Pick Of The Week: Whails
Whails, an infectious 60′s style band that immediately reminds me of the Beatles. The voice vibrating over sunny hits, completely calls to front your happy sensory missions. Not clear if the new music is a 4 track ep, or there’s more somewhere else. Regardless, we have tracks to DL for free. Coming to us from Perth, Australia the group hits all the classic sounds trickled with a modern edge. You can tell they appreciate the fundamentals of writing a great song, but they’re not afraid to listen for the things surrounding the basics. Exploring at times, the mysterious Lo-fi Pop sensibility, Whails is the kind of group begging for an unconnected turntable, whose vernacular evolves via the purple wings sheltered from the storm. Its flying above us in the desert, like water beads bouncing down the colored glass. Yeah, I’m tripping out to this.
Jack Spelman Dust Vivid Railroad
Jack Spelman creates blurry lines boxing in outdoor memorabilia. The ridges are spotted wonders, so beautiful that you almost want to jump the cliff so you can explore the waters below. A full sound, yet quiet in its ability to rest there in the background, painting the pictures for your silhouettes to build a life in. This is the kind of sound made for an old vinyl piece you swoop up in an abandon box in the back of a thrifty spot. The dust is welcomed, now the spotlight for its remnants to build again. This music gets me exploring my writing, which I love. Thanks Jack, pure brilliant experimentations beaming in the shadows. Not much info on this project, like a link to a cassette or to dl the sounds. Stream for now folks.
Is And Of The – New EP – Latepril
Washington, DC is home to Is and of The, an experimental electronic music project which incorporates sampling, with live instrumentation. It’s an impressive outing, one that puts the search to build something spectacularly explorative over all else. A beautifully designed bandcamp page exudes thoughts that would require you to search yourself. Lovely painted pieces that fit without gaps to this risky, and refreshing music. Its more or less great IDM that incorporates some true blue sounding organic instruments. I love the anarchist approach on some of these numbers. All of a sudden you’re at this place, then within seconds the transition is skipped and you’ve given birth to a new aesthetic, one that has you burnt from the scary yet dazzling adventure. The brand new 7 track EP, latepril was just released via bandcamp, nab it for a FREE DL, and explore the other great releases. Album artwork by Anissa Najm.
Naps Video Heat.Pak
I’ve been meaning to post about Naps for sometime. Very few I’ve discovered thus far do “found sound collage” quite like this project. Naps gets choppy at times, with hits making static beats, that sound like one big journey piece. Going back to the soundcloud page I did a little looking around at the links, found this really heady newer video for “Heat.Pak.” A visual experience of atmosphere, psychedelics, with no boundaries of the mind. I also posted the recent released “Filtered Water” which is a little more linear but still in that Naps realm of feeling good while subsequently being lost.
We Were Born Canaries Textured Still
Denmarks We Were Born Canaries released the new single “White Gold” yesterday. The song is the lead off the new EP coming soon. From the very beginning its apparent the band engaged a worldly call on their instrumentation for this one. Quality sounds plastered with rich textures, immediately set the track up. There’s an experimental nature which stands out in a big way on the break down. Sounds that remind me of whales communicating a complex translation underneath the call out from the lead singer. Her voice rests perfectly over this number and when the lyrical hook drops back in for the finish, the melting begins – Honest, explorative pop, with an excitement clearly beaming from the band. STREAM ONLY.
Daycones Sugar Garden Graffiti
Weirdly addictive, like a wound you keep messing with. Daycones, a new project out of Milwaukee, WI has all the weird psych daydreamer fades you could hope for. Lazy deep vocals delivered over warbly mischief , performed by Ryan Janke. I can only hope that Daycones has more work to deliver this summer, cause I would really enjoy rocking on my porch while being lifted from this newly discovered heady visual dealer. Just really cool sounds man, a wondrous colorful explorations in what will eventually be on a cassette at some point, I hope. STREAM ONLY
Pick Of The Week: Fortyone
When you search “Samples” as a keyword you can find some pretty amazing songster crafts on soundcloud. I came across Fortyone, and a new album filled with said samples, running the spectrum. The Joy of Plowing is free and massive coming in at 32 songs. There’s quick drops of everything, like a record addict in the store doing quick hits to decide what’s coming home from the stack. A remarkable snippet fest, that gets smokey from all the dancing.
