December 2011
1 post
Nathan Fake - Xmas Rush
I posted this around the same time last year.
Nathan Fake - Xmas Rush by Pampa Records
Christmas just isn’t the same without some pretty industrial sounding electronica, is it now?
May 2011
1 post
Julianna Barwick - Prizewinning
(Yes, I certainly did forget to post this a few months ago.)
April 2011
1 post
Tim Hecker - Blood Rainbow
Tim Hecker’s new album, the amazingly named ‘Ravedeath, 1972’, has deservingly received high praise since its release.
The album is great but my favourite thing to come from listening to it is that it reminded me about this much earlier Tim Hecker song from 2006’s Harmony in Ultraviolet.
Listen to Blood Rainbow in the evening on a train. Or having a nice walk...
March 2011
2 posts
5 tags
That Ghost - Calls
Lo-fi has a slightly awkward position in music these days. Too often used as an aesthetic afterthought, feeling inauthentic and overly-stylised, hearing a lo-fi song that feels genuine is quite rare.
That Calls’ ‘Ghost’ is one of those rare songs. The whole thing is so woozy and sleepy it just sort of ‘happens’. It’s not unlike large chunks of the debut album...
4 tags
Dent May - Eastover Wives
If you’re still impatiently waiting for new material from Jens Lekman (you are) this should keep you going.
All the components are there, including; rich voice, a hint of funk and some very excellent sax. SAX.
It takes a long time to leave your head once you’ve listened to it, which is no bad thing.
Eastover Wives - Dent May by TRNGTRNG
February 2011
7 posts
Squadda B - 2012 (Feat. Robbie Rob)
This is basically amazing. My favourite hip-hop song in a long time…including Kanye’s last album. A case of the sum being greater than the parts, what I love about 2012 - the second half particularly- is that it has the atmosphere of classic 90s West Coast hip-hop like Pharcyde and Souls of Mischief.
Tremendous fun to rap along to if you don’t mind sounding completely off your...
4 tags
Dodos - Black Night
Dodos’ Visiter was one of my favourite albums of 2008. Raw, a bit schizophrenic and thoroughly excellent. Its follow up Time To Die felt like a sanitised version of the band - not quite a misstep but missing some of the jagged edges that made Visiter such a welcome surprise.
Black Night brings back the rawness while keeping some of the better aspects of Time To Die - namely richer...
Braids - Native Speaker
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (in a good way).
Braids “Native Speaker” by aalbert83
The rest of the album, Native Speaker, is very enjoyable too. See:
Braids - Lemonade by H+ Records
Jeans Wilder - Tough Guys
The last few months have been very good for swearing in music. A new trend of disguising threats and abuse by singing them everso sweetly has come to prominence. Here we get “You’re such a motherfucking tough guy….”
If you like swearing you’ll love it. You’ll also love it if you like (very) lo-fi pop with nice melodies.
Jeans Wilder - Tough Guys by...
On Shuffle: Sunset Rubdown - Stadiums and Shrines...
Wolf Parade announced they were going on an ’indefinite hiatus’ at the end of November last year. I’ll read that as ‘we’re splitting up but we still quite like each other’. In truth it’s not that surprising - in recent years the band had increasingly felt like a side project for its two songwriters Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner rather than the main focus...
Purity Ring - Ungirthed
Yeah, I know. Glitchy synth-pop and cut up vocals. It sounds familiar - everybody’s doing it. BUT BUT BUT. BUT! If you want an example of how it should be done, you won’t find many better than this.
Ungirthed by PURITY RING
Here’s a link to a ‘Not Safe For Work’ video clip if you want it. (You do).
Cass McCombs - County Line
Cass McCombs is great. This song off his new album, WIT’S END (his caps, not mine), is great. Everything is GREAT.
Cass McCombs - County Line by DominoRecordCo
Typically understated, soulful and generally gorgeous.
Doesn’t he look like Robert Smith from The Cure on that new promo shot?
January 2011
7 posts
Christian AIDS - Fever
What a superbly horrible band name. Fever wafts around airily for the first 2 minutes until a pained shout of ‘set me free’. Then exactly that happens - the song comes to life, switching from ambient and woozy to ravey instantly.
Christian AIDS - Fever by themightyhealthy
Kurt Vile - Jesus Fever
This song is a both a gift and a curse. The gift is that it’s pretty fucking amazing. The curse is that, along with previous Kurt Vile songs like ‘Freeway’, it makes me wish I lived on the West Coast of the US. In a field or something.
Kurt Vile - Jesus Fever by themightyhealthy
Deadboy remixes - Drake, Jamie Woon and Delorean
Deadboy is from London and does lots of remixes for lots of good people. Here are some of them.
Drake - Fireworks
Not so much a remix, more Deadboy sampling a few bits of the original - namely that incredible Alicia Keys chorus - to make something very special. The result is not unlike Mount Kimbie ‘Maybes’ - similarly eery and atmospheric.
Drake - Fireworks (Deadboy Slo-Mo...
5 tags
Panda Bear - Atiba Song
ATIBA EVANS Panasonic GH2 Skate from skatefairy on Vimeo.
New Panda Bear song x skating video shot in California at sunset/night = perfection.
Tomboy is finally getting released in April. A long wait, but it will doubtless sound amazing in the middle of Spring.
Zoo Kid - Out Getting Ribs/Ocean Bed
Zoo Kid is worthy of note for a couple of reasons. Firstly, he is 16. SIXTEEN! Secondly, he seems to be proving that not everybody who graduates from the Brit School is an insufferable bastard.
Zoo Kid - Out Getting Ribs by themightyhealthy
Out Getting Ribs and Ocean Beds are both wonderful examples of his atmospheric, very rough-around-the-edges singer-songwriter style. (Sorry about all...
Wye Oak - Civilian
Wye Oak have been around for a while but I never bothered listening to them. I didn’t mean to listen to this to be honest, it just came on after another song had finished on a website. I’m glad it did though ‘cause it’s good.
Wye Oak - Civilian by cityslang
Lady got a nice voice. My special ‘Random Alternative Female Singer Soundalike Generator’ (RAFSSG)...
6 tags
Hercules and Love Affair - My House
*2 years of silence is broken* Hercules and Love Affair: HEY EVERYBODY WE’RE BACK. We’ve got a new album out soon! Everybody: *quick memory jog* Oh man I really loved your first album! That’s great news. Tell us more… H&LA: Well, we’re continuing where we left off, and we’ve got some new collaborations lined up. Everybody: Cool. Who? Is Antony from Antony...
December 2010
9 posts
7 tags
James Blake - Measurements
To (barely) paraphrase Simply Red, ‘if you don’t know James Blake by now, you really really should pay more attention’. He’s had quite a big year - have you been stuck down a mine or something?*
There are, effectively, two James Blakes. The dubstep/post-dubstep/whatever one and then the Bon Iver-in-church one. By all accounts the album features mainly the latter.
...
7 tags
Nathan Fake Does Christmas + Summer Camp
I’m not a particularly big fan of Christmas songs. I see the point in them, they’re just not for me.
Nathan Fake makes my kind of Christmas song. What he’s basically done with Xmas Rush is this: made his usual lovely glitchy electro thing and slapped a sample of someone singing “the Christmas rush is through” on top. It bloody well works, too.
XMAS RUSH by...
4 tags
Lil' Wayne - 6' 7" (Feat. Cory Gunz)
Lil’ Wayne is back! At least I think he’s back - I’m about 85% sure its Weezy we’re hearing on 6’ 7”, the first new song since his release from prison.
Lil’ Wayne - 6’ 7” (Feat. Cory Gunz) by themightyhealthy
Something has happened to his voice. Prison seems to have given him a case of the Benjamin Buttons and reversed the ageing...
6 tags
Dog Bite - Machino Machino
Something of a lucky escape, this one. You see, I was always going to put this on the blog because the man who made it has the same name as me. (Real name, not Dog Bite).
