Posts Tagged ‘EP’

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ceo // Illuminata (Dan Lissvik Remix)

Friday, December 23rd, 2011

Apparently, there’s a ceo remix EP, appropriately entitled White Magic Epilogue, that has been teased on Sincerely Your’s website since November and is scheduled to drop any day now in the US (although I can’t find any info an a physical release anywhere; just digital it seems).

Second only to jj, ceo is one of my favorite Swedish neo-Balearic pop group (specific, I know) — in fact their debut charted on my Best Albums of 2010 list. Dan Lissvik, of Studio fame, takes one of the highlights of that album, the track Illuminata, and de-clutters it making a less frantic, more palatable version. Since I listened to the original about a billion times, I can’t help but feel that Lissvik’s version is bit neutered — slower tempo, no soaring strings, and an inexplicable throbbing bass line. I guess that’s tough criticism considering this is a remix (and I’ve undoubtedly praised similar reworkings in past posts), but when the original is as close to perfect as you can get, why mess with that? Check out both tracks below:

ceo // Illuminata (Dan Lissvik Remix)

ceo // Illuminata

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The Immaculates // Vol. I

Sunday, October 9th, 2011

Seriously, this is getting fucking ridiculous how good every single release from Whoa Whoa Records is. Their latest (and possibly greatest) comes from the NYC “soul band” The Immaculates in the form of a co-release with Death Class Records.

All you need for convincing is one listen to “Hey Joe Kelly” (below). If you don’t like this then you don’t have a soul. Cop the tape from Whoa Whoa’s store here.

The Immaculates – Hey joe kelly by Immaculates

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Slow Magic // ▲

Saturday, August 20th, 2011

When I first popped open the e-mail sent by the enigmatic artist known as Slow Magic, I didn’t know what to expect. With an album title like ▲, one can’t help but think this is another B-rated witch house album that the internet seems to churn out on an hourly basis. However, the multilingual description (ranging from Icelandic to Japanese) of:

Slow magic is the sound made by an unknown imaginary friend.

遅い魔法は未知の想像上の友人が作った音です。

Slow galdur er hljóðið gert með því að óþekkt ímyndaða vini.

La magie lente est le bruit fait par un ami inconnu imaginaire.

made me think that this was some sort of an offshoot of a Sincerely Yours artist. However, all is settled when you finally get around to pressing play and slipping into that chillwave-tinged dream-pop trance.

With the likes of acts such as Weeknd and Cults seemingly coming out of nowhere to land on the big stage in a matter of nanoseconds, it’s becoming less and less surprising to be hit with an out-of-left-field e-mail from someone who has producing a high quality, exceptional album. Certainly Slow Magic falls in this category, and the three track geometric-titled EP is ready-made to be slapped on some wax tomorrow and sold through a worldwide distro by Tuesday.

The opener, and arguably the best of the trio of tracks, “Corvette Cassette” makes good use of the light, off-beat arpeggios to lift you up off the couch and float you in the clouds. The distorted vocal sample — which I can’t quite make out the language/lyrics — does a good job of keeping you suspended while the dueling keyboard lines at the two-minute mark push you past the atmosphere and into interstellar space. It’s pretty much everything you could ask for from a quote-unquote chillwave track: breezy, delicate, and surprisingly complex yet easy to listen to. Check out the song below:

Slow Magic // Corvette Cassette

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oOoOO // Plains Is Hot

Monday, May 9th, 2011

The more I spin past oOoOO tracks the more I dig them. I’ll be the first to admit I was a skeptic when the unorthodox naming conventions started to pop up — and it didn’t even have to be “Witch House” related (re: tUnE-yArDs) — but when they have proven talent, who gives a fuck how they spell their name. My love affair of oOoOO began with his No Summer4U CD-R (where the title track has appeared on several of my mixes), but I’ve just now gotten around to spinning his 2010 Tri-Angle released s/t EP and I got to say it’s just as amazing.

One of the standouts on the EP for me is the track “Plains Is Hot.” In traditional oOoOO fashion, the song is a slow-burner full of head-thumpin’ bass and delicate female vocals with a side-order of ethereal synths. Nicely accompanying the track is this unofficial video which splices up footage from Fernand Léger’s (yes, THAT Léger) Ballet Mécanique in the most creepy way possible. Enjoy!

oOoOO // Plains Is Hot

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The Goat // Super Dreamer Infinite Being EP

Friday, February 11th, 2011

It’s hard to out-Book The Books, but there are parts of The Goat’s recently released Super Dreamer Infinite Being EP — offered via bandcamp — that mimics closely the sound collages the NYC duo of Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong are known for. Take for example the opener “Spiritual Phase///Walk on Water” which features snippets of spoken-word samples over a drone-y beat; if this couldn’t be a rough cut for something off of Thought for Food I don’t know what could.

