Saturday 4 December 2010

2010 - what a year.


2010 has been a hectic year for music. As the last remnants of landfill indie finally slide away 2010 is a year where music isn't quite sure where the hell it's going. Dubstep has well and truly established itself as a mainstream form of dance music, Britain suddenly decided it loved folk and witch house was formed and then destroyed. 2010 has been a year where electronic musicians have really pushed things forward and have grabbed most of the critical acclaim. The synth is the new guitar, and the sampler the new drum kit. Katy Perry and Justin Beiber are the king and queen of the feckless masses and x factor is still churning out unoriginal chuds. It's been pretty crazy and totally awesome, so without further ado, here are the top 20 albums of 2010, as picked by Music for creatures.

20. Radio wire empire - drama

19. Mux Mool - Skulltaste

18. Darkstar - North

17. Wild Nothing - Gemeni

16. wavves - king of the beach

15. Tame impala - Innerspeaker

14. Mount Kimbie - Crookes and lovers

13. LCD Soundsystem - This is happening

12. Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner

11. Foals - Total life forever

10. Avi Buffalo - s/t

9. Shit Robot - from the cradle to the rave

8. These new puritans - Hidden

7. Bonobo - Black sands

6. Ólafur arnolds - ...and they have escaped the weight of darkness

5. Beach house - Teen Dream

4. Baths - Cerulean

3. Arcade Fire - The suburbs

2. Four tet - There is love in you

1. Caribou - Swim

I was going to write a short description about all of these albums, but i thought, this would be too time consuming for me to write and for you to read.
Have i been a fucking retard moron and missed out the best album of the year? Why not have a shout at me in the comments then?
Thanks for reading, 2010 has been great. So here's to 2011.

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Boston sounds.


Boston is fucking great.
In a city with 4 large colleges in such proximity, there is an endless supply of new musical talent being birthed there on a regular basis. Lurking in small, on campus venues or down in the basements of the permanently inebriated student population lies a collective of exciting new bands.
I went out to the streets of Boston to scope out the best of this fresh talent. Having spoken to the lovely people of local record store, Newbury Comics (to be honest "Newbury Records" would have been a less misleading name) and various shop owners I was kindly directed in the general direction of a few great unsigned gems and a few of the lucky bands that have somehow fondled their way onto a label.

The one band that half of Boston seemed to point me towards was Bad Rabbits. Intrigued by the buzz, I had a quick nosey at their myspace, and actually, they turned out to be pretty shit. Maybe if you're into funk and/or soul then they could be for you, but I just don't see the appeal in their clean cut, cheesy vocals and over the top choruses. If you do for some inexplicable reason feel the overwhelming urge to check them out then go for it, you might love what you hear, (if you've had your music taste surgically removed).

One of the more aurally pleasing recommendations I got was Faces on Film. Days away from releasing their second album "Some Weather" (Released November 2nd) it's a wonder how these guys haven't become big yet! I seriously recommend downloading their debut "The Troubles" for a lovely slice of good old fashioned, laid back, cool as fuck indie. Give em' a listen!

The strangely named Mr Sister are a 4 piece indie/folk setup who seem to be, as far as I can tell, quite popular in the Boston area. It's doesn't come as too much of a surprise really. Guitars, brass instruments and female vocals are nearly always a winning combination. I can't wait for an LP.

Finally, a pretty underground band in Boston, Lamps and Amps are pretty sweet, a mere 2039 profile views on Myspace at the time of writing, which i'm certain will pump your "indie cred" through the roof! Oh, and they also make pretty good music too. The only song I can find on the interwebs is "Pale blue eyes", which although lyrically is nothing special, you just can't argue with that voice! Get on it!

And so concludes my whistle stop tour of the Boston music scene, I'd love to tell you more, however i think i've rambled on enough for now, so I shall leave you with a short list of other nice bands the Boston scene has to offer.
The sun sets quick - rough around the edges garage-rock
Movers and Shakers - Actually I should have written more about these guys, they're pretty good. A nice fun band, sort of like reel big fish without all that horn nonsense.
Xiphoid Dementia - Industrial/ambient, this guy can make incredible soundscapes!

