When I saw the name of the newest Antlers song, I prayed that it would be awesome. The reason being - I felt an instant connection to the track, even before listening to it. For the longest time, I had dreams that my teeth would fall out. It got so bad that I’d have a dream within a dream of my teeth falling out – yeah, Inception shit. Anyway, New York’s Antlers’ latest single is not only right up my alley in its name, but in its lo-fi, indie-rock nature. To me, Every Night I Dream My Teeth Are Falling Out is better than the band’s critically acclaimed, 2010 release Hospice. Sure, the album was good, I’ll agree with that. It’s just; sometimes I feel parts were a little too experimental for me, and felt rather boring. Other parts made me feel like I was about to have a panic attack. It’s not like the band has abandoned the minimalistic, non-traditional style that made Hospice so haunting, however.The new track still maintains the anxiety-driven, bi-polar feel of the band’s older material. Its folk-tinged beginning violently cascades into layers of guitars, looped vocals and effects in a climax of indie-rock goodness. More, please.
French electro prince Yuksek has an album in the works. Yay. The release is being kickstarted by an upcoming EP featuring his first single, On a Train, to be released May 2nd. It’s gotten the remix treatment by another LL favorite, The Magician1. The Magician is 2011’s rising star, and Yuksek is my celebrity crush. (I’m a girl. We’re all entitled to one.) The two combined become what is perhaps the most promising electronic act of 2011, as evidenced by this stomping disco rework. Not to mention, the streams of their as-of-yet-unreleased collaboration Twist, under the moniker Peter & The Magician, show us that the duo just might be unstoppable.
1Speaking of The Magician, can we all stop referring to him as ex-Aeroplane please? He is a formidable producer in his own right, and in my opinion his recent solo work has outshone anything he did as one half of the duo.
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Having to work on this year’s Record Store Day was definitely a drag. Since I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand in line and participate, I didn’t even take much time to look and see what kind of goodies would be out this year. Maybe it was the limited rerelease of Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American on vinyl that overshadowed anything else for me (I really wanted to call out sick from work to snag a copy). Still, I don’t know how I missed a new 7-inch release by one of my favorite bands, San Diego’s Pinback.
Information Released Pt. A is a taste of what’s to come from the band’s planned 2012 release, and features an awesome track called Sherman. The song’s feel is somewhere between the awesome Blue Screen Life and the equally remarkable Summer in Abaddon. Pinback are known for crafting great hooks for their indie pop and rock sound, and even though sometimes their songs can feel similar, it always seems to work. That being said, the duo has done it again on Sherman; it’s yet another pretty song that definitely follows the safe formula. The band’s arrangements are always so melodic, almost math-rock driven at times. What I like most about Sherman is that it’s perfect for summer. I feel like if bands played underwater, it would sound just like this.
As I’m sure you know, I think Star Slinger is fantastic. His unique blend of hip-hop, r&b, and house production styles is something unique and amazing indeed. He’s one of the top producers in the game right now and, after a year or so on the scene, has yet to put out a weak track. His latest success is a ‘refix’ of How To Dress Well’s Ready For The World. RFTW is a song that I had thought about using on Comedown Sunday for ages, but refrained due to its ghostly nature. The original is nothing sort of haunting—and I’m not sure if that’s the best hangover remedy. My problems were solved last night when Starslinger uploaded this track. Here he takes the ghostly, hazy production quality of the original and brightens it, while simultaneously upping the tempo via his now-signature breakbeats. The result is less eerie; in fact it’s practically dreamy, like a warm blanket of starlight was draped over the piece. As with most work Star Slinger does, he’s giving this track out for free (thank you sir). Grab it below, and be sure to head over to his Soundcloud to update yourself on his catalogue.
