Sunday, June 29, 2014

The Weekly What 6•29•14 
"A playlist every Sunday?!"


1. The first track from Basement Jaxx's upcoming album Junto (out August 25th), "Never Say Never," is a predictably but flawlessly constructed dance track. Symphonic strings quickly yield to the familiar stark piano+melodramatic vocals combination. The track, however, doesn't stay planted in formulaic territory for long: the ensuing beat is lively and involved, the chorus' vocals warm. Pre-order Junto here.

2. Portland-based pop trio EXROYALE have offered up a blissful bit of airy and catchy pop. "Without It" is grand in scope but not too ambitious, with lyrics uplifting and gusty, inviting you to join in: "I'm gonna scream / I'm gonna shout it."

3. If you're at all familiar with the spiritual grandeur and primal breathlessness of Sigur Rós, I shouldn't have to bother trying to convince you to listen to a slow and symphonic rendition of an Icelandic poem written in the nineteenth century ("Stöker" by the late Jónas Hallgrímsson, for those wondering). Retro Stefson member Uni Stefson's track is not Sigur Rós (it's nowhere close, but what is?), but "Enginn Graetur" is still immensely elegant and beautiful. Grab a free download here. And for those of you not familiar with Sigur Rós, here you go.

3.5. Because it's short and (likely) polarizing, I've tucked in a track by Tokyo-based 32jnqwn-_-_-_ (I have no idea either). His (?) information on SoundCloud simply reads "i sprinkle magic fairy dust on cassettes." I can't think of a more apt way to phrase it. In this case, the cassette is Zedd's ubiquitous "Clarity" and the magic fairy dust is, well, magic fairy dust. Give it a listen and you'll see what I mean.

4. British soul-electro-pop trio have released a fantastic track in "Take Shelter." The quavering of the falsetto, the plodding of the bass, and the syncopated synths all make for an original and infectious track. Pre-order the EP here

5. Even before SOHN got his hands on it, Wild Beasts' "Mecca" shared a similar purity and emptiness with the English producer. The remix is a perfect example of what happens when a skilled musician reworks a track that he could have produced himself: it just fits.


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Saturday, June 28, 2014

The Daily Dose: Lowell 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"

Lowell, short for Elizabeth Lowell Boland, has been gifting us with her unique brand of glittery pop since February, with the release of her debut EP I Killed Sara V. Boland, praised for her feminist lyrics and her candidness about her sexuality and her troubled past, has added another track to her Britney-meets-Grimes oeuvre in anticipation of the September 16 release of We Loved Her Dearly. "I Love You Money" is spunky and delightfully chaotic; stream it below and grab a free download here!


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The Daily Dose: Owl John 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"

Owl John, the moniker of Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchinson's side project, released "Red Hand" several days ago. His voice still sounding like "a gutter in a toxic storm," Hutchinson manages to maintain the intensity and manic despair of Frightened Rabbit without sounding too derivative. Fuzzier and rawer, like last month's "Hate Music," "Red Hand" is certainly worth listening to--particularly if you're a FR fan. Stream below.





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Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Daily Dose: The Juan MacLean 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"

If, like me, you still have "In Infancy" playing on repeat, here's another DFA track for your healthTo announce their upcoming album In A Dream, The Juan MacLean (Juan Maclean and Nancy Whang) have released "A Place Called Space" (not to be confused with Newcleus's 1985 track "Space is the Place"), an aptly-named track that throbs through more than eight minutes of futurism and seventies nostalgia. Check out the track and visualizer below.





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Tuesday, June 24, 2014

The Daily Dose: Bondax 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"

Bondax's new offering isn't anything spectacularly original: there's a female vocalist singing about the throes of passion, a pulsing beat, and hand-claps anchoring the track firmly in the realm of solid yet safe house music. But at around 50 seconds in, summer blasts in with some caribbean percussion and the soaring chorus "There's somethin' taking over my heart." So while the English duo's track is standard fare in some ways (the lyrics, for instance, are nothing you haven't heard before), "All I See" is also sublimely summery and seamlessly executed. Stream it below while you take in the sunshine.





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Monday, June 23, 2014

The Daily Dose: Museum of Love 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"

"In Infancy" begins rather predictably for a DFA Records track: the minimalist persistence of percussion, the herky-jerky and Talking-Heads-esque cadence. But around the one minute mark, a burst of heavenly vocals exhales from amid all the clicks and blips. A blissful combination of frantic beats and halcyon voices, Museum of Love's track is a fabulous surprise--and anything but predictable. Stream it below.





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Sunday, June 22, 2014

The Weekly What 6•22•14 
"A playlist every Sunday?!"



1. Though it can't touch the sublimely upbeat "I Got U," Duke Dumont's latest offering "Won't Look Back" is a summery banger with great vocals and a standard but infectious beat that's sure to make you want to dance.

2. London-based Nao has teamed up with A.K. Paul (Jai's brother) for the fabulous "So Good," a funky shuffle of staccato synths and layered vocals.

