October 27, 2009 | New Music | by Zolton |

Lindsay Buckingham, guitarist with iconic 70s superstars Fleetwood Mac, can take one note — one earsplittin’, foot tappin’, head shakin’ note — and make it sound like the greatest damn thing you’ve ever heard, as you’ll see on this epic cut from 1977.

New Music / Midnight Juggernauts

October 25, 2009 | New Music | by Sonya Rosendorff |

Midnight Juggernauts are another awesome Australian band. There’s something amazing going on in the land of Oz, with Empire of the Sun, Pnau, and these guys. I really wish they were coming to London to brighten up my dark, mysterious winters. Come on boys, you know you wanna!

New Music / Ed Schrader

October 23, 2009 | New Music | by Gerry Mak |

With nothing more than a floor tom and a microphone, Wham City personality Ed Schrader pounds out the punkest noise I’ve seen in a while. All he does is shout repetitive, absurdist lyrics over tribal beats as he encourages the crowd to should along. It’s cathartic, entertaining, and primal. The Baltimore-based one-man act also hosts a monthly variety show.

New Music / Circulatory System’s Signal Morning

October 22, 2009 | New Music | by Nicklaus Andersen |

Athens, Georgia art rockers Circulatory System have delivered an extraordinary 46-minute album sculpted from five years worth of accumulated sonic experimentation. Signal Morning ricochets across every raw nerve from the poppiest of impulses to the edge of ostensible sanity, without revealing a single cut corner or uninspired change.

New Music / Zombi

October 21, 2009 | New Music | by Dave Mata |

To call Zombi a one trick pony would be unfair. They’re more like a one trick battle horse. They have a formula that works and they stick to it. The Pittsburgh duo channel original N.E.S, 80s horror films, and cinematic post-rock into a listening experience that kinda makes you wanna fight somebody. Their songs make me feel angsty in a way I wish more music did. Imagine writing a record with John Carpenter in the year 2012, then you are getting close to what’s really going on here.

New Music / Ghostwood’s Rest My Soul

October 19, 2009 | New Music | by Michelle Wilding |

Sydney’s indie music scene is peaking right now and one noteworthy band is Ghostwood. Their latest record, Rest My Soul [listen below], is just as ace as Red Version (the Pokémon-aluding hit from 2006). The melodic single bears elements of shoegaze, skilfully layering intricate guitar patterns with sultry bass, solid drumming and haunting vocals to create an ethereal ambiance. Fans can reserve an exclusive 7″ Rest My Soul vinyl this month via their Myspace page.

New Music / The Dodos live in New York

October 19, 2009 | New Music | by Eliza Czander |

The other night The Dodos performed the first of two shows in New York. Though it wasn’t sold out, the music hall of Williamsburg was packed to the rafters with hipsters, thirty-somethings, and teenagers who crawled over the bridge from NYU and the Metro North. The crowd was pretty rowdy for New York City and the boys certainly made it worth the 17 bucks to get in. It was my first time seeing The Dodos live, and I was expecting a fairly calm show considering their last album Visitor is on the more mellow side. I couldn’t have been more surprised as the first few songs flew through the walls at the music hall thumping and shaking the place to the core. Read more

New Music / Tenor Saw

October 16, 2009 | New Music | by Gerry Mak |

I know the summer is over, but I’m still grooving on some Tenor Saw. The dancehall icon has been deceased for more than 20 years, and though some rather douchey bands such as Sublime and 311 have sampled and stolen from him, his status has not diminished. Check out his sophomore album Fever if you’re looking for some irie tunes to get you through the colder months.

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.