LISTEN: Glenn Jackson - "You Too" + Morning Swim EP

Oakland producer/musician Glenn Jackson has made a name for himself in the house/dance scene over the past few years with James & Evander,  Benefits, and Hoodcats. But now the co-founder of the West in Dust label is stepping out on his own with the release of his solo debut, the Morning Swim EP (Ceremony). The 3-song extended player was released yesterday and highlights Jackson's ability to invoke a sweeping range of moods and imagery through a varied, but unified, sample-meets-synth heavy mix. It fits somewhere between the ethereal and the earthly.

LISTEN NOW: YACHT's "Shangri-La"

Gosh, it sure has been awhile. Good to be back.

As Quinn S. and I have so often mentioned, the music department over at National Public Radio does a fantastic job bringing us new music (before official release) in full-album form every week. Guess what, this week is no exception. Most recently, our fearless editor-in-chief sounded the horn on First Listen's release of the self-titled release from Bon Iver. Today is all about an outfit that, until this current spin, has evaded my eardrums: YACHT. It's also about their over-populated niche in the music industry today. 

With all the computer music floating out there in the tubes of the Interwebs, electro/dance-pop music is easy to find. Put it this way, if dance music was our currency, we'd have a very serious inflation issue (see: the Weimar Republic when folks needed a wheelbarrow-full of Marks to pay for a loaf of bread). 

All it takes is a brief scan of the popular/latest playlists over at the Hype Machine (or MM's inbox) to see that this type of music is pervasive. Not to completely rip the genre, but it lends itself to struggling artists with a couple of microphones, a drum machine, some fancy (but easily torrented) software, and a decent computer to make acceptable dancy-beats. Where techno and trip-hop used to be something that required intense knowledge of turntables and a very involved on-stage setup with tons of wires, powerful home-studios are now able to churn out the stuff like a cotton-candy machine on full whirl. 

Read the rest of the post and catch the link, after the hop. 

REVIEW: Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost!

Holy Ghost! – Holy Ghost!
MMMM

Following years of critically-acclaimed singles, remixes, and one EP, NYC duo Holy Ghost! are finally releasing their eponymous debut full-length – and boy was it worth the wait. Across the album’s 10 tracks, it’s clear that Holy Ghost! (aka childhood friends Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser) devoted a great deal of time to fine-tuning their introductory statement into something of replay value. This is more than just another speck on the map of modern day electropop/dance music, this is a revival of what made dance music great in the first place: emotion meets groove.

When you think about electronic duos, groups like Daft Punk, Justice, The Knife, and Massive Attack come to mind – groups that craft haunting soundscapes and/or melodic, addictive cuts of dance music. And while Holy Ghost! can certainly be categorized under the latter of the two, they manage to write songs that are just as pop sensible as they are danceable – songs that you can lose your mind to on a dance floor or melt into through a pair of headphones at home. It’s not that Holy Ghost! are incredibly profound, but it’s clear that their debut succeeds in being the album that Frankel and Millhiser aimed for: an album that people would want to hear front to back at home, not just in a club.

Download a New Song by YACHT Right...NOW

Electropop/dance punk outfit YACHT will release their new album Shangri-La on June 21st through DFA. The album, the band's second for DFA and fifth overall, was produced, mixed, and recorded by YACHT (Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans), with assistance from frequent collaborator and touring member Bobby Birdman. According to a press release, "On Shangri-La, YACHT asserts that the future is a blank slate upon which anything can be imposed. YACHT believes that the only real sustainable paradise is in our minds, and hence creative output can be a tangible piece of the Utopia within each individual. Shangri-La literally is YACHT's Utopia, a place made of songs." Hear/download a song from the new album below.

YACHT - “Dystopia (The Earth is on Fire)”


YACHT
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You Have 24 Hours to Download Simian Mobile Disco's 8-Track "Mixed Delicacies" for Free

You read that right. Until 12pm PST on Thursday, January 13, you can download Simian Mobile Disco's 8-track live mix album Mixed Delicacies for FREE (not even an e-mail address is required). Recorded live? That's pretty cool. After 12pm PST tomorrow it will only be available to stream, so jump on it!

Mixed Delicacies is actually the second disc that comes packaged with the electronic duo's new album Delicacies, one that features nine tracks James Ford and Jas Shaw created as part of a series of techno releases in 2010. Each track on Delicacies is, fittingly, named after a bizarre and exotic delicacy the duo discovered while touring around the world. Stream Mixed Delicacies below. You can download it from the player or head here.

Simian Mobile Disco - Mixed Delicacies


Check the group's tour dates after the jump.

LISTEN: The Glass - "Four Four Letter"

By www.rainerhosch.com

MP3: The Glass - "Four Four Letter"

I don't really party. I don't live it up on the weekends. I'm in my early 20s (uh oh, now you know). I'm not on the market. I'm not trying to mingle in the bar/club scene -- that is to say I don't go downtown to hit up the bars. When I go downtown, I tend to only have one destination in mind: my favorite record shop. I'd say the closest I come to that whole bar/club scene is listening to music that might be blared in such venues.

Enter The Glass, a New York/Berlin duo featuring Dominique Keegan & Glen "DJ Wool" Brady, with their new single "Four Four Letter." It's a perfect fusion of disco, dance, electro pop, and pop that throws you on the dance floor with a rich bass riff, layers of synth, unrelenting drums/percussion, and soft-spoken vocals that lay casually against the energetic backdrop. It's a textured, layered journey through highs and lows of some wild evening spent downtown that packs a lot in before you realize the ride has come to an end.