Sunday 17 October 2010

Two lovely Canadian bands.


So whilst on the internet i somehow stumbled upon American folk band The warped 45's. Turns out they're actually pretty rad! If you happen to be in the mood for some chilled out folk music with impressively soothing vocals then i guess you're in for a treat. Citing Wilco as one of their main influences, they have a knack for crafting simple yet effective songs with poignant lyrics.
So that's all rather lovely!

Whilst looking through Canadian bands I also discovered a great new band called Wildlife. These guys know how to make a great energetic atmosphere in their songs, it's real feel good music! Canada's more garage rock type take on our Los Campesinos! Supreme tunes!

That's all for now, but before you scamper off, have a look at www.beardrock.co.uk it's a new music reviews website, so take a look around and prepare yourself to be dazzled by the unique ratings system that involves beards.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner


Discovering a really special band is one of the most rewarding entities in life, for your troubles of trawling through magazines/record shops/the internet you are bestowed a gift that makes the hours of time spent more worthwhile than say, getting a girlfriend or maintaining some sort of socially acceptable standard of personal hygiene. Because when you find this amazing band/artist, it can change your life in a very special way, and the music becomes part of who you are.
Gold Panda, or Derwin (refuses to give a last name) is for me, a bit like a blanket. No matter what situation you are in, it complements it perfectly. Wrap up in the blanket that is Gold Panda and snuggle yourself up to the melee of hazy electronic soundscapes and the entrancing beats of his latest musical offering, "Lucky Shiner". An album recorded in essex that sounds more like the soundtrack to a summers day in the south of France.
The opening track "You" (my personal favorite track of the summer) epitomises the tone of the whole album with it's woozy fuzz reminiscent of the chillwave sound and that addictive sample manipulation, it's pretty much nail on the head in terms of an opening track. 1 track in and it's already apparent that this 28 year old east Londoner has an insane aptitude for crafting songs.
The production is second to none, thanks to James Shaw, of Simian Mobile Disco fame doing his job on the mixing desk.
The next set of tracks on Lucky Shiner keep the thing moving wonderfully and then you are hit by the jittery mash of synthesized marimbas on one of the albums standout tracks, "same dream china". The melodies bounce around of each other soulfully accompanied by crashing drums and more lo-fi synths. One thing that strikes me about this album is that there is no lull in the quality of the songs, and I find it problematic to pick out a favorite 3 tracks from an album that is just so great. So i'm not going to because this is one of those albums where you really ought to listen to the whole thing as if it were a single piece. An album as grotesquely good as Lucky Shiner is deserves true recognition, if it isn't in most "top 10" lists by the end of the year i'm going to be hugely disappointed. Six and a half minute long odyssey, India lately brings to the record a song with fantastic structure, demonstrating Derwin's aptitude when it comes to a more thoughtful approach to production. And after this daze inducing number we reach the tracks closer, "You" which is by all accounts a more refined and sophisticated sounding track than the opener. It brings to close an album that seems to gradually tire itself out as it goes along. Not to say by any means that the songs get worse or drag on, just that they emanate a more tired out feel, as if the sun of southern France was taking its toll on the album, making it sleepier and more drowsy as if finally nods off to sleep in a content state.
In an album that doesn't adhere to the rules of any genres as such, (perhaps it could best be described as post-chillwave) you can find yourself lost in the intricate shuffles of what is in my opinion, one of the top 5 albums this year.

Saturday 9 October 2010

Leeds is on fire!


Just handshakes (we're British) - cool as fuck.

The city of leeds has earned it's place in the "rad musical cities" hall of fame, with alumni such as the stupendously inspirational Gang of four and erm, the Kaiser Chiefs? Ok, so maybe it's not that great. But i mean it still had The Mekons, the wedding present, the sunshine underground, Sky larkin and Grum, which makes it better than Newcastle at least.
With there being talk of some sort of Resurrection of Manchester music (radchester?) it's about time that Leeds got its grubby wee meathooks on some of that juicy musical wonder. And it seems like the city could well be onto something. The city has a good selection of bands at the moment, and although they might not be pushing boundaries in quite the same way as some of the Mancunians, there's no denying that there is a LOT of talent kicking about.

