Butterfly Bones / Man/Miracle – <3/Other People Split 7″

February 23rd, 2010  |  by taylor fife  |  published in electronic  |  2 comments

Bay Area artists Butterflybones and Man/Miracle are teaming up with Third Culture Records to combine a spectular sampling of sound with the most tortuous title I’ve ever had to type. Man/Miracle’s use of a foreslash has rendered the traditional way of listing groups participating in split releases immensely confusing, and Butterfly Bones have chosen to stick it to the Windows file name protocols by using that pesky “less than” symbol.

Totally Nebular – Boat Boat

February 23rd, 2010  |  by jason grishkoff  |  published in electronic, experimental  |  1 comment

Totally Nebular are a 3-piece hailing from West Beach, Florida, and currently remain unsigned. Their music is trippy, it’s joyous, it’s exuberant, and despite what some might see as a lack of strong melody, absolutely beautiful to lose yourself in.

Yeasayer – Odd Blood

February 8th, 2010  |  by jason grishkoff  |  published in electronic, experimental, indie rock  |  5 comments

The days of downbeat acoustic songs for charity compilations are over. Everything about this Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel band screams DANCE (and not in the conventional sense). This is hipster dancefloor 80s inspired funkpop with the sensibility of Peter Gabriel, worldbeat percussion and the downright quirkyness of Gang Gang Dance and Dirty Projectors’ endless list of mad collaborators.

Vistas – Mute

February 2nd, 2010  |  by Jess Alatorre  |  published in electronic, experimental, instrumental, house  |  3 comments

Vista is comprised of Josh Nagle and Owen Cartwright (or œ). Josh plays the analog sampler (KORG ELECTRIBE), laptop computer, and keyboard and Owen plays guitars, a laptop live station and an APC40. While most bands move to the big city, these two are holding strong to their Maine roots.

Four Tet – There Is Love In You

January 31st, 2010  |  by jason grishkoff  |  published in electronic, progressive house  |  4 comments

Four Tet is quite simply one of the best in the business. I could equally say it sounds like nothing ever before, but the fact is, it does. It sounds like Four Tet. What sets it apart in my eyes is just how much more musically mature Hebden seems to have become in the five years or so since his last release. The mad staccato drum machines which littered every corner of 2005’s Everything Ecstatic have been almost entirely cut out – the only time any kind of glitchy drum beat features on this release is on the rather misleading preview track ‘Love Cry’. This time round, the drum machine is dropped in favour of a low murmur of a bass kick, and the effects are infinitely calmer.

Delphic – Acolyte

January 17th, 2010  |  by jason grishkoff  |  published in electronic, indie rock  |  3 comments

Is there even an ocean between the United States and the United Kingdom? Half of today’s best acts seem to be coming from England, and you may as well lump Manchester trio Delphic into that mess. What caught my attention here, you ask? Well, probably the infectious overlapping of electronica and dreamy vocals. It’s almost shoegazey but, uh, not close. Perhaps one of the best comparisons I could make is to the band Friendly Fires, whose danceable undertones are impossible to ignore.

The Notwist – The Devil, You + Me

December 3rd, 2009  |  by jason grishkoff  |  published in alternative, electronic, experimental, remixes  |  4 comments

The Notwist formed in 1989 in Weilheim, Germany. Over the years, they moved through several musical incarnations despite maintaining a relatively stable lineup. While their early records held onto a heavy metal/krautrock/dark indie rock sound, their recent efforts, for which they have received the most attention, have been very strongly influenced by the electronica scene.

Prefuse 73 – Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian

December 1st, 2009  |  by jason grishkoff  |  published in electronic, instrumental, house, trip hop  |  1 comment

When I initially saw that this album had 29(!!) tracks, I was a little taken back. Turns out (unsurprisingly), that the majority of those tracks don’t pass the 1 minute length, with the whole work clocking in at just under 50 minutes. While that means that there is an intense amount of variety throughout this album, it all flows so smoothly that in many instances, the short bursts could be combined into one song.