26 May 2014 — Parker Bruce
Around this time last year, we premiered a song by Montreal band Police Des Moeurs called "Tu As Honte Parfois," and now they are back, doing a split 12" with another Montreal band, Essaie pas (a duo that features Marie Davidson who put out the "Perte d'identité" song not long ago that was played on the No Fear of Pop radio show). The two groups are a match made in heaven. Both songs sound pointedly macabre and are very talky (in the vein of "Perte d'identité"). "Je Te Montrerai" (meaning "I will show you," thank you Google Translate) buzzes and fuzzes kinetically about in a bobbing manner while "Retox" jostles, undulates, flinches, volleys, lollygags, and fidgets ever so slightly along like a Trust song (perhaps most specifically the also talky "This Ready Flesh"). Both songs remind me of Vive la Fête's "Exactement" and "Noir Désir".
The split is available June 17th on the always good Atelier Ciseaux. Pre-order now here! Bring on the cruel summer.
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23 May 2014 — Henning Lahmann
Proud to present the debut album release show of one of Berlin's most remarkable new projects, UMA aka RBMA alumn Ella Zwietnig together with husband and partner in crime Florian, formerly of now defunct art electronics group Mediengruppe Telekommander. To be released via Vienna-based imprint Seayou Records on June 6, the self-titled LP is set to build on the duo's superb string of singles and EPs that were dropped since UMA's inception in late 2011 – be sure to check out their latest single "Depart" below, a perfect example of their sweet blend of intricate arrangements and sophisticated vocal arrangements.
For the party, UMA will be joined by NFOP darlings Phoebe Kiddo and Easter, resulting in a lineup that gathers some of Berlin's most extraordinary fresh talents, so don't dare to miss out on that opportunity. The whole affair is going to happen at Loftus Hall on Wednesday, May 28. More details on the event can be found over here.
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23 May 2014 — Kelsie Brown
Yet another outstanding release via our favorite Vancouver experimental electronic label 1080p. Madison, WI's Joel Shanahan (whom we also know as Golden Donna) is at it once again with a new project, this one called Auscultation. We're excited to share the first dreamy sounds. "Laces" follows a funk-heavy rhythm, overlaid with glittery synth arpeggiation at times, and other times drifting closer to minimal techno. The overall sound is quite contemporary, expecting no less considering the artist and label.
"Laces" is taken from Auscultation's 7-track self-titled release, out June 3 on cassette and digitally via 1080p.
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22 May 2014 — Henry Schiller
M.E.S.H. is a dancehall mystic, channeling the friendly spirits of warm urban nights and weekends into tangible rhythmic heaps. Brief and dazzling as well as enveloping; thumping, dungeonous drums link into parsed segments of lazy summers and late evenings buying Gatorade and deciding whether to stay out or go back home. We could go either way, and M.E.S.H. would provide the requisite soundtrack. On “Imperial Sewers” the Berlin producer seems to relax listeners into the throes a technological frenzy, infusing rhythmic club music with tidal washes of R&B and electronica.
M.E.S.H. has an ear pressed firmly to the fixtures of global dance music, and is able to make even the most remote and obscure of influences sound local. “Imperial Sewers” carries its accomplishments in its title: far below street level, the untouchable splendor of a distant class finds itself mixing, ultimately and magnificently, into the familiar, the comfortable, the immediate.
The Scythians EP is out June 6 on PAN.
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21 May 2014 — Henning Lahmann
Delighted to present a night of supreme experimental music together with our friends at CTM Festival, next Monday, May 26th, Cameron Stallone aka Sun Araw will enter the stage at Urban Spree for a very special night together with legendary New York artist Laraaji. Aside from both performing their own sets in support of new LP releases (needless to say, we highly recommend you check out Sun Araw's recent album Belomancie), the two are going to join forces for a unique collaboration named "The Play Zone", a live rendition that melds meld zither, electronics, acoustics, and outernational sound sources for a spiritually charged psychedelic experience. The great Alex Grey aka Deep Magic and DJ Purple Image will complete the night with a DJ set.
We're giving away 1x2 guest list spots for the show. Simply send an email with the subject "Play Zones" to submissions@nofearofpop.net before Friday, May 23rd, at 3pm CET. Find out more about the event here and get pre-sale tickets over at koka36.
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20 May 2014 — Richard Greenan
Brighton producer The Nag's Head (aka Stephen Maskell) returns after the brutal kaleidoscope of 2013's Live From Concrete Island, with a new EP of "metallic cloud voodoo". While Maskell's deep affection for jungle and blues is still on show, Luxury Slime Vortex is certainly a colder, more foreboding proposition than last year's tape. The title track goes off like a grenade in a biscuit tin, all buckling metal and half-submerged Miami Bass chants, before eating itself in a tangle of nitrate film. Awesome stuff!
You can download the whole EP here.
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20 May 2014 — Parker Bruce
Last year, London duo Yola Fatoush released a charismatic album, Up Out Of It, on Time No Place with that amazing twirl of a track, "Vibrant," on it. Later in the year, they put out more: "Secret" and "Skeleton" with giddy and pumping A.G. Cook and Divoli S'vere iterations. And now they have put out a JoJo-referencing (in title at least) track, the teetering to-and-fro, "Get Out (Leave)." Sounding like Kelis' equally urgent 2006 track, "Blindfold Me," as well as M.I.A.'s stop-and-start, herky jerk "Pull Up The People," "Get Out (Leave)" is a combination of posh singing with rough and tumble beats which is the zone Yola Fatoush like to operate in (as evidenced in their recent mix for Berlin party Creamcake). Really can't wait for what these two will give us next.
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19 May 2014 — Parker Bruce
Last month, thanks to Stellar Kinematics, Montreal's Mathematique presented the Feel EP, and it has become a bit of an NFOP favorite with loping, zipping "Summer, But I Don't Know" being played on the NFOP radio show on Berlin Community Radio a little while ago. Now we have the video for that track, directed by Jason Harvey (just like the Antoine93 one earlier today), who's done videos for Mac DeMarco, No Joy, Majical Cloudz, and Alex Calder as well. The majority of the split screen (sometimes triptych-employing) video is set in a mint pastel room with Mathematique and two friends dancing around with close ups of, among other things, various potted plants (very Bok Bok verdant), a laptop open on a chair "playing" the song, falling green jello, an old amusing flip phone that is opened on a stool, water gushing over rocks, and Mathematique balancing a bowl on her head. It all comes off as a small-scale version of New Radicals' "You Get What You Give" 1998 video.
Mathematique's Eurotour starts on May 24th in Kraków with a June Berlin date with other NFOP fave, Magic Island, on the bill as well. Bon Voyage!
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