Take for example Just Handshakes (we're British). They make a delicious blend of semi-twee indie pop, and it's just as good as anything America is batting our way at the moment.

Milk White White teeth are another up and coming indie band from the Leeds area. You heard about them here first! They really have a knack for making catchy upbeat tunes that i'm sure you're going to love! Check them out!

Like Baritone northern accents? If you answered yes then you're most certainly going to enjoy blood oranges! If you answered no, then go back to drinking your shandy and popping out to Sainsburys in the "Landy" or whatever you dirty southerners to in your spare time. Blood Oranges are where it's at.

Last one here, and I could have gone on a little longer, but I don't want to bore you too much, and it's like 1:30am right now so i'm about ready for bed. But i digress, Post war glamour girls are fucking brilliant, so much energy and so much potential, I have no idea why they aren't massively popular yet! PWGG have a really unique sound that I just can't get enough of! Can't wait to hear more from them.

So there you have it! Conclusive proof that Leeds is the bees knees.

Tuesday 5 October 2010

links all up in this bitch.

So, it's about time i dumped you some links to fresh talent. So HERE WE GO!

Dems - Lioness (Scottish lo-fi indietronica with tasty falsetto vocals)

The ABC club - Thieving Magpie (Halifax indie pop made for enjoying)

Geographer - Kites (one of my personal favorite songs out this year, twee indietronica) I will post a link to their fantastic 2010 EP at a later date, or if you want it sooner, just pester me for it.

Django Django - Wor
(Why on earth are these guys not more popular?! Kind of indie i guess, just a really great band who deserve more recognition)

Black sheep - Suckers (Sorry for the indie bombardment, but hey, it's just great stuff!)

Wednesday 29 September 2010

I love you múm


When you think of Iceland in terms of music, you think, forward thinking experimentalists with fantastic melodies. From the intricate howlings of Bjork, to the power of For a Minor Reflection or the charming indie folk of Seabear, there's talent nestled away in every nuck of the little island. And Múm are no exception to the rule. Hailing from this icy nation alongside fellow glitch peers, Amiina, they create bustling soundscapes through chirpy hooks and erratic beats.
The 2000 debut album (reissued in 2005), Yesterday was Dramatic, Today was OK takes you on a journey into the land of glitch. The album opens with "I'm 9 today", a song that is emphatically hummable brings together a bunch of synths that really do explain the name of the track. It is as if the track is describing the subconscious thoughts of a girl on her 9th birthday. The simple but effective tumble of the embarking synth bumbles away throughout the entire track, spiced with soothing pads.
Track 2, Smell Memory gets more and more frantic, syncopated rhythms furiously breaking out left right and centre, shit gets crazy, and as you start to think "arrghhh my head, it's ERODING" the following track, There Is a Number of Small Things jumps to the rescue, like a Sunday morning brew and paracetamol. It soothes and warms, still with obscure drum hits to keep it interesting it builds up and bursts into life, the beat gets steadier, the vocalization kicks in and the true beauty of the song is released.
Random Summer, a more ambient piece feels as though it is closing what could be a four track EP, the first set of songs all sounding as if they were made to fit together so perfectly. The album's midpoint, "Asleep on the train" and "Awake on the train" go by with yet more flawless percussion, the balance between the bouncy drum hits and plonking synths hits perfection. And so the album steams on through yet more astonishingly good tracks, each movement fitting into the next flawlessly. And then, airy vocals hit you. An angelic voice sings over a raking guitar, the piece gradually builds up and drops us right back into the epileptic breaks once more.
The album rounds itself off with two consecutive eight and a bit minute epics. The first one clunks steadily like heavy machinery and then morphs into a monster! Everything intensifies, it's no so much glitch anymore, but some sort of ambient breakcore?! (now there's an oxymoron if i ever did coin one). Conclusively, the album reverts back to it's 9 year old self, but this time less excitable, more perplexed I suppose.
I am yet to discover an album quite like Ywdtwok, and it saddens me to think that, it will be unlikely that I ever will. This album is a real masterpiece, and Iceland can grant itself +10 awesomeness as a result.

