHK'Koyxen's Dance Classics Vol. III are out today on PAN.
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13 Dec 2013 — Andi Wilson
Brooklyn-based producer, Landon Speers under the moniker of Headaches causes us to double-take at our end-of-year track lists with a calming, ambient, yet dance-able track titled "Snacks". The most loveable part of Headaches as a project is how unprestigious and humble his tracks are. They always have a sense of truly being for the listener and release an orb-like energy that can fill a room with harmony, especially when performed live. If you were lucky you might have even caught a Headaches set during his tour with Purity Ring last year.
With the enjoyment of being surprised, there will be a plethora more of self-released tracks to come from Headaches in 2014, which we are more than eager to hear.
Hope you're hungry. Stream and download below.
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