SEVEN NOISES

The B side of this single, or the AA side, it's already been online for a year without ever been released in any physical format. It had to be Transparent then who decided releasing this song that got much attention for this band when Force Majeure put up this song available for download although, as it took a year to do it so, the song ended up letting have Watch the Glow, their new song, a main role. For those who didn't hear the song at the time, it's a tropical balearic Sweddish dance pop cover of The Sapphires, and it's been the only song available for listening at their Myspace for ages until this new single was announced. Now, we can also enjoy Watch the Glow, their first original song that proves that they cannot only perform but also compose as it's as catchy or even more as their previous attempt.
We can see them live in a couple of months in London at White Heat.

I read some comparisons with Burial when trying to find out more information about Holy Other. Not quite sure about that although some of the samples used can remind the type of dark and manipulated voices he uses. Holy Other's music is a bit more spacey and less beat base, quite more atmospheric and closer to ambient, and it can also be more shinny and slightly positive for some moments. It always seems is about to explode in an orgy of multiple beats but it mainly stays self-restrained, something like the Mogwai of Come On Die Young but after listening to dubstep and Salem for some fortnights.

I suppose that by now you are familiar with mega-interesting and highly commented Tom Krell's project How To Dress Well. Not long ago I commented on his first official release, the amazing single Ready For The World, after many free-to-download EPs that he's been posting online on his website. So here we have another one, this time on Transparent, coming in the form of a double A side single with two great new songs. On one hand we have the groovy and funky disco of Ecstasy with Jojo with a Michael Jackson sample from beyound the grave. It's HTDW on his most danceable and less spooky side, although his trademark filtered voices from the underground are still there.
The other track, Take it On, is like a slow rnb ballad possessed by evil forces trying to destroy it but failing and making it better, taking the falsetto to new dimensions.
He already has the release for his first LP, Love Remains, scheduled for September 21, which will not include these two tracks but will have re-recorded versions of some of the songs that appeared on those EPs.

How To Dress Well - Ecstasy With Jojo.mp3

The latest release on Transparent is a split between Weekend and Young Prisms. You'll probably remember Weekend from the Mexican Summer 10' single out earlier this year, where they prove there's still a place for noise pop with melodies. Young Prisms proposal and history is not far from Weekend's as their sound is quite close and they also had a release last year on the label that brought us Washed Out's Life of Leisure and also the live 7 split 7' with Small Black available on the Japanese label Big Love. Another thing these bands share is that both are from San Francisco and they've played shows together in many occasions.
The 7 inch is a limited to 300 release as they normally do, available at Pure Groove in the UK.

Transparent did it again. Always aware of what is going on out there, their next release is the second single from one-man-band Psychobuildings from who I reviewed his first single Birds of Prey not long ago. Some friends of mine had the opportunity of seeing him live in Brooklyn last month and were as amazed by his moves and performance as they were by his songs.
The new single follows the same patterns and style as the first one (strong Robert Smith influence although more kaleidoscopic and with lots of own personality) although it's kind of a bit more funky, both songs closer to Birds of Prey's B side Paradise.
As habitual, as well, it's a limited edition of 300 that you can get through Pure Grove in the UK and Leftist Nautical Antiques in the US, although I've recently seen that Rough Trade is getting some copies of the Transparent releases as well.

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.

Sometimes a band name doesn't say anything at all about the band and sometimes it's kind of a summary of the whole concept behind the band's lyrics and music. I'm not sure if this is what Harry Granger, the (L)only member behind Lonely Galaxy wanted to achive with this name but his songs are not the kind of songs you would recommend to listen to someone who is taking Diazepan. His lyrics explore the limits of loneliness, solitude and sadness to the point his friends normally ask him if he's ok after listening to them. Let's hope it's just his inspiration when writing music and, in a selfish way, let's hope he keeps on feeling this way if this is the engine for him to write these beutiful songs.
This EP simply called EP1 is out next month on Transparent, being it the first 10" they put out, and contains the stand out epic track (epic in the way Spiritualized are epic) Have a Heart, a song I've had on repeat in my I-pod and Laptop plus three more songs: Waiting, So Low and Time.
He's now trying to set up a band and reherse for a future tour next Summer, something he admits having trouble when recreating the sound of his recordings as all the orchestrations you can hear on the songs are created on his laptop. Let's hope he get's as close as possible. And to celebrate this release the people of Transparent asked Active Child to remix Have a Heart and he did an amazing job transforming the song into a tension creator urban soundtrack.