Although the similarities between the two groups are certainly there, The Goat takes a different path midstream. Instead of filling the EP with track-after-track of tough-to-grasp songs and phrasings, he opts to switch gears delving into the more melodic (see: hypnotic arpeggios of “Super Dreamer”) and the more atmospheric (re: “Passing Through”). What you’re left with in Super Dreamer… is what you always want from a debut EP: a collection of interesting thoughts and ideas showcasing the potential of an artist.

Check out my favorite song from the recording below as well as a more uptempoed (and dare I say, fun?) version of Balam Acab’s “Dream Out” that The Goat knit together with samples from Katy Perry and Fleet Foxes:

The Goat // 3 Mile Choir

Balam Acab // What A Life I Dream (The Goat Remix)

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Laurel Halo // King Felix EP

Saturday, February 5th, 2011

Instead of doing a complete list of my forgotten favorite albums of 2011, I figured I would dedicate a post to each one (a sort of “please forgive me” approach). The first is a spacey 4 track electro-pop EP from Brooklynite Laurel Halo that seems to have been recorded in 2050 and somehow time traveled to the present. Side-A opens with “Supersymmetry” which, coincidentally, was the first track I heard from Laurel Halo as it was on the tape Bobka sent out accompanying his Report V.II. Sounding like a cross between Martian music and an 80s Eurovision entry from Italia, “Supersymmetry” is 5+ minutes of intricately woven textures, melodies, and lyrics that combine in amazing fashion (who’d think slow moving electro-organ bass pulses, a blown out electric guitar rip, and is that electro-flute?? work so well together).

The thing I love most about Laurel Halo is how she creates music that is equal parts antique and futuristic — take the track “Coriolis” for example. The chime-like vocals on that seem like they were taken straight out of an 18th century oratorio (and the violin plucking certainly emphasizes this notion as well) while having the dominant instrumentation being digital/analog synths gives the track that out-of-this-world feeling. This duality to the music is also incorporated with the album cover (shown above): the Z-machine at Sandia National labs is an incredible piece of equipment that tests materials in high temperature and pressure — conditions you’d see after the something like the Big Bang.

I don’t, maybe I’ve been watching too much Top Chef where they take ultramodern spins on classic dishes in practically every episode so I might be hypersensitive to the issue, but regardless, Laurel Halo’s King Felix makes for a great listen. Check out the track “Supersymmetry” below and supposedly you can cop the complete EP from her website (if you can navigate it!). If you want a physical release, order it from RVNG Intl. or Hippos in Tank.

Laurel Halo // Supersymmetry

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Seamonster // Two Birds 7”

Saturday, October 16th, 2010

A couple of weeks back I received a kickass shipment of 7”s from Gold Robot and Royal Rhino Flying Records — one of which was this stellar EP put out by Virgina’s “ambient/psychedelic/folk” musician Adrian Todd Webb, whose stage name is Seamonster. Threw in as an added extra with my other orders (thanks guys!), Two Birds quickly and quietly rose to the top of my vinyl pile and has since found a near-permanent home on my turntable.

Pressed as a 33 1/3 7”, there’s no surprise that a lot of music is packed into this record, but having five tracks to listen to was even more than I was expecting. The A-side starts off with an instrumental intro track, entitled “New England” which, based on my travels to the East Coast, is an apt musical representation of the area. If you’ve heard a Seamonster track, odds are it’s been the woozy, psych-heavy “Bearsuit” which shows up as the finale as the A-side, however, my favorite of the front tracks is the more upbeat, driving “Oh Appalachia” which meshes together some electronic noise spurts with a more traditional stripped down indie-rock arrangement (simple acoustic guitar, solid drum line).

Now the two track B-side is really where the group shines. “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol”, a track most definitely influence by the book of the same name, is the most lyric heavy song on the release. With nothing more than a couple of repetitive lines softly going on the background, all attention is focused on Webb’s delicate singing of deeply thought-provoking words (e.g. “space is all one space / though all one thought”). Finished up the EP is the pleasant “Annalee” which sounds like it could be easily mislabeled as “60s folk” and placed on some dusty shelf in an Anywhere, USA record store.

