SEVEN NOISES

I've had this Omo track for so long I absolutely forgot about it, and about them. I actually found out about them thanks to the connections they have with The Chap, so the fact their first release is a split single with them is no surprise at all. This duo has actually opened for them before and some The Chap members have collaborated in their soon to be released first album, so it's kind of normal their simple but weird melodies and surrealistic lyrics can remind of them in many occasions. Their minimum is maximum philosophy applies as well to the size of their instruments trying to use only small ones that can fit in their small apartment, for space reasons basically. Oversized is a minimal Casio tune about eating and getting fat while The Chap's song, that could have fit perfectly in their last album, is about congratulating somebody who did something right, which is refreshing to listen to between so many songs about loving, losing and getting back someone, parting, celebrating, dancing or moving parts of your body. In a world where cheap fake poetry is understood as a passionate overflow of feeling, stupidity can sound so intelligent sometimes.

Released 07/09/09

Omo - Oversized.mp3

There's not much information about Kindness in the web. I've read it's basically one guy from Germany with a little help from friends who has only played two gigs so far with different band members and has two more programmed in the following days. He's a fan of Arthur Russell which is palpable, if not so much in this forthcoming first single, at least it is in some compositions you can play on his Myspace, which I really recommend you to listen. Most of them are unfinished demos or sketches or finished songs that sound like sketches. Between them you can find two great covers, Neil Young's Tell Me Why and a beautiful rendition to the version Anita Dobson made of the Eastenders tune in 1986, Anyone Can Fall in Love. This single, to be released by Moshi Moshi in two weeks, it's a Replacements cover that sounds like a collaboration between Junior Boys and Talking Heads. It looks like if DFA had something to do with the tune which they hadn't and could open a door to the future sound of the band but something makes me think he will surprise us again in the future, taking into account the variety in styles and approaches he takes in all his songs. The hypnotic result of this song has had me playing this song on repeat for a day and I'm still far from getting tired. I hope it has the same effect on you.

Released 05/10/09

Kindness - Swinging Party.mp3

The first thing to admire about this band is that they will soon be the second British band to release something on label of the year Brooklyn based Captured Tracks, after next week's release of the Spectrals 7". Only for this reason they have my true devotion and applause. If, appart from this, they make infectious melodies as the two tracks they have posted on their myspace page, then the adoration is double. They share members with Your Twenties and Sexy Kids, or have shared them before, and they have a love for all the C86 bands or Comet Gain. Taking into account their sound they could easily publish on Slumberland after the Captured Tracks release, sharing the dark side and the pop side of both labels and standing in the middle without tending to any of them dramatically.

This London four piece will soon perform as part of this year's Nail the Cross Festival at Amersham Arms this October together with Deep Sht, Arch M, Joy Orbison and Trailer Trash Tracy's between others so not a line up to miss. There's not a release date yet so keep track of them since then.

This 7 inch has been out already for a while so it won't be news for many people I suppose but i discovered it not long ago and finally managed to get a copy last week after browsing online as it's sold out on the record label page, the Chicago based Weird Hug Records. TeePee, is Eric Lopez from Miami who's been releasing Tapes, CDRs and a couple of 7's so far, practices the kind of music you never think somebody from Miami would do, from the point of view of somebody who's never been there and has a stereotyped idea of sun, Cuban sounds, breast implants and Hawaiian shirts movies has sold us. His songs are full of fuzz and feedback, particularly slowed down and with crawling melodies in this single. The T side is So Sure That I, a song about marrying and killing someone that is dark and spacey, while Mbiso, the P side, is a bit more upbeat. Both songs though, share exactly the same guitar drone on the background being like a trademark for the EP. Check for some other available stuff he has, all of them sharing this drone punk with drum machines Lo-Fi spirit and wait for the release of his debut album anytime soon in his new formed label Senzei Records where he's also going to publish other bands around the Miami area.

TeePee - So Sure That I.mp3

And this is yet another release from Family Time Records, which is weird as Deep Shit, also known as Deep Sht thanks to auto and outof censorship, is from London. How they contact him or the other way around is a mystery to me but maybe he thought he would probably be more understood in the USA than here in the UK. The release is on Tape as most of the stuff Family Time puts out in the market. I have to say that this new revival of coolness that the cassette tape is having this year is annoying me a bit. I enjoyed CDs for a while when I first got to have a CD player. It was a new format, everything sounded clean, no scratches, and you didn't need to stand up for 70 minutes to change the side of the record. Then, I started to feel nostalgic for the record sound and format and stopped buying CDs, even more when the cold mp3 isolated us from having the concept of a cover, credits, pictures and lyrics for a long time. But we have to remember that tapes were never cool. It was a format you just used for your car, to create mixtapes for your walkmans and friends or to get demo tapes of new bands who still hadn't published anything yet. I think that this revival is fantasising with this last idea, with the concept of hearing something raw and unpublished only you and some more friends or lucky and obstinate searchers could have. But we have to remember how annoying was to rewind the tapes to change the side or look for a song or how we hated when our dodgy player ate and brake the tape we played 10 times in a row.
Anyway, going back to Deep Shit, Weird You, and in particular the track Hector, made me think of a London Little Girls, with all the feedback, drum machine and unintelligible lyrics and maybe the cassette format is not bad at all for this project as it sounds like an old demo tape somebody recorded in his room, which actually this is what it is. Let's wait for a vinyl release though, which is actually going to happen quite soon when Italian Beach Babes publishes the 4 way split single between Deep Sht, Graffiti Island, Ganglians and Cough Cool. Can't Wait

The first thing I thought about when I heard this song is that I hadn't heard a bass sound like this since 1990. In the 80s, the use of chorus effects and distortion at this volume was common in a lot of songs such as most of the The Cure stuff, or even that song called Take My Breath Away I don't remember who sang but my mind automatically linked together when I heard the first single of Trailer Trash Tracy's; that and the Twin Peaks OST. This contrast between silent and loud and sweet voice and distortion has been extremely explored before so originality maybe is not the first thing you would associate with this band who present themselves with this first single out in NoPainInPop. But when the final result is as beautiful as Candy Girl you forget about if something sounds like something else or if you've heard everything before. Pop music has already been on for ages and it's really hard not to be inspired by all the stuff you've grown up with. We are going to have to follow closely if the next steps explore other fields and they can develop a proper sound of their own or at least continue offering beautiful songs to listen to in your room while traveling back in time and remember when everything sound so fresh and new.

HTRK, which should be pronounced Hate Rock, are a trio from Melbourne who may hate rock, or maybe the classic concept of it as they are closer to avant-garde sounds, darkness, repetition and hypnotism through the music they perform. Earlier this year they published their second album, Marry Me Tonight, and a couple of months ago they released a download only single from it through the mainly dedicated to 10 inch tribute records to Suicide label Blast First (petite). Disco, one of my favourite tracks from the album has Jonnine reciting / singing on top of a drum beat and some guitars and fuzz. It's a sexy and hypnotic tune to dance to if you had one too many tranquilizers. It's a shame it doesn't have a physical release, I would love to have it on a 7 inch.
They are about to tour with Fuck Buttons and Factory Floor through Europe and the UK and, taking into account the comments I've read around the web, they promise to be an experience not easy to forget, melting the songs together and taking their sound to limits of noise and primary sensations.

And if I covered Chaz's main project Toro y Moi I surely had to mention one of his side projects, Les Sins, more dance and electronic oriented than his main project. Getting influence from French House and Disco his music under this name it's far from the mostly pop tunes of Toro y Moi but also have this dreamy and sunshine spirit and the strange sensation something wrong happened to the tape it was recorded on. The bpms are overflowing the songs, the sound seems to have been manipulated up to the point the songs work in loops of volume and quality of sound and repetition is used in excess but all these thing work in favour of the final result of the songs, increasing the originality and separating them of just a revival of bands like Cassius or Stardust. Lina, one of the songs you can listen to on his myspace, is pure house-pop you could dance in a summer disco if you were able to go back in time 10 years and it had a proper production, so don't expect to listen to it anywhere anytime soon apart from your own house parties.

Chaz, the only member in bedroom project Toro y Moi, is a friend to Washed Out's Ernest Greene and so, no doubt comparisons to both projects are going to be habitual. Toro y Moi's debut 7 inch works as an advance for his first two proper albums being Blessa part of one and 109 part of the other, or at least this is the information I read on line. Both tracks are pretty different between them. Blessa is much more interesting in my point of view, and also closer to Wash Out and Neon Indian and the under-water lo-fi summer melting sounds production that looks so 2009 and it's pretty interesting and innovative so far. The B side, 109, is closer to most of the tracks I have heard so far by Toro y Moi, closer to lo-fi indie pop but with the same summer feeling. Not sure if the albums are going to be divided stylistically and will follow these two sides of the same project but would be interesting if he does it this way. The single and both albums are going to be released by Carpark Records. Check his blog for more information and to see his photos and art.
http://www.toroymoi.blogspot.com/

