SEVEN NOISES

There's something contradictory about being a 7" vinyl freak. I love it when they come full of songs. One of my favourite singles of the year so far is Eternal Summer's Seasons EP, a 7" that came with 5 fabulous songs. And here we have another of my most appreciated acquisitions. Sea Monster's Two Birds EP comes with 5 songs on the vinyl and an instant downloadable zip when you buy it on-line for these 5 songs and an extra 6 songs of an only download EP, most of it being remixes of tracks from the EP, called These Bones. All this wouldn't matter so much if the songs were not as good as these songs, loving everyone of each.
If there's one band everybody would like to see a reunion of is Neutral Milk Hotel. That, or that Jeff Magnum would definitely leave his lethargic cave and put out a record. So well, you are not going to miss it that much when you listen to Seamonster's Two Birds. This is the record everybody would love Jeff Magnum to do. Without being a NMH rip off, Seamonster's vocals and style reminds that of Jeff but impregnates his own personality in the compositions and arrangement, being not lo-fi or hi-fi but somewhere in between, with mild use of electronics and manipulation of sounds without falling in the folktronica sack. The EP, from the beautiful New England intro, the upbeat and catchy Oh Appalachia, the fuzzy psycho-ballad Bearsuit, the delicate The Philosophy of Andy Warhol to the Magnetic Fields-like Analee, is varied, generous and perfect. One I (and probably you) will have on repeat for ages.
And don't forget the extra EP These Bones, with amazing remixes from Visions of Trees or Roman Ruins and a great cover from Bjorn Kleinhenz.
Get the whole pack here or here

Well, it's been a while since I last blogged about a band of London so very happy to do it with such an interesting band. Sometimes I just don't understand how fast people create stuff. The two people behind Visions of Trees just met last Summer and they already have an EP out that sounds like if it's been the process of many hours working through textures and layers of sounds. The final sound of their songs is pristine, pure and clear like water, evocative and dreamy, sensitive and extremely melodic and pleasant. It's how one can imagine that heaven sounds. It's a bit like High Places with Glasser and Colleen all together.
Their first EP, sadly only available on CD through Royal Rhyno Flying Records, it's so perfect I hope they plan a re-issue on vinyl soon. They should.
They've just remixed Memory Tapes as well.

And another release from the people of Mexican Summer, this time L.A. band Dunes, who will also release pretty soon a 4 song 7" single for Art Fag. Taking into account the two labels they are releasing their music with, we'll sure will hear a lot about them soon.
Dunes music reminds me enormously of the first Cocteau Twins, the same guitar effects, evocative vocals and it has a deliberated 80s retro sound. A bit of Siouxsie and the Banshees as well.
The 7 songs EP was supposedly available from the Mexican Summer website from two days ago but the vinyl option is crossed. Not sure if this means it's already sold out or it's about to come. We'll hope is the second and keep on checking.

Tommy Davidson, a.k.a. Dream Cop, comes from Blacksburg, the same hometown as Wild Nothing. There must be something in the air around that town that is making everybody listen to old shoegaze British music all day long and then, become multi-instrumentalist and create songs strongly influenced by all those bands without being a copy of one in particular or even taking advantage of newer technologies in order to give them a more contemporary feeling.
He's already been mentioned in many blogs and websites and still has not a released planned so far, apart from the possibility of putting a song out in a compilation for Output Noise Records next Summer.
Marooned is a super powered upbeat song with a manic distorted drum beat and lots of feedback that takes you back to dancing crazily in your room circa 1990 while the Beach Boys inspired Beach City / Carol I Know is more loopy and spacey like abducted by the spirit of Panda Bear. They don't actually sound out of the same person which is probably good.

The Samps are sometimes members of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti but this is not going to help you to think you know how it will sound. It's like computerized funk, like music for old video games that were never produced, like a nightmare sci-fi soundtrack you can try to dance to. The basslines are huge, the melodies from playful to dark and scary, and the rhythms changing and unpredictable. It's sci-fi future funk as it would have been imagined 20 years ago but technology was not enough in order to produce it.
This self-titled EP will be out next week on Mexican Summer, which means it will probably be sold out but the end of the week, even more after being mentioned all around. Not available for pre-order though, so check the website on the 5th of may before it's too late.

