Heritage.

19 Jun 2010 — NFOP

Apparently there's something going on these days that has put South Carolina on the map of everyone who loves blissed-out, blurred and synth-heavy bedroom dream pop, with artists like Toro Y Moi, Coma Cinema, Phillip Oscar Augustine, and Top Girls, probably to name but a few.

Persona La Ave is Dylan Dawkins from a town in that certain state called Florence, and it appears as if felt the urge to pay homage to the musical heritage of those South Europeans that are most likely responsible for his hometown's name, at any rate this morning Dylan sent over this splendid track which is a remix of a tune by Italo Disco veteran Gazebo that he "chopped up and slowed down", in his own words, and indeed it is a treat, all sticky late night nostalgia, cheap bars and sleazy girls. Brilliant.

Persona La Ave - gazebo3 Read more →
Apparently there's something going on these days that has put South Carolina on the map of everyone who loves blissed-out, blurred and synth-heavy bedroom dream pop, with artists like Toro Y Moi, Coma Cinema, Phillip Oscar Augustine, and Top Girls, probably to name but a few.

Persona La Ave is Dylan Dawkins from a town in that certain state called Florence, and it appears as if felt the urge to pay homage to the musical heritage of those South Europeans that are most likely responsible for his hometown's name, at any rate this morning Dylan sent over this splendid track which is a remix of a tune by Italo Disco veteran Gazebo that he "chopped up and slowed down", in his own words, and indeed it is a treat, all sticky late night nostalgia, cheap bars and sleazy girls. Brilliant.

Persona La Ave - gazebo3

You left me adrift.

18 Jun 2010 — NFOP

The first time I wrote about Niki Smith a couple of weeks back, I had to admit that I knew close to nothing about except for the fact that she was living in Brooklyn and that she had written this more than beautiful song Revenge of the Sun. However, with some myspace mailing accomplished, now there are actually quite a few things about this very talented 21 year old I could tell you (even who the guy in the picture was), but I'm gonna limit myself to some hopefully essential facts, for instance that Bingo Pajamas is Niki's solo expression that's been going on for quite a while now (Revenge of the Sun and the whole album Shidiot were already written when she was only 18), she has another band named Reynard and Vixen that however apparently doesn't have a myspace yet (I hope they'll change that soon) which actually has priority.

Ms. Smith is a Colorado native and an old (via highschool) affiliate of the Fort Collins, Co posse around Matthew Sage aka the great M. Pyres and his amazing Patient Sounds label. A few days ago, just before shutting down the office temporarily to go touring on the East Coast, Matt blessed us with the first Patient Sounds Sampler which is free to download right here. And listening to this wonderful mixtape yesterday, I more or less accidentally stumbled across an obviously brand new track by Bingo Pajamas, another fair and beautiful and innocent little song, but at the same time it's more than obvious that in the past three years and supposedly since she's arrived in Brooklyn, Niki has made considerable progress as regards songwriting and recording techniques (even though she might have had some help on this one). In any case, this one's a captivating wake up call.

Bingo Pajamas - Loose City Birds

Read more →
The first time I wrote about Niki Smith a couple of weeks back, I had to admit that I knew close to nothing about except for the fact that she was living in Brooklyn and that she had written this more than beautiful song Revenge of the Sun. However, with some myspace mailing accomplished, now there are actually quite a few things about this very talented 21 year old I could tell you (even who the guy in the picture was), but I'm gonna limit myself to some hopefully essential facts, for instance that Bingo Pajamas is Niki's solo expression that's been going on for quite a while now (Revenge of the Sun and the whole album Shidiot were already written when she was only 18), she has another band named Reynard and Vixen that however apparently doesn't have a myspace yet (I hope they'll change that soon) which actually has priority.

Ms. Smith is a Colorado native and an old (via highschool) affiliate of the Fort Collins, Co posse around Matthew Sage aka the great M. Pyres and his amazing Patient Sounds label. A few days ago, just before shutting down the office temporarily to go touring on the East Coast, Matt blessed us with the first Patient Sounds Sampler which is free to download right here. And listening to this wonderful mixtape yesterday, I more or less accidentally stumbled across an obviously brand new track by Bingo Pajamas, another fair and beautiful and innocent little song, but at the same time it's more than obvious that in the past three years and supposedly since she's arrived in Brooklyn, Niki has made considerable progress as regards songwriting and recording techniques (even though she might have had some help on this one). In any case, this one's a captivating wake up call.

Bingo Pajamas - Loose City Birds

All the leaves are brown.

18 Jun 2010 — NFOP

I don't know what you're up to this weekend, but chances are high you will not listen to something more blissful, infectious and summer happy than this brand new little tune by LA's Ghost Animal. Hazy fuzzed out surf pop near perfection, needless to say any more.

Ghost Animal - California Summer pt. 1 Read more →
I don't know what you're up to this weekend, but chances are high you will not listen to something more blissful, infectious and summer happy than this brand new little tune by LA's Ghost Animal. Hazy fuzzed out surf pop near perfection, needless to say any more.

Ghost Animal - California Summer pt. 1

Blog sensations.