Download it here.

Sunday 26 September 2010

Folk me.


Just rediscovered a lovely little album on my ipod by Long Island, New York inhabitant Laura Stevenson. Her music isn't too different from Laura Marlings in that it's got beautiful vocals and whimsical acoustic guitar playing. It's just lovely. "A record" is perfect autumn Sunday afternoon music, so should you so happen to be lurking around on the internet today and read this, then don't delay to download it because it might make your day a little bit better. Actually, it will probably last into winter too, because i could imagine this being rather nice to listen to on a sunny winters day.
Download!

Saturday 25 September 2010

Squelchy Squelchy

I bring to you today, 3 albums by 3 electronic producers. These days there is a constant barrage of electronic "choonage" being thrown around, and in this world of bleeps and bloops, it's hard to sift through the wank and find something that really does stick out. So here be a handy helping erm, hand.

First up, we have the musical stylings of Wagon Christ. His album Musipal is stylistically diverse, musically exciting and contains samples that might make you giggle. Heavy use of sampling chunks of films and various other tv bits and bobs fused with bumbling synths and trip hop beats give Wagon Christ his own unique sound. Opening track "Premise" is a fantastic intro and really does set the whole theme of the album, (which by the way is fantastic throughout). Fresh, acidy, wibbly basslines and the odd drum n bass beat keep the album interesting and mixed up all the way through. But Really if you are planning on downloading just one of these 3 albums, then make it this one. Download!

The second album i'm catapulting towards you is one by British electronica guru Tipper. The Seamless unspeakable something (2006) is an album of chopped twisted beats and most notably, an awful lot of squelching, which is a good think in case you were wondering. They squelchyness is so awesome, and instead of using more words to describe music, i'm just going to go ahead and give you the download. Download!

Thirdly! The album the first got me into the hyperactive spazz child that is Breakcore. Venetian snares - rossz csillag alatt született, and no i haven't a fucking clue how that's pronounced. It's a cascade of ridiculously breakneck beats (lots of amen break chopping) and some of the finest classical music sampling I've ever heard! It's as if Vivaldi got transported to the future and got raped by 60 foot Gorillas... and then he produced a soundtrack to it. So if you feel like you need to release some pent up energy, then stick this on and "Go sick". Honestly, it's great. Download!

Sunday 19 September 2010

Talent shows.


Glorified talent shows always turn out to be a complete shit gay wank fest, no matter what awful turgid tedium form they should so happen to take. But of them all the X factor is by all means THE creme de la shit of them all, i mean there's Sky 1's disastrous "must be the music", but i mean, it's on Sky 1 and not even the vast majority (moron) sector of our population have recognised it's existence thank god. Then there's the bbc "talent" contests involving jizz weasel, Bruce Forsyth gurning his way through some monotonous performance of moronicy. But it's aimed at old people, who thankfully I have NO contact with what-so-ever, on account of 2 reasons. a) they're quite a stupid bunch in general. and b) they smell of incontinence. So it's ok because this shit isn't rammed down my throat 24/7.
Then there's the omnipresent "Britain's got Talent" which is almost on a par with the X factor in terms of it making you want to force a barbed hook into your ass and setting your face on fire. It gets repeated over and over again, driving itself into your mind like Gary Glitter into Vietnamese 3 year olds. But at least it has a smidgen of actual entertainment value in that the nutcases are more deluded and the ones that do flips and shit can amuse you for a minute or so.
But nothing matches up to the X factor. Warbling soulless imbeciles aiming to reach the point where they will release one awful album and promptly disappear off into obscurity, thank fuck. But it's the constant facebook statuses, radio coverage and general conversation that really takes the biscuit. As if the tv coverage wasn't enough, this cuntpetition (see what I did there) is unavoidable in all walks of life. And what do we get from all of this? Another shit Christmas number one and music in general becoming a bit less of a respectable art form. X factor is in essence to music what North Korea is to freedom. This can't go on, we need to somehow boycott it somehow, maybe by drawing and quartering Simon Cowell or possibly a 1000 man gang rape of Louis Walsh. Something along those lines anyway, but until this happens, i have a horrible feeling that we're going to be stuck with year after year of pop wank for the rest of our lives.