Clubfeet Give You Music, Because They're Nice Like That

MP3: Clubfeet - "Edge of Extremes"
MP3: Clubfeet - "Teenage Suicide"

Melbourne-via-Capetown's Clubfeet are unassumingly cool and confident. Their brand of synth pop is hard to resist with its honest charm and personal inflection. With group harmonies that recall Hot Chip, it's no wonder Clubfeet is disarmingly catchy. Through slick bass lines, the perfect dose of synthesizer, funk guitar and almost post-rock-style guitar riffs, Clubfeet aim for your heart by moving your feet.

Clubfeet just released their debut album, Gold On Gold, yesterday through Plant Music. And if those two songs above weren't enough for you, the band is offering up three more tracks here. These Australian gents are so generous.

BUY: Pick up Gold On Gold on Amazon (for $7.99!) or iTunes.

And check out the sexy '70s-meets-'80s LA video for Clubfeet's "Count Your Lovers" after the jump. It's kind of like a black-and-white, slow-mo "Flashdance" -- except she speaks French.

LISTEN: Freedom or Death

 (Photo: The Year In Pictures)

MP3: Freedom or Death - "Lost In Dances"
MP3: Freedom or Death - "Soldier"

High above everything, you can finally see and hear what you're supposed to. Outside the limits of the city, you finally gain your perspective. You spend your life dancing around the important things because, sometimes, you can never really realize what matters until you remove yourself from the familiar and the present. From the top of it all, you start to question decisions that have been made and, even more so, you begin to form a new perspective about everything that you once held to be concrete. Freedom or Death soundtrack this journey. Over cracks, clicks, clanks, blips, and beeps, this Toronto duo lays down smooth harmonies and gorgeous melodies underscored by lively, chilling guitar and adventurous synthesizer. With ease and grace, Freedom or Death prove their ability to move from quiet, subtle beauty to a captivatingly vast ambiance. They make an eclectic mix of post rock, electronica, electro pop, folk, R&B, pop, and even ambient that you can't help but get lost in.

Stream the whole self-titled EP here.

BUY: Pick it up on iTunes (US), iTunes (Canada), iTunes (UK), or iTunes (Japan).

Freedom or Death @ MySpace
Freedom or Death @ Twitter

LISTEN: !!! - "AM/FM"

MP3: !!! - "AM/FM"

What could I say? It's bound to move you and it's bound to dig deep down into your nervous system. Involuntarily, you're going to move in some way or another. Maybe not on the outside, but as it flows into your body through your ears, all of your inner body will be synchronizing with the rhythm. The tremolo perfectly on point with the beat, it all becomes so hypnotizing. Chk Chk Chk have always had that entrancing quality that I could never really put my finger on; always able to piece together things that work so well together. The music always seems intricate to a certain extent, but in a somewhat simple and very pleasing way.

"AM/FM" is from !!!'s forthcoming album, Strange Weather, Isn't It?, out August 24th on Warp. Pre-order it here.

Chew Lips - "Seven"

MP3: Chew Lips - "Seven"

Dance-poppers of the world unite! The female-fronted British trio Chew Lips have already dropped their debut album Unicorn in the UK, and the US is next. Yes, there is an ever-expanding front of people out there who need to go out to the show and be able to groove as hard as possible while still holding their always-on-special tall boy PBR.

Sorry if that hits close to home with some of you. The truth is that Chew Lips is entering a genre that is extremely popular, but just as competitive.

Lead singer Tigs has employed some really smooth vocals flow smoothly over the bouncing instrumentals of fellow bandmates Will Sanderson and James Watkins. Her vocals in this just-released track "Seven" are what you'd expect for the typical dancepop track. Vague lyrics, offering at times vague advice, but who needs the real deep stuff when you're just trying to cut a rug or two? Sanderson and Watkins have showed us that they know how to blend a lot of synth and drum machine into a deep-sinking groove, and in truth, "Seven" is a promising track.

Often times what I find most important, at least personally, in this genre is feeling the song first, long before I even bother critiquing what's going on. On top of that, when you're out at the show, or blasting this track in the car, it's probably not because you want to sing along at the top of your lungs. My guess is that when this finally graces my car's speakers, it'll be zooming down the highway looking for something to aid the adrenaline rush. There's definitely no doubt in my mind that Chew Lips can fit in with the growing Dancepop market, the question for me is whether or not they'll last. The last time I enjoyed a very simple dancy track like this one was when Under the Influence of Giants released their self-titled debut album, and well, we haven't really heard from them since.

Cheers to longevity, good luck.

Chew Lips will be swinging stateside for an appearance among the myriad other promising acts later this spring at Austin, TX's famous SXSW festival.

The Justice Cross House

Okay, I'll admit that aside from "D.A.N.C.E." I am not really familiar with Justice's music. I've been meaning to check out their debut LP for a while and still have yet to get around to it. I remember being out in California two summers ago, walking around the San Francisco Virgin Megastore and seeing the big cross emblazoned on the cover. It's certainly a striking image and one that had me quite curious as to what the nature of the music was. It certainly isn't a gospel worship album. No, no it's not. I think that's safe to say.

So, why am I discussing Justice if I am absolutely not familiar with their output? Because architects at Planda are planning to build a house based on the cross! You see that big bold image up there, that's going to be a house. There actually are cathedrals (ex. 1, 2, 3) that have been constructed in the shape of a cross, but they weren't modeled after an album cover of a French electro house duo. How awesome is that? Even more awesome is where they plan on building this thing. Watch the video below direct from Planda to see it all.


GENESIS † HOUSE from PLANDA on Vimeo.