17 Jun 2010 — NFOP

The NME's most decent figure Jaimie Hodgson already knew back in April that Cleveland's Nick Tolar aka Herzog is one of those artists in contemporary North American music that give the term "alternative" new credibility. Don't know if that matters, but in any case, Tolar makes wonderfully lo-fi jangly garage pop that still manages to sound at no point outdated or irrelevant. So I'm happy to announce that this morning, with the help of the infallible Delicious Scopitone I've found out that my favourite Londoners at Transparent (who were the first to rave about Herzog in January) are gonna put out Herzog's first full length Search on August 2, which is even more exciting given the fact that it's gonna be their first proper LP release, which kinda takes this wonderful little label to the next level.

You can pre-order the record now via Pure Groove and already purchase the digital version of this overly amazing effort via Herzog's bandcamp site, or first listen to two songs below.

Herzog - Living Alone

Herzog - Paul Blart And The Death Of Art

Read more →
The NME's most decent figure Jaimie Hodgson already knew back in April that Cleveland's Nick Tolar aka Herzog is one of those artists in contemporary North American music that give the term "alternative" new credibility. Don't know if that matters, but in any case, Tolar makes wonderfully lo-fi jangly garage pop that still manages to sound at no point outdated or irrelevant. So I'm happy to announce that this morning, with the help of the infallible Delicious Scopitone I've found out that my favourite Londoners at Transparent (who were the first to rave about Herzog in January) are gonna put out Herzog's first full length Search on August 2, which is even more exciting given the fact that it's gonna be their first proper LP release, which kinda takes this wonderful little label to the next level.

You can pre-order the record now via Pure Groove and already purchase the digital version of this overly amazing effort via Herzog's bandcamp site, or first listen to two songs below.

Herzog - Living Alone

Herzog - Paul Blart And The Death Of Art

I’ve felt you coming girl.

17 Jun 2010 — NFOP

Distant childhood memories, blurred pictures of carefree days in the sunshine, long gone smiling faces. Brooklyn's Patrick McIntyre, who usually plays drums for The Stoned Ambassadors, has a side project oddly named HOUNDds (he's got another, guitar-oriented one called The Joy of Painting), which unavoidably evokes such recollections, but in contrast to those hypnagogic pop/glo-fi artists, McIntyre remains truthful to original 80s synth pop, dreamy textures, discreet drum machine patterns and reverb-laden vocals that take the listener immediately 25 years back.

HOUNDds - Waiting 4U

Read more →
Distant childhood memories, blurred pictures of carefree days in the sunshine, long gone smiling faces. Brooklyn's Patrick McIntyre, who usually plays drums for The Stoned Ambassadors, has a side project oddly named HOUNDds (he's got another, guitar-oriented one called The Joy of Painting), which unavoidably evokes such recollections, but in contrast to those hypnagogic pop/glo-fi artists, McIntyre remains truthful to original 80s synth pop, dreamy textures, discreet drum machine patterns and reverb-laden vocals that take the listener immediately 25 years back.

HOUNDds - Waiting 4U

California penguins.

17 Jun 2010 — NFOP

Hailing from the mellow shores of Monterey Bay, Antarctica Takes It! are six incredibly young and sparkling people (though apparently it started more or less as a one man project by some guy called Dylan, ) devoted to joyful and harmonizing pop that still carries a subtle amount of delightful melancholia, somehow reminiscent of Belle and Sebastian and pretty close to what their transatlantic soul mates of Fanfarlo are doing at the moment. Antarctica Takes It! are getting very warm reception in the whole Bay Area right now, and listening to Constellations, the title track of their sophomore effort, it's not hard to see why.

Constellations will be released by How Does It Feel To Be Loved? on August 2. However, the album can already be purchased digitally via the band's bandcamp site.


Antarctica Takes It! - Constellations

Read more →
Hailing from the mellow shores of Monterey Bay, Antarctica Takes It! are six incredibly young and sparkling people (though apparently it started more or less as a one man project by some guy called Dylan, ) devoted to joyful and harmonizing pop that still carries a subtle amount of delightful melancholia, somehow reminiscent of Belle and Sebastian and pretty close to what their transatlantic soul mates of Fanfarlo are doing at the moment. Antarctica Takes It! are getting very warm reception in the whole Bay Area right now, and listening to Constellations, the title track of their sophomore effort, it's not hard to see why.

Constellations will be released by How Does It Feel To Be Loved? on August 2. However, the album can already be purchased digitally via the band's bandcamp site.


Antarctica Takes It! - Constellations

Summer in the city.

16 Jun 2010 — NFOP

Don't miss this wonderfully bright and cheerful new song by Memphis' up and coming Magic Kids, taken from their debut album Memphis, out August 24 on True Panther. Sunny pop for late summer evenings in the park. Go out, have a barbecue.


Magic Kids - Summer Read more →
Don't miss this wonderfully bright and cheerful new song by Memphis' up and coming Magic Kids, taken from their debut album Memphis, out August 24 on True Panther. Sunny pop for late summer evenings in the park. Go out, have a barbecue.


Magic Kids - Summer