On "Young Men Of Promise," Yellowbirds taps into timeless songcraft based around scuzzy guitars and sunny harmonies. It's simple, really – one of those tracks that always seems to pop up this time of year when summer seems close but unimaginable. Hear more on Songs From The Vanished Frontier – out May 28 via The Royal Potato Family.
On Holiday, Port St. Willow used insular emotional devastation to rip through an ambient, natural world into pure post-rock heaven. Sad and beautiful, "Soft Light Rush (ii)" is the first new material released by Nicholas Principe since then, and it truly encapsulates what's stunning about the album with its circular rhythms, tension-breaking horn parts, languid hypnosis and a falsetto strong enough to shatter your chest cavity. Holiday is being reissued by our big brother label Downtown Records on April 2.
By now you know that Tame Impala melted minds all over Lonerism, and here album standout "Mind Mischief" gets a hypnotic, minimalist tweak by electronic master The Field. Yep, Alex Willner takes a punchy piece of psychedelic pop and does his thing – taking microscopic samples, pairing with a huge, languid beat and letting it all unravel over 10 minutes. Just beautiful.
Good on Ciara for 'coming back,' but this is more about Mike WILL Made It totally owning the past year in popular music. As he's starting to produce more R&B, those gurgling, flighty synths and assault-level drums seem like a peak of operatic electronic production. In Ciara's case, it creates a bed for you to make a party on her body (which, yes, awesome), but this one really shows-off what happens when the producer-of-the-moment chops "My Boo" into the sonic equivalent of a sexcapade. Those drums!
Lorely Rodriguez is the brain and voice behind new Trouble Records project Empress Of, and on "Hat Track" she keeps it bumping while engaging in a bit of psychedelia. Fitting nicely along side recent projects like Melody's Echo Chamber (or even Broadcast), the sweetness of her voice and the track's intergalactic electro production create a dreamy slingshot into heavenly sonic bliss. Hear more April 2.
Slacked-out rock saviors Parquet Courts have been absolutely slaying audiences and smoke sessions with their debut LP Light Up Gold, and now they've finally unveiled a new track that makes me want to throw punches. "Smart Aleck Kid" is short and spazzy – a minute-long post-punk salvo that is exactly what B-sides are made of. Check it out when you flip over your "Borrowed Time" single on March 18.
On the extended runway edit of "The Possessed," Glass Candy struts its icy, narcotic electro-pop. After premiering at (of course) a fashion show in Paris last week, it's the first we've heard from the Johnny Jewel-associated group in awhile and it'll appear on the very-much-anticipated After Dark 2 compilation – coming soon via Italians Do It Better.
Australian singer Josef Salvat could easily croon you right back into bed with his melancholy vocal style. And people are noticing! His steadily rising, infectious single "This Life" will likely get huger as each week passes, and this jumpy, sputtering, campfire rave-ready remix by Canadian producer Bwana illustrates how well those pipes work over other musical ideas.
On "Free At Dawn," Small Black cashes in the chips earned from their self-titled EP and 2010's New Chain by fleshing out their pulsating, emotive, self-confident take on electronic indie-pop. It's the first slice of their upcoming Limits Of Desire LP, which is set for May 14 on Jagjaguwar. You should go fall in love to this or something. It's getting warmer!
Forgive me for seeing a title like "ICE.MOON" and thinking I'm going to get a blast of cold, ambient air and little else. Not so on SZA's new track from her upcoming, simply-titled EP S. This is churning, atmospheric pop with R&B inflections and rising bells that twinkle their way right into the center of your skull.