Released 05/10/09

Toro y Moi - Blessa.mp3

As it happened before this year, we are again in front of a project that has been growing the attention of the public through blogging before any physical release has been put out, to the point Washed Out is one of the most commented artists online thanks in part to the permanent coverage and attention of Pitchfork, Stereogum and all the kings of music online that, we have to say, are the ones who own and decide the development of music these days (and I don't say this with any kind of bitterness as they made us discover many good bands we could never have the possibility to know).
Washed out, another one-man-project, is Ernest Greene, a guy from Georgia who creates a strangely original music that takes many influences from synth pop, balearic beats, italo-disco and dub and transforms it with a dream-pop lo-fi production that generates a sound that makes you feel like you forgot his tape inside the car, under the sun, and then tried to play it in a mono walkman you bought on sale about to run out of batteries. If this happened to you during the 80s, you know what I mean. If not, and you didn't get the image, just listen to the tracks and maybe you will get it then. Life of Leisure, his first EP, has been out for a month digitally only, and will have a proper physical release in October while, High Times will be out next Tuesday the 15Th on cassette only through Mirror Universe but they promise they will post it as a download once they run out of the 200 tapes, which I calculate will be before lunch time. Here you have a track for each release to make you an idea.

I just received today what I think is the last volume of the third Sub Pop singles Club edition. If you jog your memory you will remember that in previous editions they have put out some of the most interesting and influential bands of the last two decades such as Nirvana, Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips, Afghan Whigs, Fugazi, Babes in Toyland, Codeine, JSBX, Lou Barlow, or Bonnie Prince Billy to name just a few. So you can imagine how excited I was when I found out a new edition was coming through. And they did it again putting out some of the most talked about bands of the moment including records from Black Lips, Mika Miko, Blues Control or The Oh Sees, but they needed at least one of the three most admired bands of these days to call it a total triumph; I'm meaning Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective or Deerhunter, and they got it with the last one. Deerhunter has become one of the most blogged and admired bands in the last three years so there's nothing new I can say about them and I'm going to concentrate in this single because basically that's what this post is about. The two songs included here must be two outtakes of the Microcastle sessions as both original songs are in the album; one the title track of Microcastle and the other one on the evil brother that was Weird Era and maybe or maybe not they had already the intention of releasing this as a single for Sub Pop. Although they are alternative takes of those songs this doesn't mean they are less interesting. Vox Celeste 5 is a classic Deerhunter tune and it's a more clean and polished version than the one in Weird Era, as if this take was due to appear in Microcastle, while Microcastle Mellow 3 is an instrumental and completely changed version of the title track of the record that is only recognisable when you read the title and sounds like the credits tune of an imaginary documentary of the band.
If you didn't booked the Sub Pop Singles Club 3.0 you are going to regret it as there's no way you can get this record anywhere else (well, maybe paying a fortune on eBay).

Ela Orleans is a Polish woman who moved to Glasgow in order to develop a music career. Then she moved to NY and continue creating music collaborating with different experimental artists and released her first solo album last year. This month she publishes her second record, Lost, in French label La Station Radar and it promises to be amazing. She sounds like a modern Nico, even the cover of the album can remind vaguely to Nico's Chelsey Girls, but her voice is not as deep as hers and her music is not as extremely dramatic or apocalyptic as Nico's latest work. Ela's method of work is close to experimentation; most of her songs are worked through a sampled loop where she adds her vocals and some guitars or violins on top leading to the conclusion that she can make the songs by accident and work from there until she has a final result of something she's pleased with. The record is limited to 500 copies and possibly only available on line. I have the impression nobody is going to comment this release and it's going to be completely ignored which is a shame as I think it's pretty original and would please many people out there.

Norse Horse started as a solo project one-man-band by Ryan Beal who was living in Korea at the time and describes the beginnings as influenced by old Thai Music, West African jams, Black Dice, cumbia villera, lots of lo-fi noise pop and the nostalgic memory of a place that wasn't covered in snow. Then he moved back to California and request some help from other people who joined them to create a more tradicional band format but kept on looking for a bit of sunshine in his music. They released last June a CDR and Tape in the highly recommended Secret Geographies label, settled as well in California but are about to release a split single together with Ancient Crux in the even more recommendable La Station Radar label at some point this autumn. Their music is a middle point between tradition and experimentation, combining traditional instruments and tropicalia percussion with noises and voices from far beyond. And you can think everybody is using tropical elements in their music, since Person Pitch, but I'm sure you will realise their approach and use of these elements are pretty personal and far from those used by Mr Panda Bear.

