Here is the new video from Ellie Goulding! It's called Guns and Horses and it is actually one of my favorite tracks on her album. Ellie says: "I wrote Guns And Horses about a romance that began online... I wanted the guy to feel more than he did for me but through no fault of his own he couldn't. It's a song about frustration essentially." The surreal and mysterious video is now ready for you to feast your eyes on - directed by Petro, and filmed at Los Angeles' Griffith Park, it features Ellie singing in a misty woodland landscape with some ethereal backing dancers. Guns and Horses is out on May 7th.
Read any article about MGMT's sophomore album and they will all mention how the band has turned their backs on commercial success and fans expectations, making a record on their own terms, with music that supposedly sounds very difficult to assimilate. "Career suicide", I've even read somewhere... Truth to be told, they would never have it easy anyways, what with all the success that they achieved with Oracular Spectacular (a success based on 3 songs that actually didn't represent the whole album); in these days, when everyone is a bit of a hype-slave, all that goes up has eventually to come down, fairly or not... But to all true MGMT fans out there: fear not, because Congratulations is actually what you could expect from this band: a deep dive into an unknown world, and even if it's less immediate than what they did in the past, everything is still done with a genuine ambition to produce life-changing statements. So there may not be any generational anthems like Time To Pretend or Kids, but the celebratory mood is still here, only the drugs have changed. This time it's all about hallucinating with sounds that recall many different references, which are assumed and proudly displayed: Kinks, Syd Barrett, Electric Prunes, Television Personalities, The Monochrome Set, Beach Boys... All assimilated and regurgitated in frenetic doses, sometimes not in the most subtle way, but always with loads of unexpected twists around the corner. The ambition was clearly to build an epic of cosmic digressions, using everything and more to reach the desired effect, be it flutes, organs, choirs full of reverb, hawaiian guitars or indian sitars. With all the complex arrangements and apparently chaotic song structures, does Congratulations sometimes sound like a mess? Maybe so, at least on first listen. But, when immersing yourself more and more into this world, it never ceases from being an increasingly overwhelming place to discover new things. So this may have become one of the most divisive records of recent times, but for me there's no question: with an album that only makes sense as a whole, and with no stand-out songs to promote as singles, MGMT have created a psychedelic monument for our age. (8,5/10)
Blissful melodies, tender voices, nostalgic atmospheres, analog synths... yep, this is another record to be included under the term chillwave, the genre du jour that is hip to like and blog about. Nothing wrong with it anyway, as this is a "movement" that has already seen some great music under its waves, from the likes of Memory Tapes (Seek Magic) or Neon Indian (Psychic Chasms). And if chillwave has a very identifiable sound on its foundations, it still leaves some room for imagination, with each one of these projects having a very singular approach. Ultimately, this is something that Chazwick Bundick not only does very well, he actually takes it some steps further, grabbing its trademark elements, and chewing and spitting them out in a very unique form. With techniques better-associated with hip-hop, Causers of This also works as a thesis on the possibilities of the cut+paste function, with songs that seem like incomplete sketches, to be filled out by our imagination. In the meantime, the intricate sounds are mostly abstract, fusing themselves around the songs and burying them in complex layers that seem to marry perfectly with the beautiful multi-tracked vocal harmonies, giving the whole-project an unsuspected psychedelic flavour. But there's something else that takes Causers of This high above and stops it from being just a clever gimmick: this is music that is able to actually touch us, communicating strong emotions... in this case, the emotions of dealing with distant memories as if processed by a vintage ZX Spectrum computer, caught on super8 film, or found in an old polaroid. (8/10)
Remember Mr. Oizo and the famous puppet Flat Eric from the 90's? Well, Mr. Oizo has just directed a short-film called Where's The Money George and it's with (the always amazing) Pharrell Williams! How the two of them got together is not quite clear but some are speculating this could be some sort of teaser for new music they are doing. Discover below:
It was only a matter of time before the king of modern disco would come to reclaim his crown back. With the italo-disco revival at the peak of its hype and projects like Glass Candy or Chromatics - among many others orbiting around the Italians Do It Better label - being lauded by the specialized media, Hans-Peter Lindstrøm has simply done again what he's been doing for the last decade. And that is, to release some more cosmic-disco jams, which more than nodding to the past, actually seem to take us directly into a future of alternative dimensions. The results are magnificent. After the leftfield rupture that was Where You Go I Go Too (3 tracks, 55 minutes, no limits), Real Life Is No Cool seems at first a more conventional record, with proper songs and a vocalist - soul-diva Christabelle. But then again, this is a record that took 8 (!) years in the making, being the final result of a collaboration between 2 different personalities that seem to have gotten along really well: the intellectual and reclusive approach of Norway native Lindstrøm on one side, the extroverted, wild and more spontaneous persona of Christabelle on the other, creating a tension between both that is a big part of this album's strength. The 8 years of recording sessions can also be felt in the many intricacies heard and the flawless execution, with each song built around a dense dose of layers in an almost vertiginous way. This creates a very unique and detailed view of psychedelic disco, full of dizzying depths, pulsing synths and 80's soul, one that even manages to incorporate elements from more extreme genres like kraut or prog, but which, at its heart, still sounds like pop music. Or, in other words: pop music created by two obsessive minds very passionate about what they are doing. (8/10)
Lindstrøm & Christabelle - Let's Practise (mp3 via The Beat!)
Connecting different worlds to create something truly unique seems to be the word of the day for These New Puritans, and so far the results have been nothing short of absolute amazingness. In their new video, the mechanised-grime rhythms of the song are synchronized to slow-motion images of bodies moving in a highly choreographed way, all shot with a seemingly obsessive detail. The effect sits somewhere between concepts like trippy, frightening and disturbing, but most of all, it all just looks absolutely stunning.
In case you missed it, the new video from MGMT (called Flash Delirium) is already streaming at the band's official website. It comes out of the mind of Swedish director Andreas Nilsson and it's so out of reality that it actually works! The song itself is a mix-mash of different musical ideas, ambitious in its construction but, in the end, quite rare and interesting (loving the californian surf vibe in the sound). And now, the new video brings up the strangeness of the track into a whole new level! I could try to interpret a meaning behind it but, really, why should I? Enjoy here.
A virtual band with an appetite for all things futuristic and apocalyptic... how 21st century is that? Seriously now, for me the whole Gorillaz concept is pure genius, an ambitious project that redefined the way we can look at pop stars and everything around them - for a start, this is a band of fictional musicians that don't really exist. And then it helps that pretty much everything bearing their name has been ridiculously good, from the cartoon visuals designed by Jason Hewlett to the books, videos, dvd's, games, websites... and yes, the main reason for their existence, also the music. With only three original albums under their belt, slowly they have been building a journey that can be described as follows: debut album Gorillaz was the soundtrack of a decadent society getting closer to its final days; Demon Days was the apocalypse itself; and now we have Plastic Beach, which in a nutshell can be described as what follows the day after. So, the end of the world has happened, but it seems that life still goes on, although not quite the same way as before. Literally, in this album we are sitting on the remainings of our society, because Plastic Beach is basically "a floating island deep in the South Pacific, made up of the detritus, debris and washed up remnants of humanity", and we are invited to come in a journey into this equally fantastical and disquieting place. What a concept, eh? Of course that all this would be irrelevant if the music didn't live up to the theory behind it, but fear not, because that's really not the case in here, as this collection of 16 songs is truly amazing on its own. Starting as a narcotic take into a post-hip-hop branch with an unique sound, soon Plastic Beach grows into an experimental and eclectic narrative where we encounter many different and fascinating characters that live inside its frontiers. And this is actually where the long list of guests comes in, each one playing a different character. Take a deep breath: there's Snoop Dogg, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Kano, Bashy, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Gruff Rhys, De La Soul, Little Dragon, Mark E. Smith, Lou Reed, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, sinfonia ViVA and The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music. Above all this myriad of appearances, we have of course Gorillaz themselves, but this time 2D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle and Russel Hobbs seem less like (virtual-) band members and more like omnipresent characters, supervising everything and joining the dots that guide us around a territory never before explored. And with that, they seem to evolve into a larger-than-life status, a whole new level that suits them perfectly. So Damon Albarn is indeed a master in his own right. (8,5/10)
Gorillaz - Stylo (official video feat. Bruce Willis)
Gorillaz - Empire Ants (feat. Little Dragon) (mp3 via The Music Ninja)
No, this is still not a new Jens Lekman song - even with that strangely similar voice - , but don't get sad, because it's just as good. Kisses are a duo from L.A. consisting of Jesse Kivel and Zinzi Edmundson, and with just one track, they have already conquered me. A bedroom-disco-pop little jam, with a sweet vintage melody over sun-tinged synths and beats, Bermuda officially announces the arrival of springtime. Their first full-length will be called The Heart Of The Nighlife and is scheduled to be released soon and, basically, I WANT IT NOW.