I’ve been waiting for this day for a while. Easter? No, don’t be silly. I’m talking about the official release of Monarchy’s new single of course. I’ve never fully expressed my love/devotion/borderline-secret-obsession with Monarchy on here, which is probably for the best so I don’t sound like a huge fangirl. (For the record, I have never done nor plan to ever do any stalking.) Let’s just say I fucking love these guys. For those of you unfamiliar, Monarchy are a ‘mysterious’ duo based out of London, by way of Australia. I say ‘mysterious’ because they have a penchant for masks and staying incognito. Yes, 10 minutes on Google will lead you to their true identities, but the masquerade is so much more fun (not to mention sexy), so just go with it. They were set to last their debut album last year, but unfortunately due to it leaking, they pushed back the date. It’s finally gracing our ears this year, and I couldn’t be more excited. Monarchy make pop music. I repeat: Monarchy make mind-blowingly amazing pop music. All their songs include a great deal of shimmering synth, dramatic progressions, singer Ra’s GLORIOUS, gratuitous use of falsetto, and occasionally cheesy lyrics: the whole pop package. I mean, these are the guys that had their first live concert broadcast into space; you know anything they do is going to be huge. Their latest single I Won’t Let Go, the first off their upcoming record, is nothing short of a bombastic masterpiece. Three and a half minutes of urgent, pulsing bass, dazzling synths, THAT VOICE, and the greatest pop chorus of the year—I know it’s early, but there’s no way anything is going to top this. Not even Beyonce.
My only complaint is that it isn’t longer.
I Won’t Let Go is out today on iTunes. Preview it below, and be sure to buy it--with a bunch of remixes included--HERE.
French Touch lovers, you might not know it yet, but big things are coming your way. I've regrettably never featured Monsieur Adi on this blog before (hey, there's a first time for everything), but if you are the type who follows the Hype Machine 'Popular' charts, you've undoubtedly stumbled upon his formidable, lush remix work. Now he's set to release his second EP in the upcoming months, and from what I've heard so far--it's going to absolutely blow your mind. Just you wait. In the meantime, Adi is giving a b-side from the EP, the song Chariot, away for free as a little teaser. Here's a bit of drama for your Saturday courtesy of cascading strings, pounding bass, and a beat rife with tension. It's a big song and a big statement: Adi is coming.
Download Chariot below, and if you aren't familiar with his work, head over to his Soundcloud to check out what you've been missing and prepare yourself for the release of what just might be the years best electronic EP. (Yes, I went there.)
Cover Artwork (which I don't usually feature but this is so good) by Datahowler himself. Such a Renaissance man.
Happy 420. Or 204, if you're in Europe.
I don't smoke anymore, but everyone I know still does, so this ones for you guys. (It's also for everyone who just likes good music.) You should all be familiar with Datahowler by now, he's the Dallas-based spacey-psychedelic-electro-hip-hop producer (jack of many trades, as you can see). He's just released a live album, recorded at his first show at Club Dada in Dallas on January 15th, and he's giving it away for free on his bandcamp. As we've come to expect from him, it's lush, swelling, occasionally trippy, and always enjoyable. Preview the song Watchtowers below and then head over to his site to download the album a.k.a. your 420 soundtrack.
*If you're in Dallas or thereabouts, be sure to catch Datahowler tomorrow night, playing live at the Granada Theater with Yelle and French Horn Rebellion. For sure a show not to be missed.
An aside: If you notice the posts on here are considerably shorter the next few weeks, forgive me. It's the end of the year: finals season. Time for me to write papers instead of blog posts. Things should be back to normal by mid-May.
(I know, that's kind of a long time, but what's a girl to do?)
A couple weeks ago I received a heads-up about an album via a Tweet. Now, not to sound like a prick, but 99% of the time I'm given promotional material via Tweet, the music is quite shit. So it was a delight when it turned out that not only was the work in question not shit, but it was in fact very, very, very good. Filtered For Your Pleasure is the first EP of a house/disco series compiled by Pat Lok and GSD for Punchout! Recordings. It's a compilation of 5 fun, filtered, sampled, and stomping house and disco pieces from 5 different artists. If you're looking for the soundtrack to your next classic house groovefest [modernized, of course] look no further than this EP. Take, for example, Pat Lok's infections Runnin for Love. Sampling some perfectly sing-alongable song that I cannot for the life of me find on Google, it's nearly 6 minutes of pure, groovy energy. It might not quite have you runnin, but it will definitely have you dancing. The album came out today exclusively on Beatport, so after you stream some songs below, be sure to go buy it HERE.
I don’t normally post dubstep on here, as I feel most of the time it’s a little too ‘niche.’ I try to feature mainly what I call ‘middle-ground-music’ on the blog: music that everyone from my best friend to my dad might get something out of. And let’s be honest, for all of his coolness, my dad just isn’t going to get dubstep quite like I might. But every once in a while, an exception to this guideline needs to be made. Case in point: Nero’s newest single, Guilt (featuring Alana on vocals). It comes out officially on April 24th (preorder the EP HERE), as a precursor to their debut album, to be released August 1st. Nero have been my favorite dubstep/drum n’ bass producers for years, and this latest release launches them into the—forgive my use of the word—epic category. For those of you that don’t like dubstep, forgive me on this one; I just had to indulge. For those of you that do, prepare to meet the song of 2011. It is hugeeee.