Transparent brings us another amazing single. The first release of Perfume Genius, a 26 year old guy from Seattle who still lives with his mother and performs beautifully crafted and lo-fi piano ballads that seem so fragile they are going to break into pieces. In Mr Peterson he describes a damaged relationship (autobiographical or not) between a 15 years old guy and an older guy who let's him smoke pot in his van after making him a tape of Joy Division. Although the style and the approach to music is quite different, lyrically, it can remind you of Xiu Xiu, who he actually has as his first friend on his Myspace website and shares with him a bit the dark undertow of his stories.
He has recently signed to Turnstile, the label of Los Campesinos who actually discovered him while on tour, fell in love with his music, and pull the strings to make him join, so he will soon release his first LP at any point this year. You can also see lots of interesting homevideos of songs like Gay Angels or No Problem which will or won't make it to the album.

Perfume Genius - Mr Peterson.mp3

Transparent Records (and blog) is always a must to check. They've already released limited 7" from Washed Out, Small Black, The Smith Westerns or Active Child to name a few. They have an immaculate taste and eye for whatever they publish or even talk about on their blog. And soon we have new releases to come, and the first one is the single debut, after a sold out and promising tape called Sweater Kids on Mirror Universe, from Weed Diamond, a band managed by Tim J Perry with help from other four members who are from Denver. They've been followed by a lot of people for a while and this release will probably get them more. with a slightly cleaner sound that the recordings from the tape, Snowmelt and Oklahoma are jumping garage tracks in the key of The Smith Westerns or Christmas Island. You can get them on March 29th from Pure Grove and soon in the USA through Leftist Nautical Antiques. Limited to 300.

Weed Diamond - Snowmelt.mp3





In other news, the people from Half Machine Records are going to release a new song from them in the split with Ancient Crux from California that also have some pretty amazing stuff out and will soon have another split with Norse Horse on La Station Radar.

The fact that this single, to be released next Monday, is going to be out through Transparent should be enough for you to get it and if I say you will like it if you did like previous Transparent singles by Small Black and Washed Out, you have the clue to pre-order it so, as it's been common for this label, it will only come out as a limited to 300 copies 7 inch single only available through one of the most exquisite record shops in the world, that's to say Pure Groove.
Active Child, another icy pseudo-electronic one man band with atmospheric arrangements that remind of summer hot days as much as it does of winter cold ones, sings with his quite angelical voice as if he was waiting for puberty yet to arrive but with the knowledge and experience of a grown up man. She Was a Vision, his first single, has strings arrangements, 80s synths and power ballad drums and has the power of an hymn and the B side Voice of an Old Friend is in the same key. You can listen to a couple of remixes of these songs on his Myspace site that are pretty interesting as well (well, one is more a cover) not included in the single and more releases for this year are being prepared.

After the overexposure of end of the year (and decade) best of lists, this year for the first time in ages, I've decided not to do one myself. Whoever has spent a bit of time checking this blog during its nearly one year of existence will already know some of the singles I considered worth of checking and buying so you can do the review yourself going through the old posts. Anyway, after checking some of those lists you can just see some are just repetitive and some have nothing in common, looking as if they were from different planets taking into account the source they've been brewing in.
Anyway, If I don't do any kind of review about the last 12 months, it doesn't seem end of the year so I thought I would just comment what's been about in general 2009. And this year, more than the previous years and as it used to be in the nineties, everything's been about the record labels so i thought I would resume 2009 through them.
If there's been a label that has been the protagonist of the year this is Captured Tracks: managed by Blank Dogs, it has brought us not only his own releases but also great singles and EPs by Dum Dum Girls, Woods, Ganglians or Christmas Island. Together with them, the Brooklyn label Woodsist has worked as a parallel label to Captured Tracks. Managed by Woods, every single release they've put out has got the attention of the media, from Fergus and Geronimo, Real Estate or The Mayfair Set to Fresh & Onlys, Ganglians or Woods themselves.
We've seen as well the resurrection of a mythic label which was 20 this year; Slumberland Records, mainly thanks to Pains of Being Pure at Heart, has also brought us great records from Crystal Stilts, Brilliant Colors, Lichtenstein or Frankie Rose.
In the UK, Transparent Records has brought us great limited singles from Washed Out, Small Black or The Smith Westerns, Young Turks discovered us The XX and released singles by Wavves and Tanlines and No Pain in Pop brought us A Grave with No Name, Deep Sht or Trailer Trash Tracy's. Other great labels of the year were Mexican Summer (Washed Out, Weekend, Pearl Harbour), Art Fag (Crocodiles, Best Coast) , Black Iris (Foreign Born, Fool's Gold), Upset the Rhythm (Xiu Xiu, Future Islands) or Moshi Moshi (Kindness, Thecocknbullkid).
We also see how stablished record labels were as good as ever (Sub Pop and its singles Club) or got back on track (Matador releasing Girls, Cold Cave or getting Sonic Youth).
According to sounds this has definitely been the year when Lo-Fi was back in track and popularised again, folk overlooked and electronic music mainly resting. And yes, it was the year when Animal Collective got full coverage in the mainstream world, something that, looking way back, looks like it could never happen so maybe not everything's lost in popular music.

