Best New Tracks - Pitchfork

DJ Rashad: "Let It Go"

Andrew Gaerig — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:16:00 -0500

Chicago's DJ Rashad is improving. It's a normal enough thing for an artist to do, but improvement and progression are funny concepts for a sound such as footwork, which is often content to spin in place, dizzying itself until it falls over. That loss of balance is what Rashad avoids on "Let It Go", the finest track from his upcoming Rollin' EP, which will be his first for the expansive UK electronic label Hyperdub. Footwork's signature vocal loops remain; three of them weave and echo, and they shoulder against a pulsing string sample that gives the track a cinematic, emotional flair. Rashad has shown a knack for this kind of melodic work before, especially on last year's impressive Teklife Volume 1: Welcome to the Chi.

It's the drums, then, that set "Let It Go" apart. No longer soundling like low-bit samples off a junked MPC, the drums here hopscotch between a riotous blast of snares and hi-hats and a half-time strut. The effect is like that of an old drum & bass track (an example), another genre that, at its best, was able to make an avalanche of rhythm sound dexterous and soothing. And that's "Let It Go"'s great trick: the track is the Tasmanian Devil masquerading as a ballerina. Rashad's newfound sense of refinement and composition only amplifies the wreckage. Footwork's samples have always shouted; here, they sing.

[from the Rollin' EP; out 03/19/13 via Hyperdub]

Earl Sweatshirt: "Whoa"

Ian Cohen — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:21:00 -0500

Until we hear Doris in its entirety, every Earl Sweatshirt track is going to feel like a comeback, or at least a reintroduction-- and as Tyler, the Creator helpfully reminds us at the top of "Whoa," Earl's last single was the unusually plainspoken and revealing "Chum", which makes "Whoa" on some "ol' 2010 shit about...fuckin' and fuck and all that." As usual, Earl makes good on that promise by maintaining a frightening stability that counterbalances Tyler, sounding simultaneously in love with the possibilities of rap and wearied, burdened by the demands of his talent. "Whoa"'s roots can be traced back to a time when Def Jux and Star Trak were assumed to be competing for hip-hop fans' attention. The influences are every bit as dense as Earl's macabre threats, but the larger context is that you really are hearing a guy who still maintains the original allure of Odd Future's 2010 output: straight-up rap-for-rap's sake intended to please no one other than the people making it, but too accomplished and unique to be ignored.

[from Doris; forthcoming via Tan Cressida/Columbia]

Ciara: "Body Party"

Carrie Battan — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:46:00 -0500

Ciara's oozy new single "Body Party" may technically be about her courtship with rapper Future-- he co-wrote the song and coos in the distance-- but the mojo here is all Mike Will Made It's. Count this one as another triumph in the rising producer's crossover campaign, right up there with Rihanna's "Pour It Up" and Jeremih's "773 Love". He takes a familiar beat-- namely, Ghost Town DJ's' "My Boo"-- and rescues it from the throes of tired 90s R&B nostalgia by squeezing all the liquid out of it and letting it drip around his trademark shimmering coils. Call it a Loveeeeeee triangle.

Ciara: "Body Party" on SoundCloud.

Justin Timberlake: "Suit & Tie (Four Tet Remix)"

Jayson Greene — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:04:00 -0500

The original version of Justin Timberlake's "Suit & Tie" is a relaxed, fundamentally happy song, full of sounds that sound like they just returned from a particularly restorative stay at an Italian day spa. That entitlement was practically a character within the song, so it's particularly bracing to hear Four Tet rip all of that stuff out on his remix, scraping the sides for good measure. In his remix, "Suit & Tie" is a nothing but a thumping chassis, a little blip of Justin vocal tumbling like a red sock in the dryer at the bottom of the mix, punctuated by a Jay-Z "uh" that quickly blurs into a piece of percussion.

With the plush strings and horns removed, the song now finds itself in a slinky minor key, or at least hovering somewhere suggestively close. Timberlake's vocal take, isolated here, is a marvel, and a reminder of just how pliable and sensitive he is as a singer: He is nothing if not adaptable, a perfect vehicle for whatever material you give him. Here, the exact same vocal take that he used to glide effortlessly back into the pop spotlight turns sweaty, clammy, desperate.

