I don’t remember how I got this album, but it’s amazing. Super-fuzzed out drifting sonics, at times triumphant, at times just out for a good time…
flipping burgers, god, what have i done with my life? when i can shed this shame and retire to blurry comforts, i’ll put my ear to this noise and admire this empire of my teenage royalty.
<3 tracks: Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit, Teenage Royalty
Wow. It’s the best collaboration ever.
But you knew that when you saw the artists. What you didn’t know is how exquisitely original the final product would be. I say original because both the music of Four Tet and Burial rivals close to none in their respective styles, perhaps because those styles are so amorphous. Four Tet typically flits between IDM and experimental post rock, with influences ranging from jazz, lounge, dub, hip hop, and ambient music all thrown in. The seemingly endless array of inspirations are wonderfully filtered through the unique and hauntingly dark, echoing percussion of Burial’s bass-clicky dubstep. Two pioneers in their field create two tracks that fans of either will immediately recognize as a perfectly organic extension of their sounds. Staccato electronic sounds meet the ghostly remnants of thick dubby bass lines. It’s almost as if the album was written before they met.
But I’m glad they did.
The album/ep/single/project was limited to 500 copies and sold out fairly quickly after the pre-release info, despite no cover art or track samples. It’s almost like a black vinyl slab that came out of nowhere to change our world.
NO space (this is a one-time only affair)
CAN’T buy (because there were only 500 copies)
but you still MUST listen.
you can get an impression of EAR PWR’s sound from the album title…though the actual content is less 8bit and more electro pop, it’s hoppy, frenetic, energetic like a video game….especially one called SUPER ANIMAL BROTHERS!!! it’s just as fun as one too!!! even if you’re not a super animal bro., you can still jump around to this.
//—>
killin’ baddie sprites, via crushing force from jumping onto their heads, so hard that their souls are converted into points which accumulate towards the purchase of a new life of your own
amongst colorful (impossibly rich hues) backdrops of pixelated forests, over arrangements of inexplicably floating platforms in clear, bottomless seas inhabited by fauna that exist for the sole purpose of your destruction.
its a dangerous world, but you gotta save that princess!!
<—//
PS.
EAR PWR is playing @PILAM (PHILADELPHIA, PA // $8-10 // 8PM ) w/ ADVENTURE, TRTL SOUP, & THRUST LAB
= a blast
today i was looking for sp000000ky music to read to, but instead i found THE MINT CHICKS.
hailing from new zealand (holla alex) is this triplet of fuzzy sugary confections. a sing-a-long noise record. if you had kids on the real cutting-edge of sonics, these are the clowns and sounds for their birthday parties. [but they aren't childish, just fun.]
shove yr internet to theirspace
BONUS: they released an [free] ep, MINTUNES, with some 8bit covers of their songs
get it hurrrrr
(((2:20am)))
been ridin’ the electric week, the realization of summer is edging and though its got forms of heat its a sound i dig. synthetic blood rushes and wavy nights left my cranium a bit hollow, my eyelids are gonna be doin’ somersaults soon but before they start the show im gonna lift the veil on this gr8 album.
don’t know much about these guys. a pair of jeeves from up north (vancouver) with some noise rock sitch here. its the kind of album that doesnt have any instant “wow!” like man i ain’t heard these sounds before thing but when you look deep into it it’s well-crafted, energetic, and got some real passion to it. you (= me) can relate to it; it’s shit about girls & growing up and all that drama you’d think you’d leave behind in high school, but REAL TALK: everybody changes but the big-picture dynamic stays the same, whether its bare or if its buried under neat layers. but naw, its also a celebration of those gleaming moments of our youth //many still yet to come// that we reach back to, when everyday was the end of the world, and sometimes it was all we wanted, and sometimes it was the last thing on our minds.
This, Bitte Orca, is Dirty Projectors’ first release on Domino. Dirty Projectors is the continually evolving experimental music group masterminded by Yale dropout Dave Longstreth, located in Brooklyn with ties to Portland music scene via several consistent collaborators. At first glance this oddly sexual cover (maybe I just need to get my head outta the gutter) reflects the typically eclectic jumble of sounds and harmonies that burst out of a Dirty Projectors album. There is something simple and refined about the absent gazes of the covers’ two models (and bandmates), however, which speaks volumes about the changes within. This album marks the beginning of a more constant, firm (touring) lineup, and the ability of Dave Longstreth to package his esoteric, conceptual aesthetics for mass consumption, while retaining the integrity of his original vision. Still, though, you can’t label or define this music. It is experimental because it is whatever the fuck he wants it to be and serves whatever purpose or message he desires of it. There is an abundance of musicians and sounds on the record, many only appearing once or twice and then fading into the harmonious cacophony. Most impressive is the meticulous placement of this sort of instrumentation throughout the album. The change has come all over, with Longstreth discovering his ability to reduce sprawling experimental tendencies to fit into a conventional song structure with more understandable lyrics. Complex, layered vocal harmonies paired with electronic experimentation are wonderfully synthesized with the ramshackle instrumental samples apparently plucked from jam sessions that gleefully use a myriad of bell-and-whistle aural technology. It appears that it has taken Longstreth several albums to discover himself artistically, as interpreted musically. This album is how he communicates those years of tumultuous self-discovery to a large audience, bringing lessons and innovations that are sure to be applied by contemporaries and predecessors for years to come.
