Archive for the ‘Track Reviews’ Category

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Oneohtrix Point Never // Sleep Dealer

Saturday, September 10th, 2011

He’s backkkkkkk. After a lengthy stint serving as one-half of the Ford and Lopatin team, Daniel Lopatin’s solo synth creation, Oneohtrix Point Never, is now back in the spotlight. “Sleep Dealer” is a track taken from his upcoming November released LP Replica and also his first distributed mp3 under the Oneohtrix moniker in about a year.

Categorically different than anything off of last year’s stellar Returnal (#17 of my favorite albums of 2010), “Sleep Dealer” opts for diced-up sample-like cuts rather than the patented all-engrossing synth fermata whole notes that Lopatin is known for. If anything, this track makes me dying to know what the whole album is going to sound like! Check it out below:

Oneohtrix Point Never // Sleep Dealer

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Andy Petr // This Can’t Be Real

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Rapper Turned Singer beat creator Andy Petr has been on a tear lately, seemingly releasing a new track (or a new EP) on daily basis for the past couple of weeks via twitter. Last night he sent out a notification to check out his latest concoction “This Can’t Be Real” with the message “if you would like to purchase this beat pay me a million dollars.” Needless to say, I had to check out what a million dollar beat sounded like.

After about five listens, I can resoundingly say that “This Can’t Be Real” would be worth every penny of that million dollars and then some. Opening up with a building start that any hype-man on the planet could get a crowd excited for, the track then slips into a drum-heavy (Petr’s leitmotif) spaced-out synth jam chalk full of unique rhythms and cuts. I’d have to come back to you with a list of MCs that I think would pair nicely with this beat (god, I sound like a fucking sommelier), but the fact of the matter is that any rapper would count himself lucky to have something this good to spit on. Check it out below:

This Can’t Be Real by Andy Petr

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Angel Olsen // In the Morning

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Fresh off her Strange Cacti vinyl release on Bathetic Records (an exact duplicate of her stellar cassette from 2010), I’ve been dying to hear some new material from this heart breaking Chicagoan singer/songwriter. Fortunately, the folks over at Two Syllable Records has satiated that desire — albeit only partially — by releasing a fresh new Angel Olsen track for a Chi-town-centric compilation cassette.

Weekly Tape Deck premiered the near a-capella song last week and it’s taken me a bit to digest as Olsen takes you through the emotional ringer with her voice. Coming in at just under three minutes, “In the Morning” seems to be an inner monologue of a complex, depression-tinged mind, spitting out stream of consciousness style lyrics that take a while to decipher. Not Olsen’s best track, but for the time being it’ll do as we wait for more material. Check it out:

Angel Olsen // In the Morning

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Glasser // Treasury of We (Delorean Remix)

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Keeping the remix vibe going from yesterday, Delorean’s take on Glasser’s xylophone-heavy “Treasury of We” — taken from her stellar 2010 LP Ring — seems to be battling for the “remix of the year” title. Deloreans reinvention of the sparsely constructed track strips everything out except the vocals and reconstructs it as a Euro-tastic discoteque jam that’ll be danced to from Lisbon to Krakow. Check out both the original and remix below:

Glasser // Treasury of We

Glasser // Treasury of We (Delorean Remix)

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Grimes // Crystal Ball (Stalker Remix)

Monday, August 29th, 2011

Holy.Shit. Just when you think you’ve heard all the Grimes remixes another comes seemingly out of nowhere to blow you away. Stalker’s take on “Crystal Ball” is not just a unique spin on a tried-and-true Grimes track, but it’s also a complete 180 from any other Stalker track you may have heard in the past year and a half.

