EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Praveen & Benoit - Embers + Machinedrum Remix
Like the records they’ve made on their own for labels like Kranky, Neo Ouija, and Expanding, the album Praveen Sharma and Thomas Meluch (aka Benoit Poulard) collaborated on, Songs Spun Simla, is a dough of wide-open textures and percolating thump, like rainforest séance music for both shamans and streetwalkers. On “Embers,” Meluch’s operatic harmonies surround a bog of hand drum taps and clicks, accordion crescendos, and smoky echo from Sharma. And while these two have never even lived in the same city together (Sharma lives in New York, Meluch lays his head in Portland), their music creates a collective sense of place, a tropical pastoral in which they can both mess about with any sounds they dream up.
In addition to offering the fantastic “Embers” for download, we’ve got an exclusive remix from Machinedrum, who versions “Embers” as one big sample, bringing it in and out like a kid playing with scissors and tape, assembling a stiched-up, heady, collage. If you’re into Flying Lotus or any other crackly beat guru, definitely check this out.
Sounds like: Atlas Sound, Flying Lotus, Valet
Download: Praveen & Benoit - Embers
Exclusive Download: Praveen & Benoit - Embers (Machinedrum Remix)
DOWNLOAD: Holy Sons - I'm Healed + Things You Do While Waiting For The Apocalypse
Holy Sons (aka Emil Amos of Om and Grails fame) mess around in the same sandbox as collage masters El Guincho and Atlas Sound, but instead of bending and sampling scratchy tapes for tropicalia raving (like The Guincho) or bedroom toking (like Mr. Cox) Holy Sons make meditational anthems for the darkness of your basement. Banjos, sitars, Roland 909s, flutes, acoustic guitars, and Amos’ sedate whine all swirl around into one gaseous cloud, expunging the bad vibes from your dome and lulling you out of consciousness. If my Comparative Religions teacher in high school had played this when he tried to teach us meditation, I totally wouldn’t have failed that class. “Things You Do While Waiting For The Apocalypse” and “I’m Healed” are from Amos’ soon-to-be-re-released Decline Of The West, which hits shelves on September 23 through Partisan. Whet your brain with the songs below and then go cop the album when you’ve finally awoken.
Sounds like: Atlas Sound, Flying Lotus, The Album Leaf
Download: Holy Sons - I'm Healed
Download: Holy Sons - Things You Do While Waiting For The Apocalypse
DOWNLOAD: Artanker Convoy - Erratique
Artanker Convoy has been making electro-tinged free jazz since the early 2000s, when a Brazilian dancer asked them to compose a piece for one of her performances. Brooklyn-based indie label The Social Registry (home of bands like Growing and Blood on the Wall) asked them to release a 12” in 2002 and the rest is history—they’ve been recording with them ever since. The track we’re releasing today, “Erratique”, is an instrumental, laid-back song, reminiscent of epic experimental jazz acts like Sun Ra. Check it out below!
Sounds like: Sun Ra, Yo La Tengo
EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD: The Feeling of Love - Brown Liquor + Dad Is For Eat, Mum Is For Die + You Rock, You're Seventeen...
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As much as old dudes in suits love to crack on France, we have a lot to thank them for. French Kissing, Catherine Deneuve, la Resistance (to a number of bad wars), a President whose wife has posed topless on more than one occasion, over 1000 kinds of cheese and song titles like "Dad Is For Eat, Mum Is For Die," and "You Rock, You're Seventeen, You Should Kill A Ten Year's Old Kid." Those last two are from France's the Feeling Of Love, a two/three piece depending on the day you find them that like Pussy Galore, the Oblivians and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion as much as they like saying "pussy," making an unholy racket and making you wonder, 'wait, did they really just sing "Rapeman Blues?'" And the answer is yes. They did. And they're just getting warmed up.
Taking the blues and running them through shards of glass and then dumping acerbic wit all over it, the Feeling of Love take a genre that's been practiced for ages and flexes some French love muscle all over it. "Brown Liquor" chugs along so convincingly that you almost forget you're listening to just a guitar and drum. "Dad is For Eat, Mum Is For Die," starts with a fun little carousel organ riff and dissolves into a snarling mess just when you think you've figured out where the song is going and "You Rock..." takes the Kills drum machine and really sexes it up. The Feeling of Love have done one tour of duty through the States, have released a handful of 7"s and an LP and somehow are still managing to fly under the radar. Maybe America isn't yet ready for the Feeling of Love eruption...bunch of pussies.
Sounds like: Pussy Galore, John Spencer Blues Explosion, Daily Void, Witch Hats
Download: The Feeling of Love - Brown Liquor
Download: The Feeling of Love - Dad Is For Eat, Mum Is For Die
Download: The Feeling of Love - You Rock, You're Seventeen, You Should Kill A Ten Year's Old Kid
FEATURED: Ghostly International documentary at Current TV
Check it out: the guys over at Current TV are running this short documentary on one of our favorite experimental labels, Ghostly International. The doc, Ghosts of Techno, features interviews with Ghostly head Sam Valenti IV, Todd Osborne, Tycho, and Spectral Sounds recording artist Kate Simko. If you’ve ever wondered how one song recorded between friends can become an entire, successful label, we highly recommend getting into Ghosts of Techno. On another note, check out how sleek the Ghostly offices are! Can they come over and re-do our apartment? Seriously.
