Switched On!

The Sky Drops - Let It Sound

Mon, 06 May 2013 19:38:38 -0400

This new track from The Sky Drops isn’t just the best track I’ve heard from them yet, it’s one of the best songs I’ve heard, ever. So good, tears came to my eyes.

You can grab The Sky Drops’ tracks here on Bandcamp.

Mentalease - Living Dream

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 04:26:00 -0400

Spencer Harris from Mentalease wrote me about ten days ago about his upcoming album “Living Dream”, and I was seriously remiss in not giving it a listen and reviewing it until now.

Because Mentalease is a one-man show, there’s necessarily quite a lot of electronics involved, but Spencer deals with this by taking it head-on, embracing artifacts and glitches and making them an integral part of his sound. Guitars and hazy laptop electronica fit together perfectly in an Atlas Sound manner, whether on the dreamy, drony “Presence” or the folk-electronic “Post-Nostalgia Withdrawal”.

I want to think of a criticism with this album, but I really can’t. For something written, performed, and produced by one person, it’s a tour de force. There’s no phoniness, no borrowed nostalgia for unremembered decades here: “Living Dream” feels genuine and unironic- a real breath of fresh air.

You can get “Living Dream” as a hand-printed CD or a name-your-own-price download on Bandcamp.

You have got to be kidding me.

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:24:00 -0400

EDIT: Update with their utterly brazen response here.

I woke up this morning to find this email from Indie Music Album Reviews, offering to review my latest single in exchange for money.

I know there are promotion companies that have bands write their own reviews, which then go out to a roster of no-name blogs that publish everything the promoters send- but this is utterly audacious.
What does it mean for music journalism when bands pay for reviews? What does this do for trust in the music community, when anyone expressing enthusiasm for something might be just doing it for a buck?

Further audacity: The free “weekly roundup” is a JPEG so it doesn’t turn up in search results and they don’t have to link you.

If this were radio, we’d be calling it payola. And of course, this also means that the bands featured on their blog paid to be there.

Hi,
You submitted an album entitled “Dark Days” to our website. The staff took a vote this morning and we decided to move forward with a review. If you are unfamiliar with our website, we only review submissions that we like. Your review will either have a favorable, good or great rating meaning a 3.0 or above. (We think it’s a little more fun to keep the detailed rating a secret till your published date). In order to maximize the exposure to our audience we give the artist a couple of different options.
.
Option 1 (Free)
With this option your album will be included in our “weekly roundup” section. This section is published once a week (on Friday) and is a list of the albums we enjoyed. Here is an example of what it would look like:
.
http://www.indiemusicalbumreviews.com/1/post/2013/02/weekly-roundup.html
.
Option 2 (25 dollars)
With this option your album is featured as one of our daily reviews
One of our trusted writers will elaborate on the rating we have given. We talk about the genre of music, the tracks we felt were highlights, where the band is from, etc. This includes its own distinct URL, cover art,two links of your choice (bandcamp, website, reverbnation, facebook, record label, etc) and a professionally written review. (2 -3 paragraphs sometimes more)
Here is an example of what it would look like
http://www.indiemusicalbumreviews.com/1/post/2013/03/david-bowie-the-next-day.html
.
Option 3 (35 dollars)
This option includes everything from option 2 and also includes a song or songs of your choice to be embedded from soundcloud or bandcamp.
.
If you want people to actually hear your music from our site while reading your review-we can do that to. The song or songs have to be uploaded to soundcloud or bandcamp. We will embed it right on our page.
Here is an example of what it would look like
http://www.indiemusicalbumreviews.com/1/post/2013/02/eels-wonderful-glorious.html
.
Option 4 (40 dollars)
This option includes everything from option 2 and 3. It also includes a video upload. The video must be on youtube and be a music video or live performance.
Here is an example of what it would look like
http://www.indiemusicalbumreviews.com/1/post/2013/03/youth-lagoon-wondrous-bughouse.html
.
Process
No matter what option you chose we will need to hear back from you to confirm your review. (You will need to reply to this e-mail telling us what option you selected in the body of the e-mail.)
If you chose option 1 all you need to do is reply to this e-mail and put option 1 in the body. Within a couple of days we will send you a follow-up e-mail confirming what day your review will be published. If you chose option 2, 3, or 4 we will send you a invoice through paypal for the option you selected to your e-mail (let us know if you want us to send the invoice to a different e-mail). Once the invoice is paid we will send you one last e-mail confirming the date that it will be published.
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For option 2, 3,or 4 we will also need you to include the proper links for soundcloud,bandcamp, youtube video, your mp3 etc.
.
This review will be up on our website forever with its own specific URL. Feel free to put it on your website, use it in your press kit or send to fans.
.
Cheers,
The team at indiemusicalbumreviews.com