For the first time in, well, forever, the tempo remains above molasses pace and you have elements with sixteenth note rhythms (snare taps, vocal cuts), but the “traditionalists” need not fret: the grinding warped guitars are still there and the track itself still has that overall uncomfortable dissonance to it that Stalker is known for (although not as pervasive compared to say “final_1″). What gets me most excited about this remix is the fact that Stalker seems to be branching out and experimenting more which makes me even more eager to listen in on his future stuff. Check out the track below and get ready to be blown away:

Grimes // Crystal Ball (Stalker 432Hz Mirroremix)

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Work Drugs // Swimmer Girl

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

While the East Coast is getting hammered by a hurricane and the Pacific Northwest is rainy as usual, the weather couldn’t be any more beautiful here in landlocked Utah. Looking outside my window at another cloudless day, it’s kind of hard to believe that it’s just about time to say au revoire to summer 2k11. To kick us in autumn properly, we have a summer-ending smooth beach jam courtesy of Philly’s Work Drugs. Now I’ve talked about these guys a couple of times before, and with “Swimmer Girl” you getting much of the same thing (shimmering guitars, airy keyboards, vocals that don’t extend past an octave) but somehow they always seem to hit the sweet spot of what my ears like. You can stream the track below and if you got time, check out the Baywatch-esque video:

Swimmer Girl by Work Drugs

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Pigeons // Dead Echo

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011

It’s been a while since I heard a peep out of the forward-thinking Bronx duo Pigeons (who, by the way, have the best band website on the planet). Coming off an ultra-limited release cassette release on Japanese label Sixteen Tambourines, the group is back with an impending stateside release, an LP verbosely called They Sweetheartstammers, on Minneapolis’s Soft Abuse Records. To celebrate the upcoming November release, the label threw up a stream of the track “Dead Echo” on their soundcloud, with the tagged genre of “Avantpop” isbeing incredibly apropos. Check it out:

Pigeons “Dead Echo” by Soft Abuse

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Outfit // Two Island’s 7”

Sunday, August 21st, 2011

There is a lot of things I miss about living in Europe, one of which that resides near the top of the list is the ability to get records from European labels without international shipping. Case in point: every single Double Denim Records release. Their latest is courtesy of the Liverpudlian (or more accurately Wirralian) un-googleable psych-pop band Outfit.

To celebrate the pre-order, Double Denim is streaming both sides of the 7” from their soundcloud page (which you can check out below). The A-side “Two Islands” is the clear winner of the two. Opening with experimental drones/groans for a good eighty seconds, the noise gets pushed aside (but not forgotten) by the pure pop sprightly vocals of singer Andrew Hunt. The six-plus minute song could be classified as noise-pop but not in the traditional sense: instead of meshing the two genres in a mess that you can sing along to, “Two Islands” keeps to its namesake and separates the noise from the pop making for a disjoint, yet compelling, listen. Check out it out below as well as the less impressive B-side “Vehicles.”

DD007 A1: Outfit // Two Islands by Double Denim Records

DD007 B1: Outfit // Vehicles by Double Denim Records

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jj x Ne-Yo // We Can’t Stop

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

Although it’s two-weeks old, I’d be remiss if I didn’t post about the latest and [not-so] greatest jj track that’s hit the web at, of all places, Adult Swim’s website. I hate to rain on my favorite new artist of the past half-decade’s parade (and even worse, go against The Guardian’s opinion), but the oh-so-natural collaboration between the hazy Swedes and recent R&B sensation Ne-Yo falls incredibly flat.

What sounds like a killer combo on paper turned into a mess of a project with jj and Ne-Yo each supplying disjoint verses rather a seamless blend that we saw on every single track of K I L L S. But don’t take the word of a hyper-fan like myself, instead check it out for yourself, and while you’re at it, download the rest of the Adult Swim Singles collection from their website here.

jj x Ne-Yo // We Can’t Stop

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RxRy // 4eroport

Sunday, August 14th, 2011

For those who’ve been wondering where I’ve been (or those who hadn’t checked a couple posts down), I finally got hitched to my long-time friend/girlfriend/fianceé this past July. Afterwards we had a hellish time getting internet at our new place in Salt Lake City, but lo and behold I’m back!

To celebrate the blog resurrection, I got a new cut from Pt-Music favorite RxRy fresh out of the inbox. Perfect timing. Here’s what he wrote about his “diced rearranged filtered and chopped” version of “1/1″ from Brian Eno’s 70s ambient record Music for Airports:

someone special to me is taking a trip away
so I made a song for them…for in the air.

From someone whose taken his fair share of global flight and has “been there,” this is an excellent bon voyage track that is sure to send them, whoever it may be, off right. So sit back, make sure all electronic devices are off and stowed, and enjoy this sixteen minute flight from your head.

4eroport (Brian Eno remix) by RxRy

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