While we’re on the Nero subject, here’s an oldie from 2009. It’s a remix of DJ Fresh’s Hypercaine, and it is undoubtedly my favorite dubstep/drum n’ bass remix of all time. Feel the reverb.
I started off the week with a mix, and now I'm ending it with one.
About a month ago a friend who works at 8tracks [the new create-your-own mixtape website that--with the release of its new iPhone app this past week--looks set to become the next big thing in music streaming] asked me to do an interview about what makes LL tick for a series on bloggers they're doing over at their Tumblr. He also asked me to compile an 8-track mix for the occasion, which is what you're getting today. Here is the first of what I hope to be a monthly or bi-monthly series of mixtapes here on LOOSE L!PS. We're gonna call them LOOSE L!PS M!Xes. Sometimes I might make them, sometimes Russ might make them, and hopefully sometimes we can get special guests to make them. Woohoo!
// Read the interview HERE.
// Stream the mixtape via the above player. (on your iPhone with the new app!)
// Download the entire mixtape below.
Or, if you already have all these songs (we've featured most of them before), grab the one we've never posted (Louis La Roche's INDISPENSABLE Missing You) by right-clicking the name on the tracklist.
LOOSE L!PS M!X 01: Almost Spring
8 tracks to get you psyched on sunny days. Tracklist:
1. Rich Girls (Le Castle Vania Remix) - The Virgins
2. Armistice (RAC Remix) - Phoenix
3. Still Sound (Xinobi Remix) - Toro Y Moi
4. Bloom - The Veils
5. Heart to Tell - The Love Language
6. Climbing Walls - Strange Talk
7. Missing You (feat. Ad-apt) - Louis La Roche
8. Shades Of Black - Breakbot
Denver's electro-duo Flashlights are Binary Records' newest addition, and I'm surprisingly digging on their EP. I'm a little leery on electronic music (as I've stated before, that's more Mikayla's alley...rather, it's definitely her alley), and I'm a lot pickier on what I like when it comes to the genre. The fact that Flashlights aren't completely geared for the dance floor is what I like most. Their sound leans more toward the Binary-coined "dreamwave" genre, and it's definitely more haunting and introspective than the electronic that I'm used to. Listen to Glowing Eyes below and be sure to check out the rest of Flashlights' EP, Hidden Behind Trees, here and buy it June 6th when it comes out on Binary.
I’m noticing a common trend with all these lo-fi, ‘80s-‘90s revivalist bands – I absolutely love them all. This time it’s a London-based band called Yuck, a bunch of 20-something year-olds who have absolutely floored me with their sound. Apparently, the band members are already known for their ex-band, the heavily-pop influenced Cajun Dance Party. I guess I missed that memo, but I’m glad I skipped straight to the better stuff. Yuck definitely pays homage to some definitive bands of the era. There’s Sonic Youth to The Cure to Red House Painters – the list goes on. Honestly, I could grab any track off the album to showcase; they all highlight an important sound in the genre.
Get Away, the lead track off Yuck’s debut, self-titled release on Fat Possum Recordssees the band let go as they hit the fuzz pedals. This song gives me the chills, and there’s a simple explanation. What Yuck has managed to do is craft a song that’s far better than anything Stephen Malkmus, Thurston Moore or J Mascis have done in a decade. Twenty-something years ago, the Pavements, Sonic Youths, and Dinosaur Jr.’s of the music scene had something to say with real youth on their side. Now they’re 40 and 50 years old, drowning in noise and the same sound they’ve known for years and years – it just doesn’t mean as much anymore. Thankfully, there’s a group of kids from across the pond to remind us exactly what “it” is – and it totally rocks. Listen to Get Away and make sure to buy Yuck’s full-length. You won’t regret it.
Hey Texas, big things coming your way. By big things I mean CLASSIXX are coming! For those of you unfamiliar, the LA DJ/production duo are lauded for their consistently stellar remixes and groovy, get-you-moving original releases. They're making a stop in Dallas this Wednesday, the 13th and also in Houston the next night. It would be a shame to miss them, so put on your dancing shoes and get out there.