Hooray!, Ben Wagner, is specialised in short dreamy songs. This track, to be out soon as part of his Daydream EP, is an example: atmospheric, mixing samples of water with music and vocals, using everything as if it was a unique instrument, all at the same level, which makes it even difficult to know what parts are human sounds and what parts are actual music. And everything finishes when you think it's actually starting, wanting to hear more.
Couldn't find many details about this release; only that will have four or five songs. I wonder if it's the Wonder Beard Tapes release he mentions on his Mypace site or it could even be the Beko single he has scheduled for June. Anyway, we'll keep on checking to know when it comes out.

I've had the song Angel-headed since January but always forgot to blog about this time when I was in front of my laptop. To my surprise, today, when I wanted to post about them I realise that, since then, they've changed the name of the band from Nisperos to Mainland Fever, although they still have the same song to stream on their myspace site, now under this new name. Not sure about the reasons about this change, I quite liked the name Nisperos (medlars in Spanish) being one of my favourite fruits. Nevertheless, the tunes are still there and a name is just a name.

Mainland Fever then, are a four member band from New York with a love for classic soul and pop melodies and melancholic tunes. And the vocals filter the nostalgia transmitted in the music and lyrics in a majestic way.

Survive is a synth four-piece band from Austin, Texas. They blend together different electronic retro sounds to create timeless tunes, most of them downbeat and with a kind of bittersweetness mix of emotions. They just put out an untitled 10" vinyl release on Light Lodge Records (home of Pure Ecstasy & Silver Pines). No information at all about the number of songs or which titles are included. Lately, it looks like a completely lack of information is the best promotion of it all. Anyway, check their myspace site to listen to some tunes that are probably included on the release, thing you would probably want to do to check it out before buying it if you are not in the USA as getting the release sent to Europe is 20$ with post.

We love Best Coast so if they recommend us a band, we run to check it immediately. And the last band they've recommended us is No Joy, a female duo from LA/Montreal who released for free an EP called No Summer that you can download here. They couldn't sound more 90s, fuzzy and sometimes kind of grungy guitars with background mellow voices, changes of speed and psychedelia. For now, you can only check the two songs of this EP, No Summer and No Joy, both on their Bandcamp and Myspace sites but they are already performing live with the likes of Best Coast themselves. Simple lyrics, simple titles and a bit of negativity, let's say, and no more information whatsoever.

I suppose you already found out about Gorilla vs Bear's new record label Forest Family Records, mainly thanks to the success of Cults, who after being one of the most commented bands in the Blogosphere, released a limited version of their previously free-download-only single Go Outside that later became their first (and already sold out) reference. Gorilla vs Bear is one of the most followed blogs online and has since its creation been a point of reference to discover new bands and find out about what's going on, so the creation of their own label was inevitable and really good news.

So, as of now, they have planned their second 7" release, soon to be available on pre-sale, this time by Lafayette, Colorado's duo Gauntlet Hair. I Was Thinking / Our Scenery will be out late May / Early June and they are also currently working on their first album to be out anytime this year.
I Was Thinking is a reverb loud pop song that sounds of Summer without being particularly warm and, although it doesn't have a clear classic structure, is very catchy.

The Letter Box Project is the name behind the musical project of Tyler Bates, a guy from Murfreesboro/Nashville, Tennessee, with classical music background, who started writing contemporary music just a year ago. Maybe that's the reason why, in only one year, he's achieved a quite complex and professional level of composition, and he already has a huge number of songs, some of them distributed between his two releases so far, a first album called Memory Static and a tour EP called Lullabies For Those Who Cannot Sleep that you can get here.
His music, close to the work of other current artist often tagged as Chillwave, uses Vocals, Synths, Guitars, Piano, Computer and Vocoder. He's currently working in his second album, still untitled, but for the way some songs that will be into it sound, like Temporary Home, it looks like he's taking a more pop based direction.
Definitely, somebody to look from close.