Friday 17 September 2010

New shit!


So it would appear the dance punk artist shit robot is releasing a new album! Hoorah! Wait, what do you mean "who the fuck is shit robot?"
Well shit robot is producer Marcus Lambkin from Dublin/New york/Germany who makes funkier than thou tunes to rattle yer skull. Not too dissimilar sounding to LCD soundsystem (Lambkin being a good Friend of James Murphy), shit robot is also on DFA records.
The debut album "From Cradle to Rave" which features guest vocals from James Murphy himself, Alexis Taylor (Hot chip) and Nancy Whang (LCD Soundsystem) is out on the 21st so until then you'll have to make do with the songs uploaded on the myspace.
Hope you enjoy!

Monday 13 September 2010

Quick post!

I'm sort of strapped for time, but i feel the overwhelming desire to post something! So here we go, just a speedy wee youtube link to a song, i hope you''l enjoy!
GROUPLOVE - colours
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATNKWKxpMqw

Thursday 9 September 2010

dabbling in dubstep

Inspired somewhat by my own article, I started relistening to a lot of my old forgotten favorite dubstep EP's and albums again. You might well own many of these already if you're into dubstep because to be quite honest, they're pretty "entry level". By no means does this imply that they're bad at all, it's just that they may not be anything new to you.

So allow me to start off with a tasty bit of the producer known as Burial. His second studio album, "Untrue" was a masterpiece of 07, the streets of modern day london personified and recreated sonically with the echoey 2 step beats now synonymous with Burial alongside ambient synths that manage to give the music a huge atmosphere, only within a box. This box isn't preventing the creativity of the album, but rather keeping the sound in and reverberating everything back in on itself to form a beautiful mesh of melodies. It's not all smiles and echoes however, within this album it feels as though there is something ominous, something not quite right. The vocals, dressed up to sound dreamy give off a feel of eeriness amidst the soft crush of sound. This shows most notably in the song "Etched headplate", opening with what sounds like a London mother explaining that her child (possibly one who has committed some sort of crime) has "a lot of love in him" just before the song erupts with shuffled beats that hit hard.
More of these squeaky yet defined vocals continue and really give the album another dimension and by the time we hear the albums closer "raver" it's hard to come away from the experience anything less than in awe.
People say that electronic music can never have the heart or sole in the same way that more organic genres can posses, this album just proves that you don't need twinkling guitars or sweeping strings to tickle your emotions. Trust me, it's something special.

Download this right now! HERE!
Stay tuned for more posts regarding yet more dubstep.

Wednesday 8 September 2010

Dubstep, killed off by pop or still growing stronger than ever?

Normally my posts here are just me recommending chunks of tune for you to dabble, but i thought, why not write a wee article for those who are somewhat interested in what I have to say, and those who are just really bored. (I would expect pretty much everyone reading this to fall under the latter label).

As you've probably realised by this point being the observant bugger that you are, this short article is about the suddenly ballooning genre, Dubstep. 2 years ago, the term would have probably meant nothing to you, and maybe, if you're a bit slow, it still doesn't. Basically, it's the dark and lumbering creature that evolved from late 90's 2-step Garage taking snippets of influence from what is now somewhat regarded as it's sister genre, Drum n Bass. Growing up on the streets of Croydon, London, Dubstep really started off as a hobby for the few blokes who had a passion for the more ominous sounds of 2-step Garage. Nurturing Dubstep up through the 00's was the job of a small group of London producers, Benga, El-B, Mala, Kode9, Coki and a few others, but most notably, Bromley born Oliver Jones, AKA Skream.