In the meantime, get excited with this stomping, glittering disco powerpiece, a CLASSIXX original remixed by LL favorite Gigamesh, and one of my favorite dance numbers of all time. Wait for the drop at 0:54 and you'll see why.
It's Monday, which means it's time for our Monday Mixer--a weekly, multi-blog themed playlist for your listening pleasure. While the Mixer started over at Metropolitan Jolt, recently it's been on the move, with hosting rotating between various members of the Mixer crew, and this week, it's landed right here at LOOSE L!PS. This week's theme deals with the drearier side of spring: April Showers. I thought this would be appropriate seeing as it's April, and although we've been extremely lucky weather-wise thus far, it's just a matter of time before cloudy skies descend. The Monday Mixer crew has you covered for when that happens, with a playlist of 11 songs that should see you through even the dreariest days.
You can stream all the songs right here courtesy of this 8tracks player, while you read about what each track means to us, below. All the links (in blue and bold) are available for download, just right-click like normal.
*Sidenote: If you are a music blogger, scroll to the bottom of this post for a message.
Ian from 1146 Miles Letting Go - Israel Cannan
Sometimes on rainy days, it's more about the mood than the weather. I think that's why I love that there's a bit of defiance that builds up over the young Australian's song. It's fighting the down urge and it's a pretty cathartic release once it climaxes. Letting Go is off of Israel's debut album Walk.
Chris from Daily Beatz Sylvia - The Antlers
Music for a rainy day is almost always sad and depressing, but I sort of prefer there to be a little beauty too, and nobody seems to capture depression and beauty in one neat package quite like The Antlers. Their 2009 album Hospice was undeniably depressing and beautiful at the same time and quickly became one of my favorite albums from that year.
Mikayla from LOOSE L!PS (me) I Don't Know What I Can Save You From (Royksopp Remix) - Kings of Convenience *screwed this link up, click normally instead of right-clicking
Royksopp and rainy days are unequivocally synonymous for me. Their lush production style perfectly compliments my lazy days spent cooped up inside sprawled on my huge white sheepskin rug. Here they remix fellow Norwegians Kings of Convenience’s beautiful I Don’t Know What I Can Save You From. They take the original acoustic number and add an ethereal quality to it, with delicate whirls and trills, it’s almost tropical, but the kind of tropical that reminds me of laying on a placid beach while the sun is setting: the perfect counterpoint to the cloudy skies outside my window.
Frank from Lost In The Sound Huit Octobre 1971 - Cortex
I have to admit that I probably never would have heard Cortex's Huit Octobre 1971 had it not been sampled by the likes of MF Doom (One Beer), Wiz Khalifa (Visions), and Odd Future's Tyler, The Creator (Odd Toddlers). The song begins on a rather dark, melancholic note before transitioning into a more jazzy, upbeat song. It pretty much embodies the whole idea of "April showers bring May flowers."
Ben from Metropolitan Jolt You and I - Washed Out feat. Caroline Polachek
This track really embodies the melancholy vibes I get when rain keeps me inside. Caroline Polacheck added combined with Washed Out creates this amazingly relaxing tune. It's hard for me to put my finger on why I like it so much. On one hand, its melancholy feeling almost gives me a twinge of depression when I listen to it. But on the other hand, maybe it is that extreme emotional reaction that generates my appreciation for the track.
Marc from Mostly Junkfood Bill Withers - Can We Pretend
Obviously Ain't No Sunshine might be the more obvious pick from Bill's catalogue, but this song stands out in my mind as a quintessential rainy day track. The guitar and his vocals shine on this track, but my favorite part is the lyrics. "Paint a portrait of tomorrow with no colors from today." This song sounds like looking out the window and being optimistic about the future regardless of what you see. And that's why I love it!
Confusion from Pigeons & Planes River Man - Nick Drake
Rainy days trigger depression for me, but sometimes it's good to bask in a brooding state of mind. People that are happy all the time are obnoxious. They remind me more of simple animals like fish or chickens - things that are far separated from humanity and more fit for mass consumption. When I'm feeling down, Nick Drake is one of the artists that I always revisit. His haunting voice and heart-string-tugging melodies are perfect to pair with grey skies and the pattering of little drops.