Emily Reo's tape Minha Gatinha and her other tracks have been on repeat here in my house. I absolutely love her music and think her voice and minimal compositions are really beautiful. Since I last posted about her here, she's been busy preparing a new tape EP called Witch MTN that is going to be out on the 24 of May on Breakfast of Champs, a small label that's previously put out stuff by Cloud Nothings or Truman Peyote. Not sure about the number of songs or final track list but it will definitely include the song you can download below.

In other news, she also has a new song in the compilation WGWB & Friends Volume Two (WGWB stands for White Guys With Beards). The compilation is free to download here but you can also get a copy of the limited to 100 tapes or even an exclusive and personalised CDR. The compilation includes new and exclusive tracks from the likes of The Letter Box Project, Memoryhouse, Gobble Gobble or Golden Girls, a total of 20 tracks, and the money made from the physical copies will go to help sponsor future releases of Wonder Beard Tapes, so it's really a good cause.

Emily Reo will soon start touring the Northeast USA, so if you live around there you'll be lucky if you can see her.

I have to start this post saying that this track's been released in one of my personal favourite labels lately, La Station Radar, many times blogged about here thanks to people like Ela Orleans, Pink Priest, Dirty Beaches or Jeans Wilder. The fact that Daniel Klag was who approached me with this release instead of me finding out about was a good surprise. I've been quite busy lately in my pay job and didn't have much time to check online about new stuff so the fact that people approach me from time to time to let me know about their music it's always a pleasure. And Daniel Klag's music it's not the type of music many blogs will talk about so, as I find it extremely beautiful, I thought it was a duty to do it myself.
This track, made entirely of guitar sounds, individual notes or chords, put together into a sampler or computer, and then cut up, is a 17 minutes 2 seconds long droney ambient Odyssey, calm and dreamy, looped and quiet, warm and cold, sometimes close to silence and ideal to listen to with your headphones.
The track is out now on a beautifully packaged, as they always do, 50 copies only 3" CDR that only costs 4€. You can get it here. He's also going to release some stuff on the Mille Plateaux label, as well as Loveless Music Group's imprint "Self Storage Recordings".

You can also get the track here.

And, as promised some posts below, here we have yet another side-project coming from Vivian Girls. This time Katy join forces with Cat Power collaborator Gregg Foreman to form a new band called All Saints Day. And the result couldn't be more far from what they do with their full time bands. The first song to appear on the web, It'll Come Around, is somewhere between Yo La Tengo and JAMC, classic indie-pop with lots of shoegaze feedback and floating vocals and spacey synthesisers. Not more information is provided yet about if we'll see a release anytime soon, if it's going to be a single or an album or if it's going to appear on Vivian Girls' label Wild World Records. We'll just have to wait for more news to come and keep on checking their websites.

All Saints Day - Itll Come Around.mp3

Summer Camp's Ghost Train single is finally out after being one of the most talk about songs of last year (it even made it to the best songs of the year list of GvsB). Courtesy of the Moshi Moshi's singles club we finally have it on 7" vinyl with the B side Montgomery Avenue 1984. After some doubts if they were seven members or just two and if they were actually from Sweden (rumours they loved to spread) I can say they are just two, Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley, and they are actually from London, which I'm happy to announce as there have not been many London bands on this blog lately.
They just made their first show last week 9the band has actually only existed for 6 months) but they already have a bunch of gigs schedule for the next months, including some Summer festivals.
The song is perfect pop, delightful and optimistic, with an infectious chorus. Really retro and really modern at the same time. Something like the British Cults.