Here's the third single from Kid Cudi's debut studio album Man On The Moon: The End of Day. The song is called Pursuit of Happiness and not only features backing vocals from MGMT (wow!), it is also produced by Ratatat (double wow!). I really like the dreamy vibe of the song with all the synth work and the touch of neo-psychedelic that MGMT bring to the chorus beautiful lyrics:
I’m On The Pursuit Of Happiness And I Know / Everything That Shines Ain’t Always Gonna Be Gold / I’ll Be Fine Once I Get It; I’ll Be Good
With a first proper single and also debut album on the horizon, New York native Samuel is about to get BIG. But while that doesn't come, there's still enough to entertain us in the meantime. In this track, for example, Samuel is lending new vocals to a remix of the Temper Trap's Fader song. Now, I say remix, but I could also call it completely new work, because what The Knocks do in here is basically grabbing the original, smash it into pieces, and then take it to a whole new level, with Samuel's stellar performance flying around a load of quite amazing spacial synths that seem locked in a perpetual cosmic groove. Talk about reaching for the stars.
The Temper Trap - Fader (The Knocks Remix ft. Samuel) (mp3 via Neon Gold)
Having reached public consciousness as a hip-hop producer/remixer with the seminal The Grey Album in 2004, Danger Mouse has been turning his head into more traditional musical genres as of lately, a move that had its first steps in his collaboration with Beck two years ago, for the Modern Guilt album. Broken Bells is his latest project, in a partnership with The Shins singer/songwriter James Mercer, and it actually keeps this trend, if not taking it even further. But where Modern Guilt was a work informed by a tight sense of ceremony that took away a bit of its life and stopped the songs from going sky-high when they should, this doesn't happen with Broken Bells. The approach in here is much lighter and relaxed and you sense that these two guys were actually intending to have fun when they decided to work together. As a consequence, the chemistry between them is fully palpable, and you get a perfect fusion of two usually separated worlds, the traditional indie-pop sensibilities of The Shins and the more forward-thinking digital approach of Danger Mouse. This creates an overwhelming world that is completely new and far from the sum of its parts, with enough place to incorporate influences from at least the last five decades in music, while carrying so many different elements as psychedelic sounds, vocal harmonies not far from the Beatles, sing-a-long chants, synthetic beats, new wave guitars, or catchy pop tunes loaded with complex arrangements and the occasional digital appointment. Considering that they do all this while maintaining a low-profile approach and that, without screaming for it, these songs do reach the stars and far beyond, here's to hoping that we'll have much more from where this album came from. (7,5/10)
Joining Egyptian Hip-Hop in the basket of young musicians set to turn the indie scene upside-down in the near future, Brad Oberhofer is a 19-year-old that started as an intern at Matador records, apparently only to have his demos fall into grace among his bosses. Judging from the brilliant wonders of lo-fi gem Away Frm U - and the rest included in his handmade 7-track EP o0Oo0Oo - , it's easy to understand why: a killer tune with a lush pop melody and a load of amazing hooks, infectiously performed with the palpable excitement and exuberance of someone about to have the time of his life. And if the already-known tracks serve as any indication of his talents, it's not hard to believe that big things will indeed happen to him.
