Purity Ring – Shrines

Purity Ring - Shrines

Targeting an audience that I believe includes even themselves showing a thorough enjoyment of their craft, Purity Ring swells beautifully with their debut album, Shrines, available now on 4AD records. Dispersing out of rival sound mates, Gobble Gobble and Born Gold, Purity Ring is a duo made up of Montreal, Quebec natives Corrin Roddick and Megan … [Read more...]

Little Boots – “Shake”

LittleBootsShake

Little Boots, AKA Victoria Hesketh, will be releasing her highly-anticipated sophomore electro-dance-pop album sometime this year and “Shake” is the first cut to make it out to the public.  It first appeared in remix form as part of the 39-minute-long “Shake Until Your Heart Breaks” (Who can resist a song title like that?), where Victoria … [Read more...]

Q&A with Johnny and Ola of Cock And Swan

cockandswan_whitewall_440

Hello Johnny and Ola!  What are the vibes like in your native Washington state and how have things been going? Johnny: We are going back and forth from sunny and gray. Very busy recording with our friends!  I was on tour playing bass with The Curious Mystery, and Ola was in Bothell hanging out with our bunny and learning tenor … [Read more...]

Client – Command

Client - Command

Client is fronted by Client B (Sarah Blackwood of Dubstar fame) and Client A (Kate Holmes of Frazier Chorus) and the two mean business, producing electro-pop numbers that alternate between dark, grimy dancefloor beats and starkly forlorn ballads with archly dispassionate, British-accented, crisply-delivered vocals. On their fourth studio album, … [Read more...]

Stripmall Architecture – Feathersongs For Factory Girls

Stripmall Architecture - Feathersongs For Factory Girls

You may be as surprised to read the long and distinguished list of RIYLs as I am to write it, but if you listen closely to Feathersongs For Factory Girls, you’ll definitely hear hints of all of them. And you’ll want to listen closely again and again because Stripmall Architecture neither imitate nor rip-off their influences, but rather use them … [Read more...]

Restless People – s/t

Restless People- Restless People

Restless People's self-titled debut is a take on African influenced electronic pop music, akin to 2009 breakout jj. Restless People attempt to use crystallized synths for airy, danceable rhythms, while vocally, the band opts for up tempo grooves. And they're a very concise band; eight songs in twenty-seven minutes. Restless People, though, is a … [Read more...]

Richard Youngs – Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits

Richard Youngs - Beyond the Valley of the Ultrahits

Richard Youngs is one of those artists who makes being a music fan an immersive and enjoyable pursuit – it’s engrossing to obsessively track back through his extensive discography when you first get into him, and then it’s fun to follow his every move once you’re fully aware of his consistency and unpredictability. I’ve been in both … [Read more...]

Short Takes on Three Albums

Smoke Fairies - Ghosts

Smoke Fairies - Ghosts V2 Records http://smokefairies.com/ Smoke Fairies is the London-based duo of Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies and the U.S.-only release Ghosts compiles their first two singles and an EP into a 9-song disc of hauntingly stark and beautiful noir alt-folk tunes that revolve around the gals’ ethereal to earthy dual … [Read more...]

MGMT – Congratulations

mgmt-congratulations-aa

MGMT has the same problem that many bands have going into a second record after a successful debut. Usually one of two things happens:  they can of make another record along the same vein of the catchy tech pop songs as the first release or start over and write a completely new record. It appears that MGMT veered towards the second. As a person … [Read more...]

Lali Puna – Our Inventions

Lali Puna - Our Inventions

It’s been six years since Lali Puna’s last release, 2004's Faking The Books, but these Weilheim, Germany experimental electronic artists have been dabbling in a surrealistic blend of electronica, indie and pop since their 1999 debut Tridecoder. Steering away from the more guitar-driven Faking The Books and turning more towards the bubbly … [Read more...]