We record collectors and music addicts are just one step below comic book fans. We are freaks. Last Saturday on Rough Trade East, London, it was the confirmation. People queuing from two hours before the time the store opened in order to get a copy of a limited record (most of them for the first Blur single after the reunion that, I have to say, many of them ended up on Ebay selling for hundreds, so for many that day was just a way to make business). Once inside, people running, pushing, throwing records on the floor, records being stepped over, fights for a last copy and queues of one hour long wait to pay. And I was one of them. I once found myself laying on the floor in order to get a copy of the Dum Dum Girls / Male Bounding split. It was chaotic and surreal.
But this year, even more than for the two previous editions, was the confirmation that people is buying records again and, although this means that I'm going to wake up early and probably miss some records in future editions, I just have to feel happy about that. Record Store Day has become to replace what waking up on Christmas Day used to mean when we were kids: feeling nervous and excited from the moment we wake up.
I got most of the stuff I wanted, at least the ones that were available in the UK, so I was happy with my purchases. Here there are some:

The best packaging comes for Sub Pop with the releases for the Dum Dum Girls / Male Bounding and Happy Birthday singles, joking about mp3s and the revival of records in a retro sleeve. And good songs that didn't make it to the albums Sub Pop has lately released from this bands.

The Caribou and Beach House 12" releases are also great. Beach House's Zebra EP, containing two different versions of the album tracks Zebra and 10 Mile Stereo plus a new track and the B side for Norway and Caribou's Odessa in four great versions, the original and three mixes by Junior Boys, Nite Jewel and David Wrench.

I also got a 10" compilation of Factory records with Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays and The Durutti Column that, although a bit cheeky, it's worth if just for the cover, a tribute to Fact001 and for the fact of playing Transmission and Ceremony without changing the record.

And now the weirdest collaboration ever, Hot Chip and Bonnie Prince Billy in a new version of Hot Chip's last single, the auto-tune joke I Feel Better that, although the long dance version you can find online is even better, it's funny and good at the same time and it's another proof of the versatility and sense of humour Will Oldham has outside of his own releases.

I got the Danger Mouse / Sparklehorse single if only because it would sadly be the last ever single I would get from Mark Linkous.

Other stuff I got was the Grace Jones 12", the Pavement Cut your Hair / Grounded 7", Cocorosie's Lemonade (with the beautiful Surfer Girl cover on the B side), the Mogwai / Fuck Buttons split, Surfer Blood's Swim, Wooden Shjip's Australian tour single, Charlotte Gainsborough's Sunset sessions 7", JAMC's re edition of Just Like Honey and the First Aid Kit / Peggy Sue split. Yes I know, I spent more than what I could afford but, with the high of the moment, you just can take and take.

There's nothing as exciting as seeing how something you've been working for a while is finally taking place and seeing the public light. I imagine it's like giving birth. This is how James Tritten must feel like these days. His new label, Fort Lowell Records has just released its first single after some months of hard work, preparation and love for what he's doing. I've been in contact with him for a while now thanks to this blog and he's a passionate and nice guy who's so excited with what he's doing, completely for the sake of art, and that's what moved me to make the first ever interview for this blog about how's everything going for his label and the vicissitudes of creating a DIY record label. Here it goes:

What moved you to set up a record label?

My life has been involved with music for the past nineteen years. I have been playing in a band, with my now wife, in clubs/bars since I was sixteen years old. I remember saying to myself back then, “When I turn thirty, if I am not making a living off of music, I am going to quit.” That was to be my deadline. In 2004, when I was 29 years old, I went on my last US tour with Tracy Shedd (Teenbeat Records). Unfortunately, I did not come home making money and was still adding to debt that had began when I was able to apply for my first credit card. So, I quit, as I said I would do.
I not only quit playing music, but I also closed shop on a booking agency I was running, Candy Gram Booking. I pretty much cut all ties with the music industry except purchasing music/records; something I don’t believe I will ever quit doing. After one year, my life went completely down the drain, worse off than anything I would have ever imagined. When I was able to get my head above water for a brief moment to breathe, I came to realize that I was not longer living “my life,” a life of music.
After that realization, I started playing guitar for Tracy Shedd again, and decided to start up a record label, something I feel will be more manageable than a booking agency. I want to give others the same experiences I have been blessed with. I want to ensure that other people like me that live a life of music get the opportunity to continue to do just that, and have someone there to motivate them to never stop.
Tucson is a beautiful community with a lot of love and support for its talent. I saw an opportunity to help some of my favorite Tucson musicians by starting a label and using my resources to help make their music available for others to enjoy. I also want to help in populating the world with more vinyl records, a medium I am very passionate about for music and art. 7inch records, in particular, are a medium that not everyone quite understands the benefit of. They provide the listener more direct focus on the song and are inexpensive to produce, making it easier for the band and record label to get more music out to the listeners.

