Three days ago, a handful tracks were uploaded to the Soundcloud profile X❖X, quite annoyingly (but not very surprising) borrowing cryptic titles such as "n æ o" or "❍" (sigh), rumored to have appeared on Salem's website under the category "Other" shortly after. All though we cannot confirm or disconfirm anything as of yet, the mirrored Bandcamp page of X❖X (here containing slightly different material than on Soundcloud), the words "4 · S 4 L E M · L O V" appear in the description field of each release; some releases, with very few plays, dating back as much as two years. Be it new material under Salem or a Salem side-project (or simply just a hoax), the tracks are in fact quite interesting alone: sharper beats, patiently evolving synths and the same, distinct usage of strange, whispering vocals in the background, but overall, distinctively cleaner in its whole. Worth to give a listen anyways, we believe.
Influenced by 90s R&B, up and coming producer Matt Tammariello aka Shortcircles from Oakland, CA claims, "I try to make music that is as honest to myself as possible." From the very first listen it becomes clear just how calming and transporting this track is, creating an intriguing form of escapism for the listener. The track generates a sense of familiarity with us, and if, like me, you live in a big and crowded city, there are plenty of personal intonations one can unravel from it. The title itself acts like a direct relation to all the things that might go through the mind of a city-dweller, who absorbs artistic inspiration from the images around them.
Shortcircles captures the poignancy remarkably well with his music, in the likes of the much calmer singles of Faithless and the soothing music of Moby. "On my Mind" evokes the desire of taking a long walk around the city you inhabit, capturing the serene essence of the places and people surrounding you.
"On my Mind" appears on Between Waves, which is out July 2 via Plug Research.
To get this cleared up straight away, Michael Lawrence's video for "I Dream In Neon", a song from the Drifters part of Alex Zhang Hungtai aka Dirty Beaches' Drifters/Love Is the Devil LP - probably my favourite album of the year so far - was for the most part not shot in Berlin, as the New York Times claims, except for the driving scenes, as Alex confirmed via Twitter last night. The rest was filmed in Hamburg, which seems only too appropriate, as I could hardly imagine a more fitting environment for the song's bleak undertones than the city's gritty red light district in St Pauli and its yearning dockside streets at twilight. Due to my affiliation to both towns I'm probably highly biased, but let's just call it 2013's most wonderful video for now.
It has, undeniably, been a while since we heard anything new from the Norwegian techno duo Bloksberg, keeping in mind that Eivind and Jens-Ole are one of those proclaimed perfectionists; and if you happen to identify with this category as well, you might know that things sometimes take a wee bit more time than originally predicted. Nonetheless, we believe it was worth the wait. "Gamlebyen" builds up a classic string of beats that continously evolves in atmosphere, finally releasing the duo's utter strenght; their hidden beast, so to speak, making you want to dance like there's no tomorrow. Accompanied by Caleb Dunham's strange, internet-esque 3D graphics, the outcome pretty much speaks for itself.
Gamlebyen/Eufori is out now on 12" vinyl via Terrella Records (still no information about this imprint as of yet), so uhm, it can apparently only be purchased in select record shops (Tiger, The Garden, Filter Musikk and Big Dipper) in Oslo. Otherwise, it is also on iTunes.
Not sure whether this is part of any proper forthcoming release or whatever, but I'm really enjoying this latest track by Belgian hypno enigma Cupp Cave. The low-key murkiness and slow buildup of "Ecco" sports some pleasant Opal Tapes vibes if you know what I mean, although, to be sure, he's been doing this for longer than that label exists I guess. Check it out, it definitely suits the Berlin weather right now.
Without much any fanfare, Brooklyn duo Blondes just dropped their sophomore full-length Swisher, and suffice it to say right now that we are thoroughly surprised and incredibly excited.
Swisher is out now on RVNG Intl. Stream it in full below, accompanied by visuals created by Greg Zifcak, or order it now via bandcamp.
After dropping a glistening house 12" on LA-based NNF-offshoot 100% SILK, Melbourne native Rohan Newman aka Roland Tings did what you gotta do these days and took off to Berlin to soak up this city's fake-bohemian music scene. Unlike many of his compatriots, however, it turns out that he actually got something done while staying in town, and the key to that was, rather unsurprisingly, discipline: "Each day in mid-2012 at around 10am", so the story goes, he'd meet with his friend Nathan Savage at a studio "in an old converted governmental administration building next to a scrap yard on the canal" and "sometimes stopping by Berghain for a few hours on the way in", both probably just to perpetuate the cliché. Sorry for being a bit sarcastic, as there's actually no real need. The result of those morning sessions, Tings & Savage's Brain Foam EP, is a supreme instance of effortless yet sophisticated, immensely playful improvisation, naturally much rougher round the edges compared to Newman's Milky Way EP, landing in that unmarked territory somewhere between ambient, noise, and rugged techno that actually does not all too much sound like the city it was conceived in. Below, watch the aptly psychedelic video for EP standout "Sequins".
Brain Foam is out today on Vancouver's 1080p, Richard MacFarlane's new tape imprint which we introduced last week. Get the EP right here.
You know those old music boxes you have to wind up or those pull-string toys that play some jingle as the string is wound back in? They always slow down as the winding process begins to lose steam, and the time between notes stretches and slows like the song is being pulled apart from both ends.
"Burt", the closing track from the new Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk album, Think Tone, is a lot like what I would imagine a Beach Boys music box sounding like as that winding arm begins slowing to a stop. The buried drums chug forward underneath waves of rippling guitar strums, and those trademark BBDDM distant vocals stretch outward like smoke rolling off the ceiling and slowly filling the entire room. Despite the limitless number of varying effect options available to modern musicians, this band has always had a knack for choosing just the right ones to allow each instrument its own unique, ascending sound without ever allowing it to get away from that distant source that holds it all together.
You can listen to "Burt" below, and then, maybe, go listen to the other single "Saturday", and then you should probably just pre-order Think Tone on your choice of tape or vinyl from Brooklyn's Fire Talk , because, I tell ya, it is probably their best one yet.
