26 Sep 2013 — Henning Lahmann
Young Biella, northern Italy producer Nicolò Tescari aka Rainbow Lorikeet's experimental, noise-indebted techno wouldn't be out of place on any Opal Tapes release, though the climactic, turgescent arrangement on "Electrical Fauna", taken from the artist's brand new five-track EP Mind's Far Continents, hints at an indeterminate urgency that the acclaimed UK label's products sometimes lack – even if the five minute long piece does not find a resolution either, eventually deciding to collapse into oblivion. The accompanying video, made by Broken Machine Films and premiered here today, perfectly complements the music's uneasy dancefloor impressions. When all is said and done, the club is still a nightmare.
Mind's Far Continents is out on Seattle's Debacle Records. Get it over here.
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23 Sep 2013 — Parker Bruce
Montréal's Antoine Lahaie aka Dresden Dresses has a new video out for his song "Basalt", which was on his ☹EP last year. François Pisapia did it, and its protaganist is someone named Genova Girl (which is Lahaie wearing a full body suit painted by Julien Ceccaldi]). We follow her as she goes to a dentist appointment, smokes a fuck ton of cigarettes, walks around Montréal, goes to the awesome chain store Jean Coutu, and finally checks into a motel where she plays dress up and has a party of one, all whilst taking a bunch of selfies on a video camera and iPad. Watch the quite remarkable piece below.
You can still download ☹EP on the artist's bandcamp. Also, Dresden Dresses will be performing a show with SSION during POP Montréal next week.
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20 Sep 2013 — Parker Bruce
The video for NYC via Paris singer Petite Meller's new song "Backpack" is like an American Apparel ad directed by Jean-Luc Godard (see Pierrot Le Fou). On her Facebook she says: "Welcome to my lil ☠ Empire ☠! J♥'aime la philosophy, Lingerie et Le nuvo Jazzy pop." And indeed, "Backpack" has all that and more. Fittingly, one of the video's directors (the other is A.T.Mann) is an American Apparel photographer, Napoleon Habeica. In the beginning of the video, she reads aloud from a book, cigarette in her mouth, straw hat on head, sitting on a boat: "I dance the jazz with physical passion, real and surreal, terrifying and funny, nocturnal and diunrnal, usual and unusual, the tacky terror, the war and the madness, all those things, in my backpack." The piece has a slinky, a knife, dancing outside of a castle and in a chapel, and the awkwardness of a Wes Anderson movie. The song is very much in the Lorde vein, but this is probably my favorite description of her: "...she is often compared to a post-modern Mia Farrow with a Brigitte Bardot allure." Petite also fits in with Karley Sciortino, Myla Dalbesio, and Petra Collins (who is doing a t-shirt line for American Apparel – so you know). Basically, it all comes back to AA. Let's see what Petite will pull out of her 2013 equivalent of the Mary Poppins bag next since: "P E T I T E debut video 'NYC TIME'...was inspired by David Hamilton’s esthetics and represents the Voyage of rhythm to NYC."
You can snag "Backpack" on Petite's bandcamp page.
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17 Sep 2013 — Henning Lahmann
"About Singers" is an appropriately baroque and lavish introduction to Montréal-based singer Jef Barbara's forthcoming album, Soft to the Touch. Integrating classy elements of outspoken, unashamed glam rock, Barbara's pretty, gently melancholic croon is brought to the fore where it may shine, though the subject matter may come across as rather hopeless: 'But a few years from now / They won't be remembered', "About Singers" closes, quite a bleak statement to start an album with. The song's visual realisation doesn't mess around either. From its retro text overlays to the shooting's analogue feel and mildly drugged-out effects, everything's there that might make you roll your eyes upon first encounter. But a closer look reveals that this here is so much more than merely clichéed, much maligned shtick; this is genuine passion.
Soft to the Touch is out October 1 on Club Roll Music. The About Singers single is out now, with a Laetitia Sadier duet on the flip. Stream both tracks over here.
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04 Sep 2013 — Henry Schiller
Teen Beams is the recording project of Danish musician Niklas Langeland Pedersen, and below is the perhaps unofficial video for his song "Round the Cathedral". Sounding like a Cocteau Twins influenced version of Ducktails, "Round the Cathedral" takes me back to the halcyon days of 2009, when everything sounded like the mid '90s had been run through a flanger. There is a definite Smiths-influence on the guitar work that is audible beneath the effects, as well as on the song's gloomy-but-gorgeous aesthetic.
Do we move too quickly from one indie rock fad to the next? Are we, the music journalism community, crushing out genres before they even have the chance to grow? I'm not sure, but I do worry that people won't give Teen Beams a chance because his sound is a few years out of the mode. But "Round the Cathedral" is a fine piece of psych pop, and worth sullying your reputation as a forward-thinking music snob to get into.
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03 Sep 2013 — Ashley Canino
Popular Philadelphia freak folk outfit Norwegian Arms has released a video for "Wolf Like A Stray Dog," from their debut LP of the same name. The song is my personal favorite for the way it captures singer and mandolin player Keith Birthday (Brendan Mulvihill)'s experience abroad in thoughtful lyrics and frantic rhythms. The new video gets even more personal, featuring Brendan's father and family dog in moments of loneliness (or maybe just aloneness) and a race to home and family.
This video was produced by Out of Town Films. Wolf Like a Stray Dog is available for download here, and on vinyl, CD, or cassette from Big School Records.
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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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30 Aug 2013 — Andi Wilson
Fluid silkiness radiates from Lady Lazarus, moniker of LA singer-songwriter Melissa Aan Sweat. A new video for the track "Argosy" may have snuck past some of us early last week. Her folk-experimental nature lures you into a bohemian-esque world of ceremonial ritual. While sensing a whimsical ambience, the firm and repetitive piano chords comfortably drift us near a lucidly haunting dream. The entire aura of this piece drowns in beauty.
If you enjoyed "Argosy", check out the remainder of her album, All My Love In Half Light.
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