Have you work in one before?

No. The only business close to a record label that I have run before (or worked for) was my booking agency. Both are part of the music industry and share a common goal to promote band, but otherwise are not run the same way. The technical daily operational aspects of each business are completely different.
I am finding that I am pulling knowledge from previous experience working with record labels from being in Tracy Shedd's band (Teenbeat Records, Devil In The Woods, and Eskimo Kiss Records), and my old band Audio Explorations, that worked with Eskimo Kiss Records and Stripmine Records. Both of those bands have provided me with enough experience that I felt I had a clear understanding of where to start.
The rest of my experience is simply learned as I go, something I was very clear with Young Mothers when I first spoke with Zach Toporek about working together. I wanted him to know that I had never done this before and I was sure I would mess something up. Zach understood, and I think it has been a pretty painless (hopefully enjoyable) experience for them so far.

How do you approach the bands?

Tracy Shedd had played a show with Young Mothers back in 2009. We simply fell in love with them, declaring them the best band in Tucson. When this idea of a label came about, it was pretty much a no-brainer as to who I would work with first. I made a conscious decision to not put out Tracy Shedd (my wife) first. I knew I would at some point, but it was very import to me that the music community see Fort Lowell Records as something of its own, and not just another project for me to promote Tracy Shedd.
Young Mothers were exactly what I was looking for: young, motivated, energetic, respectful, and simply great at what they do. Obviously, I have to be a fan of the band I want to put out. In fact, I feel I should be close to their biggest fan… otherwise, why would I want to work as hard as I know I am about to for them?
I don’t feel bands understand what it takes to run a label, even a 7inch Label. I have totally lost all personal time with my wife and with my own interests in life. So when a band asks me if I would be willing to put a record out for them, they are truly saying to me, “We deserve more of your time than your wife does,” which is a bold statement to make! Not to mention, the money that started Fort Lowell Records came out of my personal wallet /debt, so they should toss in, “We also feel that we are more important than you having money to put food on your table!”
For me, Young Mothers, …music video?, Tracy Shedd (obviously), and Wet & Reckless are just that… more important to me than my own personal needs and wants. Ask my wife: I have literally sacrificed meals and clothing to make something happen for Fort Lowell Records. So this is what I look for when I approach a band. They have to be that important to me.
As for “how do I approach them,” I think what is most important to understand is that I have to be the one to approach them, not them approaching me. After all of these years of being in a band and wondering why a certain label would not put out my music, I finally get it now. If a band wants a label to be completely supportive of what they are doing, then they should want the label to contact them, not the other way around. I understand there are some cases where a label would need to be introduced to a band, but I think it is important that the label feel they discovered the band. It’s like love at first sight, but in this case it is "listen.' I approach the bands how I would have approached a girl back in high school.

What are the basic steps to follow to set up a label?