The Bilinda Butchers - The Lovers' Suicide

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:40:00 -0400

New indie pop from The Bilinda Butchers! While other reviewers go for the obvious and make My Bloody Valentine comparisons, the BBs remind me most of a male-fronted Club 8.
This A-side off their latest single The Lovers’ Suicide is surprisingly upbeat for its title- fun, danceable pop with sidechained fuzz and a tune made for whistling.

THE LOVERS’ SUICIDE! by THE BILINDA BUTCHERS

I’ve been a fan of these guys since I discovered their track “Tulips” on a free Beko compilation back in ‘09. Since then, Adam and Michał have put out two EPs- regret, love, guilt, dreams and goodbyes, both of which are name-your-own-price on Bandcamp.

Orkid - Eagle Flight Misfortune

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 02:10:40 -0400

Hazy synths from Orkid.

Flights to Nowhere

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 20:52:00 -0400

For a while now, I’ve been looking for music that would capture the same feeling that I got from Ulrich Schnauss’s debut album Far Away Trains Passing By. It was with some excitement, then that I discovered Flight to Nowhere’s EP Screaming Underwater.

Flights to Nowhere is the solo project of Canadian artist and architecture student Chase Simmons. Influenced by Sigur Ros and Hammock, he combines ambient electronic sounds with filtered, processed live instruments to create some truly delightful, contemplative ambient electronica.

The EP can be downloaded here.

Starless Black - Dive

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 22:00:31 -0400

Orange Crush - Sunset over Oceans

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:37:00 -0400

Acid House Time: Kick Out The Jams

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 18:54:00 -0500

The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (AKA The JAMs) hit the British music scene in 1987 with a collage of unauthorized samples, beatboxing, and cryptic, political Scottish-accented raps titled “All You Need Is Love”.

Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, under the assumed names “Kingboy D” and “Rockman Rock”, sequenced the single on an Apple II, quickly following it up with the sample-heavy debut hip-hop album “1987 (What The Fuck Is Going On?)”. It was brash, avant-garde, and made for great listening in a “I can’t tell if this terrible or the best thing I’ve ever heard” sort of way. Drummond later referred to it as a “punk version of a hip hop record”.

In 1988, they dubbed themselves “Time Boy” and “Lord Rock” and released “Doctorin’ The Tardis” as The Timelords. Credit for the song was given to Ford Timelord, Cauty’s 1968 Ford Galaxie police car.

Mashing up the Doctor Who theme, Gary Glitter’s “Rock And Roll (Part Two)”, “Blockbuster!” by Sweet and “Let’s Get Together Tonite” by Steve Walsh, The Timelords reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart. Drummond and Cauty followed Doctorin’ with the 1989 book The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way), which was used by Edelweiss and Chumbawamba to great effect.

