Delighted to share the new one from a musician who was easily one of our favorite musos to emerge from Down Under over the last few years — D.D Dumbo. Having released his EP Tropical Oceans in late 2014, the Australian artist and musical raconteur aka Oliver Hugh Perry has a new album in the works and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Although the multi-instrumentalist is definitely someone you’ll want to see live, the production on Perry’s new song “Satan” sounds more polished than ever. Hard to deny the Sting comparison here, in which Perry weaves a compelling tale on the typically inventive and colorful cut replete with Eastern influences. Stream below.
Been a bit busy as of late, but we’ve gotten so many solid electronic submissions recently that we can’t help but bring you another edition of Remix Roundup. Promise to get back on the ball soon but in the meantime, enjoy this latest installment of RMX Roundup — a biweekly segment in which we deliver the latest and greatest mixes and electronic cuts on the blogosphere.
First up is the new one from Elderbrook, the classically-trained London musician and producer who released his debut EP Simmer Down in 2014. His new track “Go” is another rhythmically-rich, vocally-enticing, bass-heavy banger that’s inherently built for the club.
Following the release of their EP Profite last year, France’s Moi Je have unveiled a remix package for the title track. While there are a handful of versions to choose from, we’re partial to Boycott‘s rendition. The young London producer, born Will Hayes has put together an impressive edit of the nu-disco track, which starts out seductively sparse and then breaks out into a full-on house jam with bright synths bursts. We can’t get enough, so pick up a free download on Soundcloud today.
Last but not least, Atlanta producerPopeska has revealed plans to release a debut album he’s calling Spirit Animals. Accompanying the announcement is the new single “Doing Me Wrong,” a future-bass beat with superb production. Featuring a vocal sample that seems to have been lifted from a smash sixties soul song (help anyone?), this one is seriously addictive. It’s also available for free on Soundcloud, so add it to your summer playlist stat and look out for more releases from Popeska leading up to the drop of the LP.
As the son of non-denominational church founders and pastors, Palmistry, the project of London-based artist Benjy Keating has always felt like a bit of an outsider. This comes through in the music of the singer slash songwriter slash producer, whose hybridized style of contemporary pop feels fresh and familiar at the same time. Combining elements of R&B, dancehall and experimental electronic — with clear Caribbean influences — Palmistry defies genres and expectations to traditions of form. His debut LP PAGAN arrives via Brooklyn label Mixpak on June 17 and can be pre-ordered here. Meantime, listen to the rhythmic and buoyant single “Lifted” below.
June is a busy month for shows, so we’ve got a new installment of DC Live for you today. The first band we’re featuring is a group called Oh Pep! that hails from Melbourne, Australia. The duo, headed by Olivia Hally (guitar/vocals) and Pepita Emmerichs (fiddle/mandolin) have a hybrid sound of folk and pop that has won the praises of NPR‘s Bob Boilen and KCRW. For a taste of what they have to offer, listen to the second single “Bushwick” off their forthcoming debut album Stadium Cake, which drops June 24 via Dualtone.
With a tireless year of touring ahead, the DMV will have not one but two chances to see them this summer — first at Wolf Trap opening for Lord Huron June 7, and then headlining atJammin Java on July 7. Get hip to Oh Pep! now.
Next is a garage-rock band that originates from Norman, Oklahoma, has two albums under their belt and has seen a surge in popularity over the last few years. That’s right, BRONCHO is back with a new record, Double Vanity slated to release June 10 via Dine Alone Records. While the group is known for their unbridled, early punk influenced sound, the new album marks a shift in tone towards a sleeker, darker, and broodier vibe. Case in point, the track “I Know You” is a mellow, but still gritty late-night song — the kind you play when the party is winding down.
Finally, Fear of Men will be bringing their stoic, dark synthpop sounds to DC9 on June 30. For those unfamiliar, Fear of Men is a three-piece band based out of Brighton, UK, whose second full-length Fall Forever came out June 3 via Kanine Records. Speaking on the song “Trauma,” vocalist Jessica Weiss describes the topic at hand as “the undefinable anxiety and damage that all of us suffer at some point at the hands of another. It’s how we deal with it that defines us…to me, dealing with trauma is not about looking back, it’s about taking that experience and putting it under your own control, letting it become a part of you.” It’s about “empowerment through taking control.”
Weiss couldn’t be more right about that. Listen to the single below and be sure to check out their show later this month.
We’ve got another Remix Roundup for you this week, a biweekly segment in which we bring you the latest and greatest mixes and electronic earworms currently burning up the blogosphere. First up is a rework of rising Canadian pop star Jocelyn Alice‘s hit song “Jackpot” by The Him. The Dutch producers have created an energetic edit by speeding up the tempo — using Alice’s kinetic vox (which recall those of MS MR‘s Lizzy Plapinger) to maximum effect. Look out for Alice’s debut EP to be released later this year.
We recently featured Classixx with their noteworthy cover of Natalie Prass‘ “Bird of Prey,” who in addition to fashioning remixes also craft their own material. The LA production duo have been bringing electronic music to the masses for a few years now, and this week they dropped their second album Faraway Reach via Innovative Leisure. The album includes some choice collabs, including the summery disco anthem “Just Let Go” with How To Dress Well. Just listen below.
Closing out this edition of Remix Roundup is the new one from prolific Norwegian producer Lindstrøm, whose new EP Windings is due out July 8 through Smalltown Supersound/Feedelity Recordings. Windings seems like an apt title for an electronic artist who knows how to deftly take you on a musical odyssey or “space disco” journey as he calls it, much like his peer Todd Terje. Stream the EP’s first single “Closing Shot” below. DC locals can experience his atmospheric set at U Street Music Hall July 28.
Yumi Zouma released their first full length May 27, which marks the first time the international group has recorded together in one room. Although the band members call different metropolises — Auckland, Paris and New York — their home, they’ve managed to produce two EP’s in the last few years from across the globe. It’s obvious on their debut, Yoncalla, however, that working together directly has helped the synthpop act to hone their unique music stylings and reconcile their overall sound.
Elaborating in a press release, guitarist Charlie Ryder said: “Yumi Zouma has always been an exercise in refining ideas and collaborating, but this was the first time we weren’t limited or protected by distance. With Yoncalla, the process was different, and it can be scary to present raw ideas to your friends — but it’s also incredible to see songs evolve through the sparks of inspiration that bounce between people in the same room.”
The breezy lead single “Keep It Close To Me” is probably the most accessible track the group has put out to date. Check it out below and if you’re in the DC area, be sure to catch them live at DC9 June 8 with support from Color Palette.
Another band out of the UK making wonderfully bucolic, indie folk is Arthur Beatrice, who celebrate the release of new album Keeping The Peace via Open Assembly Recordings/Polydor Records today. The quartet collaborated with the London Contemporary Orchestra on their sophomore effort to make an inspired work of contemporary pop that manages to feel grand and yet still intimate.
Regarding the raw honesty of the record, vocalist Ella Girardot writes: “Putting yourself and your emotions out there for people to hear can be a terrifying thing, so at times we tended to hide behind words and pristine production. That had to change, because music, for us, above everything, is a release; an escape from an internal battle. A kind of therapy. But it’s impossible to find without brutal honesty. And real honesty is hard, it’s uncomfortable, it’s raw and at times it’s pretty painful, but it’s necessary and at the end of it all you feel that release, that calm.”
Well said. Get a taste of the radiant effort with “Every Cell” below. If you dig it you can purchase Keeping The Peace directly through the band’s website: http://www.online-presence.info.
Three sisters Emily, Jessica, and Camilla Staveley-Taylor aka The Staves have followed up their 2014 LP If I Was with a new three-song EP entitled Sleeping In A Car. The UK trio make mellifluous, British folk music with rich harmonies and lovely layered arrangements. The new EP, released this month was recorded in London as well as Justin Vernon’s studio in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where they also recorded their previous album.
“These songs reflect the transient nature of travelling,” the sisters said in a press release. “Fleeting moments, like a slide show—reflections in car windows, streetlights passing in rhythm, stolen phone calls, late nights. Feelings of displacement and a disconnect — living in some sort of alternate state of reality. But underneath it all is the feeling of adventure and making your own rules and how dizzying and freeing that can be.”
Having previously supported Bon Iver and Florence & the Machine, the sisters are now setting out on a headline tour this summer, which includes a stop at DC’s Rock & Roll Hotel June 20. Watch the video for new song “Sleeping In A Car,” stream older effort “Steady” and scope out their full tour schedule below.
Upcoming 2016 Tour Dates:
06/03 Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center
06/04 Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
06/05 Milwaukee, WI @ Club Garibaldi
06/06 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
06/08 Pontiac, MI @ The Pike Room at the Crofoot
06/09 Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
06/10 Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PDB
06/14 London, UK @ Meltdown Festival
06/16 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
06/17 Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
06/17-18 Dover, DE @ Firefly Festival
06/20 Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
06/21 Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle Back Room
06/23 Atlanta, GA @ Smith’s Olde Bar
06/24 Nashville, TN @ The High Watt
06/25 St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway
06/26 Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room
07/08 Winnipeg, MB @ Winnipeg Folk Festival
07/22 Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival
08/12-13 Eau Claire, WI @ Eaux Claires Festival
It may be premature, but we’re willing to take our chances and declare James Blake‘s new LP The Colour In Anything an early contender for album of the year. The much accoladed UK singer and musician, known for his metallic electronic minimalism has outdone himself on the new record released earlier this month — composed of 17 no-filler tracks over the span of 76 minutes. With songwriting and production credits from Justin Vernon, Rick Rubin, Frank Ocean, and NZ’s Connan Mockasin, Blake’s third LP might be the magnum opus of his R&B inflected, nu-gospel catalog. Rather than the myriad of contributors making his music sound disjointed, there’s a continuity between the tracks that tethers the effort into one stunning, cohesive piece. His signature spacious and quietly majestic production is still at the forefront of the project, with his soulful, sumptuous pipes reigning supreme.
The deeply moving album plays out like a devotional oeuvre, tackling well-trodden themes such as love lost and grief, but with an introspection, emotional maturity, and eventual acceptance that makes these subjects well worth the re-immersion. Little known fact, Kanye West was actually supposed to contribute to the track “Timeless,” but in the end wasn’t able to make it work. Regardless, the song is still true to its epithet.
Stream “Timeless” and album opener “Radio Silence” below — and then we implore you to listen to the album in its resplendent entirety.
As the producer of G-Eazy‘s hit track “My, Myself & I” and a myriad of other projects, Christoph Andersson clearly has a knack for crisp production. This week he’s releasing his debut EP under his new solo project Monopol. The lead single from the EP “Somebody That I’ll Never Be” is an admirable electropop song that hooks you right from the opening synth spikes.
All the more admirable when you consider that it was written during a massive rainstorm in the middle of a jungle in Nicaragua, according to Andersson. Symptomatic of more than just a physical storm, “It’s a song about the desperation of trying to salvage a dying relationship,” he explains. Listen below and check out Monopol’s eponymous EP, out May 13.
poetry in an empty coke can 