Take songs like “Jazz it up,” a classic hot box get down for the neighborhood on a saturday night. The project really just seems to be all about having fun, giving away free music without revealing much. The tunes are filled with a conducive memorabilia that blend together like a drunken pool party, which means some are spot on, others are weird enough together they work.
The track “Be The Love Bone Pony” lays out music from some real greats, all accompanied by an announcement telling you whose up. You’ll sway between Ricky Nelson, Elvis, and Fats Domino. A brilliant “wonder smile” perfect for the whole family.
Sampling is one of my favorite art forms, and when done correctly, old classics can be reinvented to form this new experimentation, unleashed and lovely. Not everyone can do this, it’s not like a derivative painting. This exploration is somewhat crazy, making its celebratory conclusion a piece that’s seldom found for most of us. The time, and care put into doing this would require a vision, only Fortyone could explain. Just a great find, I do hope you DL this record.
I also put up “George Washington Meets Mrs. Rabbit,” not off the record, but worth the laugh, just listen to how much effort this project takes to get where its going. So much respect! The Joy of Plowing just came out, nab it FREE HERE. And be sure to go through the other material on Soundcloud, basically a treasure chest of throwback gems.
Turquoise Crown Elemental Crush
The galactic cut up sample heat, crushes moon fragments, laying down jazz vocal leads. Turquoise Crown out of Maine, chops up the fine, pushes it out through some kind of wonderful. Crisp and savvy, the pro sound of a beat maker. The latest clip “water.heart” is just a sample of something infectiously moving. I’ve listed several works of Art from T.C. for your listening pleasure. The project seems to release material quickly, so there’s plenty of short bursts to enjoy. I wish I could offer more info on whose behind the sounds, but like so many soundclouders they just don’t put much on who they are, or where else to find them.
Brandon Locher Puppet Theatre
Last year Locher brought us Conversations, today he releases Conversations (Revisited). In Locher’s words “This newly revisited and extended sound piece consists of a serial chain of phone calls. The first without a response on the other side is recorded. The confused answerer repeating, “Hello? Hello?” is then used to playback in a new call to another randomized receiver. That person’s response is then taped and played back for another confused recipient, over and over again… I’d like to think of it as mastering the prank call, see what you think? The role of the music is to reveal the life that invisibly flows in and through us at all moments. That music is continuous; it is only we who turn away.”
Brandon made the 20 of 2012 list on this site, mainly for his consistant explorations within sound art via My Idea Of Fun, ”a Johnstown, PA based collective of musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, and writers.” The new year looks bright for B.L. with this new release and his other project The Meets LP coming this summer.
Brandon Locher Gracious Prankster
Running a blog isn’t entirely too difficult, but what is hard is trying to establish a solid writing rhythm. A style that doesn’t repeat itself, much of this is the responsibility of the writer, and a decent fraction of the work depends on the content you’re trying to share.
Brandon Locher is a recording, and visual artists from Johnstown, PA. He picked up the art in 2006, and has over 50 releases under a variety of monikers. Brandon is what you call DIY at its rarest form. He’s innovative, prolific, and seems a purest to the art of creative exploration, which is just a fancy way of saying experimental. As a writer, his email regarding his amazing piece of sound art, “Conversations, 2012″ is exactly what I needed to hear to remove the stagnation of repeating myself over and over again. Brandon explains the projects as “mastering the prank call” and described the process as “spontaneous communication, by fooling the person into thinking that they are talking to an actual person, when only they are responding to a recording of the previous recorded person’s conversation response.” The results are fascinating, refreshing, and Locher’s dedication to sound experimentation is all over his Soundcloud page, so while I posted on the this particular piece, there’s a nice batch of goodies to explore. Make sure to go to this website and see the catalog here.