You can download the entire EP for a “Name Your Price” fee from Seamonster’s bandcamp page or head over to the shop to snatch a copy of the slick all-white vinyl. To give you a taste, here’s my favorite song “Oh Appalachia” with a hyperactive Railcars remix of the track thrown in for good measure:

Seamonster // Oh Appalachia

Seamonster // Oh Appalachia (Railcars Remix)

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Craig Cruiser // Cruising the Night Away EP

Monday, September 13th, 2010

Don’t really know why I haven’t posted about these killer Craig Cruiser tracks yet. I’ve pretty much had them on constant repeat ever since Widows/Watch brought them to my attention about a month ago. The brainchild of the Ice Cream Dreams blogger, Craig Cruiser demolishes each song with a series of punishing bass beats, leaving the airy synths there to pick up the pieces. Or, as the ladies put it, “modern retro-bangers”.

You can check out my two favorites from this six-song EP below (with “Tubing” being so good, I included it in my latest mix) and you can download the whole thing for free from Craig Cruiser’s bandcamp page.

Craig Cruiser // Climbing Sand Dunes

Craig Cruiser // Tubing

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Puro Instinct // S/T EP

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Now on their third appellation, with Pearl Harbor and Pearl Harbour (the British spelling) being the other two, sisters Piper and Skylar Kaplan have just released, via bandcamp, a four track EP under the moniker Puro Instinct. Although the name might be different, the music is still the same: fifteen minutes of fuzzed-out beach bliss that the sisters are known for.

Although lost is the hiss and distortion from the lo-fi recording process that made Calistonia Dreamin’ so endearing (all songs are clearer than “Lost @ Sea” — the most polished track from that album), the S/T EP possesses enough vocal haze to satisfy the early adopters while not straying too far into noise euphoria to turn away “Luv Goon” fans. It’s a great compromise between the two styles and serves as my favorite record the duo has put out to date.

You can stream the entire record at the group’s bandcamp page (or purchase it for a measly $5). Check out the standout track “California Shakedown” — which was originally on their Wish You Were Here CD-R from a while back — below:

Puro Instinct // California Shakedown

Annnnd here’s a video from one of their recent live shows that was just posted on Rawkblog:

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Spiritualized // Amazing Grace EP 1

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

I’m always amazed at the crazy releases record stores somehow are able to procure, and every now and then I find myself purchasing them just because of the rareness factor. Now this has proved disastrous on occasion (apparently Best Coast was also the name of a late 90s punk group), but this time when I caught a glipse of a limited edition EP from Spiritualized, one of my favorites British bands, I knew I had a winner.

Information about the recording is scant at best, with most of the stuff I was able to find coming from the Spiritualized website (even the label they recorded it for has been absorbed by Universal since the 2003 release, with their website evaporating into thin air). Basically, a month before they released their 2003 full-length Amazing Grace the group decided to split up the tracks on the LP into three highly limited EPs. The one I found was the first installment in the threesome, uncreatively titled Amazing Grace EP (1 of 3), featuring none other than frontman J. Spaceman on the cover.

If you are an avid Spiritualized fan, then the music on the EP isn’t anything new. Although not in the exact order you would find on the LP, the featured tracks “Cheapster”, “Hold On”, “Never Goin’ Back”, and “The Powers and the Glory” are identical to what’s on the full-length. The only interesting thing to think about is why these songs were chosen to be lumped together.

Even though they were five years away from completing their trompe d’oeil with A&E, there are a surprising amount of similarities between Amazing Grace EP 1 and their future work — especially concerning the structure of the album. One thing I noted in my description of A&E on my Top Albums of 2008 list (#2) was how it was essentially a triptych with the three parts being instrumental / alt. country / rock & roll. Even though there are only four songs on the EP, it follows in the same pattern. The first track on both the A & B sides (“Cheapster” and “Never Goin’ Back”) are classic rock anthems that are certainly stadium-ready. After the noisy one-minute intro, “Hold On” slips into country/folk acoustic ballad territory while “The Power and the Glory” is an instrumental jamfest — and voilà the tri-force is complete.

So, yeah, kind of cool stuff, especially if you are Spiritualized fan like myself. In an effort to convert the non-fans, check out two tracks off of Amazing Grace below:

Spiritualized // Hold On

Spiritualized // Cheapster

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