Another Summer Mix:
Valiant Brave - Ganglians
F Kenya RIP - Highlife
Eazy Speaks - Apostle of Hustle
Bicycle - Memory Tapes
Cult Logic - Miike Snow
Bits & Pieces - Junior Boys
Farewell to the Fairground - White Lies
Uh - Fujiya & Miyagi
Audacity of Huge - Simian Mobile Disco -
Love The Night Away (Tiedye Mix) - DJ Kaos
Nothing Else Matters - Tiedye
Psychic City (Voodoo City) - YACHT
Asleep At A Party - Memory Cassette
Shadows - Au Revoir Simone
Daniel - Bats For Lashes
Dreamer - Tiny Vipers
Download it here!
Ganglians:
There is a point when passing the threshold into a psychedelic trip where everything becomes very muddy. Lines between what is and isn't as well as what should and shouldn't be become extremely blurred and you can no longer trust your senses to accurately portray the world around you. All you can do is hold on to your ass and accept what truths the universe's infinite wisdom decides to reveal to you. This song is a lot like that. The chirps of flutes and wails of saxophones pop out from under a lo-fi, psych-rock, fuzz blanket that is tossing you up into the cloudy skies above the oceans shore, and it's totally blowing your mind.
Highlife:
The immediate success of Vampire Weekend put the foot in the door that Afro-pop needed to become hip and well represented at every summer festival across the country and Highlife are a product of this truth. Named after a musical genre originating in Ghana which bacame extremely popular in english-speaking West Africa, the solo project of New York's Doug Shaw offers up a bright acoustic love letter to the region and it's culture. Naming the tracks title after the famous F Kenya's Guitar Band, Shaw even borrows a core line, "Madame Zehae Ala" from a song with the same name. The playfully gentle rhythm, with a Birds of Paradise flute line and breezy backing vocals, is sure to start a spontaneous dance circle at the local marketplace.
Memory Tapes:
I remember sneaking out at night with friends to lay claim to the throne as King of the sleepy cities. With cigarettes and booze we ruled the empty streets, free to roam and explore without ever letting any consequences cross our mind. There's something about summer nights that make it so easy to stumble into love. This track is everything nostalgic about being young and care-free around the neighborhood you grew up in wherever that may be. You can almost feel the breeze and bugs as light and airy synths fly across a funky bass line, while garbage can drums crash, breaking in and out of electro-shenanigans.
Miike Snow:
What can perhaps be seen as a thinly veiled swipe at the increasingly watered down and stagnating house/electro scene, Miike Snow singer, Andrew Wyatt, is falling asleep on his feet again while wondering aloud "if there's anybody listening", but with sugary sweet vocals, it's hard to believe these lovers can ever be fighters. What cuts this Swedish three piece apart from any other Nintendo-powered dance floor funk-fest is the heart inside this machine. With a house beat that can get the dance floor going, this track is poppy and accessible enough to gather a major following and (along with the ripples-turned-wave singles "Animal" and "Burial" already making a splash in the indie pool) maybe even enough steam to thrust the band towards becoming another break out act a la MGMT.
Simian Mobile Disco:
It may sound like a joke when you break up with your main band (Simian) to focus on taking your low profile side project (Simian Mobile Disco) a little more serious, but when rising stars in the french electro scene (Justice) take your track and turn it into a perennial club fixture, it would sound like a joke not to explore the depths of cool offered with producing beats. So maybe the joke was on us when SMD dropped their 2007 debut, Attack Decay Sustain Release, with tracks with titles like "Tits and Acid" and songs with lyrics swiped from street corner double dutch ("Hotdog"). Either way the single from their first effort, "It's The Beat", only pushed the duo further into the stratosphere of stardom.
So now, with the help of Yeasayer vocalist, Chris Keating, SMD poke a little fun at their own success by offering up a track exposing the ridiculousness and futility of fame. Over a minimal beat that barks and bleeps, Keating name drops and lists off his qualities of cool before diving into the refrain, "I've got it all, yes it's true./So why don't I get you?". Despite all the mope, this track is likely to blow these guys past huge into whatever comes after. Either way, these DJs and their adoring dancers alike can both bounce around with a little egg on their face.
Au Revoir Simone:
Whether we like it or not, our brains are banks storing anything and everything that tickles or tortures the senses. With lyrics about struggling to forget extinguished flames, listening to Au Revoir Simone is like thumbing through the diary of a teenage girl who remembers playing on her grandmothers piano, writes songs about growing pains and the boys who tug their heart strings while composing them on a Casio keyboard they keep under their bed. The vocals, which are sung by all three members in the all-female band, remain constant in a sense that they're soft like a secret being shared. However, there's something else about this song structure or melody that feels so fuzzily ubiquitous- like a seeing a friends face without remembering their name. Either way seeing them perform at the El Rey Theater recently has really got me constantly playing this song. Guess I just can't get it out of my head.
Bat For Lashes:
Bat For Lashes (AKA the half Pakistani- half English, Nathasha Kahn) is definitely this summers "it-girl" who is being hailed as the next great solo-female phenom and drawing comparisons to artists such as Bjork, PJ Harvey and Fiona Apple. This track features magically literate and intelligent lyrics under hauntingly beautiful melodies capable of enchanting the imagination. Led by an 80's nu-wave rhythm of drums and bass delicately layered over dramatic trumpets and synths that are interrupted only by the pluck or play of a violins strings.
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