DOWNLOAD: Avalanche City - Love Love Love
Folk rockers Avalanche City began as the solo project of musician Dave Baxter. Baxter expanded to a full band after the release of his first effort, Our New Live Above The Ground, last year. “Love Love Love” is a jaunty folk ballad that recalls The Decemberists and The Shins with its thoughtful lyrics and hooky pop chorus.
DOWNLOAD: Amtrac - Came Along
Amtrac, the solo project of Kentucky's Caleb Cornett, has just the right mixture of pop and cutting-edge sonics to break through the void. On "Came Along," Amtrac guides a rapid, crunchy beat and electric piano figures to a thoroughly mature songwriting space. He's restless, though. This poise quickly evolves into spliced samples flickering across the track in microtonal dots -- a true dancefloor deconstruction. Amtrac's Came Along LP comes September 27.
PREMIERE: Tasseomancy - Diana
From the ashes of Ghost Bees and the current backers of electro-goth queen bee Austra comes Tasseomancy. Toronto twins Sara and Romy Lightman exist on a different plane of sound, mating ethereal voices with a playground of haunting and lush melodies. It’s clear on “Diana” that the two could go sans instruments and be equally arresting, yet the slow drift from ambient croon to celestial pop and back makes for one of the richest tracks of the year thus far. Full-length Ulalume is out today on Out of This Spark.
PREMIERE: Mates Of State - Sway (Diamond Rings Remix)
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(Photo: Glynis Arban)
Mates Of State have long been indie-pop's favorite married duo, and the group has its sixth round of full-length sugar coming September 13 on Barsuk. The album, entitled Mountaintops and produced by Chris Coady, is previewed here with a twee electro spin on "Sway" by Toronto's Diamond Rings. Synthesizers spin like toys, handclaps adorn the electronic beat and the group's back-and-forth vocal harmonies provide the anthemic power.
PREMIERE: James Yuill - First In Line (Your Twenties' Story Of Life Remix)
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The press release accompanying James Yuill's new single states that the Dalston-based music geek leads a "quasi-monastic lifestyle". Personally, I've never met anyone in Dalston cut out for the life of a monk, but this charming, reflective Your Twenties remix of "First In Line" (that new single, out October 25 through Moshi Moshi) revels in the type of pop purity that makes me want to be a better man, its quiet spaces offering endless oases of calm amid city clamour.
James Yuill - First In Line (Your Twenties' Story Of Life Remix)
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DOWNLOAD: Weird Dreams - Hurt So Bad
I couldn't say for sure, but I'm guessing the above is a representation of how this track's gonna make the listener feel rather than a shot of the members that make up Weird Dreams. How are you feeling right now? You wanna feel like they feel? Put the breezy, keening summer chords of "Hurt So Bad" on blast and suck up the happy fumes you'll find more of on their imminent tape EP for Sleepy King Cassettes.
DOWNLOAD: Wild Nothing - Chinatown
On the cusp of June we may only be, but unless someone figures out how to turn sound waves into golden cars or aquaparks, there's no way at least two Wild Nothing songs aren't gonna feature in my own, personal End Of Year Top Ten. Virginia's Jack Tatum is as young and heartbroken and dreamy as I am conceited, "Chinatown" revelling in the solemnity of guitars that sound played by Johnny Marr with shards of that aforementioned gold for ten young men and women pining for 'the one'. Obviously, then, his new album Gemini comes hugely recommended–pick it up imminently from Captured Tracks.
PREMIERE: Still Flyin' - Higher Than Five
Kraut-rock to me always seemed like the sternest way to get off, what with the stamina and patience the sound's rhythms and builds require, yet San Fran dude and dudette troop Still Flyin' manage to turn motorik into something easier, adding brass blasts and indie slacker vocals. If "Higher Than Five"'s anything to go by, their new Party In Motion EP will sound like one long, lazy day spent kicking around with friends - catch some of their West Coast sun as the band play a series of UK live shows from the 13th of May.
Still Flyin' - Higher Than Five
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