Dirty Projectors made a pop album to end all pop albums.
Favorite Tracks: Useful Chamber (!!!!), Stillness Is The Move, No Intention, Fluorescent Half-Dome, Cannibal Resource
LINK REMOVED PER LABEL/WEB SHERIFF REQUEST
Hunting tigers in your backyard, with re-appropriated modern junk as your garb and weaponry, littered with glimpses into crazy alternate universes where these tigers might actually exist. Otherwise, you are only a madman prowling through the freshly-cut lawns of idyllic suburbia, bringing down the values of all your neighborhood’s houses. FUCKER
Ah well this just goes to show you how backed up my posts are due to exams. Cymbals Eat Guitars is a completely new band out of Staten Island, NY, formed via Craigslist (oh yeah). They’ve started out strong with this, their debut effort Why There Are Mountains. At first listen it evokes the best of 90s jangly rock bands, with newer contenders such as The Walkmen bearing strong resemblance on more melodic songs. Overall, it is the type of non-confrontational but consistently innovative indie rock music we’ve become accustomed to, complete with the occasional Pavement-inspired raucous crash and slacker jam sessions that remind me of Dinosaur Jr. Full of garage band static fuzz and gentle noisy reverb, this is a summer album in bits and pieces, one you’ll blast at full volume driving down a highway and then again the day before school starts, looking at the sunset from a rooftop. It’s the type of album you listen to and wonder, ” hasn’t this been written before?” and it becomes instantly recognizable and comfortable. At its most anthemic, the album is the closest thing New York can ever get to a British Sea Power album. A classic, you might say.
Best Tracks: And The Hazy Sea, Some Trees, Cold Spring, Share, Wind Phoenix
Meanderthals are, according to Urban Dictionary, “People who wander around aimlessly and always seem to get in your way in stores and supermarkets, chatting on their cell phones and paying no attention to their surroundings.” So starts the last.fm description of this new dj/production outfit’s debut, though I myself prefer the second definition, “Conversationalist that wanders from one subject to another with no apparent point, never reaching the end of the story.” This album is a combination between Norwegian producer Rune Lindbæk and London disco sensations the Idjut Boys and was recorded live between Oslo and London. The end result? A slow, meandering mixture of folky acoustic atmospherics with a balearic sheen. It’s disco on its day off, taking a vacation from the dancefloors of the shores to summer in the fields with a midday picnic. It’s lazy, wandering electronic music that is as sunny//trippy as it is slow\\groovy, with influences ranging from psychedelia and krautrock to dub and lounge. Highly recommended.
For fans of: Studio, Quiet Village, D. Lissvik, Hatchback, Air France
Best tracks: Andromeda (Prelude to the Future), Desire Lines, Collective Fetish
I have been anticipating this album ever since I first heard of its planned release from Cosmic Disco. Perhaps it was its pairing with the above album cover, which showcases a subtly lascivious physique, which reminded me to pursue it. After I thought all was lost, I did finally get a hold of it and here it is. Afrobutt is the moniker of London-based disco-wonderman Stevie Kotey, who regularly releases leftfield electronic music on his own label, Bear Entertainment. This album, Kotey’s debut on UK label Electric Minds, is actually a collection of re-edits which cleverly combines dance styles across a spectrum, bringing disco back to the melting pot it always was. Throughout the record there is a strong calypso rhythm laced with afrobeat percussion, even as many tracks are solidly cosmic disco. Album opener Urgent Workout Required is a funky disco bouncer, and songs like Torro de Butt and Morning Bump can get pretty raunchy at times. The whole album is a bountiful collection of chuggy jungle beats with space disco fervor. It sounds at once fresh and timeless, like Lindstrøm covered by Daniele Baldelli. Make no mistake about it, it is disco to the core, and as tacky/wunderful as the cover may seem, the songs rival its glitzy splendor.
Best Tracks: Urgent Workout Required, Torro de Butt, Disco Mudma, Feast Your Eyes, Banger Disco, Morning Bump, Wunderbutt
This is a grrrreat! album // the debut album from London-based Golden Silvers. It’s dance-y and groovy, but in a very classy way…an album for a dance-cocktail party. At times it has a retro feel to it, reminiscent of older/early decades of pop. Often it will slow down, ya know, for those slow dances. But then it will be boppin’ again. On either face, it’s enjoyable, head/hip-swaying at the least.
Fav tracks: Another Universe, Queen of the 21st Century
ps. three tracks in a row are 4:07 long, and then another two in a row are 5:03 long…coincidence???