First and foremost, as I said earlier… be in love with the bands you are going to work with. You must feel that they are the greatest thing to walk the earth, because you are going to end up working so hard for them; it’s got to be worth it.
Second, if money is something you are trying to get by starting up a label: stop. I am sure on some level there is money to be made with running a record label, but that should not be why you are doing it. I was watching how much money my wife and I were spending on paintings for our house, supporting artists. I love having original artwork in our home, and I don’t mind spending the money to support artists, but the truth is the art itself is only inspirational to Tracy and I, and anyone else who comes to our house and can learn about each piece. With 7inch Records, I am spending about the same amount of money for one release as I would have spent on a painting, and I am able to share the inspiration with an infinite amount of people all over the entire world.
I would also recommend that you surround yourself with inspiring and motivating people, from the bands themselves to others that may help you run the label or take part on some level. Fort Lowell Records has taken so much energy to get started, and there is no way I could have done it without the help of my wife and friends. It makes each record a release for more than just the band to celebrate; everyone involved with Fort Lowell Records feels each record is their own personal release, and truly it is.

What are the next releases planned?

Young Mothers “Come On, The Cross” is the first 7inch record we have coming out. That is due out April 20, 2010, and will be on green vinyl. Our second 7inch, on clear \vinyl, is going to be for …music video?, for the song “I’m Afraid Of Everything.” It is a sweet slow-jam that is simply irresistible. …music video?’s 7inch is due out July 13, 2010.
About the same time I started up Fort Lowell Records, our close friends Wet & Reckless were just starting to release demos of their music. Their bassist, Jessica, is from Tucson, but the band currently lives in Los Angeles. I struggled for a bit of time with the idea of doing a record with them, because I really did want this to be a Tucson-only label. After listening to the demos for about a month, I simply could not resist wanting to put out a record with them; I love what they are doing. Jessica’s connection to Tucson was enough for me, but we did decide that doing a split with Tracy Shedd would help support the direction I wanted to keep Fort Lowell Records going. Besides, Tracy and Emily Wilder, guitarist and vocalist for Wet & Reckless, have been best friends for as long as I have known Tracy. They have done many projects together, so this simply made sense to have both bands together for our third release.
Past that, I have some ideas but nothing written in stone (or that I am willing to allow to be published at this time… HA!). I have personally invested enough money to get the first three records out. Now, it is up to the community to decide if Fort Lowell Records will release anything past that. I am not taking any money back from my initial investment, so every dollar that is generated from sales will simply go back into Fort Lowell Records to fund more releases for more bands. I would love to see my future ideas come to life, so let’s hope we are able to draw up enough support to keep this thing going. There are a lot more great bands in Tucson that I would love to help out. So, if you see me advertise a FLR004… then you know something worked!

So yes, I'm definitely looking forward seeing the FLR004 anytime soon as it would mean everything worked out fine. Meanwhile here you have a song from their first release out tomorrow, the Tucson band Young Mothers, who self-released their first album Arts & Crafts a while ago and perform classic American indie-rock close to Buffalo Tom or Clem Snide. Enjoy the mp3 and get the vinyl here.

Young Mothers - Good Swords.mp3

Musically, there are not many things you can be proud about having been born in Barcelona, at least in Catalan language. Historically, its music has been more focused in being a political weapon as a consequence of the repression of the Catalan language during Franco's dictatorship period. That's why during the 60s and 70s the only music done and performed in Catalonia was political folk against the system and pop and rock music was completely ignored. Whats more, during the early 90s there was a revival of this type of music, then more focused in classic stadium rock that isolated itself from any contemporary influence with a few exceptions.
That's why music sung in Catalan has always sound to me too regional and out of time to be paid any attention.
Anyway, the fact that Aias, a three girls new band who has recently signed to Captured Tracks to release their first recordings with them, could break the spell, makes me really happy and proud. They sound current and international although they chose to sing in Catalan. You'll start soon hearing from them comparing their sound and qualities to Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls or Best Coast and all this new bunch of girl bands with a love for the old sixties bands, pop and punk-noise music, although they have a personal sound that also kinds of reminds me of some Spanish indie bands from the 90s. I wish them the best and I'll follow them from close.