Norse Horse - Sleepers.mp3

I remember when I first heard about the word House referring to music in the 80s being my first memory of associating this word to a song Joe Smooth's Promised Land. Then it came the Acid and New Beat period that made me be interested in dance music for a while until I discovered bands like Pixies and Sonic Youth that made me forget and even reject anything dance-oriented or slightly electronic. And later I discovered Warp records with bands like Autechre and Aphex Twin that helped me to be reconciled with electronic music and understand that experimentation could also be associated with beats and machines and I opened my mind to the concept that music should not be linked to what you use to create it but to the final result.
And if there's been a label in the noughties that represents what Warp did with dance or electronic music to the 90s, although with a totally different approach, that's been DFA. They hardly have released a bad record and have conciliate some genres of the past with the present and future of modern dance music.
And two of the latest releases they've put out are among their bests. I'm refereeing to Still Going's Spaghetti Circus and James Curd's We Just Won't Stop. While the first one takes us to the first House anthems with a serious approach and delivers this year's Happy House, the second one takes a more fun-oriented hip-house approach: both tunes steal from the past but never with a retro spirit, always trying to create new things and looking forward. The proof is Still Going's tune's been out for just two weeks and I've heard it twice, one of them in last weekend's Disco Bloodbath.

If there's one band everybody is going to remember 2009 for is The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. A couple of singles and an EP last year after just months of forming made everybody expect their album and when it came early this year nobody was talking about anything else. Everybody I know had the record non-stop at their decks and i-pods and recovered from the dusty record collection classics from Wedding Present,Jesus and Mary Chain, Chapterhouse, House of Love, Slowdive, Stone Roses, Ride or any decent British band who released records between 1987 and 1992. And after touring all the planet and being in every festival that is worth to go they are ready to publish a new song they have already been playing live for a while. No surprises here, not a change of style or anything new but who is going to ask them for any changes when they have just been publishing stuff for a year. Higher Than the Stars is another pop song that takes you back on time when shoegaze and indie-pop where barely new words and the boring Britpop period was still about to come. The single will be released on the 22nd of September in three formats: 7, 12 and CDs including three new B sides and a Saint Etienne remix of the title track.
In other news, the Come Saturday single has been released this week as the last single of the album with a new B side, Side Ponytail.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Higher Than The Stars.mp3

Yeti Magazine is an irregular publication it's been on for nearly a decade although they've just released seven numbers so far. You can only get it online and it's about, saying it on their own words, "a general interest magazine for people with marginal interests. Subjects covered include literature, film, unicorns, the stock market, black science fiction writers, Swedish trance-folk bands from the '60s, the roots of Alfred Jarry's Pere Ubu character, John Denver, horror vacuui drawings, streetcorner gospel musicians, sex and comic art".

Every single number comes with an 80 min CD with rare and unreleased tracks from the most interesting artists of the moment. I just discovered the magazine with the last issue, Yeti Seven, and some of the artists included are Dum Dum Girls, Woods, Crystal Stilts, Nodzz, Zola Jesus, Christmas Island, Grouper, and a total of 25 artists including some of the most interesting artists to have emerged this year in the American underground, the magazine is settled in Oregon, but also some international stuff including pop, punk, blues and whatever they think it's interesting. They promise that now the magazine is going to have a periodicity of three numbers per year so just waiting to see what are they going to have in number eight, to be published in October. you can get the magazine or subscribe to four numbers at yetipublishing.com

Here you have a couple of songs they included in the magazine to make you want to have more.

Don't think I need to introduce Fever Ray to anyone by now as it's been one of the most commented artists of the last months, since her first record out of The Knife was published. That's why I'm just going to limit myself to talk about this limited 7 inch record it just came out exclusively on Rough Trade last Monday. Originally only available to fanclub members or on tour you can now get one of the 100 copies they have between their two shops or at the shop online. It consists of two cover versions of Nick Cave's Stranger Than Kindness and Vashti Bunyan's Here Before. Although both songs are a bit mysterious and spooky when performed by the original artists here they get to new limits of strangeness and obscurity because of her voice and the arrangements of Van Rivers and The Subliminal Kid that, although they are also present in some tracks of her album, they are introduced here as full members of the project appearing on the cover as active performers of the two songs. I particularly prefer the Vashti Bunyan attempt as it travels from the pastoral landscapes to a completely new territory of sampled voices and electronic arrangements that makes you forget this is not an original and let's not forget that the main reason for a cover should be about this.

Released 31/08/09

Fever Ray and the Subliminal Kid - Here Before.mp3