Download: Kate Simko - Soltera
Download: Osborne - Daylight (Pyjama Mix with Isolee)
EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD: The Bodies Obtained - Looking for More + 2 others
As much as we’d like to give you a full, detailed account of our new favorite experimental electronic band, we don’t know that much about The Bodies Obtained. The facts are few and far between—we received a package from their manager with their first record, From the Top of My Tree, on a CD-R and an email shortly after with a cryptic bio and a .jpg of an illustration of a man with a tree for a head. Yeah, we know. Spooky.
But when we popped the CD in the office stereo, expecting some sort of non-solicited gibberish or another, something amazing happened: the distorted sounds of Throbbing Gristle, The Residents, Fad Gadget and Brian Eno greeted us in a way that we’ve never heard recreated since those bands were at their peak (especially on “Hear & Believe”, our favorite track from the bunch we’re posting today). As far as we can tell, The Bodies Obtained, a duo from Detroit, MI, have never performed live, but with From the Top of My Tree slated for release in November of this year, maybe they will pop their heads from under whatever rock they're hiding (they've hinted at releasing a second album next year). Take a listen to these exclusive cuts from the album for yourself—it just goes to show, DIY is still the best way, in the end.
Sounds like: Throbbing Gristle, The Residents, Fad Gadget
Download: The Bodies Obtained - Looking for More
FULL ALBUM STREAM: Bumblebeez - Prince Umberto & The Sister of Ill
We’re super excited to report that sample-crazy Aussies and Modular Records signing Bumblebeez are streaming their new album Prince Umberto and the Sister of Ill, an LP that blends rap, hip hop, freestyle, post punk and pop in a kaleidoscopic array of breakbeats and early ‘90s flair. The first single from that album is “Dr Love”, which if you’ve spent any time on any dance blog these past months you have undoubtedly heard. Surprisingly, it’s not the climax of the record though—the entire thing is kind of a continuous mish mash of Neneh Cherry, Beastie Boys, Liars, The Avalanches and Lisa Lisa. In short—amazing. Enough with that, get over to the Bumblebeez RCRD LBL artist page and experience the tracks for yourself.
Sounds like: The Avalanches, Neneh Cherry, Tribe Called Quest, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
Full Album Stream: Bumblebeez - Prince Umberto & The Sister of Ill
DOWNLOAD: Lemonade - Sunchips
Can we say how much we love that San Francisco is bringing back the psychedelic rock with as much aplomb as humanly possible? At the same time that a band like Girls are cranking out heady shoegaze pop, Lemonade are making… laptop tropicalia electro punk? Is that it? We can’t even tell frankly, and that’s a large part of their appeal. Casio beats, synthesizers, Happy Mondays-esque chanting and bursts of noise are all part of the plan for Lemonade, which counts Alex Pasternak as a member, whose music we’ve featured before on RCRD LBL. Give it a spin and let us know what you think—we’re smitten.
Sounds like: Happy Mondays, CAN, Alex Pasternak
EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD: Gentleman Auction House - ABCDEFGraveyard + The Book of Matches + We Used to Dream About Bridges
I'm sorry, but where the hell has Gentleman Auction House been all my life? Bear with me, cause I'm about to gush like a proud mother. "ABCDEFGraveyard" playfully hints at the Jackson 5 with a hand-clap chorus that is so infectious, you're going to be beaming within the first 60 seconds. If you were ever like, man, Secret Machines were so fun on that first record when they were building momentum like it was no big thing to have people standing on tip toes at their gigs waiting for the cymbal crash to break and bring them to the next level of indie rock nirvana, but wouldn't it be cool if instead of just one voice there was a whole chorus of kids shouting in pure glee? Get ready to play "The Book of Matches" on repeat for the rest of the day. Or rather, resist that cause if you think this song is as totally bad ass as it can get, wait til they add bloody horns on "We Used To Dream About Bridges." Alphabet Graveyard comes out next week on Emergency Umbrella Records and if this isn't the most jubilant record to tickle your ears all summer, I'm a goddamned monkey's uncle.
Sounds Like: Secret Machines, Attack Formation, Vampire Hands, Les Savy Fav
Download: Gentleman Auction House - ABCDEFGraveyard
Download: Gentleman Auction House - The Book of Matches
Download: Gentleman Auction House - We Used To Dream About Bridges
DOWNLOAD: Witch Hats - Pepperman + Stupid Arrangements
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Photo by: Ben Butcher
A bit of history: New South Wales, Australia was settled in 1770 and the transportation of convicts to the colony started almost immediately and continued until 1848. Van Diemen's Land, now known as Tasmania, was settled in 1803. In 2005, four lads emerged from the Tasmanian undergrowth, sounding more like convicts given guitars then nice boys trying to make girls dance, or get girls to pay attention, or even trying to get laid. Witch Hats are a violently sludgey, darkly churning group of misfits. Images of the band feature them in their underwear covered in unknown blood, sneering at the camera covered in their own blood and live surrounded by screaming lights and hazy smog.
Witch Hats are more than the visuals and more than the initial assault of dangerously pounding bass and slurringly jagged vocals. There's a wicked humor to be found above the stabbing guitars and somehow the band manages to cover both the Breeders and Spacemen 3 convincingly. So convincingly in fact, the original Birthday Party drummer, Phil Calvert, became a convert and produced their first 7"s and EP. America - prepare for the invasion. Beginning tomorrow in Portland, Witch Hats are bringing their dark magic over here, snaking around the country playing with everyone from the Vivian Girls to Heavy Trash and ending up at the F-Yeah Fest in LA. I won't get to see them til they come to Chicago on the 27th, but I'd imagine missing the show would qualify you for deportation.
Sounds like: Vivian Girls, Daily Void, Titus Andronicus, Tyrades
Download: Witch Hats - Pepperman
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