This Music Wins

July’s been a busy one, especially in terms of those records I find myself feeling obliged to buy. This week saw the arrival at my door of Oxford psych-folk band Stornoway‘s debut album Beachcomber’s Windowsill (a follow up from the rather coldly received introduction on TMW last year), Wolf Parade‘s Expo ’86 (sequel to the 2008′s incredible At Mount Zoomer), as well as the recently nominated Mercury Prize candidate Becoming a Jackal
, from Dublin’s finest (certainly recently, anyway) emerging artists Villagers. The latter is probably the best effort, in so far as I can tell at this early stage. However more details of the successes or failures of the above will follow with adequate explanation in this week’s upcoming reviews.

Back down to the grass-roots of MP3 hype, and this week saw announcements from bands Deerhunter, Delorean, Yuck, Tennis and Ra Ra Riot in the way of new material, as well as some MP3s from Beth at Danger Village by Philadelphia duo Blackhawks, which should be covered very soon. This promotions company spends its time spreading a really great selection of dreamy chillwave, electronic pop and glacial lo-fi in the vein of former blog features Memoryhouse, Millionyoung, Cloud Nothings and most recently Teen Daze. Its roster is definitely worth checking out.

Deerhunter have uncovered their latest single “Revival” with corresponding b-side “Primitive 3D” for free on their website if you enter password “tapereel”. At just two minutes, the track is jangling choral lo-fi with low quality recording all round, but that’s what makes it. This song sounds like Leeds lo-fi surf band Spectrals a decade or two in the future and minus a bit of the reverb. Album Halcyon Digest is due September 28th on 4AD records.

Deerhunter - Revival (MP3)

Denver’s Tennis are a husband/wife duo i’ve mentioned before following the release of their Gigi-esque 60s pop track “South Carolina”. They’ve definitely got a very distinctive sound going on, which comes out just as strong in the new track “Baltimore” – jangling guitars, naive vocals from Alaina Moore and simple, repetitive drum patterns. You can check out the video for “South Carolina” and download the new mastered track below. They’ve also got a new 7″ due for release on Underwater Peoples very soon indeed.

Tennis – Baltimore (MP3)

Ra Ra Riot’s three song Boy EP is merely a taster of what’s to come from the Syracuse six-piece on their sophomore album due this Summer, but its a certainly a very revealing one. Wes Miles’ vocals on title track ‘Boy’ accompany booming punk drums, extravagant backing vocals, twiddles of guitar and Vampire Weekend style synth lines to great effect – and although the track doesn’t really push any boundaries, its a solid return from a band quiet of late, sporting once again in full their distinctive orchestra turns indie pop sound.

Ra Ra Riot – Boy (MP3)

Alternative dance band Delorean dropped the second single from their third album “Subiza” last Tuesday via True Panther Sounds, entitled “Real Love”. Standing at an intense six minutes, the song incorporates Spanish accents, crazed percussion and M83-esque shoegazing electronics. The Spaniards have been blending alternative dance and balaeric beat styles for years, but the latest instalment dropped in March, and was extremely well received. The new single is free to download below.

Delorean - Real Love (MP3) (buy “Subiza” from Amazon)

A friend of mine told me that Yuck outshone Japandroids when he saw them live a few months back in Southampton. I was very happy indeed, the idea that the studio brilliance Yuck had always shown in their recordings was translatable live gave me the same kind of shiver that Girls‘ Hellhole Ratrace gave me the first hundred or so times I played it. Yu(c)k is the piano based side project of the band, whose latest song displays the same, if not more of that kind of restrained grandeur and patient execution that Yuck songs show. “Daughter” dropped recently, and takes the anthemic lo-fi fuzz which characterises both projects to new heights. “Daughter” sounds like one of those songs you’ve heard a thousand times before, in a completely different light. Its from their upcoming cassette tape EP, Weakend, which drops on August 2nd via Mirror Universe. If you like, you can watch their latest video, by Phoebe Beason below.

Yu(c)k - Daughter (MP3)

Yu(c)k – Daughter from Yuck on Vimeo.

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