David from SFCritic Summer Rain - Carl Thomas
More and more I'm realizing there is so much music of my past that in the needless urgency to find NEW music, I've strayed from the gems I used to love such as Carl Thomas' Summer Rain. In pop'est of pop, Summer Rain is Thomas' calling for a love regardless of rain or shine--as long as she comes back. What? There's nothing wrong with being a pop romantic.
Cory from Silence Nogood Stonyridge Terrace - Ian Pooley
Other than maybe music to rage to, music for a rainy day are my favorite! There's nothing I love more than relaxing outside on a rainy day and vibing off a chill, downtempo tune set against the sounds of a delicate storm. I have a whole playlist for this very occasion, but if I had to choose just one, it would be Ian Pooley's Stonyridge Terrace. You can best forget about everyone else's - this is the tune y'all have been looking for ;) But seriously, tell me this isn't the most tantalizing guitar playin you've ever heard? Go stick yourself out in the wilderness, wait for the rain (find shelter) and enjoy this track for a calm stormy weather.
Marc from Umstrum Brutal Hearts (ft. Coeur de Pirate) - Bedouin Soundclash
I have to say finding a song for his week's playlist proved more difficult than I thought. Not that I don't have "rainy day music", but I wanted to find a track that's more than your usual downer song, a track that makes you feel nostalgic and hopeful at the same time, just like "April Showers". Well, I think Brutal Hearts does just that: it creates this kind of cloudy atmosphere of longing but almost lets you see the sun reappearing on the horizon.
Owen from Wine and Bowties It’s the Chemicals (feat Scarub) - Inspired Flight
Did you know it's just that chemicals in our brain that cause us pain?" Wow, discovered this song a week ago and it's been on repeat ever since. The idea that "it's just chemicals" definitely resonates. It's like, yes this is all meaningless and arbitrary and that can be sad, but it's also great and beautiful because you are free. I dunno. It reminds me that things always be how I want and I dig it. I'm realizing that imperfections are crucial. They make something real, taking out the ego. I'm getting kinda philosophical, but essentially this song makes me want to make a fire with someone and look out at the rain.
*We're looking to add more people to the Monday Mixer ratpack. If you're a music blogger (it doesn't matter if you're big or small, rap or rave, crowded or minimalist) and interested in contributing, please email Ben from the Metropolitan Jolt, me, or really anyone on this list. We want you.
This happens every year: as the seasons change my music tastes shift from deep, complex electronic productions to simple, delicate acoustic numbers. It just feels appropriate what with the blooming glowers and the sunny skies and elongated days. I’ve been in a desperate search for some new music that fits this mood, as currently my ‘Spring Feelings’ playlist is dominated by songs from 2010. This morning I stumbled upon the work of transatlantic collaborators Early to Bed, and by god, I think I’ve finally found what I’ve been looking for. Early to Bed is a musical collaboration between two people—Meagan Day of Wisdom Tooth from the USA and Henry Toft of Me and The Horse I Rode On from Denmark. They’ve never met in real life, but rather collaborate solely via the internet, proof that good music knows no boundaries. Their song Weathervane is a gentle, dreamy gem, filled with themes of bittersweet longing and feelings of connectivity in spite of physical distance. I’m currently sitting by the window, staring outside at the tops of buildings and the endless blue sky, missing more than a couple people something fierce, and this song couldn’t be a more perfect soundtrack.
Early to Bed's first digital single is being released for free over at EardrumsPop. I highly suggest you head over there and get it. This collaboration seems to be the start of something beautiful.
It’s a very special day. You know why? You’re getting TWO Comedown Sundays. I hope you’re excited. This first Comedown Sunday should have been posted weeks ago but I dropped the ball. Surprise. It’s by LL favorite and friend Conner Youngblood, making his second appearance on Comedown Sundays. This time, the dashing Dallas lad with the voice of an angel, the banjo skills of Bob (Dylan, that is), and brains to boot (just guess where he goes to school), is back with a sunny, breezy piece called Summer Song. It’s a unique mix of bluegrass banjo and buzzy, glitchy production fill—folk for our electronic age. He called it his ‘attempt at making a happy song,’ and I think it’s a wild success. True to the name and intent, it practically drips in sunshine and rainbows and light breezes and all those great feelings you associate with warm weather and the changing of the seasons. I intern in the offices of a really chic Parisian fashion magazine, and the other day I noticed that they had listed Conner’s Summer Song as their song of the day. He’s officially international. Not bad for our Texas boy, is it?