3. As part of the deluxe edition of his 2013 LP When The Night, St. Lucia (aka Jean-Philip Grober) has released three new songs (available here on iTunes). "Forgiveness" fits perfectly into Grober's oeuvre of soaring and anthemic synth-pop.

4. Speaking of deluxe editions: Sombear's remix of The Naked and Famous's splendid "Hearts Like Ours" is part of the deluxe version of 2013's In Rolling Waves, which you can pre-order here. Sombear, the musical project of Minneapolis native Bradley Hale, dials the track down, stripping it of some of the more sweeping rock 'n' roll elements that make the original so anthemic. Though the remix is simpler and sparer, the vocals and lyrics of the original shine through quite lovelily.

5. Though I'm sure the connection is either coincidental or simply a product of my misguided mind, "Thousand Eyes" sounds strangely similar to Air's "La Femme d'Argent." It's a tenuous link, but Lia Ices's track definitely has a sort of airy and relaxed vibe that pervaded Air's 1998 LP Moon Safari. "Thousand Eyes" is from Lia Ices's upcoming LP, Ices, which is due out September 16th on Jagjaguwar. 


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Saturday, June 21, 2014

The Daily Dose: Kwamie Liv 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"

Dark and minimalistic electronic music seems to be all the rage lately. With Banks (like her or not) as the reigning queen, others can seem redundant or derivative. Copenhagen-based Kwamie Liv's "Follow You" is neither, though its shuffle of hand-claps and bare synths is certainly reminiscent of a host of other artists. Still, it mingles paranoia and relaxation in a way that is both beautiful and almost upsetting––and decidedly original. Amid whispered lyrics and dissonant synths, the titular refrain "Run toward the light you seek / Let it follow you" becomes simultaneously an encouragement, a promise, a warning, a haunting. Stream the track below.





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Friday, June 20, 2014

The Daily Dose: Lil Silva 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"

Lil Silva, also known as 24-year-old Bedford native TJ Carter, also known as the producer behind the astronomical success of Banks, is set to release his Mabel EP August 4th (on Good Years/True Panther (US Only)). The titular track is fabulous (as is the strangely beautiful album art), and certainly betrays his musical friendship with Banks, using dark and distant tones to create a poignant and haunting piece of music. Stream it below.





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The Daily Dose: Lemonade 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"



The beginning of "Stepping" sounds less like stepping than stumbling: a cascade of drum machines and synths that simmers and burbles. But these seething rhythms, woven in and out of a haze of relaxing vocals, make "Stepping" is an instant staple of summer. This interesting, intricate track comes from Lemonade's upcoming LP Minus Tide, (out September 9th), which, according to the band, is
"a collection of tracks that contemplate the sync of natural cycles, the eternal allure of wide open spaces and the belief that freedom can still be experienced within the confining grids of urban life."
Find this "eternal allure" for yourself by streaming "Stepping" below or pre-ordering the record here via CASCINE Records. 





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Wednesday, June 18, 2014

The Daily Dose: alt-j 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"



Cambridge outfit alt-j, whose 2012 debut album An Awesome Wave was, well, awesome, has released the first track from their second LP, This Is All Yours (out September 22nd). Though "Hunger of the Pine" is pervaded by the same warbling mysticism of their first record, the track wades into new territory––notably its sampling of Miley Cyrus's "4x4," particularly the line "I'm a female rebel." Band member Gus Unger-Hamilton describes the song as
"composed entirely of new and spontaneous ideas that arose during writing sessions for the second album. It was written very quickly using some guitar chords and sounds being layered on Ableton, and seemed to signal a bit of a new sound for us. The lyrics mainly suggest the idea that missing someone — pining — can be a physical pain much like hunger."
Indeed, the track broods and pines (wastes and pines?) through both familiar and different territory, ending (à la "Matilda") in some vaguely pensive French: "Une immense espérance a traversée la terre / Une immense espérance a traversée ma peur" (An immense hope has crossed the land / An immense hope has crossed my fear). What exactly this hunger of the pine is is not exactly clear, nor is it supposed to be; rather, the track is yet another obscure and fascinating page in the mysterious hymnal that is alt-j. Stream it below.





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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The Daily Dose: Sean Rowe 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"



With a rumblingly soulful voice and a stripped-down sound, New York native Sean Rowe immediately brings to mind a sort of intelligible and underrated Tom Waits. "Madman," the titular track from Rowe's upcoming album (out September 9th on ANTI- Records) is nothing particularly new, but it has a swagger in its simplicity. And even if "Madman" doesn't blaze any new musical trails, its deep piano, upbeat horn lines, and Rowe's rugged refrain ("Whoah!") give it an authentic and organic feel that is increasingly hard to come by. Stream it below.





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Monday, June 16, 2014

The Weekly What 6•15•14
"A playlist every Sunday?!"


Due to some travelling over the past few days, I've been away from Internet and unable to share music. Here's the Weekly What from last week: five great songs that I never got around to posting.

1. Brooklyn synthpop outfit Holy Ghost! has remixed Katy Perry's 2013 hit "Birthday." The electronic duo stretch the song out and pump it full of infectious horns and their signature brand of danceable disco.