Thankfully the song is excellent. If you were to describe it in one word that word would be ‘sunny’. It isn’t a million miles away from Person Pitch-era Panda Bear which is never a bad thing.
...
4 tags
Panda Bear - Last Night At The Jetty
I’ll try to avoid making this the most fawning thing ever written by simply stating the following points:
Panda Bear is the best vocalist in music right now
Panda Bear is also better than most at using computers and stuff to make sounds
Last Night At The Jetty proves both of the above effortlessly. It’s alright, you know. Not bad. Decent.
The new album is out soon. I imagine it...
5 tags
CREEP - Days
Well this is a bit of alright isn’t it. Sinister sounding Witch House (GROAN) from Brooklyn duo CREEP, Days features Romy from Young Turk labelmates The xx. Good business move, good for us. Well done everyone involved.
YT053 - Creep - Days by Young Turks
3 tags
Tennis - Take Me Somewhere
With Take Me Somewhere Tennis continue ploughing almost exactly the same furrow as they did on previous tracks (Marathon, Baltimore etc) which were so enjoyable last summer. Not surprisingly, it’s a case of diminishing returns. Here’s to hoping that they have some new tricks up their sleeves for the rest of the album when it comes out in January.
Having said that, jaunty little indie pop from a...
Jamie xx remixes Gil Scott-Heron
Jamie xx released an excellent solo track earlier this year, in a very welcome departure from The xx’s all-conquering omnipresence.
Now he’s gone all Danger Mouse and is remixing Gil Scott-Heron’s comeback album from earlier in the year. The whole thing. It’s out in Feb 2011. The first track is NY is Killing Me:
It’s amazing, obviously. Like the original is.
4 tags
Memoryhouse - Heirloom
Something something something Memoryhouse something something something Dream Pop something something something Beach House comparison something something something very lazy. Etc.
Heirloom is both dreamy and poppy - it’s very good, which is all that really matters.
Heirloom - Memoryhouse by memoryhouseonice
Predictably ‘nice’ looking video here.
November 2010
15 posts
4 tags
Onra - The Perfect Match
Onra is a French hip-hop producer who makes beats that are much better suited to R’n’B. In fact, I’m writing this on a Sunday night and feeling so lazy I’m just going to call him ‘The French Version of 9th Wonder’ and be done with it. This is a good thing.
The Perfect Match, from an upcoming compilation by some people I know nothing about, wears its retro...
5 tags
Loredana - Rain Rain (Henning Fürst remix)
So, in my jj post I said they should have a word some of their label mates, including Sincerely Yours founders The Tough Alliance.
Now, I know one half of TTA (Eric Berglund) put out an album as ceo earlier this year and told Pitchfork that we shouldn’t expect anything from TTA in the near future but I remain hopeful.
This is what the other half (Henning Fürst) has been doing:
Rain...
4 tags
Gauntlet Hair - Out, Don't
Gauntlet Hair (awesomely terrible band name) are all chiming guitars and soaring vocals*. Earlier in 2010 they released I Was Thinking…. which was looking likely to be my favourite single of the year. Out, Don’t may just have taken it’s place.
Gauntlet Hair - Out, Don’t.. by Beachtapes
I Was Thinking was epic-sounding (understatement) and Out, Don’t follows...
jj - Let Them & I'm the One/Money on My Mind
Pitchfork begin their write-up of these tracks with “It’s been a minute or two since we heard from…jj”. If you take that very literally then I suppose they’re right. Otherwise, you probably haven’t spent the 6 months since they released their last album desperately awaiting new material.
jj started off promisingly with My Life, My Swag. Then they released 2...
4 tags
Favourite Song Featuring...
…the sound of a man playing a radiator. With a metal bar.
IT’S MANITOBA (CARIBOU) - LEMON YOGHOURT [sic]
Lemon Yoghourt lulls you into a false sense of security. It starts off like a lovely, twinkly little nursery rhyme. The sort of noise a child’s toy makes to help them go to sleep. Very pretty.