I had so many plans on what to post today, and I’ll get to them, I promise, but something big happened. THERE’S A NEW BARRETSO SINGLE. This might not be super exciting news to you if you don't know who Barretso is, but just wait. JUST WAIT. Can I tell you how much I love Barretso? Have I ever told you how much I love Barretso? Not enough. His dark, intense Bright City Lights EP (realeased last spring 2010 on Tuff Em! Up Records) was my ultimate go-to record for when I needed high-energy, high-drama, high-quality power-anthem type music. His single Midnight Walk was my single most-played song of 2010. ( If you’ve never heard it, I’m including it at the bottom of this post so you can listen and understand why.)
Barretso has been busy preparing his second EP, which is apparently to be named Celeste, and today he finally uploaded a full track to his Soundcloud. It’s called Chase, and it’s everything I hoped it would be and perhaps a little more. It starts off with this crazy gritty bit that reminds me of MSKRFT circa Fist of God, but then—never fear—in come the glistening synths and Barretso’s velvety voice before charging into an absolutely earth-shattering drop, after which the songs relentlessly charges along at 110%. Would I consider this a banger? Probably. I’ve been sick with the flu the past three days, and right now listening to this song I’m literally sitting on my couch fist pumping. (Not that I fist pump Jersey Shore style. This is more of an air-punch of the “YES! ALRIGHT!” sort, if you will.) Because man, this gets me pumped up. I hope I start feeling better soon, because I just found my new power anthem, and I need to take it to the streets.
I wrote on Boy & Bear a couple weeks back, and the post was extremely popular. This came as no surprise, because the band is nothing short of awesome. (While on the subject—did anyone manage to catch them at SXSW?) Great news, now I've got some more for you! The other day I received a track in my dropbox from a producer named Snapdragons, who had remixed Boy & Bear’s single Mexican Mavis. To be honest with you, when I saw this combination, I was a bit skeptical. Boy & Bear have such an earthy, down-home feel, that I thought to add electronic elements to one of their tracks by remixing it would completely muck up the integrity of it. After all, Mexican Mavis, with its wafting harmonies and strong, percussive guitar, feels so much more of an on-the-prairie than in-the-studio type of production.
But then I actually listened to the remix and remembered why those kind of will-this-work? judgment calls are best left to the professionals. Snapdragons turned my skepticism on its head with and a great, shiny midtempo remix that, yes, deviates from the mood of the original but uses the original elements in such a way—take for example the excellent, pulsing, chopped edit of those aforementioned wafting harmonies—that this deviation feels not only unforced, but quite excitingly fresh. Snapdragons describes his style as ‘electronic music pretty heavily influenced by indie music,’ which may be simplistic but for all intents and purposes is the best summation. It’s clear that, although he works in an electronic medium, he has a strong respect for more traditional compositions and song structure. That’s why this remix works so well. It still functions as a rock song, it just simply isn’t one anymore.
Snapdragons is an upstart producer out of Australia, with his first album coming digitally later this year. We’ll let you know when he releases it. In the meantime, check out his Soundcloud to hear more of his work.
I feel like North Carolina’s The Love Language got the short end of the stick in 2010. Their debut for Merge Records, Libraries, was completely overshadowed by the newest release from Grammy-winning label mates, The Arcade Fire. The Album of the Year-winning Canadians may have reached a wider audience with The Suburbs, but it’s the music of the lo-fi, indie-rockers from the East Coast that I find it easier to identify with. The Love Language started out with minimalistic, DIY sound – their first album was put together without any real professional help or recording equipment. This evolved into a more produced, cleaner sound for Libraries - something that could have taken away from the intrigue of the band. Luckily, it just moved them in a different direction without much compromise to what The Love Language is all about.
Heart to Tell, a track from the aforementioned 2010 release Libraries, is a must-listen – especially as we’re approaching springtime. It’s full of raw emotion and new beginnings, the core of frontman and founder Stuart McLamb’s music. Still, it manages to stay upbeat and exude the essence of pop - we’re talking sock-hops and hula hoops, here. Heart to Tell is truly something with its ability to borrow from pre-British Invasion rock, but rip a guitar solo right in the middle of the song. It’s a feel-good jam that shouldn’t be passed over. Check it out, and buy the whole album over at Merge here.