With the genre being pretty underground during the early 00's it wasn't really until 2005/06 that it really started picking up some real attention and when Skream released midnight line request, the genre was catapulted to a new level. With more and more clubs playing dubstep people were finally warming to a genre that once seemed so obscure and insignificant.

With dubsteps popularity rising, it was only a matter of time before it picked up some real mainstream media attention. This came in the form of radio 1 DJ Mary Anne Hobbs's radio program, "Dubstep Warz", an hour long radio show devoted entirely to Dubstep. Burial's self titled 2006 album was also received with remarkable praise, "The Wire" magazine going as far as to put it as it's number 1 album of 06.

Still the genre remained relatively unheard of yet still gaining loyal followers as the scene grew. Then, in 2009 "shit went down". Once again Skream had released another incredibly well received tune. The difference this time was that it was a remix. The remix that took Dubstep to en entirely new world of popularity. In for the Kill, a song by female synth pop artist "La Roux" was already a well loved song by many, but it had yet to reach it's true potential. Being the true mastermind that he was Skream transformed it into a monster, set on rampaging across the UK and truly capturing the public's attention.

Now here we are in 2010, mention Dubstep to pretty much anyone between the ages of 14 and 28 and you can guarantee they at least know of the genre. It's reached such a huge stage that most songs released now have at least one Dubstep remix somewhere. Many inspired by Skream's huge success have taken to producing remixes themselves, and some of the stuff made really is astounding.

However, it's not all fun and wobbles today. Many so called Dpurists, those who have watched Dubstep evolve and have supported along the way are becoming wary that their beloved genre is becoming a novelty product, a mere gimmick that will entertain the masses for perhaps a year or so and then be left to die, raped by popular culture. And the purists make a fair point, many of the newer school of producers, Borgore, Flux pavilion, Funtcase and Rusko appear to have "resorted" to taking Dubstep to ridiculous levels, basing their entire producing careers around making the "Filthiest Wobbles". On the face of it, it honestly does look like Dubstep has lost all it's subtlety, but it's perhaps not quite as simple as that.

Some have branded this latest phenomena of Wobbly Dubstep with other names, such as "Brostep" and "Wubstep". As with many EDM genres, Dubstep has it's own offshoot. Brostep could be perceived as what Gabber is to Hardstyle or what Breakcore is to Drum n Bass. Catering for the masses brostep is neither a step forwards or backwards for the genre, it is a step sideways. There are still producers out there creating some of the most amazing sounding dubstep tracks to date who produce in fashion with the older, original Dubstep sound. Joy Orbison being but one of a myriad of these new producers keeping relatively clear from that now overused and slightly uninteresting "WUB WUB WUB WUB" sound.

No, pop isn't killing Dubstep, it's simply carving itself a new side channel for it to run down, and if it's getting people interested in the sound and essentially electronic music in general, then that's brilliant, we all have to start somewhere, and this shallow pool of Dubstep is great for getting started with.
Dubstep has traveled a long way and it looks set to keep on rolling thanks to the new innovative ideas from producers both old and new. Dubstep is anything but done with us yet.

Saturday 4 September 2010

Great song and a fantastic remix.


If you haven't heard it already, i urge you to listen to the song drugs in my body by thieves like us. It's a great slice of wonky indie/electropop.
If you have heard it already and love it in the same way I do, then allow me to recommend the Vogelspand remix of it. Sadly Vogelspand disbanded earlier this year, but we'll always have this fantastic piece of electro awesomeness to remember them by.

Thursday 2 September 2010

The gems of Leeds festival


Hey, you probably haven't noticed that I haven't posted for quite some time, this is partly because of me having a social life (or something like that) and partly because I've been at Leeds festival. I've seen a fair few amazing performances and in the wake of this i thought I'd go ahead and share some of this juicy goodness with you all!
Fist up, a Sheffield band called The Crookes who play jangly indie pop not too dissimilar to that of Vincent Vincent and the Villains and in places sounding a little like a much happier version of The Smiths. I think this is definitely a band to watch out for in the near future and one you should certainly check out! Listen to Backstreet lovers.

