Lost AT E Minor

Cheer Accident

Chicago’s Cheer Accident started as a post-no-wave weirdo band typical of the Skin Graft roster, but of late, they’ve been doing some unrestrained pop and rock. They even have harmonized vocals and an occasional horn. This isn’t to say they’re commercializing – their songs are just as complex as ever, and there’s still a hint of discordance beneath the shimmering new sound.

The Ritz’s The Night of Day

The Ritz is a Chicago-based underground hip-hop duo comprised of Apoc and Rel. For their first full-length album — The Night of Day — they took their inspiration from the themes and aesthetics of 1940s and 50s film noir, with Rel creating a collection of beats that demonstrate his range as a producer. Apoc handles the majority of the rapping, jumping seamlessly from one style to the next as the album shifts tone and tempo.

Download The Ritz track, Blown.

Byrne and Eno collaborate. Again!

Brian Eno and David Byrne recently finished their first collaboration in about 30 years. For the most part, Eno did the music and Byrne wrote some tunes, words and sang. It’s familiar, but completely new as well. The new record is called Everything that Happens will Happen Today and it will be available on August 18th. In September, Byrne will begin a tour on which he will be playing music from the new album as well as music from their previous collaborations - three Talking Heads albums and Bush of Ghosts, amongst them.

Listen to the new Byrne-Eno track, Strange Overtones.

The Dodos’ Visiter

Like a packet of perfectly seasoned pistachio nuts, I can’t put this album down until it’s well and truly finished: until every last morsel of taut, snappy percussion and hypnotic vocals have been digested. They’re like Animal Collective at the wind-down hour - slightly more stabilised and with the psychotic fits tempered into a soothing, trance-inducing pace. Somehow it’s also immediately catchy, laced with subtle hooks and soaring backing vocals. It’s the sort of sound that sucks you into their warm world, likely to cause you to miss your bus stop if your mind sinks too far into the rich chasm of tracks like Red and Purple [below] or The Ball. Listen closely, because this might well be one of the releases of the year.

Metronomy

Metronomy are a cool little London-based group headed by producer and remix extraordinaire, Joseph Mount. The sound sits somewhere between Autechre and Vitalic: clanging keyboards and body-gurning beats laced with an undercurrent of ominous electronica. It’s not as inaccessible as much of the more twisted electro-based stuff out there at the moment, although it retains an edge perhaps unpalatable for some ears. Yet there’s a catchiness to it that is clearly roping in the crowds: their live shows are a spectacle, complete with synchronised dancing and flashing costumes. If that floats your boat, they’re playing for free at the Tate Britain, London, on 27 September.

Still Flyin’

Music isn’t necessarily a serious venture. It’s almost funny when you find some you know will grate to dust the stiff upper lipped critics of the world. Every now and then I like the type of sound that hops around the edge of your ears without working its way into your brain and messing up the seratonin levels. And Californian 16-piece tropical-ska-pop group, Still Flyin’, do just that for me. It’s a good laugh, quite catchy, and an awesome live experience so I’m told: especially with the sun out, a can of cider in your hand and a bunch of grinning faces skanking around you.