If you’ve read this blog for any extended amount of time, you undoubtedly know all about how much I LOVE D.I.S.C.O.Texas. Sorry, let me repeat that: I LOVE D.I.S.C.O.TEXAS. For those of you that haven’t read this blog for an extended amount of time (and those of you who may have forgotten), let me familiarize you a bit. D.I.S.C.O.Texas is a record label/production collective of sorts comprised of some of my favorite artists including Moullinex, Xinobi, and Justin Faust (who I have yet to feature on the blog—my bad—but who is the possessor of what is by far and away my favorite DJ Twitter feed). Don’t be fooled by the name; they’re based in Portugal. But, you are right in thinking that they primarily release disco, with some house and funk thrown in as well. Most everything they put out is impeccable, from downtempo tropical funk fests to deep, driving numbers meant to set fire to the dancefloor. Whatever they do they do it right, with a distinct yet uncontrived aesthetic and an uncanny ear for the next big [disco] thing. 2011 has seen them—much to my delight—on an absolute roll with new signings and releases left and right.
Their latest signee is Zimmer, a young producer who grew up between France and California, and is currently living in Paris. You can hear the dichotomy of his upbringing in his first release with the label, Cruisin.’ It’s a sparkly, sunny affair, reminiscent of the sandy beaches of the West Coast, with just enough sexiness and polish to make it worthy of Parisian nightlife. It’s being released for free, just in time to become your feel-good soundtrack to spring.
A month ago, D.I.S.C.O.Texas announced their then-newest signee, Coupons. Somehow I failed to post on them at that time (my bad again), though I played the release’s socks off. Coupons are two guys from Australia, and in addition to making some killer music, they are also gut-bustingly hilarious. (Don’t believe me? Read this interview they did with Futuristic Silence. I fell in love.) Their Driving To Your House Party single is one of the ‘deeper’ D.I.S.C.O.Texas releases, all dark and sexy and bassy, and then—at 2:50 in—downright glitzy. This song shouldn’t be reserved for merely driving to your house party, it is the house party. While this wasn’t released for free, you can stream it above and then go buy it (and a bunch of killer remixes to boot) at Beatport here.
Joan as Police Woman is the band led by miss Joan Wasser, a multi-instrumentalist from Brooklyn, NY. Her fourth studio album, The Deep Field, is already available for digital download, and due on CD and vinyl on April 12th. Magic, a slow-burner about “how crazy your head can get when you begin worrying about the future,” is the first single from the album. My good friend Connor of Sample This Music blog sent me the track about a month ago with the comment “Organs do wonders.” He is oh so right.
I just included this song on our Monday Mixer (a weekly, rotating, multi blog playlist—check it out on Lost In The Sound this week and right here on LL next week), but have been meaning to post it here forever, so you get it here as well. This week’s Mixer theme was ‘Springtime’, and this is my ultimate springtime song. With its stomping beat, criminally funky bassline, vocal oohs (which are my musical Achilles heel), irresistible lyrics, and mock-guitar whines, Le Castle Vania’s remix of The Virgins’ Rich Girls is THE staple piece in every ‘sunny day’ playlist I’ve created in the past year and a half. Seriously. It's so upbeat, so funky, so perfect for singing along, it's almost impossible to listen to it without grooving. Now take it to your car, roll your windows down, and start cruising. Trust me on this one.
This week’s Comedown Sunday comes to you courtesy of Ireland’s Solar Bears and Greece’s Keep Shelly in Athens1. Cub is a beautiful little song, at just under 3 minutes it’s reminiscent of Elizabethan consort/early Baroque lute music, with a simple, plucked guitar line undercut by delicate panpipes. While Solar Bears aren’t musicians who fall into the ‘ambient’ genre such as it is normally defined, this song is distinctly ‘ambient’ to me in that in conjures a distinct, crystal clear vision and mood every time I hear it: it glimmers and flows like a lazy river, sparkling in the sunlight and rippled by the most delicate breeze. The Keep Shelly In Athens Remix takes this ambient quality and turns it ethereal, stretching the song to almost twice the original run time, and decorating it with unintelligible vocal samples, otherworldly synths, and a strong kick. If the original is a lazy river, the KSIA remix is the waterfall. The understated beauty of the original Cub serves as the perfect end to the weekend, which the glittering jubilation of the remix is an excellent kick start to the week ahead.
Cub comes from Solar Bears' 2010 LP, She Was Coloured In. Buy the album here on Juno.
