Avoidance Theory
My parents put a pool in their backyard recently, years after my brothers and I moved out. Kind of a jip, except they did give us a key and the code to the pool cover. So I can’t really complain. Do you know how good it feels to relax in a warm, bubbly hot tub on a brisk fall evening? Really good, right? The simple, quiet, lovely melodies from the Avoidance Theory provide that same cozy feeling. As a matter of fact, when I put my feet up to the speakers I get that same jet-blasted massage from these songs. Recommended if you like warm baths and a more ethereal, trippy Dean Wareham sound.
Lone
Bless Sean West’s (Dealmaker Studios in Nottingham) email earnestness and his consistant harping on us all summer, trying to open our eyes and ears to Lone. We’re listening! and loving it! Lone is one Matt Cutler, beat-maker, audio-cut-and-paster, and all-around sonic-magician. Cutler lays down hip-hop beats then layers the tracks with illusory flourishes, broken chords, and dream-inducing 8-bit melodies. This is the music I heard in my head when I read the Chronicles of Narnia (before current literature to screen trends began destroying young imaginations). This is the music I imagined the band of lizards playing in Daniel Pinkwater’s Lizard Music. Give it a try. Do your own mini mash-up of Pinkwater Vs. Lone to see what I mean. Youthful, imaginative, and sweetly psychedelic Lone will likely conjure up visions of rainbows, sparkly unicorns, Mozart playing lizards, magic wardrobes or any other mystical apparitions floating around in your subconscious.
Ernest Gonzales
Hip Hop producer Ernest Gonzales drops his Theory of Everything moniker and tinkers out 8 bit lullabies for his soon-to-be-born daughter. I was a bit hesitant to listen to such an intensely personal project. But when I heard these playful, dreamy compositions I felt privileged to have been invited to this musical expression of one father’s hopes and dreams for his child. That said, children are not required to enjoy this 80s-era synthesized study in dream pop.
Leila
On her myspace page Leila lists her influences as “life…noise…stuff.” I’d just add “beats” to that list for a quick summation of her sound. These tracks her label has generously offered for your downloading pleasure demonstrate Leila’s controlled cacophony as she gathers audio odds and ends, samples of this horn and that vocal clip, and masterfully stitches the sounds together into something you can dance to and something you can chill to, respectively. It’s pastiche-core in the vein of Solex. Leila brings in a hodge-podge of guest musicians to add their own noises and stuff like Martina Topley Bird, Terry Hall, Andy Cox (The English Beat/Fine Young Cannibals), and her own sister Roya Arab. Blood, Looms, and Blooms is just the latest in her decade long recording career. Leila has worked with Björk and Aphex Twin and recorded as Grammatix and Little Miss Specta. Admittedly, I’ve got some homework to do as I’ve missed out thus far on her earlier efforts. Shame on me.
Peter Broderick
Peter Broderick’s new album Home isn’t much more than a guitar, his voice, and occasional percussion. Anything else frankly would get in the way. At a moment in time when most of the industrialized world is bent on multi-tasking themselves to a living death Broderick sheds himself of distractions and focuses on his precision finger-picking guitar playing, his lush vocal washes, and his zen-like compositions. If you’ve been feeling like you’ve been swept up in a figurative hurricane, or if you’ve been cleaning up after Ike himself, let Peter Broderick breathe a soul-cleansing burst of pastoralia into you. Let him be the eye of the storm of life. Be sure to check out Broderick’s band Efterklang.
Rickolus
You reap what you share. Here’s proof. A reader tipped me off to this prolific Floridian after encountering Radical Face on 3hive. Something’s obviously been brewing off the coast down there in Jacksonville, FL. Rickolus is one Richard Colado, who sings for the band The Julius Airwave, and he can’t seem to sit still for long. Below are songs from each of his five albums, recorded in as many years, with probably double the friends (including Ben Cooper AKA Radical Face). The recordings are inspired both thematically and sonically by everything from Colado’s children, video game music, anime, friends, to his own backyard. Winter’s Daughter is an intimate and introspective epic fable of, presumably, Colado’s children. American Backyard has a certain back-porch-folksy feel, Video Game Birthday Party’s darkly festive mood depends heavily on Casios and Korgs, and Soundtrack… predictably, but not disappointingly, sounds more cinematic. With the exception of the latter, Colado’s melancholic vocals accompany most of the songs. The quality and quantity of Rickolus’ music is worth way more than the word-of-mouth plug I’m offering here. And considering every song from every album is yours for the sharing it wouldn’t hurt donating a dime or two when you drop by for more downloads.
Hifiklub
Hot off the French Riviera and into my suburban home, a bike ride away from a large, democratic swath of California beach, via our trusty suggestion box is Hifiklub. Their album was produced by Earl Slick, best known for his guitar work on Bowie’s Young Americans and Station to Station albums. The first single, “Babe Doll” starts off with a Blur-esque dance beat, moaning guitars lead to spoken/sung vocals, the guitars go all angular, and then they’re just Dave Allen’s deadly bass groove shy of ushering in France’s Gang of Four resurgence. The band was kind enough to offer up a second track off their album, French Accent, which we’re happy to pass along to you even though thematically it’s the antithesis to our little “sharing the sharing” project here. Yep, it’s all about stealing from your favorite bands, but in the artsy sense of the word, not in that smarmy blogging way of stealing.
Ruby Isle
Get ready to cut the rug, because this here is a bumping dose of pure dance energy from this indie supertrio. Dan Geller and Mark Mallman grew up together in Wisconsin playing chess and trading mixtapes. After graduation Geller, whose mixtapes often included The Smiths, The Cure and New Order, moved to Athens, GA, started up Kindercore Records, and began recording pop-tronic gems under the name I Am The World Trade Center. Mallman, who had contributed bands like Pink Floyd and Velvet Underground to their mixtapes, went the art school route and began recording over the top piano pop under his own name. The two reconnected and wanted to blend their styles of music. That’s when drummer Aaron Lemay stepped in. When he heard the demos he said, “I can’t let you two fools attempt this madness alone.” Then there were three fools making foolishly fun arena dance music. I can imagine a grafting of Daft Punk and Queen producing a sound a lot like this.