Part London, part New Jersey part Hiroshima based indie rockers, Yuck have been doing their rounds on the blogs over the past few months and proved themselves worthy of the buzz in putting on a great set at Leeds fest (although non of them broke a smile the entire time), I guess that's just the cool thing to do. Listen to Automatic.

Avi Buffalo put on a bit of a strange show for the Northern punters, but the weird howlings of lead singer Avi didn't discredit the music in anyway at all. Citing Panda Bear, Pink Floyd and Simon and Garfunkel as influences avi buffalo make music that is just really pleasant to listen to, don't believe me? Have a listen to What's in it for.

Egyptian Hip Hop, an up and coming Manchester band that I've been bleating about for ages proved that their tunes were just as fantastic as they sounded on record. At such a young age they have really taken fame in their stride and performed to a very high standard (although there seemed to be a momentary lapse in concentration during one of their songs) they powered through a set of unique sounding tunes and finished on crowd pleaser wild human child. Check their performance of set opener floppy ghost out here!

Last but not least I thought I'd give a special mention to Caribou who gave me one of my personal favorite performances of the whole weekend. Playing a set consisting only of songs off the new album Caribou really captured the audience and proved that the new electronically driven album could stand up to the test of being performed live. Sadly I can't find any decent videos of the actual gig but listen to sun!

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Swedish music is so in.


Sup bro's, happened to stumble across a Swedish indie/pop band named Vampyramiden the other day. Although I havn't a clue what their name is about, their tunes are mad sick. Personally I find it a nice change to hear music sang in another language, which may well be the reason I have warmed to Vampyramiden. I mean sure they sound cheesy in places, but take that with a pinch of salt and hey presto, a band that are fun and a little bit different.
Make sure to listen to fangelset on their myspace.

Monday 16 August 2010

Nice music for nice weather.


It's not often we see weather the doesn't involve some sort of precipitation here in Britain (particularly "oop North"), so when the sun does decide to make a guest appearance, it's best to make the most of it and what better way to compliment our exploding gas ball friend than with some summery tunes!
So to help you guys out with that arduous task of rifleing through your ipod for something remotely upbeat i thought i'd reccomend 3 albums for sunny days.

The first album i'm offering up to you rascals is Cajun Dance Party's debut album from 2008. It's a lovely little chunk of twee sounding indie pop with love them or hate them vocals. So if you somehow managed to miss them back then, then here's your second chance.
I havn't got a clue what they're doing now but i still enjoy colourful life every so often. And so should you!

Second up is the 2010 album Weathervanes from New York folktronica 5 piece Freelance Whales. An album that's bound to warm up your summer, Weathervanes is essentially an indie folk album with a ton of other twee-as-fuck instruments thrown in, just to make it more smiley. Often compared with The Postal Service by music critics, and Owl City by retards Freelance Whales really have released a fantastic album with single, "starring" being one of my personal favorite songs of the year!

Finally, comes an album from appalingly named band "The Seedy Seeds", but providing you can see past the name, comes an album so catchy that you will be humming the melodies so much that not only will your friends want to kick your face off, but you will want to do so as well. But this is a good thing, because we all love a super catchy melody don't we? Anyway, their 2008 album count the days fuses jangle pop with dance beats. Think The Feeling only a lot less shit and with a bit more UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE.

I'm gonna be a bit sneaky here now, after telling you i'd only share 3 summery albums, another one has just been cast into my mind. Well it's more like one of those EP's that's like two thirds of an album. White Magic by CEO is hot shit. So download it now! Oh, and I think they sampled a KLF song on the track White Magic, but i'm not quite sure.

Sunday 15 August 2010

An EP I just had to share.