Wavves: "Demon to Lean On"

Zach Kelly — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:38:00 -0500

The first proper single from Wavves' forthcoming LP Afraid of Heights, "Demon to Lean On", is a power chord-stacked anthem that, if it were 1995, would easily be found on any modern rock radio station's Top Five Countdown. Which isn't a bad thing: considering that kids weaned on Dookie and Smash can now legally drink, it's no surprise that Nathan Williams is proudly displaying similar influences. At this point, Williams comes off as the elder statesman of sugary, snot-rocket-fueled pop-punk, and his songwriting is increasingly more economical and punchy with each new turn. Like most Wavves songs, "Demon to Lean On" subscribes to a nagging insistence-- only, this time, the impulse is purely to please.

Wavves: "Demon to Lean On" on SoundCloud.

[from Afraid of Heights; out 03/26/13 via Mom + Pop]

The Knife: "A Tooth for an Eye"

Katherine St. Asaph — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 13:48:00 -0600

Front page photo by Alexa Vachon

Since Silent Shout, the Knife have become the standard reference point for any act with dark synths or weird vocals. Every successive single from Shaking the Habitual, though, proves more innovative and challenging than most anything coming from the bands that have since been compared to them. Like "Full of Fire", "A Tooth for an Eye" forgoes the melodic tendencies central to much of Silent Shout in favor of heavy percussion. Here, the thrust comes from a dense rhythm track inspired by Javanese gamelan; it’s alternately arresting and, in interludes, swathed by synth pads to sound almost dreamlike. Karin Dreijer’s voice, even more so than usual, is just the final instrument on top-- one that, in this case, sounds like it’s in fairly heavy overdrive. The overall effect’s bracing and violent-sounding, which suits the title and half-spat lyrics-- but not the video, in which a preteen-looking girl leads a locker room of testosterone junkies in a stylized dance, gentle but fierce. The contrast is deliberate, according to director Roxy Farhat, who said: “The child is powerful, tough and sweet all at once, roaring, 'I’m telling you stories, trust me.'”

That roar is a quote from Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion, whose heroine, Villanelle, could be called a gender rogue very much in the Knife’s mold: a bisexual gambler out of a magical-realism version of Venice who dresses as a man to swindle and seduce her casino clientele, though not without danger. It’s not the first reference to a gender-minded novel coming from the Knife's camp, and probably not the last: Shaking the Habitual has at least two tracks inspired by Margaret Atwood’s dystopian Oryx and Crake, and both singles so far are in part about history-- that is, stories, and who gets to tell them. From all indications, The Knife’s version of the story is sounding particularly chilling.

The Knife: "A Tooth for an Eye" on SoundCloud.

[from Shaking the Habitual; out 04/09/13 in the U.S. via Rabid/Brille/Mute]

Smith Westerns: "Varsity"

Ian Cohen — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 09:22:00 -0600

Front page photo by Sandy Kim

Soft Will is Smith Westerns' third LP, so you figure that their age should no longer be a main talking point-- and yet, here's the lead single, "Varsity". Even getting past the title, as Cullen Omori's vocals strain and charm, you sense the emotional tenor of someone who's right back in high school trying to be liked, and if all fails, trying just to be noticed. The band also maintains the inherent, youthful swagger it takes to be a straightforward power-pop band, and thus on something of an aesthetic island, in 2013. More pointedly, as with Dye It Blonde, Smith Westerns use reverb in an ingenious way that puts you in the clouded, overwhelmed mind of a teen at his first keg party - there's a heightened sense of presence and possibility even while everything feels a bit soused.

While they're most often likened to British rock bands, that reverb actually puts them in the lineage of Galaxie 500. There's a similarly stoned logic to the opening salvo, "I thought I was a loner until I went out on my own." For the rest of "Varsity"'s four minutes, Omori takes comfort in the "four-leaf clover" of a girl that can solve this riddle of wanting to be unique and loved - and so "Varsity"'s connotations of high school accomplishment makes sense, as it evokes a time when your main goals seem far-fetched and yet so well-defined that they manage to feel achievable.

Smith Westerns: "Varsity" on SoundCloud.

[from Soft Will; out 06/11/13 via Mom + Pop]

Drake: "5AM in Toronto"

Ian Cohen — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:39:00 -0600

Goddamn, Drake's glad y'all set it off. No matter how many people still took issue with the very public details of his unconventional past, the insistent hook from "Started From The Bottom" did nothing to stem Drake's hit streak-- but you got the feeling that it was a setup for something like "5AM in Toronto." The closest thing to the hook is its title, giving us a picture of a restless Drake still operating from a position of strength. He ended Take Care promising his "junior and senior [records] will only be meaner," and he's making good on that promise for three minutes over a Boi-1da beat that glimmers but knows better than to get in Drake's way. He's at once exasperated at having to air out weak rappers, unappreciative rap listeners and hawking media, but damn if he doesn't sound like taking care of business is pleasure.

A poorly kept secret is that Drake is a great rapper that's pantheon-level when he's angry (see: "Pop That", "Stay Schemin'", "Headlines") and here, he's rapping like he's the guy who gave Sway his first TV. Pointing out the quotables-- and there are many-- feels redundant, seeing as how many of them are already meme-ing their way to ubiquity. Although you might as well catch up with his boast that hip-hop sounds like "Drake featuring Drake," probably the most egocentric use of the third person in rap history, which is saying something. But that's Drake for you: someone whose self-absorption is so strong, it can control hip-hop's orbit all by itself.

Drake: "5AM in Toronto" on SoundCloud.

Big Black Delta: "Side of the Road"

Patrick Bowman — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:27:00 -0600

Former Mellowdrone frontman Jonathan Bates has spent the past few years churning out shapeshifting, phantasmagoric electro under the name Big Black Delta. Previously, his sound's leaned toward the dirgey synth romance of Depeche Mode; for the first single from his forthcoming self-titled effort, he's returned with a deceptively nuanced tech-pop anthem. "Side of the Road" charges forward on the back of a chugging synth lineand Bates' vocoder-masked voice, washes of electronic textures coloring the atmosphere with anxiety-laced euphoria.

"Won't turn away / Won't feel a thing / On the side of the road, baby," he asserts in the chorus, betraying a creeping numbness that runs counter to the soaring melody. Bates recently told Rolling Stone that, depending on his mood, the song "Could swing between depressing to uplifting." The defiantly capricious nature of "Side of the Road" is the song's greatest strength, revealing subtle changes of emotion with each listen.

Big Black Delta: "Side of the Road" on SoundCloud.

[from Big Black Delta; out 04/30/13 via Masters of Bates]

Rustie: "Slasherr"

Larry Fitzmaurice — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:32:00 -0600

When Rustie spoke with us last year around the time he unleashed his astounding BBC Essential Mix, the Glaswegian producer claimed the music he'd been making since 2011's Glass Swords, was "sort of classical," while offering the caveat that most of it would get chopped up for "club tracks" in the end. So it only takes one listen to "Slasherr", the B-side to Rustie's forthcoming single for Numbers, to confirm that, despite his occasional prediliction towards string-drenched orchestration (see: the gorgeous VIP edit of Glass Swords' "City Star"), he's not leaving the dancefloor behind any time soon.

Buoyed by up-with-people handclaps and daggered synth stabs, "Slasherr" would fit in perfectly alongside Glass Swords' high-contrast soundscapes-- but true to its title, the tune possesses the ability to brutalize, as a tidal wave of compressed melody storms into the foreground, obliterating everything in sight. Sharp, translucent crystals have frequently appeared on Rustie's cover art-- the triangulated art of Glass Swords, the refracted shards that adorned the AlunaGeorge collaboration "After Light", and now the crimson-splattered lotus on the jacket of "Triadzz" b/w "Slasherr". With "Slasherr", Rustie is out for blood, and the results are awesomely gory.

[from "Triadzz" b/w "Slasherr"; out 03/18/13 via Numbers]

Joey Bada$$: "Wendy N Becky" [ft. Chance the Rapper]

Jonah Bromwich — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:38:00 -0600

Front page photo by Erez Avissar

In the past couple of months, Thelonius Martin has proved to be a reliable provider of nostalgia-inducing boom-bap, most notably with Action Bronson's "Blackbird". He laces Joey Bada$$ with something timeless on the beat for "Wendy N Becky"; a simple sax loop over snares contrasts nicely with some of the more lurid lyrics that Joey's spit thus far. It seems that fame has given the eighteen year old some new experiences to draw on for his raps, and he sounds comfortable playing the alternately exhausted/incorrigible loverman here. A welcome cameo from Chance the Rapper contains a slew of internal rhymes and the most inventive romantic gripe on a song full of them: "Cringe when she grin like the Grinch, that bitch had a little heart."

Joey Bada$$: "Wendy N Becky" [ft. Chance the Rapper] on SoundCloud.

AlunaGeorge: "Attracting Flies"

Britt Julious — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:14:00 -0600

Each new single released ahead of AlunaGeorge's debut album, Body Music, has sounded stronger and slicker than the last. Their latest single, "Attracting Flies", finds the UK duo crystallizing their sound. George Reid's production is clean and sophisticated, while Aluna Francis' voice contrasts with the song's piercing lyrics in a way that mimics the group's own blend of forceful production and sweet, soulful vocals. When Francis sings, "Little white fairy tales and little white lies/ Everything you exhale is attracting flies", you can't help but relate to her bite. The song's yet another smart, memorable step forward for this promising young group.

AlunaGeorge: "Attracting Flies" on SoundCloud.

[from Body Music; out 07/01/13 via Island]

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Sacrilege"

Ian Cohen — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:00:00 -0600

Front page photo by Dan Martinson

"Maps" celebrates its 10th birthday this year, so it's worth remembering how long Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been working the same M.O.: temporarily stun listeners with an overt pop maneuver, subvert expectations, and come out on the other end making it look like the right move after all. But it would be a huge understatement to say "Sacrilege" merely ups the ante from the slick, direct, and very underrated Show Your Bones or the glitz of It's Blitz: this is going all in during a game of strip poker, and their brazen challenge is admirable.

The title itself can be taken as some sort of metatextual skeleton key to unlock everything else that's going on: the first sound you hear is the kind of "Is that...bass?" riff that threw down the "fuck what you know" gauntlet on the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army", Karen O falls for an angel who falls from the sky, the constant clank of Brian Chase's cymbals and Nick Zinner's guitar curlicues evoke "Gimme Shelter" with an exaggerated gospel swing-- and, oh yeah, there's an actual gospel choir, catching the holy ghost while being slightly distorted by its superproducer pairing of Nick Launay and Dave Sitek. Whether "Sacrilege" is indicative of the rest of Mosquito is unclear, but they've been a big pop-rock band for much longer than they were a bunch of beer-soaked art brats, so "Sacrilege" is Yeah Yeah Yeahs being themselves.

[from Mosquito; out 04/16/13 via Interscope]

Jackson Scott: "That Awful Sound"

Ian Cohen — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:45:00 -0600

Jackson Scott's Soundcloud page has three songs and not much more. We know he's from Asheville, North Carolina; there's also a link to his Tumblr, which hosts a faded Polaroid and absolutely nothing else. Considering the slackened style of music he leans toward, it's likely this is more a result of self-effacement, rather than a masterplan to generate intrigue, since forensics analysis on Scott's "That Awful Sound" reveals DNA from the entire bloodline of home-recorded, scrappy indie-pop.

The mazelike structure and wiggly guitar leads of Built to Spill, Elephant 6's sped-up vocals and hard-strummed acoustics, Bradford Cox's reverence for four-track recording and countless other minor figures pop up during this instantly ingratiating and puzzling song. It's a style that's undoubtedly tied to the 1990s and familiar with older heads, but it sounds perfect on him. "That Awful Sound" is proof that the best way to pay tribute is to add to its legacy.