Then it starts. 90 seconds of relentless mental. The sound of actual madness,...
3 tags
Teengirl Fantasy - Dancing in Slow Motion
Here’s the video for the new single from the don’t-dare-google-at-work Teengirl Fantasy.
It is appropriately woozy. Get the Benylin out, take a swig and enjoy. (Don’t. Not the first bit anyway).
3 tags
Val d'Isère - Pinpoint
Val d’Isère are a male/female duo from Leeds and London (no idea who is from where). Pinpoint is their first release and is out in January 2011. The innanet only wants to tell me about skiing so this is what the band say about themselves:
”An imagined memory of the 60s and 70s, Val-d’Isére is a bastard cross of strong rhythms and pretty melodies played through old-school...
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Smith Westerns...
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are back, which is nice. The song is good too, which is extra nice. It’s called Heart in Your Heartbreak - it’s not a massive departure as you can probably tell.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Heart In Your Heartbreak by forcefieldpr
Smith Westerns have been around for a couple of years and they released their debut in June 2009. I was busy...
3 tags
On Shuffle: M83 - Fields, Shorelines and Hunters
On Shuffle is a section for older songs that Mighty Healthy feels are worthy of attention.
BECAUSE IT CAN’T ALWAYS BE ABOUT NEW MUSIC CAN IT.
M83 are one of those artists for me. Everyone has them. They are the artist I feel the most loyalty to, have the most goodwill towards and, frankly, if they released something completely awful I would still try and find something to like about...
4 tags
Hyetal - Phoenix
Apparently this is ‘post-dubstep’. It sounds like it has as much in common with artists such as (early) M83 or even Kavinsky to me. Don’t let sub-genre niggles put you off, though - this is a BELTER.
‘Phoenix’ starts with a skeletal beat (machine-gunned hi-hats thrown in for good measure) and as it progresses all manner of warm synths and computer game bleeps are...
MJ Cole & Wiley - From The Drop
MJ COLE STILL EXISTS!
Great beat from MJ Cole and Wiley on top form. Check out Wendy Roby’s review on Drowned in Sound for something much more entertaining than whatever I’d write here.
Unsolved Mysteries
There are plenty of unsolved mysteries in music. Is Elvis alive and living on a farm in Greenland?! Who shot 2Pac and Biggie?! Justin Bieber.
Also: ‘just how the f**k ARE you supposed to dance to Dubstep?’
Enter Jean Claude Van Damme…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUYhWnTv2CU - embedding disabled but its worth the click.
Case closed, Robert Stack. (Scariest voice ever btw)
Deerhoof - Super Duper Rescue Heads!
Getting a bit obsessed with this now. No point trying to explain what it sounds like, its Deerhoof innit.
Deerhoof - Super Duper Rescue Heads ! by Polyvinyl Records
4 tags
Cassius - I Love You So
The last thing I heard from Cassius was that one of them was producing the very excellent Phoenix album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. They’re back doing the day job now - this obviously sounds nothing like Phoenix.
In fact I Love You So sounds like an especially epic take on the already-very-epic beats production team The Heatmakerz used to make for The Diplomats in the early 2000s. Big...
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West (on the left) has a new album out soon. He’s been busy telling people so you’ve probably heard.
We’ve already heard half of the tracks through his GOOD Music Fridays, he made a 35-minute video for ‘Runaway’, he stirred up controversy with an explicit (not really) album cover and to finish things off nicely...
October 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Chad Valley - Anything
It’s nearly November and this being the UK the weather is perfect for long walks on the beach and evenings spent sat outside with a cold alcoholic beverage.
Hold on, you’re right…that sounds very wrong. I think I’ve been listening to this Chad Valley track too much.
Chad Valley - Anything by Ragged Words
Lovely, no? Chad Valley is the solo project of Hugo Manuel. He...
The First Post
I probably should have tried to make this a bit special or something but i’m not sure that’s ever going to happen.
HELLO.