Active child, or Pat Grossi to his mum is a relatively new artist from Los Angeles, something that transpires through his music as he creates warm soundscapes with a, dare I say it? Chillwave sound to it. You know the feel, those sort of sun drenched synths and dreamy vocals. But I digress, his 2010 EP curtis lane is really something rather special. So instead of ruining it with my words, how about you give it a listen, it's only 4 tracks long.
Download this bitch.

Visions of trees

London duo Visions of trees seem to be gathering quite a bit of attention on the NME Breakthrough website at the moment, and it's really no surprise considering how bloody brilliant they are. Although they have only a seemingly limited array of songs up on the internets, if they're anything to go by we can expect lots more of their unique brand of fantastically weird tribal synth music.
Vocalist Sara has a fantastic voice which adds to the awesometricity? of the music.
They have put together a free (mega)mixtape of their songs which you can download here! (and not even feel guilty about)

Or if you like to sample what you're getting before you hassle yourself with the immense task that is clicking a link and pressing download then here's a youtube video of the song "Cult of Cobras".
I can't wait to hear more from these guys!

Friday 13 August 2010

For those a little late to the movement

For those of you who don't know, 2010/late 2009 bestowed upon us a new genre, one that in the wake of chillwave took off on account of the internet hype surrounding it. I'm talking about Witch House, or drag. Whatever you wish to call it, it's a strange one consisting of screwed up dark sounding hip hop beats, uneasy lo-fi synths and quite often vocal samples more haunting than your dead grandma. In essence, it's just a scary genre. Oh, and the bands all seem to have ridiculous names and track names involving triangles and crosses.
But a good one non the less. With a handful of artists on the Houston label "Disaro", a couple on internet label "Witch Trial" and a good few more on New York label, "Tri angle", people were ready to accept witch house as a "scene", until it died a couple of months back. Or at least that's what people on the internet seemed to think. Has music really come to this? Where a scene can take off and then kill itself all within the space of 6 months? Seemingly not, despite said cries of "Witch House being dead", the labels seem to think on the contrary, with the Balam Acab EP just on the release (scoring 8/10 on pitchfork) and with NME finally starting to catch on, witch house could only just be starting. ///▲▲▲\\\ for Glasto headliners next year anyone?

Well I suppose it's not much use just describing the sound to you so here be some links!

oOoOO - No Summr4U (2010) Their sound is more accessible than many other witch house artists, so it's not a bad idea to start here.

✝No Virgin✝- Downer EP (2010) some weird sounding stuff right here.

GuMMy†Be▲R! - Für diejenigen die mit Messern EP (2010) The track sexualCRIME is quite possibly the creepiest thing I have ever heard.

H∆UNT3D HOUS3 - S3XY TIM3 3P More wonderfull witch house

///▲▲▲\\\ - CDR (2010) This is one of the more famous witch house releases.

That should do you all for now, and I'll remember to keep you posted on any new releases.
Also, if you like any of these enough, do try and buy a record or something, the labels need your support!

Thursday 12 August 2010

PVT!


After a big lump of hassle over their name arty electro/post-rock outfit PVT (formerly known as pivot) are releasing more awesome stuff. Their track "Window" off their forthcoming album, "church with no magic", provides a melee of skittery electronic madness along with the crashing almost tribal drums makes for a song that sounds just stunning!
This bunch of awesome Austrailians are certainly doing something right and with the new addition of vocals on the majority of the tracks on Church With no Magic they really have reached a new level of awesome.

Music for Creatures are go!

Amongst today's gargantuan swirl of buzz blogs it's always going to be hard to make a name for yourself in the world of music bloggature, I that isn't by any means what I plan to do here. This blog isn't aiming particularly high, in fact i would go as far as to say it was simply a means of me sharing the little gems that I find in my regular music searches with like minded people. This blog will serve a similar purpose to that kitchen cleaner, the one that "does the hard work so you don't have to".
Well sort of anyway.

So in short this is nothing but an introductory post that explain myself and y'know, the sort of stuff i will be doing if all goes to plan, such as band of the week, track of the week and just odd wee snippets of things old and new.
So indeed, if you do happen to stumble upon this, have a look around, you might find something you like.