Jackson Scott: "That Awful Sound" on SoundCloud.

Young Galaxy: "Pretty Boy (Peaking Lights Remix)"

Mark Richardson — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:16:00 -0600

Young Galaxy's "Pretty Boy", a track from their forthcoming album Ultramarine, is an us-against-the-world anthem, with lines like "When we were lost we found each other" and "We were each other's only family." For a certain kind of romantic, us-against-the-world anthems should always be set to yearning, arpeggiated New Order-style electro-pop that brings to mind tragedy and triumph. The original version does all this and pulls it off beautifully, but Peaking Lights' sparkling remix elevates the song to another plane. They lend the song a Balearic flair with the addition of what sounds like hand percussion, stretching the track and extending the jammy sequenced sections to provide a huge injection of drama. The line "I know you feel isolated" is given special emphasis in the final third, repeating a few times as the impossibly dramatic synths swirl around it. Tracks like this one, big-hearted and life affirming, provide the ideal escape from just such a feeling.

Young Galaxy: "Pretty Boy (Peaking Lights Remix)" on SoundCloud.

[from Ultramarine; out 04/23/13 via Paper Bag]

Hackman: "No More"

Andrew Gaerig — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:30:00 -0600

Photo by SnowSkull

Ascendant Brit Hackman is part of a young generation of producers keen on erecting standard structures-- in this case, pro forma four-on-the-floor house-- and paneling the sides with bright, blocky color. "No More" borrows from an era of Chicago house when producers realized that 808s weren't the only thing that could be reliably overdriven and shredded: careening, gospel-derived exultations graced the discography of labels like Cajual and Relief.

So when "No More" opens with a brash spoken-word segment before catapulting into reverberating vocal acrobatics, it's home and familiar. The bassline, while also familiar, is very modern, a gelatinous blob of sub tones that wriggles back and forth, allowing the pinging keyboard stabs to nestle in. The track hews perhaps a little too closely to house's conventions-- an extended bridge and a return of the monologue tests patience-- but the track's energy and rollercoaster pace are enough to make sure "No More" is more club-as-church than, well, church.

Hackman: "No More"

Rhye: "Open (Jeff Samuel Faded Mix)"

Larry Fitzmaurice — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:48:00 -0600

Slow-soul duo Rhye's music has proved to be good remix material. It could be that the band's singles are softly and cleanly constructed, their basic elements easy to suss out after just one or two listens. Most likely, though, it's the gossamer voice of Rhye vocalist Mike Milosh that's been bringing out the best in producers, who have taken to jettisoning most of the original material and wrapping Milosh's coos around their own constructions, effectively taking it out of the bedroom and straight to the dancefloor.

We've already heard space-disco auteur Maurice Fulton's squelchy, funky remix of "The Fall", and now Jeff Samuel has one-upped that take with his percolating, eight-minute re-do of "Open". A vet at this sort of thing, the Midwestern-born, Berlin-based producer's been at it with Ghostly artists and others for over 15 years now, and so his take on "Open" sounds like it comes from someone who knows how to completely reimagine his source material. Samuel takes a snatch of Milosh's come-on of a chorus from the original-- the portion that includes the word "Faded", hence the title-- and throws it on an infinite, dizzying loop, constructing a gorgeous house structure below it that wows as it patiently unfurls.

Rhye: "Open (Jeff Samuel Faded Mix)" on SoundCloud.

KEN mode: "The Terror Pulse"

Ian Cohen — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:05:00 -0600

"The Terror Pulse" is not an instrumental, but I'm willing to speculate KEN mode would've kept the same title even if it was. The Winnipeg band isn't looking to capture fear, or some kind of flight-or-fight response. This is the stuff you have to preface with adjectives like "abject" and "paralyzing": the sickly lurch feels both too fast and too slow, Jesse Matthewson's shards of guitar trigger paresthesia with each prickly blast, and the whole thing gets that aluminum taste in your mouth. So when Matthewson finally does take the mic, his first words are "I'm not playing!", which is fitting.