~ Ryan Boos
Phantom Power Elusive Reflection
Eric Littman (NYC) aka Phantom Power releases a superbly hazed out cover of Hot Babes “Cool Stuff.” It has all the drunken highlights of the warbled, who gives a fook walk home. The hooks phase out with the dope repeater. Eric’s most impressive stock pile is his album releases on bandcamp, just a massive cache of great music centered slightly off pace. This dude is exactly what the tag line on his facebook says, ‘über pseudo.” Couple weeks back he released “Loop In My Head” which is one of the finest summer tunes this year, especially for those late nights adventures through the dark, and weirdness of holding hands through the festival as the carnival freaks hand you tickets to come in their mirror mazes. Lets not forget to mention the comparisons to the Haunted Graffiti, b/c you’ll have to do a double take at the titles to make sure this isn’t new A.P. material. Whatever though, its hot, and there’s even more funk on Phantom Planet’s renditions of this unique chill+wave+weird aura music. There’s so much content on his pages, so spend some time, get a few records, few specialty tunes on his soundcloud page. I just might make this a Phantom Power weekend, why not?
~ Ryan Boos
Julsy Lone Wanderer
It’s easy to call music something, or categorize it into some magical-butterfly, flying around like a head trip. But the immediate sensation of those analogies, or dream esque psych pops, don’t make the words less meaningful, or somehow less original. Clearly I’m about to go off on some magic-magic, blanket thrill ride with this album review. Julsy, who we’ve covered on here a couple of times, just released Break, which is a slow evolving, hands spread out in the air, dizzy circles, with enough floating long hair to make its own boat to sail away from here. I have no idea what that means, but her music made me say it. The record is two parts sound collage, scratch that, its pretty much a whole sound collage, yearning to be in an abstract DIY film made by some filmster doing a passion project, which is something I love always.There’s a vivid bright spot on the things Julsy makes. Never in a rush to cover up spaces, almost if you met her she would be most comfortable in those awkward quiet moments. The music is like that, but all taking place off this trail someone told you to walk down, because your true self is at the end of it. I’m rambling now about self discovery and over doing the whole dreamy wordy review, but that’s this music for you. It’s slowly complex, a discovery channel special showcasing the ecosystem perils of man. You can name your price right here, and pick up this wonderful piece, which will surely bring some calm to your daily life. Heavy rotation, especially for those meditations. I dig it so much I wrote this poem.
Patient listener, bright-eyed fawn,
The lone wanderer, found his one,
Vivid hallways, cold spoken heat,
Shadow light, foliage beeps,
Wild fun, abandon hills,
Hands together, they kill,
Wind feathers, color thrill,
Daydreams are better.
~ Ryan Boos
Autosave Cave Face
Autosave from Chicago, released The Memoir, which is part of an upcoming EP called Nightmares and Landscapes. The song is quite spacious, resting in movie score status, which is why I like it so much. It’s really the back drop to a short yet to be made. An epic tune with an opening sample that pulls you into the cave to hear a special message from the face. There’s plenty of ambient ritual esque atmosphere going on here, with some well-played spoken word. Then the song shifts into the main theme, which has the enough candy like noise to bring those purple colors out from the dark. Well done dudes.
~ Ryan Boos
Kyriakos Ioannou Is The Calm Cool
Out of Canada, Kyriakos Ioannou does “Make It Easy” with a steady dose of repeater, and the chant-esque to swirl your emotions up to dissect the meaning. At the half way mark of this short number, he starts to go into this nice flow, over and over. It’s indiscernible but catchy, and you’ll find yourself making your own batch of garble beauty as it plays. On “Stage” there’s a droplet haven for tears and the surreal travel log is full throughout the vibrant fall.Ioannou has the quality of providing the great ambience to your self identification process. I really feel the places in his music, the work is so calm, and cool.
~ Ryan Boos
Forever Lazy Aims For Digging
That ripped lo-fi with the warped dispositions, and then the warbly stain of a “who gives a shit” punches you in the face. Forever Lazy expresses sound the way a bad acid trip makes you feel like somehow the couch just connected to your spine, and if you want to take a piss you’ll have to try harder to move. But there’s this nice chilly spacious momentum. Its so laid back you might feel like you’re digging a hole the Mr. K left you in, just reach out a hand and ask for help, you should be good from there.
~ Ryan Boos
