03 Sep 2013 — Parker Bruce
Okay so to be honest, I knew i was going to like this new demo, "Sightseeing," by Tokyo-based Teen Runnings aka Shota Kaneko because I love all things musically dealing with teenage life (see Beach House's "Teen Dream", obviously, Katy Perry's Teenage Dream, Teengirl Fantasy, A*Teens, Teen Witch, and everything Summer Camp has ever done -- and see BULLETT talk about the schoolgirl the other day, very related to the teenager). "Sightseeing" has revving, raring to go guitar that wafts and luau intimations. It harkens back to "Shimmy Shimmy, Ko Ko Bop" and at the same time, the current style of Dev Hynes. It's the perfect mix of new and old.
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02 Sep 2013 — Henning Lahmann
Haley Fohr's work is easily dressed in words. When I first came across the music she makes as Circuit des Yeux roughly two years ago, when she had released her compelling LP Portrait on the always excellent De Stijl Records, the attributes came up automatically. Dark. Eerie. Haunting. Uncanny. Bleak. You know the deal. In fact, you may leave it at that. Until you realise that Fohr's songs are not easy to grasp at all. Above the surely dominant melancholic underpinnings lie structures of cautious and fragile optimism, seeking for the kind of resolution that perhaps only this kind of intimate, introspective music can ever accomplish. This property of her art became most apparent in January of this year with her marvellous song "Lithonia", and it reemerges again in "Acarina", a track off of the forthcoming, fourth official Circuit des Yeux full-length Overdue. Albeit in a notably different gestalt: this time, a signifying moment of catharsis stays absent. Instead, the song meanders slowly, carried almost solely by silent, irresolute drums and a hesitantly plucked acoustic guitar. Rather than being blessed with a climactic arrangement that represents obvious redemption, what we are left with are the artist's challenging, increasingly menacing vocal experimentations that gradually take over, repeating the song's title over and over, before eventually collapsing into a sudden wash of static noise. In "Acarina", assurance might not be pushed to the fore; still, finally and subliminally, liberation awaits in the form of transcendence.
Overdue is out October 15. You may pre-order your copy now over here and check out Fohr's upcoming tour dates after the break.
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Sept 7 Chicago, IL – Constellation *RECORD RELEASE SHOW* #
Sept 21 Milwaukee, WI – River Public West^
Sept 22 Madison, WI – Dragon Fly Lounge^$
Sept 23 Minneapolis, MI – Cause^
Sept 24 Iowa City, IA – Trumpet Blossom^
Sept 25 Omaha, NE – Oleavers^
Oct 14 Chicago IL – Alhambra Palace*
Oct 16 St. Louis, MO – Old Rock House*
Oct 17 Columbia, MO – Mojos*
Oct 18 Springfield, MO – Outland Ballroom*
Oct 19 Norman, OK – The Opolis Norman*
Dec 19 Chicago, IL – The Owl
*with Bill Callahan
^with Spires That in The Sunset Rise
$with Bitchin Bajas
#with Ryley Walker
02 Sep 2013 — Trey Reis
In his recent interview with Ad Hoc Magazine, Ahnnu’s Leland Jackson described his new album, World Music, as “the next step creatively.” In a way, the statement frames all of his previous albums together, and in doing so, asks the listener to not only look at the distance between the new album and the previous one, but to make comparisons between everything he has ever released. And the list is growing. With how broad and far-reaching the sample material is on each album, it is no surprise how clear cut the new album title is. World Music. As the boundaries for sampled source material expands, the obscurity of the sample means less. This isn’t finding that drum break on one of the 500 copies of some rare 70s soul 45. No, these sounds were once familiar before being given the Ahnnu razor-cut treatment, but the result strips the context of every sample in a way that can blend material 60 years apart as if it were recorded in the same studio only yesterday.
There are certain albums in music history that people say span decades worth of a genre’s evolution. Ahnnu achieves the same effect, and it’s through tracks clocking in right at two minutes, if not less. Don’t pass this one up. It’s a subliminal summary of what you are missing when you listen to your music.
Listen to “Shame” from World Music below. The album drops on cassette via Leaving Records tomorrow, September 3.
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02 Sep 2013 — Parker Bruce
Jane Void and Wayne Doe are from Toronto and named Some Minor Noise. Last year, they released a really good EP that you can still get for free here. Their sound has palpable Crystal Castles, jj, and Purity Ring moments. Current track "Coffers" is never barrelling, always mulling, with Jane's voice reiterating "I left the city for the sunsets." What makes it good are the brassy synths that just mush into each other and very lightly, nimbly prance like they are trying not to get stuck in muck and fluttering, snipping drum pads hitting their marks (almost making you think a potentially bad drop is coming but it doesn't). A pair of ominous black boots apear throughout in the lyrics and are the causers of a violent end to the track. Really, truly psyched about these guys.
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02 Sep 2013 — Henning Lahmann
Our man Sean Bowie aka Teams has a new project, Yves Tumor, which he debuted tonight during his appearance at RBMA Radio Berlin, which started broadcasting live from Kreuzberg today and will continue to do so until the end of September. Check out the first week's program here.
"wrote a tribute song in honor of the Death of Summer 2013"
Check out "The Feeling When You Walk Away" below. Quite different and really rather awesome:
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31 Aug 2013 — Tonje Thilesen
In 2012, we received a new track from our San Fransisco-based friend Dan Casey (aka Yalls), explaining that he had recently recorded something 'a little bit different', as a part of a new side project, Steezy Ray Vibes. In the midst of my current Real Estate obsession at the time, "Empty City" hit me like a sudden, bright flash — a simple, yet so genuinely composed pop song both lyrically and production-wise, building up to an incredible hook. But even after the success with "Empty City", there was nothing more to be heard about Steezy Ray Vibes — well, that until very recently. Our buddies at Ceremony Recordings decided to follow up on the project, ending up in signing his full-lenght Empty City, however leaving out the Steezy name for his real one. "Empty City" might be one of my favourite tracks of the year, and that with good reason.
The LP is due to late October, download the track for free via NPR.
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30 Aug 2013 — Henry Schiller
Brooklyn's Tezeo are here to provide some wavy, baritone comfort for you, the gentle denizen of a post-apocalyptic world. At least that’s the general impression that I get from their new song “Violet.” This is a pop song that seems explicitly designed for a vast savannah that is pox marked with the overgrown ruins of western civilization. In more contemporary terms: this is Peter Gabriel’s So made intrinsic to an era of house music and violently electronic dance pop. “Violet” even seems to incorporate aspects of elevator music into its digital pastiche of spritely synthetic bubble bursts and textured rhythmic maneuvers. No, I’m not gushing: "Violet" is just that lush. Something to commemorate the kind of wacky '80s soulfulness that ultimately gave way to the industrial darkness of 21st century pop music.
Tezeo's self-titled debut LP is out October 8.
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30 Aug 2013 — Henry Schiller
In her video for "Ninja", Australian dub singer Banoffee shadowboxes in a buttondown shirt and hoodie, a look of detached agony on her face. Cut together with shots of Banoffee singing directly into the camera, Alice Glenn's video manages to capture the pain of telling off someone you might have once loved. There's a clear influence in "Ninja"'s swarming loops of Visions-era Grimes, albeit with a more subdued, London dub vibe. Banoffee's voice is direct and her falsetto creamy and expansive rather than shrill and thin. Check out the video for "Ninja" below; Banoffee's debut solo EP is expected to arrive within the next few months.
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