They first released as the KLF in 1988 with “Burn The Bastards”, marking a sharp left veer toward house music:

On 12 February 1992 at the British Phonographic Industry’s annual BRIT Awards, the KLF performed “3AM Eternal” live together with the crust punk group Extreme Noise Terror in what was later described as a “violently antagonistic performance”, machine-gunning blanks in front of bewildered music industry executives. As the performance concluded, the KLF’s promoter announced “The KLF have now left the music business”:

Following their bombastic exit, Drummond and Cauty formed the the K Foundation, culminating a series of Situationalist stunts by going to the Scottish island of Jura and burning £1,000,000 in cash:

After exiting the music business and promising not to return, the KLF came out of retirement with the electronic protest song “Fuck The Millenium”, critiquing comeback albums with a video featuring wheelchairs, old mans’ pipes and a brass band.

Wild Eyes

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 23:48:00 -0500

Some nice energetic shoegaze from Wild Eyes, out of Corvina, CA. Check out their two EPs on Bandcamp.

Brim Liski - “Fight”

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 23:24:02 -0500

Brim Liski - “Fight”

Cassette Cathedral

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:23:00 -0500

Ever feel like history broke sometime in mid-to-late ’90s and veered off in a very wrong direction, just as it seemed like things were about to get really good? Like there had to be some baleful force behind the blandification of “indie rock” and the death of rock on the radio?

Well, here’s some tracks from a parallel dimension where history took its rightful course and none of that ever happened. Cassette Cathedral play grungey psychedelia that reminds me a lot of Miners of Pala, which should be no surprise since they’re both Australian. Maybe I need to move.

Jetman Jet Team cover My Bloody Valentine’s “New...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:59:43 -0500

Jetman Jet Team cover My Bloody Valentine’s “New You”.

Lucid Sky - Flying Until 737

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 00:09:00 -0500

Distant glitchy ambient electronica from Lucid Sky. Cool misty chords slowly come into sharp, bitcrushed focus.

Little Nova Sound

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 23:30:00 -0500

There’s a lot of people waiting for the My Bloody Valentine album that was supposed to be out days ago, but here’s a new discovery you can bliss out to right now: Instrumental dreampop from Little Nova Sound.

Heavily influenced by Robin Guthrie, it’s quiet and mellow on headphones and world-shaking on a big soundsystem. LNS isn’t just about nostalgia for the ’90s, either: Solo songwriter Gerard Hopes builds a sound that’s deeper, more profound, and very much his own.

An EP is in the works- but for now, enjoy these two killer tracks.

MP3 download:
Little Nova Sound - Clouds
Little Nova Sound - Glitterball

little nova sound on Facebook

When I first heard Radical Children’s “Love Is An...

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:09:00 -0500

When I first heard Radical Children’s “Love Is An Evil Word”, I immediately fell for their combination of Sonic Youth guitars and ’80s minimal-wave synths.
Their pop sensibilities and introspective tone remind me a lot of a more adventurous New Young Pony Club!

Looking forward to more studio tracks from these guys- but in the meantime, you can check out some of their performances on Youtube.

MP3: Radical Children - Love is an Evil Word

Life Model - Take It Slow

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 17:11:00 -0500

Relaxed, reverb-drenched dreampop from Scottish group Life Model. No download, sadly- but there’s an album coming!

Soft Shadows

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 02:24:00 -0500

Some nicely understated sounds from Soft Shadows- this reminds me of The Caseworker and Airiel.

Chatham Rise

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 03:59:00 -0500

Fresh find online: Chatham Rise from Minneapolis. Hugely expansive, melodic-yet-droning shoegaze.
“How Do You Sleep” sounds like the Dandy Warhols on nitrous oxide, while “Autopilot” is a foreboding, reverb-laden track evoking A Shoreline Dream. Perfect music to be alone to.

Their “No One” EP can be downloaded on Bandcamp.

Crash City Saints

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:34:00 -0500

I’ve been really enjoying Crash City Saints since discovering them a couple days ago- they’ve got an album coming up, but in the meantime head over to their Soundcloud page and download everything you can.

Highly recommended if you like Serena-Maneesh or Fleeting Joys!