New Music / Health’s Die Slow — the Tobacco Remix

October 14, 2009 | New Music | by Michelle Wilding |

To all the Health lovers out there still playing Get Color on infinite repeat, mix your playlist up a notch with a trippy Die Slow remix by Tobacco (of Black Moth Super Rainbow). This purposeful rework is pure art and definitely wasn’t produced for the sake of having a remix on a single – like most labels tend to do – which commonly turns out to be an inferior, superfluous and awfully sounding remix, anyway.

New Music / French band, Cocoon

October 14, 2009 | New Music | by Zolton |

We’re big fans of French duo Cocoon, so we spoke to frontman Marc Daumail to prove it. Ahead of their upcoming tour of Australia in November, we asked him how vibrant the French music scene is right now: ‘It’s such a relief to be considered like a real band singing in English in a country like France, which is very conservative about its music traditions. We know Moriarty and The Do. They are nice. We all worked a lot to make this scene exist’. Which folk acts have most excited you recently? ‘My albums of the year are not very folky: Grizzly Bear, Lee Fields, The XX. But The Tallest Man On Earth just made one of the best folk albums of all time’. Read Cocoon’s Secret Playlist.

New Music / Carlos Icaza, aka DJ Tropicaza

October 12, 2009 | New Music | by Dave Mata |

Anybody could roll down the list of bands that Mexico City’s Carlos Icaza is in, or credit him for his incredible work with the Vampi Soul people, but until you have met this brilliant, record collecting, drum-battering-anomaly in person, you have only read into a small semblance of what Icaza is all about. When I first met him, I had no idea who he was. He commented on a record I was playing at a bar and then a week later, my friends and I hadn’t missed a single gig he played in Chicago, including the loft party we all spun together the following Saturday. I have been addicted to this mix that he posted and it doesn’t even compare to his live sets. Who knew so many soul standards sounded twice as funky recorded in Mexico in the 60s.

New Music / Lee Fields and The Expressions

October 10, 2009 | New Music | by Gerry Mak |

You know what, it’s hard for me to care about 99.9 percent of new music out there when there are still guys like Lee Fields putting out records. The funk and soul legend appeared on countless classic tracks throughout the ’70s, but never had a proper album of his own until this year, when Truth & Soul released My World.

New Music / The Swimmers

October 9, 2009 | New Music | by Zolton |

I live the upbeat, feel good tempo of the new single — A Hundred Hearts — from Philly group, The Swimmers. Off their latest album, People Are Soft, this song is a strangely fitting anthem for the blustery day outside.

New Music / Puddle Jumper

October 8, 2009 | New Music | by Dave Mata |

Last time I checked, concept artist Puddle Jumper (known as Future Jared to his yester-friends) had recorded over 300 songs and was working on about ten more simultaneously. Glitch and drum and bass are not genres I care to even pay attention to, but the hooks and grooves found in Puddle Jumper’s current work is hypnotic and seductive, working playfully beyond the constrictions of four note synth verses found among his contemporaries. Puddle Jumper’s beautiful instrumental pieces translate like conversations — with sonic tension, pause, and response.

New Music / Radius

October 7, 2009 | New Music | by Dave Mata |

I get lost in the beat-head scene, among all the Dilla wanna-be’s, sideways hats, and dudes who are too stoned to realize that sometimes hype is just hype. There is a dark substance to Radius’s work that speaks volumes about the city he trudges through, the way he lives, and what’s important to him that people hear. This isn’t just breakbeat with some loose soul samples. Radius makes melancholy comfortable in a way that few can. Repetitious melodies, lush layers of synths, and broken beats that easily invoke images of beings from outer space that could be direct descendants of roots dub culture. With four releases under his belt — including the awe inspiring Radiushead EP — his fifth, etc, will be made available by the good folks at Grittygoat. You might want to hurry, though. Only fifty handmade copies go on sale this week.

New Music / Exxasens

October 5, 2009 | New Music | by Gerry Mak |

I can’t really get into bands like Pelican and Isis, but somehow Exxasens, an epic, post-rock outfit from Barcelona (how would you say their name in Spanish?) rub me the right way. They’re much more uptempo, with interesting harmony lines and counter-melodies weaving in and out. I guess the closest comparison is Mogwai, but they sound more like space than the rolling highlands.

New Music / Miike Snow’s Black and Blue

October 2, 2009 | New Music | by Sonya Rosendorff |

MIIIIIIKKKKKKKKEEE SNNNNNNOOOOWWW. Well, actually, Miike Snow. While everyone is obsessed with his track Animal, I’m loving his track Black and Blue from his new self-titled album.

New Music / Zomes

October 1, 2009 | New Music | by Gerry Mak |

With Lungfish guitarist Asa Osborne’s latest project, Zomes, he continues to explore loops and cycles with endlessly repeating musical phrases, this time played on circuit-bent keyboards. The resulting tracks sound at times like medieval court music at others like the soundtrack to a Hal Hartley movie.

New Music / Ange Takats

October 1, 2009 | New Music | by Zolton |

I love the subtle acoustic finger-picking which weaves delicately into the wistful storytelling lyrics on the track, Brown Shoes, by Australian songwriter Ange Takats. In the tradition of local female-fronted acts such as Blanche DuBois and New Buffalo, Takats creates a sparse instrumental base, the repetitive guitar motif providing the perfect accompaniment to her elegant and timeless vocals. The artwork for her album — Aniseed Tea — on which this track appears is equally as impressive, the work of Brisbane artist, Danielle O’Brien. Read more

New Music / Kings of Convenience’s 24-25

September 29, 2009 | New Music | by Zolton |

I saw Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience play the other week in New York. As a long time fan of the group, this was a much anticipated show. And while I was a little disappointed that they opened the set playing their entire new album — Declaration of Dependence — from beginning to end (which no one had been able to hear yet), and not any of their earlier material, there were some truly beautiful songs amongst it all that have quickly become oft-repeated favorites. At the top of that list is this typically wistful and melancholic track, 24-25.

New Music / Ensiferum

September 28, 2009 | New Music | by Gerry Mak |

Ok, Ensiferum is a cheesy band. They’re nominally folk metal, but somehow a lot of their melodies sound like the soundtrack to a western — think twangy guitars and whistling. Funny, because they’re Finnish. I think they sound like a metal version of Muse. I dug them at Pagan Fest last year. Their latest album, From Afar, isn’t a departure from what they’ve always done, but there are out-of-nowhere piano and banjo parts on the song Stone Cold Metal that are pretty great.

New Music / Onipa Nua

September 25, 2009 | New Music | by Gerry Mak |

I’m totally addicted to a tape I downloaded from Awesome Tapes from Africa by Onipa Nua. The Ghanan street musician has since passed away, but hopefully he’s somewhere smiling knowing that his tunes make me smile as well.

New Music / Woven Hand

September 24, 2009 | New Music | by Gerry Mak |

Woven Hand is more proof that contemporary Christian music doesn’t have to suck. Like all great songwriters singing about faith, frontman David Eugene Edwards isn’t afraid to tackle death, love, doubt, and fear in his lyrics. In fact, contrary to the stereotype of Christian rock being glassy-eyed, kumbaya, and touchy-feely, Edwards’ music is almost terrifyingly dark and brooding, infused with mournful hymnal passages, droning strings, and steel guitars that sound like the lonely desert.