Aias - La Truita.mp3

Vivian Girls have a new single out and either they read the reviews about their records or they actually are becoming, little by little, more influenced by old 50s / 60s girl bands, even more obviously than anything they've done before. In this single, out on their own record label Wild World Records, some of the punk fury fuzz they usually filter their songs with have disappeared and they even sound totally retro. The A side, My Love Will Follow Me could easily be a cover, although is not, and sounds familiar after a couple of listenings. The B side, a cover of the great Chantels song He's Gone, respects the original. You can get in here or in many specialised record shops.

The Vivian Girls are working really hard these days with their band constantly on tour, many releases and new parallel projects like the previously reviewed here The Babies and new project All Saints Day that will release their first single in some weeks and expect me to post about it in days.

Pat Grossi, aka Active Child, has another EP coming out in May, this time for Merok and this time a 10". It will contain 6 tracks, four of them previously released on his first single for Transparent and his tape for Mirror Universe Tapes but two new: I'm In Your Church At Night and Weight Of The World. For the people who doesn't do tapes or were not fast enough to get it (now it's sold out) it's great news, as well if you want more or prefer it on vinyl.
For the people who is new to Active Child, he started being in everybody's mouths after the release of his first single She Was A Vision, also included in this EP and the tape, with his layers of synths and atmospheric voice.
The record will come out on time for his first ever European tour, most of the dates in the UK and Germany though out May. I've seen some videos from his Austin preformances and sounds great, so looking forward to seeing it.

This is the second release of ethereal and mysterious band Glasser. Many of you discovered them with their first release thanks to the fact it was put out on True Panther Sounds, a label that became quite popular last year after releasing the Girls album and singles and some others for the fact they were included in the must have download only compilation Selected & Collected: An eMusic Sellects Compilation with the main track on that 12": Apply. That track, joined as well with several remixes also included there, mixed psychedelia with percussions and underwater sounds. the people at the label described her music as Kate Bush + Arthur Russell and I would add she's close to the sound of High Places or even slightly to Gang Gang Dance minus electronica.
Her new track Tremmel, included in the 12" out on Young Turks, is backed by interesting remixes by The XX's James or Romatic Three, following the same type of format she used for her first release. The people at True Panther Sounds announced last month her first Lp is following soon and she's currently touring backed by Fever Ray's producers Van Rivers and The Subliminal Kid and she sometimes performs with a magnificent instrument she invented herself, a kind of sci-fi organ that needs two people to perform it.

Blank Dogs goes Italo. OK, now that I have your attention I'm going to make a point to that. He doesn't suddenly sound like Gary Low or Modern Talking. He actually revisits the pre-italo-post-punk or, actually, as it never existed, kind of invents it. Heat and Depression, which title sounds like a lost Joy Division track, steals all the attention of this new Blank Dogs EP, Phrases, which is out now on Captured Tracks on 12" and there's actually another new release as a Cassette-single called Leaves which include to new tracks unavaliable anywhere else.
Some months ago he declared in an interview that he was taking some time in order to redefine a bit his sound and try to explore different territories and he's actually done it but still sounding as Blank Dogs, don't worry. And the other three tracks here are a bit more of what we've used from him, although cleaner and slightly less lo-fi.
He's also due to release a new album next month which will not include any of these tracks and don't think that he just did this EP to put some songs that didn't have the quality to go on ; they are actually four of his best tracks yet. My admiration for Blank Dogs and Captured Tracks only grows and grows.

Django Django are back with their second single. I posted about them when their released their first one, the rhythmic and Beta Band reminder Storm / Love's Dart and, although I think you will probably like this as much, it's a bit different from what you could expect. The basics are there but this single is kind of more psychedelic and even has surf style guitars, the ones you can listen to in Tarantino's films and make you dance like crazy moving hips and arms. It also looks like they have grown in confidence and are exploring new territories, something you can even see more on the b side, the instrumental Skies Over Cairo, a synth based ethnic psycho tune that makes you think of a science fiction film that could be based in Egypt.
Out of any style or scene currently undergoing in the UK or the world Django Django promise to be a band to watch from close. It's out since Monday on Bonjour Branch




Django Django - Wor.mp3