2. Another pair of electronic musicians, Gorgon City, has had their track "Here For You" remixed by Bearcubs (AKA Jack Ritchie). The result is a relaxing track blooming with synths and snapping with perfectly spare percussion.

3. Phoria has released another haunting track, the aptly named "Efforttobreathe," a suffocating song that gasps with beauty. The five-piece outfit from Brighton, England are set to release their Display EP on June 16th.

4. Jessie Ware, whose debut album Devotion was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, is back with "Tough Love," a characteristically soulful track. Pre-order it on iTunes here.

5. "The Big Unknown" is the second track from Bristol-based trio Elder Island's self-titled debut EP, which is out July 28th on Four Thieves Records. Pre-order the EP on iTunes here.


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Thursday, June 12, 2014

The Daily Dose: Karl X Johan 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"


"And if we die on these plains and slowly turn into dust / It will never fade away / Cause you graced me with something better." So begins Swedish pop duo Karl X Johan's sweeping, if slightly overwrought, anthem of hope. "A Better Tomorrow," which is intriguingly (albeit confusingly) described on SoundCloud as "A minotaur crossing the Atlantic, in the name of love," is unabashed in its message and unyielding in its scope. Stream the single below, which will be officially released by Emotion Records on June 24th.





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The Daily Dose: GEMS 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"



D.C.-based duo GEMS (Clifford John Usher and Lindsay Pitts), whose debut EP Medusa came out last Fall, are back with "Scars." Hazy, dreamy, and reverberating with the tender plea "Baby I can't bear it alone," the track fits perfectly into GEMS's oeuvre of brooding and dark electro-pop. Stream it below.





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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

The Daily Dose: Essáy 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"



It's no surprise that Essáy's Ocarina EP is being released (pre-order here) by CASCINE; the eight-minute title track wanders through the same dreamy haze as label mates Yumi Zouma, Ditt Inre, and Brett. "Ocarina" isn't particularly complex or genius, but it is incredibly soothing, inviting you into its rhythmic rippling. Stream it below or buy it here.





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Monday, June 9, 2014

The Daily Dose: BANKS (Lido) 
New music every day. "It's good for you!"



Lido's remix of BANKS's hauntingly poignant "Drowning" is the latest in a long-running series of formidable remixes of the L.A.-based singer's music (Ta-ku's take on "Brain" and Snakehips's remix of "Warm Water" come immediately to mind). Opening with frenzied plucking, Lido reengineers the song into a staccato and urgent anthem without losing the despair of the original. Stream and download for free below.




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Sunday, June 8, 2014

The Weekly What: 6•8•14
"A playlist every Sunday?!"


Five tracks from the past week (or so) that didn't make the dose. Enjoy.

1. London-based musician Jack Garratt dropped "Worry" five days ago. Garrat's refrain of "let me worry 'bout it" is powerful and confident over cascading rhythms of hand-claps and warbling synths.

2. Hailing from Madison, Wisconsin, folk-rock sextet PHOX has released "1936" in anticipation of their debut album, out June 24th. It's a light and lovely track, a nice blend of weightless vocals and airy guitar.

3. Brazilian musician Moreno Veloso is out with "Em Todo Lugar" ("Everywhere") on David Byrne's Luaka Bop label. A gentle but funky ballad, it's as relaxing as it is groovy.

4. SBTRKT (Aaron Jerome) has reunited with frequent collaborator Sampha for "Temporary View," a shimmeringly synth-y track.

5. From what Google Translate tells me, 水中 is the Japanese word for "underwater." Even if the translation's not exact, it's entirely fitting, as listening to Stockholm-based little cloud's track is like undergoing a trancelike submersion.


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Wednesday, June 4, 2014

The Daily Dose: DESERT
New music every day. "It's good for you!"

In anticipation of their upcoming EP, Envalira (Out June 10 on Minty Fresh/Buenritmo Records), Barcelona-based DESERT has released "Saps prou bé," a hypnotic and simmering track. Envalira, a combination of the Catalan verbs embaladir (to spellbind) and delirar (to be delirious), is a perfect description of the duo's six-minute escapade through enchanting dream-pop. Stream it below.






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The Daily Dose: Caribou
New music every day. "It's good for you!"


A couple days ago, Caribou dropped "Can't Do Without You," the first track from his upcoming album, Our Love. Muted and hazy, the titular refrain repeats endlessly to a summery hum of synths. Stream it below or pre-order the new album and get an instant free download here.





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Monday, June 2, 2014

The Daily Dose: Our Mother
New music every day. "It's good for you!"


About a month ago, Our Mother came out with "Fire Fire," a jolting but well-crafted bit of glitchy pop. Today they released "Lion OS X," which is surprisingly lovely for a song named for an outdated operating system. A relatively simple yet haunting combination of piercing vocals ("oh!"), sparse piano, and languid horns, "Lion OS X" unfolds slowly and brilliantly; a fine follow-up to "Fire Fire," it's also a sign of more great music to come. Stream it below.





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