The Smith Westerns have been one of the most talked about bands in bloggerland this year. Their first album is already sold out in the USA, thanks in part to the coverage of the extremely influencial blog Gorilla vs Bear, who has already placed their record between the 20 best ones released this year.
Some months ago they released through Transparent in the UK a limited edition single of one of the best tracks of the record, Be My Girl, although it's not been available in Pure Groove, the shop where you can get all the Transparent releases exclusively, since some weeks ago; and now, as a sesonal offer, you can get all their 7 inch singles (Fergus & Geronimo, Small Black...), apart from the long sold out Washed Out's Feel It All Around, for a really good deal as a whole package.
They must be another garage-pop band in a year garage-pop bands have been all around but they are definetely one that stands out thanks to the freshness and passion they put in their songs, probably a result of the fact none of their members is more than 21 years old. And if you were lucky enough to get yourself a copy of the first edition of the album you probably realised they used Nirvana's Nevermind cover mixed with a picture of a virgin to ilustrate their record, fact that changed in the second edition for fear of being sued by Courtney Love, but I think she will be busy now trying to get her daughter back and misspelling stuff in her own blog to lose her time being interested in searching for music online. Kurt would be proud though.

The end of the year is getting closer and together with the Best of 2009 and Best of the Noughties lists are the Ones to watch lists. And Small Black have and will appear in many of them for a lot of reasons: they are from Brooklyn and everybody is looking at Brooklyn at the moment; they are friends of Washed Out and are planning a release together for January, a 7 inch split single remixing each other's project; they appeared three months ago with the title track of this single in the Best new music section of Pitchfork and we all know what it means; they are a duo who use synths, samples and have a bedroom dreamy (lack of)production so constant in many acts these days. Apart from all these things that could land them an overrated hype they have really good melodies and songs so any hype that comes with it is totally deserved. They released last month their first EP and this week, through Transparent in the UK, as it couldn't be another way, they published their first single, the song that created all the buzz: dreamy melody, beautiful vocals that remind the first Stone Roses and a cover and video performing Josh's uncle with his majestic mullet. Only 300 copies available only through Pure Groove so hurry up to get a copy.

Small Black - Despicable Dogs.mp3

And yet another beautiful story to explain about a band that has gone from not existing to having a cue of labels that want them to release singles with them. Everything started just days after they posted their first songs on myspace at the beginning of this current year, just days after forming. Both Fergus (Andrew Savage) and Geronimo (Jason Kelly) have been members of many bands like Teenage Cool Kids, Wiccans, The Wax Museums and The Potential Johns, and this was supposed to be another of their projects although in just some months, after all the attention they got, it has become the one they spend more time with. As a matter of fact, they didn't Just some weeks ago we saw the release of their first single, Harder Than It's Ever Been on Woodsist and not much later their second on Tic Tac Totally, Blind Muslim Girl. And now, without having had enough time to enjoy the first two releases, we already have a third one, Tell it, in My Ears, this time for Transparent and only available through Pure Groove in Europe and Leftist Nautical Antiques in the USA. They count between their influences Southern soul, '60s pop, psychedelic, Motown and pop-punk music, everything noticeable in their recordings, although all the singles tend to go more to one side or another, making them pretty varied.
On their last effort, both songs are very soulful, like if they were recording from another time, but filtering a contemporary feeling that makes them sound fresh and new.

Released 16/11/09