23 Jul 2013 — Kelsie Brown
London-based newcomer record label PC Music, "Personal Computer Music", has quietly and rapidly been releasing a stream of hyperactive dance music. The latest of these comes from London producer Danny L Harle, who, strangely enough, is more known for his work in acoustic and electronic classical composition. Maybe it's because of Harle's background in traditional composing that "Broken Flowers" is one of the catchiest pop songs we've heard in quite some time - and one that defies genres. Elements of house and vaporwave are mixed in underneath a top layer of repetitive, high-pitched vocals, while it's quite undeniably its own thing.
Stream/download "Broken Flowers" below, and listen to the rest of the PC Music catalog over on their website.
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23 Jul 2013 — Henning Lahmann
Sadly, it's not that prime San Francisco producer Avalon Emerson drops new tracks all that often, but when she does, you may rest assured that we will take a very close listen – because you know that her work invariably hits just all the right spots. Check out this brand new 'cybernetic edit' of "The Other Day", the closing track of Blue Hawaii's lovely LP Untogether, released earlier this year on Arbutus. As usual, this rework arrives in dancefloor-ready fashion, without however feeling the need to entirely abandon the original's blissful melancholy. So in fact, you may want to kiss your loved one in between two steps. Or just secretly cry while dancing. Up to you – in essence, this one should come as another reminder that this is, or indeed rather should be, a free world. Thanks for this one Ms Emerson.
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22 Jul 2013 — Parker Bruce
So I feel the only way to start this post is by saying that this new Keep Shelly in Athens song, "Recollection," is the best thing they've ever done. The beat comes out lollygagging here and there, clipping and clomping, snipping and snapping. It's similar to what Shelly's Cascine labelmates, Airbird & Napolian, did on their single "In the Zone"/"Special" from May where the clip of the beat is grounded yet clacking. It kind of reminds me of how Britt Julious described Dungeonesse's music a few months ago. Keep Shelly in Athens' debut album, At Home, will be out on Cascine on September 17.
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22 Jul 2013 — Evelyn Malinowski
Upon the first slamming drum beat in Katie Gately's “Last Day,” and the crackling, sweeping-glass-up off-beat dragging behind, we are reminded of the contemporary mood of intelligent dance music as well as recently resurrected dark electronica provided by Perc, Forest Swords, and Miles Whittaker. The quivering vocal loop zooms in to quite poignantly adorn the factory floor dissonance while the greater structure of the dreamy track is successfully spotlighted: synthesis of polar elements and textures. Metal and water. Fire and ice. Atheist techno drone and ephemeral vocals?
Female vocal loops is a style familiarized by the likes of Julianna Barwick, or, if applying dance beats, Grimes, and timelessly, always to some mentionable extent, Liz Fraser of the Cocteau Twins can be placed as influential. Gately's voice falls into the same octave range of High Places' Mary Pearson, a neighboring Los Angeles dance duo who mostly participate in faster, less intellectually straining sounds. Yet, uniquely, what we experience with “Last Day” is a deliberate remaining in an ominous uncertainty. The track picks up assertively while lingering for the rest of its duration.
Alexander Stewart's textural, gestaltist video is accurately representative of materials – and primary colors – opposed to each other. Climbing up the screen we see jagged lines which recapitulate mountains. Lain on top are slowly revolving solid colored and gauzy spikes that remind us of both sharp edges of which to beware, and altitudinal convection. We are struck with empirical memories of things that can penetrate and pinch the skin, especially within an atmosphere of manual labor. Perhaps Stewart's images echo Gately's perspective on the southern California mountains rolling out of the desert to finally meet the ocean. Regardless, it is safe to infer that Gately is somewhat reverent of machinery.
Katie Gately's self-titled debut on Public Information is out September 2nd. Pre-order now here.
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22 Jul 2013 — Henning Lahmann
New York-based imprint Styles Upon Styles is slowly but massively setting new standards in the wider genre of experimental yet dance-inclined electronics with the impeccable Bangers & Ash series, a concept that is only getting more and more convincing with every new release – if you don't know yet how it works head over here. For its fourth edition, the label folks have seeked out Portland's Kevin Palmer aka Best Available Technology, a truly thrilling young artist who was last seen dropping a superb tape on UK label Astro:Dynamics a little while back. Before his BASH EP comes out August 26 however, the opening track of the EP's a-side, "Bulldozer Rituals" – which was premiered over at The Fader the other day – is being released as a single today, and we're happy to exclusively present to you its flip side, a clattering, smashing remix by BASH alumni Clay Wilson. Take a listen below.
Get the "Bulldozer Rituals" single with both tracks over here.
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22 Jul 2013 — Henry Schiller
Alligator Indian have just released a new song and it might be the best thing I’ve heard this month. On “Corpsing” the avant-pop duo give Avey Tare a run for his money in terms of making music that could score the LSD episode of Scooby Do and the 13 Ghosts. The digital arpeggios and electronic drums on “Corpsing” are reminiscent of something you might find in a Playstation-era Final Fantasy game. It’s the vocals, which are both classically elegant and reeking with the haunt of a swampland tomb, that truly frame the world “Corpsing” has crawled from. Choruses explode with pitch-shifted vocal bolts that cover for low, distressing howls who drag you down into the bog.
“Corpsing” is the perfect soundtrack to an autumn afternoon in a graveyard, or a midnight séance in an English garden. Alligator Indian’s upcoming EP, the Talking Heads referencing More Songs About Animals and TV, is out September 17 on Bleeding Gold Records.
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19 Jul 2013 — Henning Lahmann
Few forthcoming releases this year keep us in suspense as much as the widely anticipated sophomore full-length by UK-based Matthew Barnes' Forest Swords, Engravings. The staggering "Thor's Stone" was a welcome reminder of what we found so exciting about this project back in 2010 in the first place, but it is second teaser "The Weight Of Gold" that really hits home, and it is further prove that there is no one else out there with such a distinct, all-encompassing and original sound right now. The track's buildup is much more than a mere signature of an artist who really knows what he's aiming at with his work; the effortlessly sophisticated arrangement and the composition's supernatural spirit, which steers away from ever becoming insipidly mystical or ethereal, both enfold the listener completely, carrying her away into remote spheres of the unconscious. "The Weight of Gold" might well be one of our favourite tracks of 2013 so far, and that does indeed mean something: consider us mind-blown.
Engravings is out August 26 via Tri Angle.
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19 Jul 2013 — Henning Lahmann
Lindsay Powell aka Fielded's fantastic latest full-length Ninety Ninety Thirty has been haunting us for a good while now already, yet even a couple of months after its release, the whole project apparently is still capable of surprising us. Below, we're happy to premiere the video for album closer "My Hand, Meant Only For You", a song that starts with twisted synth noises and an unsettling voice before Powell's pervasive singing weighs in to give rise to the unfolding of another baroque, exuberant opus, focusing on the music's beauties without ever completely releasing the initial tension. The accompanying visuals, directed by Alice Millar and starring Isaac Ledesma, feel all too appropriate despite being not overly subtle towards their subject-matter; yet even though we might have seen such mise-en-scène before, this particular realization comes across as particularly convincing and forceful, creating a dense and irresistible atmosphere.
Ninety Ninety Thirty is out on Captcha Records. Order your copy over here.
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