The brains behind Copenhagen's brilliant imprint TAMBOURHINOCEROS have always had a weak heart for the transcendent, genre-melting pop music, being a popular home to band members from somewhat popular, danish indie ensambles, who at some point of the band's lifeline, decides to breathe life into their personal music projects. Following CTM from Choir Of Young Believers, the band's keyboardist and Oh No Ono member Nicolai Kleinerman is seemingly the next in line to move in the direction of avant-garde, conseptualized psych pop, carrying the name PRE-Be-UN.
Watch the video below featuring the oddly composed, however instantaneously captivating single "Mysteriously In Love", taken off PRE-Be-Un's debut album Clean Spasm set to August 19th on Tambourhinoceros.
changemod is the still fairly new side project by south Texas resident Nate McKee, who's probably better known as the man behind The Answer Page. Lingering in an uneasy state between uncanny ambience and more straightforward, electronically enhanced post-consensus pop immersion, the project's debut summer/summer EP explores the empty spaces that subliminally define our pseudo-urban existences in the 21st century. You don't necessarily need to call the characterizing mood depressive, but whatever the artist's principal intentions and inspirations that shaped this work, certain undertones will leave the listener with an unsettling awareness about life's precariousness. If that is exactly the kind of material that makes you turn towards pop music in the first place - and for us, it definitely is - then at least for today, look no further: simply take a listen below.
changemod's summer/summer EP comes with a bonus remix of the title track by Datahowler and is available as a free download over at bandcamp.
As reported before, The-Drum will release their first album, Contact, on June 25 via Audraglint, and here we get another amuse bouche, "Switch". It opens like a fairytale with a gong and a chimes, then later a slinky-going-down-the-stairs movement, a bulbous bowl of Jell-o or Flubber. Excitingly, the boys play their first New York show at Glasslands in Williamsburg on the day of the album's release – so be there.
The boys in Hausu caught our attention a while ago with their addictive new wave. The Portland group has been through a lot since then, signing to Seattle label Hardly Art and changing their sound to a heavier form. It's aggressive and raw, retaining essential bits of their post-punk influence, as heard in singles "Chrysanthemum" and "Learning Mess". We've been craving the sound of guitars lately, and Hausu's songs hit that note perfectly.
"Chrysanthemum" is taken from Total, Hausu's debut full-length coming out June 25 via Hardly Art on vinyl and Bridgetown Records on cassette.
Mannheim/Heidelberg DJ/promoter collective Blank has been busy over the last roughly one and a half years to establish a series of nights for ambitious and challenging electronic music in Germany's southwestern petty bourgeois heartland, an area not exactly famed for its forward-thinking underground club landscape (that's probably mean/wrong/ignorant, but I'll stick to it for now anyway). After featuring fresh international luminaries such as Disclosure, Mosca, or L-Vis 1990, the folks did the right thing and started scanning the domestic scene to come up with a couple of exceedingly talented producers who now share the honour to be part of Blank Tracks #01, a convincing compilation that showcases some of Germany's most promising new artists alongside a couple of quite well-known and already established musicians from all across the country. For some of them, it's even their very first material ever to be featured. Surely all names to keep a close eye on.
Blank Tracks #01 is out today. Stream it in full below and go here to download it for free.
Tonight, Berlin underground eminence Opium Hum once again invites us to Berghain for the fourth edition of his expertly curated N≠E (not equal) club nights, this time featuring live performances by Adam X as ADMX-71 and OAKE, plus perfectly balanced contributions on the decks by Kryptic Minds, Mondkopf, Douglas McCarthy, and of course Opium Hum himself. According to the organizers, "the N≠E series in Berghain fathoms the intersecting trajectories of sound research, dramaturgy, narration and affect in contemporary electronic music", so be sure to bring your mind as well as your feet.
To get an idea of what to expect, listen to some of the artists' material below, and check out the event details here and here. Believe us, it's worth tonight's line.
Forest Swords is an artist who needs no introduction. In his first release in two years, the Wirral/Liverpool-based producer channels Bo Hansson and deep gospel music. Sounds of the Renaissance are backed by eerie synths with brief and tense choral samples, creating a devastating, alarming, and dark track. Forest Swords knows how to make us feel like the wait was worth it, and we eagerly await his next move.
"Thor's Stone" is taken from an upcoming release through Tri Angle Records. Listen below:
The young, Chicago-based production duo Tsaik, consisting of Joshua (16) and Jacob (17) succintly came to our notice via a tip from Mister Lies, and leaving their young age aside (now that has already ceased to surprise us these days), we do indeed like what we hear. On "Tehraj", the duo peaks into an organically thriving soundscape of sample-heavy rhythms and bewitching atmospherics, proving to already have a unique talent in the pure aspect of composing.
