These people are from Brooklyn (where else) and make hipster crunk (what else). It’s fun for all your shameless, filthy dance parties. Enjoy.
Check them out with Major Lazer and Rusko in Philly on April 2nd!
Jan
30
Jan
25
My friend once told me something so right, he said to be careful of thieves in the night
Although they’ve always been one of my favorite bands, it is my personal assessment that Hot Chip can do no wrong. It doesn’t hurt that their last three albums are pretty perfect examples of thoughtful pop music that can make you dance and swoon at the same time (sounds like a hipster party to me!). Of course they keep the disco freshness rolling in, but there’s an added layer of quiet sentimentality that runs parallel to the playful blip-blop electronics they are so known for. Tracks such as Alley Cats (**best of album**) and Keep Quiet point towards a Hot Chip that is comfortable enough in their style to deliver delicately sung meditations on life between the dance parties. Hot Chip seems to have endured the test of time for our most scrupulous of generations, and continue to offer up innovative pop music that simultaneously defines and expands their sound.
Best tracks: to be honest, the only song that I haven’t played over and over (pardon the pun) is Slush.
Jan
11
This is sweet, carefree balearic pop from an enigmatic duo known as jj. Released on the lovely Sincerely Yours label (leading some to incorrectly assume it was a side project for members of The Tough Alliance), it turns out jj is Joakim Benon and Elin Kastlander of Sweden (big surprise). I was excited for jj since I first heard of them, mostly because I like beachy things and all their promo art had blood spattered on it. Much to my surprise their debut full length was quietly released and then quickly leaked in July; plus, with a blood spattered pot leaf as the design, it was hard to pass up.
This is a pleasant album, perfect for summer days and lazing around doing nothing for hours. However, once Pitchfork hopped on the jj train they blew it out of the water and made me not want to post this album. Although I thoroughly enjoyed this, I stand by my contention that this album is pleasant, no more no less. There is nothing wrong with pleasant, but it’s not life-changing. It’s just two artists with a quaint, deliberate vision, and that I think explains the surge in positive reception. It’s a work of unassuming beauty which caught the music world off guard with an understated sound that communicates so much with so little. Perhaps the recent popularity of bands such as jj and Honey Power faves the xx suggests an appreciation for a new aesthetic tendency in indie music, one that strips down sound for the sake of concept, content with the simple mantra, “less is more.” Fittingly, they are set to tour the US this spring with said artistic doppelgangers the xx. Be sure to grab their next LP, n° 3, out March 9th on Secretly Canadian (yes, jj are moving up in the world).
Jan
11
I think last time I posted about Gold Panda I only put up the Miyamae and Before EPs. As great as those are, I first heard about Gold Panda through single Quitter’s Raga, and the rest of the EP doesn’t disappoint. Here, Gold Panda carves out a nicely-defined sonic niche for himself, right between electronic acts the likes of Joy Orbison, Mount Kimbie, and Bullion. There’s texture, depth, and most of all, clean, crisply arranged beats that bounce. At just 11 minutes, it’s hard not to listen to this once and come right back for more.
Jan
11
This is pure sillyness. So silly. Tropical psych electronic from San Francisco. You might like this if you’re in art school, or wish you were. The great thing about electronic music is that no matter how strange it sounds you will dance to it if it has a good beat, and Lemonade never falls short on that front. Long story short: Sounds like Gang Gang Dance went to Ibiza.
Best tracks: Big Weekend, Sunchips, Bliss Out (remixes by Gold Panda and Rune Lindbaek)
Out on True Panther, which had a good year in 2009, featuring releases by Girls, Ty Segall, The Fly Girlz, Hunx and His Punx, and Glasser. Catch them as they tour the East Coast (US) this spring with These Are Powers.
Jan
11
I love Arthur Russell’s work, disco and avant-garde alike. Recorded during the years of 1985-1990, this material is culled from two albums, Corn, which was completed in 1985 but never released, and an abandoned Rough Trade album. I would describe the sound as avant pop with a serious disco sensibility. The album was released in 2004 so it’s actually kind of a new release, and even if the music itself is older it still sounds unique and contemporary. It’s the weirdest music to ever get stuck in your head, but music you’ll want to listen to over and over. The last song, “Calling All Kids,” is one of my personal favorites, if only for the refrain, “Grownups are crazy!” set to what Pitchfork describes as the noise from a digital keychain. You might dance, you might sway, or you might move in strange coordinated herky-jerky movements listening to this album. The whole thing is goofy, fresh, and kind of brilliant.
Jan
10
New Years Eve, 2009. As always happens around the end of one year/start of another, I begin to sift through the leftover albums that I once loaded on my iPod but never got a chance to thoroughly experience.
Sometimes you need comedown music. Around five thirty, most of us had burned out and were ready to crash, and someone in the house put Level Live Wires on repeat. This was the perfect end to a seemingly endless night of surprising adventures and sleepless social encounters. The music recalls the soft ambiance of early Broken Social Scene (Feel Good Lost era) and warm textural sounds from Kiln. Throw in some slow, monotonous rapping and breakbeat or two for good measure and you’ve got something close to Daedalus on downers. Walking around listening to this on my headphones, I couldn’t help but think that no album has ever made me feel so cool to be listening to music alone in a cold dark city. This dude has worked on the indie hip-hop label anticon and has remixed the likes of Boards of Canada, Notwist, and Nosaj Thing.