By the song's end, KEN mode lock into a chorus of "Say goodbye to the man that you once knew," and Matthewson either sounds like he feels like an emotional nailbomb or he's actually strapped with C4-- or, both, it's tough to say. Either way, "The Terror Pulse" makes for gripping, completely antisocial metal, the kind where your fellow man just looks like collateral damage in waiting. It's a feeling "The Terror Pulse" allows us to completely revel in for five very important minutes so we can go on with the rest of our day like civilized human beings.

[from Entrench; out 03/19/13 via Season of Mist]

Kurt Vile: "Wakin on a Pretty Day"

Ian Cohen — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:30:00 -0600

As a song title, Kurt Vile's "Wakin on a Pretty Day" is on-the-nose, a mood/weather-changing call for "Serenity Now" that'll either get your mind right or encourage you to call in sick. It's just that easy to sink into, largely because it maintains the same comforting qualities that defined Smoke Ring for My Halo: close-mic'd, drawled vocals, shimmery acoustic guitars, squishy flanger. What distinguishes "Wakin" isn't so much its length but its meditative simplicity. Vile seizes on a few small gestures, riffs, and phrases, giving ample space for your own thoughts to give them concrete meaning. "Wakin On A Pretty Day" embodies Kurt Vile's ability to make songs that sound like they could've been written in two minutes and could also go on for twenty, with no complaints from our end.

Kurt Vile: "Wakin on a Pretty Day"

[from Wakin on a Pretty Daze; out 04/09/13 via Matador]

Youth Lagoon: "Mute"

Mark Richardson — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 09:38:00 -0600

Front page photo by Josh Darr

At six minutes, "Mute" is the longest song we've heard from Trevor Powers' Youth Lagoon project, and it makes the most of its verging-on-epic length. There are multiple sections-- a sparkly bell-driven opening that downshifts into a middle section of blooming Mercury Rev-style clang, followed by an ultra-simple and hyper emotional guitar refrain that goes on for a while but somehow not for long enough-- and an emotional build to match the construction.

The steady tension between soft, warm, and welcoming and metallic, clanging, and harsh takes Powers' music to new heights. He's the master of a very particular state of mind. You probably wouldn't turn to this guy to find out a way out of complicated feelings or find a vent for aggression, but Powers' brand of indie rock is the ideal vehicle for conveying a certain kind of stoned wonder. "Mute" pushes that feeling to glorious extremes. We all want to see movies of our dreams; if you close your eyes and listen, you can see his.

Youth Lagoon: "Mute" on SoundCloud.

[from Wondrous Bughouse; out 03/05/13 via Fat Possum]

James Blake: "Retrograde"

Ian Cohen — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 12:36:00 -0600

Up to this point, James Blake has gone to great lengths to prove he's a fighter, not a lover. Or, at least, someone who can see battle lines in any artistic pursuit-- in between "CMYK" playing chicken with sample clearance lawsuits and his fears over the purity of dubstep, there was 2011's James Blake, an album where he wrote songs (well, some of them) and sang them while appearing extremely uncomfortable with the connotations of "singer-songwriter". They were pretty, but goddamn, were they serious.

Maybe he's mellowed with age: "Retrograde", the first single from the forthcoming Overgrown, is a straight-up soul crooner where his characteristic production details are still in place, but they're in the service of arrangement rather than disorientation. Those wordless falsetto curlicues recall none other than D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar", as the snap of the snare suggests that this is the sort of steady pop you typically get from ?uestlove. Even though the same buzz-synths from "Unluck" and "I Never Learnt To Share" reappear, their jutting points are shorn off. And his big vocal trick isn't some kind of electronic manipulation, but rather an heretofore unheard lower register where he intones, "We're alone now." Hell, it may just be a love song and another subtle attack to anyone who thought he was simply an interpretor rather than a songwriter capable of giving the public his own "Limit To Your Love." "Retrograde" sweetly says, "Yeah, I can do that too."

