At eight tracks and just over a half-hour, this month’s mix compiles the most compelling freely released tracks of the past few weeks. It’s bookended by guitars rooted in psychedelic jangle and hardcore, respectively, with largely electronic compositions in between. This month we were impressed by EMA, John Maus, Purity Ring, Laurel Halo, Com Truise, Ganglians, Grimes, and Fucked Up, and that’s the list of artists that made the cut. Download:
Panda Bear contributed to “Things Fall Apart,” a track from the “mysterious” ATP-bound UK producer Zomby’s forthcoming Dedication. No word if the song title’s a Chinua Achebe or Yeats reference or if it just is. Listen:
South London producer SBTRKT landed on our must-see of SXSW 2011 list based on his myriad singles, EPs, and remixes, and this July he releases his first collection of songs in the LP format with a self-titled debut via Young Turks. It’s first single swims out of production bathed in UK garage and post-dubstep waters, with an assist (most notably vocally) from Swedish electro-pop troupe Little Dragon. “Wildfire” is up for download here, as is a longer SBTRKT-related mix and some of those prior singles and remixes, for further study.
In 2007 I wrote a brief, less-than-positive review of Hella’s There’s No 666 In Outer Space, the record where the Sacramento noise-rock duo expanded to a quintet and started sounding like a rootsy Mars Volta. It appeared in SPIN. The guys gamely turned the pith into a t-shirt. My issue with There’s No 666 was (what I saw as) the aimlessness created by those extra members — i.e. the shift didn’t seem necessary. So then, four years later, it’s great to be able to announce that Hella have a new album on the horizon that finds the core of guitarist Spencer Seim and drummer extraordinaire Zach Hill back as a streamlined, well-oiled twosome. As of today the 10-song album has no title. Ditto this song. But you can still listen to it just fine. And it shreds.
As you can see from the album art above, the Black Keys are in good company on this tribute CD. The duo covered “(Ummm, Oh Yeah) Dearest” a song that appeared on the Juno soundtrack, and has been featured on a few posthumous Buddy Holly compilations. Check out Black Keys’ easygoing take below:
Shearwater and Minus Story affiliate (BTW Class of ‘08) multi-instrumental singer/songwriter Jordan Geiger has made a second collection of songs under his Hospital Ships moniker, titled Lonely Twin and due this summer. “Reprise” is one if its energetic singles — think Ben Gibbard fronting an uplifting field song dressed in the rousing, blasted fuzz of Neutral Milk Hotel’s “Holland, 1945″ — and its video is set to Jordan’s home movies, “spanning roughly 1948-1981.” Nostalgia: