Eye on New Releases: May 22th, 2012

 You don't need to wait in "Longlines" to climb to the top of Mount Eerie with this weeks releases!

Label: P.W. Elverum & Sun
Album: Clear Moon
Artist: Mount Eerie
Genre: Alternative

Mount Eerie’s new album, Clear Moon, is a resonant body of work that explores the possibilities of sound depth. Although the genre of this release is “Alternative”, don’t mistake Clear Moon to be just another rock record.  While tracks like “House Shape” and “Through The Trees pt. 2” glow with alterna-rock accessibility, others like “the Place I Live,” and “(something)” are more ambient and contemplative.  Phil Evernum, the creative force behind Mount Eerie, recorded Clear Moon entirely in analog, inside of a church-turned-studio in Washington called, “the Unknown.” The result is a cathedral-like sound where drums, gongs, and synthesized strings echo freely without muddling the hauntingly suspended vocals.  Through its eleven tracks, Clear Moon is dense and rich like an untapped vein of precious metals.  Despite its soft and unobtrusive feel, which make it ideal for background music, the complexity of every minute promises to make this release one worthy of multiple deep listenings.

Label: Moodgadget Records
Album: Longlines
Artist: Nitemoves
Genre: Electronic, Synth-Pop

Longlines, Nitemoves new release, eschews the traditional tropes of electronic music in favor of a slow-cooked digital flavor.  Ditching the high-faluting synths for square and triangle wave dominant leads, “Port Au Prism” and “Tertre Rouge” are guaranteed hits for fans of the lo-fi synth-bop sound. That said, Longlines has plenty to offer to fans of all varieties of electronic music.  Longer tracks like “Broken Cub” and “AMRAAM” are continually evolving biomes of sound, pulsing with life and unbridled character, without damaging their accessibility.  The second track, “Challenger,” is the albums most likely single, with it’s gradually building intensity, danceable beat, and skillfully utilized vocal samples.  To pick a single, however, would be to wrong-headedly separate this release into multiple sections.  Truly, Longlines is best experienced as a continuous whole, and not as a handful of estranged tracks.

Eye on New Releases: May 15th, 2012

Climb to the top of the Holy Mountain, and you can see the entire Metro Area with these new releases.

Label: Chemikal Underground
Album: Earth Measures EP
Artist: Holy Mountain
Genre: Alternative

Holy Mountain erupts onto the scene with their new Earth Measures LP.  Guitarist Andy McGlone, drummer Pete Flett, and bassist Allan Stewart shake the earth with their incredibly loud and powerful brand of rock and roll.  Earth Measures evokes the sound of Black Sabbath and Lightning Bolt, but with occasional 

psychedelic breakdowns a la MC5.  “Great Monkey,” the fourth track on the album, shows off the variety within their style the best.  Starting off heavy and deliberate, it breaks out into an airtight rollercoaster of tempo changes, all the while showing off the groups’ intuition for complex musical composition.  Indeed, the haphazard and maniacal sound of their track “Swifty” nearly belies Holy Mountain’s apparent musicality as otherwise exhibited in “Bolting” and “Kegs.”  Earth Measures LP is a studio-recorded release that almost sounds raw enough to be live.

Label: Environ
Album: Metro Area 5 & 6
Artist: Metro Area
Genre: Electronic, Dance

Do you prefer your electronic music smooth or funky? Well, as luck may have it, Metro Area’s latest release through Environ has both.  Metro Area 5 & 6 is a remastered, combined release of Metro Areas’s 2004 and 2005 releases, Metro Area 5 and Metro Area 6, respectively.  “Nerves,” gets us off to a smooth start with a focus on rhythmic side percussion, and ends with sultry strings, punchy horns, and glistening piano runs.  “Proton Candy,” mixes things up a bit with vibrating electric leads, vocoder-esque mumbling, and a flanging bass line that really cranks up the funky feel.  Metro Area’s “Honey Circuit,” lives up to its name; thick and rich bass synths underscore sweet female vocal samples, making this track digital honey to the ears.  Whether you’re a vintage roller rink skater or a earbud clad head nodder, Metro Area 5 & 6’s got something to groove to.

Eye on New Releases: May 1st, 2012

 April showers bring May flowers, and new music!  Check out some of these fresh cut tracks!

 

Label: Coco Machete Records

Album: Radio Robotic

Artist: Stereofunk
Genre: Electro House
 

 Radio Robotic is Sterofunk’s second go after his 2009 album "Fools Planet." This release is a diverse collection of disco, techno, hip-hop and even soul inspired house tunes that is sure to click with dance club fans and headphone jockeys alike.  The albums’s first track "Senseless" showcases Stereofunk’s electro chops, while "Shooting Star" infuses the mix with a bit of disco to flesh out a unique sound.  "Livin My Life" and "Get Off," featuring two of Coco Machete’s premier rappers Razor Cain & D’ Secret SVC, respectively, liven things up with their appeal to the “you only live once” mentality and signature hip hop showboatsmanship.  "Brasina" and "Sleepless," two softer gems hiding amongst the upbeat pack, are seamlessly blended soundscapes that help round out the pack and keep things relaxed.  Broadcast radio may not be run by autonomous robots yet, but this latest effort by Stereofunk certainly makes the idea palatable.

Label: Poison City Records

Album: Infinite Void

Artist: Infinite Void 

Genre: Alternative

With song titles like, "Give up," "Still Waiting," and "(You’re) Still Sour," Infinite Void’s self titled album initially appears to be one of the most depressing releases of the year.  In actuality, it’s a hard driven punk rock album that invokes calls to apathy, stagnation, and outrage.  The overdrive-laden guitars and driving tempo keep up the energy, and engage the listener.  The vocals mostly consist of a female lead, with occasional call and response sections, creating a frenetic sensation.  In true punk tradition, lyrics are shouted more than they are sung, which really brings the angst that fuels the music into focus.  Haunting verses such as, “your voice in my head, like a hand on my neck,” in "Something is Lost" definitely brings across a sensation of social claustrophobia, and a longing to break free. Despite it’s dark themes, "Infinite Void" is an empowering jam session that is sure to contain within it’s 11 listed tracks at least one anthem for all the downtrodden alternative rock fans out there.

Eye on New Releases: April 24th, 2012

Spring is in full swing here at IRIS, which means there's a never-ending supply of new music! Here are a few of our favorites this week!

Label: Chemikal Underground
Album: Human Don't Be Angry
Artist: Human Don't Be Angry
Genre: Alternative

Former Arab Strap guitarist Malcolm Middleton returns with his self-titled debut album as Human Don’t Be Angry. Named in honor of the German version of board game Frustration, the album was recorded alongside producer and drum programmer Paul Savage, with live drum parts from Middleton’s old Arab Strap partner Aidan Moffat. "HDBA is a facade, a front so I can have fun again musically," says Middleton. "I thought I'd go back to what I enjoy, which is playing guitar and writing melodies." The original idea to create an album of gentle guitar instrumentals and drum-free ambient atmospherics was soon paid to when Middleton entered the studio with Savage, as drum tracks were added and lyrics emerged for some of the songs, albeit often as poetic repetitions of phrases rather than structured verse-chorus-verse affairs. The words fit with the laid-back air of the music and help showcase Middleton’s often under-rated skill as a guitarist, leaving the sense that he’s made "more of an album I'd want to listen to than the one I thought I wanted to make." Song titles like "Jaded" and "Getting Better (At Feeling Like Shit)" are a tongue-in-cheek diversion from an album which is musically breezy and upbeat, although the emotional bittersweetness you might expect from the man who wrote "We’re All Going to Die" is never far from the surface. So Human Don’t Be Angry is a refresher before Middleton returns re-energised to his solo career, but it’s also here to stay as a new creative avenue.

Label: kranky
Album: Oh Holy Molar
Artist: Felix
Genre: Pop

Oh Holy Molar is the second album from UK trio Felix. The group produces a bewitching, minimal chamber pop that works as the perfect framework for singer/songwriter Lucinda Chua's oblique and emotionally immediate stories of superstition and searching for protection against bad omens. As a follow up to their debut You Are The One I Pick, the band return with a collection of songs with a sound stripped back to its very core. Something is said to have "teeth" when it has the ability to make an impact. This record certainly has "teeth", and sharp ones at that. The album was recorded in a vast, spooky 1940s cinema in Nottingham, England, now converted into a studio. After recording was completed the band discovered that underneath the live room lay an abandoned Dental Laboratory. "Oh Holy Molar" indeed. Since the release of the first Felix album, pianist/vocalist Lucinda Chua, also an accomplished photographer, has been working on a number of projects, most recently with Wallpaper in Detroit. Guitarist Chris Summerlin has been recording and touring with his new band Kogumaza. The group is completed with the recent addition of drummer Neil Turpin who, when not performing with Felix, can also be found touring the world with French composer Yann Tiersen.

Label: Palmetto
Album: The Calling
Artist: Romain Collin
Genre: Jazz

You have to bring something extra-special to the table to attract the attention and involvement of the likes of Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, and Wayne Shorter.  French-born jazz pianist Romain Collin does.  Armed with a killer instinct for progressive, spatially friendly instrumentals that present themselves in the form of mini-soundtracks, Collin rode a scholarship wave to Boston's Berklee College of Music and then onto the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.  His work in an ensemble at the Institute garnered more than passing praise from famous mentor-artists -- Marcus Miller, Wynton Marsalis, Charlie Haden. It garnered the honor of a ful tour with Hancock and Shorter in 2007 through India and Vietnam, as well as recognition and use of the Institute ensemble as a band of choice for Hancock, Blanchard, and Shorter. Described by NPR host Jon Weber as "a visionary composer, an extraordinary jazz pianist, and a very bright young rising star in the jazz world," Romain Collin continues to develop his vision on The Calling, combing the tradition of improvisation with sound designing and classical music.

Eye On New Releases: April 17th, 2012

Need something to help you celebrate being done with taxes? Look no further!

Label: Futra
Album: Lone Lifter EP
Artist: EEZIR
Genre: Bass, Electronic

Lone Lifter is by Los Angeles bass producer EEZIR.  Originally from Milwaukee, Eric Hanson (aka EEZIR) cut his teeth in the legendary 90’s Midwest electronic music scene.  Moving to Los Angeles in 1999, EEZIR has performed for Friendly Integration, SMOG, and Droid Behavior. His productions on the Lone Lifter EP greatly contrast in mood and style; you will find classic acid sounds, heavy bass lines, and dreamy and gritty melodies. The title track "Lone Lifter" has a positive vibe with an added dose of intensity and pace. It is funky, catchy, and commanding, and has all the right elements in becoming a warehouse classic.  The EP’s powerful acid track, "Blacktop Lane," makes you feel as if you're driving down a curvy, mountain road. The way you rise and fall, twist and turn, the unknown factor of what lies ahead.  The contrasting moods from mellow and ethereal to snarling and aggressive in "Shifted View" bring an intensity and IDM flavor to the release. Just as your view can be shifted by an unexpected event in life, this track represents that moment that leads to a new view.  The release ends with a remix by XI of the title track. Funky, slowed down, and deep is where he takes the original, and his rendition has funkier house and garage swinging beats with dreamy and playful tones.

Label: K Records
Album: Pith
Artist: Ruby Fray
Genre: Alternative

Anyone who has seen Emily Beanblossom perform has surely left entirely taken with her. As the lead singer of Christmas, a band whose unique style of psych rock made them a cult marvel, Emily sold out both shows and records, due in no small part to her captivating, cultivated persona and the rare power of her voice. A vagabond for our ilk, she has lived life on the road and in collaborations, drifting down the line until she was called back to her family farm outside Chicago, Ill. Here she paused to lay down the hollowed noise that would become Ruby Fray. Her premier album Pith is a string of musical gems that range from harmonic americana and folk to shadowy psychedelia, united in their spectral chamber arrangements. Each of the twelve tracks on Pith come from demos Emily has been keeping close, and showcase her varieties of influence. “And the Moon,” with its steady drum machine loop, eerie harmonies and mandolin strings stands apart from its follower, “Mint Ice Cream,” a playful Americana-style duet with Calvin Johnson. “Closed Eye” is the same, a drifting melody punctuated by tinny drums and fuzzy guitar strumming. But this is the beauty of Pith—like the single, “Let’s Grow Older,” it gambols, and then falls to despair and questioning, is both the blossom and the thorny edge. Ruby Fray is a dark star risen, and the power and soul of Emily’s voice changes all that it shines upon.

Label: n5MD
Album: Love In Times of Repetition
Artist: Asonat
Genre: Electronic

Love In Times Of Repetition is the debut album from Icelandic duo Asonat. While a new project, its members are already veterans in post millennial electronic music. Fannar Ásgrímsson (one half of Plastik Joy) and Jónas Thór Guðmundsson (Ruxpin) with a little help from co-patriot Kjartan Ólafsson (Ampop & Kjarr), Japanese singer Chihiro and the French singer Olèna Simon have made an album that sounds less like a paint-by-numbers Plastik Joy / Ruxpin team up but a fresh take on vocal-centric experimental downtempo. As one might expect Ruxpin's soothing IDM electronics are present as is Ásgrímsson's metered, programming and guitar but both artists elements are now shrouded in a new warmer blanket of timbre, style and emotion.

Eye On New Releases: February 28th, 2012

It's a leap year, and an extra day in February means more time for more new music.

Label: imbalance computer music
Album: Ghosts
Artist: Monolake
Genre: Industrial, Ambient

Two years after Monolake’s Silence release, Robert Henke is back with a new Monolake album entitled Ghosts. Dark and colorful, with haunting and deep excursions into magic worlds of sound and grooves, held together by a fragmentary story as part of the artwork that indicates a continuation of themes present on Silence: Precisely crafted earthshaking beats, rough dirty noises, wide lush soundscapes and little sonic creatures inhabiting a fascinating planet in which a lot of things go badly wrong and nothing is taken for granted.  Music that augments reality when listening to whilst commuting, music to get lost in when experienced loud in a club. There is nothing minimal in that music, it is bass heavy and full of detail.

Label: Chemikal Underground
Album: Thirteen Lost & Found
Artist: RM Hubbert
Genre: Alternative

RM Hubbert is a guitarist from Glasgow in Scotland. He writes music about love, death, friendship, mental illness and occasionally a dog called D Bone. It’s not as depressing as the previous sentence suggests.  His second full-length album, Thirteen Lost & Found was produced by long-time friend Alex Kapranos (Franz Ferdinand) and features collaborations with some very special artists including Hanna Tuulikki (Nalle), Emma Pollock (The Delgados), Luke Sutherland (Long Fin Killie, Mogwai), Aidan Moffat (Arab Strap), Alex Kapranos and Alasdair Roberts amongst others.  Having found that it was easier to connect with people through music, Thirteen Lost & Found was conceived by Hubbert as a way of reacquainting himself with old friends while making some new ones. Each piece was written collaboratively with the respective artists; with the emphasis placed on spontaneity and experimentation. The resulting collection is eclectic and beautiful: voice, percussion, violin, piano, banjo, accordion, vibraphone and gu zheng all joining Hubbert’s idiosyncratic guitar over the eleven songs.

Label: Galapagos4
Album: Volume 3
Artist: Maxilla Blue
Genre: Hip Hop

Solidifying in 2006 and releasing its debut album less than 2 years later, Maxilla Blue remains as a well preserved tribute to the classic raw hip hop combo of one producer, one DJ, and one emcee. Bolstered by each component's instrumentals and intricate cut work with power poetics, the Maxilla crew is perhaps most known for its affinity for captivating live audiences.  Led by the cue of DJ TouchNice, powered by the production of Aeon Grey and anchored by the vocal illustration of Asphate Woodhavet, the Des Moines based trio provides listeners with a dense, immovable, and often somber or "blue" bite of this reality as well as the next. Hailing from an often overlooked and undernourished locale, Maxilla's creative approach has found it unnecessary to bend to the common trends and popular evolution of rap culture. As a result, the crew's intepretation of music remains intact amidst failed fads, and followers of the work understand the natural encouragement to bend the enigmatic sound illustration to their own interpretations, adding to the timeless quality of each piece.

Eye on New Releases: January 31st, 2012

If you're audiophiles like us, you know it's that time of the week again: time to treat yo'self!

Label: Tonequake
Album: En Garde!
Artist: Favez
Genre: Alternative

En Garde! started with an email. Producer Andrew Scheps had been a fan of Swiss band Favez for a while, so when the opportunity to work together arose both Andrew and Favez jumped at the chance. A chilly January visit to the band's rehearsal space in Switzerland quickly turned into a deep and creative working relationship. For recording, Favez and Andrew met halfway (well, almost) between their homelands of Lausanne and Los Angeles at Monnow Valley Studio in Wales. They spent an intense 2 weeks recording live, capturing as much of the raw power of the band as they could. 12 days and 12 songs later, En Garde! had taken form.

Label: AudioInk
Album: Out Of My Hands
Artist: Cam Hodges
Genre: Rock

Cam Hodges comes fresh out of the Seattle music scene with his first album release after a successful climb up the ranks of "America’s Got Talent" to the #24 spot. With hundreds of thousands of YouTube fans, Cam's new release Out of My Hands has built-in organic demand. His pop/rock style includes basic rock structures with a subtle use of vocal harmony. The music is mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation with guitar, bass, drums, vocal back-ups, strings and brass. His laid-back style is reminiscent of Jason Mraz and an edgier Jack Johnson.

Label: Greenskeepers Music
Album: La Vendetta
Artist: Casino
Genre: Electronic

The two (sometimes well dressed) guys of Casino are about to deal a flush round of cards with their debut EP La Vendetta. A five track body of work that cruises on a brand new speed boat passed the lost paradise islands of: Isla Balearica, Isla Italo-Housia, Isla Bonita and La Isla Synth-Popia. Why such a vengeful title for a debut EP you may ask? No they are not aggressive super agents (even though they sometimes pretend to be), but the single "La Vendetta" is a soundtrack and script to a story of love, passion and indifference. The extremely catchy chorus is guaranteed to be one that you find yourself humming days later.  Other notable tracks include "White Water" - immediately the chord swell may remind you of a Frankie Goes To Hollywood vibe, but it soon swells into a dreamy white wash of the ideal analog Synthtopia. "Echoes" - think 2012 tropical balearic synth pop written for Madonna if she was still a virgin. "Dreams & Dragons" - a summer sing-a-long that is the perfect companion for driving down the highway on a hot summer night with the cabriolet roof jacked back 180 degrees. "Flight To Nowhere" - a piano and arpeggiator driven Italo-disco-ish’ inspired club fire cracker, which manoeuvres late into the night with its roller coaster build ups and synth melodies.

Eye On New Releases: November 22nd, 2011

Label: Chemikal Underground

Album: If Then Not When

Artist: King’s Daughters & Sons

Genre: Alternative

The ghost stories, murder ballads, and grimoires on the new full-length album  If Then Not When by Louisville, KY's King's Daughters & Sons are haunting, spare and at times explosively unsettling; part William Faulkner, part Led Zeppelin. Given the musical pedigree at play here, it should come as no surprise that every note, drum beat and vocal has been employed with an economy few bands have the sense to muster.  The album itself, clocking in at over 51 minutes despite there being only eight tracks, shows that King's Daughters & Sons are quite happy for the aforementioned ghost stories, murder ballads and grimoires to unfold at their own pace. The album's axis, in more ways than one, is the eight-minute-plus, fourth track, "The Anniversary": a rich cast of characters weave their way through a tale of love, treachery and murder while the music eddies, tumbles and roars in sympathy with the narrator. It's a phenomenal track, explaining the reference to Faulkner in their press release's opening salvo and clearly demonstrating that this is not your average album.

Label: Moodgadget Records

Album: No Body EP

Artist: Beacon

Genre: Electronic, R&B, Ambient

Beacon is Thomas Mullarney III and Jacob Gossett. Their No Body EP explores a combination of deep south bass music and ambient pop melodies, with R&B tinged vocals that accompany warm arpeggiated synthesizers. The EP's atmosphere and narrative recall brooding spirituality in the wake of first love and the allure of the paranormal in teenage romance. Jacob and Thomas’s extensive work in the video production and set building worlds has given them the techniques to produce their own unique vision for the release of No Body; a cheap prom set where real and imaginary moments continually conjure up feelings of love, lust and all things in between.

Label: Coco Machete Records

Album: Remix Your Face Showdown

Artist: Various Artists

Genre: Electro House

Here are the three winners of the Coco Machete 'Remix Your Face' Showdown from late spring 2011. The label offered up all the remix parts to three different classic Coco Machete releases setting them free for anyone to take a shot. There was one winner picked for each track based on quality and his or her own fan participation on Facebook...it can't get any more real than that. These are the ones to watch: Naeleck & Oddity are a production due based in both France and Japan, Sebastian Love hails from Italy, and D' Secret SVC, Coco Machete mainstay came in with a funk break remix of "In Da Club" that is undeniable....Just keep on watchin’!

Eye On New Release: Novemeber 15th

 

Label: Kaotic

Release: I'm Taking Off: Relaunched & Remixed

Artist: Nick Carter

Genre: Pop

Backstreet’s back, alright! Okay, well maybe the Backstreet Boys aren’t back, but our beloved Nick Carter is back with his new remix album I’m Taking Off: Relaunched & Remixed. Its upbeat pop tempo automatically puts one in a club where the dancing never stops (with neon lights and maybe even foam machine. Actually, scratch the foam).  The album is the product of an Indaba contest in which participants submitted remixes of the five tracks ("I'm Taking Off," "So Far Away," "Love Can't Wait," "Not the Other Guy," and "Falling Down") from Nick's second solo release, I'm Taking Off. The prize? The chance to appear on Nick’s new remix album. There are so many remixes to choose from, and each creates a different mood and individual sound that will keep the dancing going until the break of dawn. Nick Carter is back and he’s definitely "taking off.”

Label: Anchor Brain

Release: A Jumper's Handbook

Artist: Doomsday Student/

Genre: Alternative, Punk, Noise

Warning: This album will definitely keep you on the edge with its mixture of alternative, punk, and noise. Doomsday Student’s new album A Jumper Handbook is extreme, with different layers of static put together to create a complex structure of high-pitched vocals, guitar noises, and destructive drums. “Ape In Love” is an head-banging track that’s screaming for one to let loose and mosh with energetic chaos. A Jumper Handbook is ruthless and akin to a battle cry. Watch out for this album because you might just lose your head.

Eye On New Releases: November 1st

Label: Burning House Records
Release: The Cantos ii

Artist: K Serå
Genre: Alternative

Introducing their debut album titled The Cantos ii, K Serå is an unbelievably skilled band with an alternative rock sound similar to that of Muse and Panic at the Disco. With each track varying from rock to melodious piano, The Cantos ii is a record that belongs in any music collection, right next to Fall Out Boy. “The Youth That I Spent” clearly gives off an edgy rock vibe that can easily be compared to Muse, and its great guitar riffs and heavy drums will automatically have one's head bobbing. “Asleep At The Wheel” is another cool track that has a haunting feel to it. The lyrics present the idea of death clawing at one falling asleep at the wheel (scary, but REALLY cool.)

Label: Moodgadet Records

Release: Fantasiarexia

Artist: Jacob 2-2

Genre: Electronic, Synth-Pop

With its electronic glitch sounds and pop tones, Fantasiarexia makes one feel like she were back in the 80s, and Jacob 2-2 is brilliant for capturing the essence of the decade. The first track “Fantasiarexia” is reminiscent of the classic 80's movie The Never Ending Story. It first starts with an insane intro that bleeds into a simple xylophone sound that is purely The Never Ending Story. Fantasiarexia is basically dripping with 80s essence, and one can't help but smile as she is listening.

Eye on New Releases: October 18th

 

Label: Infinita Records
Release: Elevation

Artist: Lawson Rollins
Genre: World

The title of this album definitely describes what you feel…Elevation. The latest album from the talented guitarist, Lawson Rollins, Elevation is sensational with a mixture of Latin jazz, samba and salsa rhythms, and a harmonic blues melody that calms and soothes your mood and the atmosphere around you. The first track, “Elevation” delivers a warm sound that makes you want to be outside relaxing in the sun or be cozied up in a beach home. The third track, “Persian Night,” is sensual, starting off with Spanish guitar and then a flamenco flare that’s undeniably hot. The fourth track, “Parisian Rhapsody,” is a good-morning feeling song that gets you right up to start your day, and the sixth track, “Daybreak,” is one song you will definitely have playing while cooking Sunday breakfast. Honestly, this album is amazingly good, because now… I want Sunday breakfast.

Label: Galapagos4
Release: Dreastronaut
Artist: Dreas
Genre: Hip Hop

Three letters to describe the album Dreastronaut is WTF?! Because if you are not listening to this album, you'd be asking yourself, “WTF?! Why am I not listening to this?” First, just to put it out there, this album is… realistic, but surreal in so many ways. Dreastronaut by Dreas, the founder of Heardrums Records, makes you feel like you are moving in slow motion…as if you are an astronaut…in space…on the moon (crazy, right?). Some tracks really standout from this album like “Floating,” which gives the feeling of one being both consciously aware of their surroundings. “Michiana Noise,” gives a feeling of being in the woods around a campfire, but with beautiful violin and orchestral sounds. Even “ Solo Capacity” brings you a jazz hip hop flare that could easily remind you of the song “All I Need” by Method Man featuring Mary J Blige. This is really good album that you’d for sure want to sit down and listen.

Label: Environ
Release: I'm Not What You Want
Artist: Kelley Polar
Genre: Electronic, Alternative

Imagine traveling through time and you come across leg warmers, members-only jackets, shoulder pads, acid wash jeans, crazy hair, cool Ray-Bans sunglasses, and music that is undeniably “bangin'.” Yes, that’s right. I’m talking about the 80s! (Totally wearing an “I Love the 80’s t-shirt right now). And it turns out, this brand new album I’m Not What You Want by Kelley Polar, is screaming 80s! You’d want to go back to this era after listening to this album (sorry 90s babies, you can come too.) The first track “I'm Not What You Want” has a cool upbeat tempo that brings you back to Hall & Oates’ “I Can’t Go For That.” With the second track “Nocturne,” this single release will bring you back. Definitely take a listen, especially, if you’re going for the 80s look this Halloween.

Eye on New Releases: September 13th

With Autumn encroaching and San Francisco experiencing its first real pangs of summer (AKA cloudy & 68.2 degrees) we head into a busy new release season, of which these three eclectic highlights are but the mere tip of the iceberg! 


Label: 444 Records
Release: Exposed
Artist: Liz Primo 
Genre: Dance

Ms. Primo is the newest Pop Dance diva on the scene, and she arrives with major fanfare! Armed with a stable of producers supplying her electrifying beats (responsible for hits by chart-topping artists like Lady Gaga, Pussycat Dolls and Eminem), Liz is poised to break through on a high-profile multinational platform. Her newest EP Exposed features six new tracks brimming with sexuality, sass and a celebration of partying that have already caught the imagination of the LGBT community, where Liz's strongest support lies. Uptempo club vibes abound on tracks like the title jam with its "What happens here/ Stays here" refrain or "Wind Me Up" with its buzzing synth melodies and sub-bass thump. Look out for Liz Primo - as she sings on "Wasted Love": "I'm not your ordinary broad/ I get whatever I want/ Whether you like it or not."


Label: kranky
Release: A Winged Victory For The Sullen
Artist: A Winged Victory For The Sullen
Genre: Alternative

Shifting gears from pumping dance-club pop to ambient neoclassical drone is this new project from Stars of the Lid member Adam Wiltzie and modern classical composer Dustin O'Halloran. Lush pieces for piano, guitar plus effects and string quartet, recorded in West Berlin's famed Grunewald Church using a nine-foot Boesendorfer piano - sought after for its extreme sonic low end - achieve a drifting mellowness that is soothing, engaging and starkly beautiful. Gorgeous harmonic structures emerge like glaciers out of the sea of reverb & slowly decaying sound, occasionally reaching emotional peaks among the deep acoustic valleys. Incredible on headphones...



Label: Voltaire Records
Release: Split Infinitive EP
Artist: Tussle/Publicist
Genre: Electronic

Leaving the drone behind and moving to the indie disco dancefloor sees upstart San Francisco imprint Voltaire Records unleash their finest release to date - a split EP featuring two fantastic modern talents. First up, SF's own Tussle, having previously released two albums on respected Norwegian label Smalltown Supersound (with a forthcoming third produced by JD Twitch of unstoppable leftfield DJ duo Optimo), who contribute "Dusty Roads", a quirky funk monster whose strange groove comes from all manner of percussion and Tomo Yasuda's loping basslines. The other half of the equation here is Publicist, aka Sebastian Thomson of Trans Am, who drops the cosmic "Do You Know Who I Am", all spooky synths, robot vocals and wonderfully Italian melodies, sounding like a mixture of John Carpenter film soundtracks and Giorgio Moroder discoscapes. Each artist remixes the other to round out the EP to fantastic effect, finishing off its rock-meets-dance vibe perfectly. Voltaire - one to watch!