[from Overgrown; out 04/08/13 via Republic]

Julianna Barwick: "Pacing"

Larry Fitzmaurice — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:08:00 -0600

"Pacing" is a unique track from vocal abstractionist Julianna Barwick; while the gorgeously tangled compositions found on 2009's fine Florine and 2011's quite excellent The Magic Place almost exclusively featured looped layers of her sampled voice, this new song, taken from a forthcoming 7" on Suicide Squeeze, features elegiac piano that gradually fades away, as Barwick's voice glows and pushes against the track's soft framework. The 7" is out March 5, and a proper follow-up to The Magic Place is currently in the works.

Chvrches: "Recover"

Harley Brown — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:46:00 -0600

Chvrches have a knack for ambitious electro-pop familiar to fans of the Knife-- it's no coincidence one of their songs is named "The Mother We Share"-- and the Scottish outfit's latest single, "Recover", is another prime example of how far they can launch off of a standard verse-blown-out chorus-verse template. Dramatic two-part melodies billow over a beat that gallops and shimmers like a unicorn as singer Lauren Mayberry asks with piercing earnestness, "If I recover, will you be my comfort?" But damsel in distress she's not. A few lines later, she challenges her savior, "I'll give you one more chance" as synthesizers build to a lustrous ultimatum.

Chvrches: "Recover" on SoundCloud.

[from the Recover EP; out 03/25/13 in the UK via Virgin/Goodbye and 03/26/13 in the U.S. via Glassnote]

My Bloody Valentine: "Only Tomorrow"

Ian Cohen — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:10:00 -0600

If you spent Saturday night watching your spouse, child, or other loved ones sit in front of their computers refreshing mybloodyvalentine.org for literally hours, I'd like to apologize on behalf of all of us for fighting over the difference between a 404 and a 403.6 error, and then sounding like we just experienced an alien abduction during our initial listen to My Bloody Valentine's first album in over 21 years, mbv: "Details? What's important is that this actually fucking happened."

The album's second track, "Only Tomorrow", establishes mbv as something different than Loveless. The song's playful (gasp!) drum shuffle reminds you that MBV are four living, breathing human beings who do human things. And that anthemic guitar lead that takes up the last two minutes-- is it possible that Kevin Shields has taken a shine to playing festivals since the band reunited? For the headphone-captive audience, there's still a vault-clearing of studio trickery: the punctuating gaps of harsh silence, the point where Bilinda Butcher's voice morphs into an ascendant quasar, Shields' guitar mirroring the AOL retro-futurism of the album cover and imitating a crackling modem. But when you hear Butcher navigate those jazzy, complex chord changes that mesh with Shields' beautifully discordant guitar squalls, it's unmistakeably them. Which is the unfair advantage My Bloody Valentine have over all their shoegaze imitators: they're allowed to sound like My Bloody Valentine. "Only Tomorrow" is an awesome display of them being not-quite themselves.

The Haxan Cloak: "The Mirror Reflecting (Part 2)"

Nick Neyland — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:34:00 -0600

A sliver of the Haxan Cloak's "The Mirror Reflecting (Part 2)" crept out toward the end of last year, via a short clip from Bobby Krlic's new label home, Tri Angle. It was an appropriate way for newcomers to get acquainted with Krlic's work under the Haxan Cloak name, offering just enough scorched-earth desolation without dragging listeners too far down into his pit of anxiety and horror. Now, the full piece has emerged, and it more than lives up to expectations. "Mirror" is dense and suffocating, stretched out over seven minutes that feel like you're watching someone's dying breathe seep out in agonizing slow motion.

Krlic has promised a broader range of influence on his forthcoming second album, but this feels more like a refinement of what came before, a natural widening of his vision of a world where drone rock, horror soundtracks, and creepy Chris & Cosey electronics work in sick tandem. At times it's hard to imagine what slight Krlic suffered to make him slide down here, but he does have some company. The closest contemporary comparison is Blackest Ever Black signings Raime, who operate with a similarly numb feeling, in a place where you can almost see the life draining from their veins.

The Haxan Cloak: "The Mirror Reflecting (Part 2)" on SoundCloud.

[from Excavation; out 04/15/13 internationally and 04/30/13 in the U.S. via Tri Angle]