Resonance FM #35 Women, Julia Holter, Panabrite, Dirty Beaches, Shlomo

Listen live to This Music Wins #35 on Resonance 104.4 FM Saturday evening at 6.30pm, and/or stream/download the show in advance below.

Listen/Download: This Music Wins #35 (MP3)

1. Women - Eyesore - RIP Christopher Reimer.

2. Julia Holter - In The Same Room - Album Stream

3. Panabrite - Camembert Symphony

4. Dirty Beaches - EOTR Festival Announcement 

5. Shlomo - It Rained The Whole Time (Nicolas Jaar remix) 

This Music Wins #35 3/3/2012 RIP Christopher Reimer, Julia Holter, Panabrite from thismusicwins on 8tracks.

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR #25 - #21

#25 Sleep Over - Forever - Casual Diamond (MP3)

The now-defunkt Pitchfork subsidiary Altered Zones presented, amongst many others, an album stream for Sleep Over’s Forever in 2011, the haunting solo project of Stefanie Franciotti. I missed them in Brighton with Pure X in the Autumn, but ‘Forever’ has been a regular spin encouraged by its gangly synthesised riffs, mountainous mid-range and haunting Warpaint-esque female voices in constant competition.

#24 Dirty Beaches - Badlands - Lord Knows Best (MP3)

Alexander Zhang Hungtai is a Taiwan-born Canadian immigrant and lo-fi musician who operates under the ‘Dirty Beaches’ moniker. ‘Badlands’ is his debut LP, a jagged and manic rockabilly record gauzed by his heavily stylised lo-fi recording filter. It recalls the overdrive-heavy aesthetic of 70s and 80s wild-western films, with hints of Lynch, Jarmusch and particularly Tarantino, decorated, uniquely, by a disturbing, Elvis Presley-type babbled monologue. The later tracks do well to slow down, and ‘Lord Knows Best’ is a crackling comedown, a comfortably trippy, slow-dancing lo-fidelity ballad.

#23 Co La - Daydream Repeater - Egyptian Peaches (MP3)

Listen enough to Co La’s Daydream Repeater, and you start to appreciate how its put together; most of the album is contained in the drums, and the melodies come not as something divorced from the rhythm, designed to lace the drums as time-keepers, but instead as very much a part of the tribal and exotic percussion. The skeleton is laid bare and built upon, and the artistic element is clear in every disorientating sample and prudent momentum shift. As Altered Zones puts it, Co La exudes ‘the exotic and the luxurious’ - full stream here.

#22 Balam Acab - Wander / Wonder - Apart (MP3)

Balam Acab is 20-year old Pennsylvania-dweller Alec Koone, famed for his down-tempo allusions to witch house on his 2010 debut EP ‘See Birds’. The following year saw him expand in some ways, but drop a little of the hip-hop element in favour of a watery percussive palette and a jangling and flowing electronica sound. Wander / Wonder prides itself upon its subtlety and fluidity, but here ‘Apart’ resonates with that jarring, room-shaking witch-house bass.

#21 Radiohead - King Of Limbs - Lotus Flower (MP3)

Does the assessment of an album include its performance? I’d say no - and subsequently I’m committed to the statement that though Radiohead’s ‘In The Basement’ performance of The King Of Limbs is possibly one of my single biggest musical inspirations of the past few months, I don’t think the recorded album is quite so masterfully orchestrated. ‘Bloom’ is an emotionless uphill surge, ‘Lotus Flower’ bassy, trip-hoppy and moody turned (at precisely 2.02) by Thom Yorke’s vocal performance into a tight and claustrophobic experimental rock gem. 

Read the full list / read #20 - #15

London / Brighton Live (Oct. 10 - Oct. 16)

Dirty Beaches + Ela Orleans @ Bush Hall, London (Monday)

A rare live date for brazened post-punk star Alexander Zhang Hungtai, but surely one of many more to come. I championed his track ‘Lone Runner’ back in August for its influence ‘squeezed from modern lo-fi, a smattering of 40s and 50s swing and pop…[and] bleak colourless imagery’. Support comes from Ela Orleans, purveyor of the other half of Dirty Beaches’ split 12” ‘Double Feature’.

Nadja + Petrels @ Cafe Oto, London (Wednesday)

Nadja are an experimental drone/noise metal act going strong since 2003. In support comes Petrels, a fascinating ritualistic choir act whose most recent album ‘Haeligewielle’, came out on Tartaruga Records in June.

Binnacle Festival 2011 @ The Old Blue Last, London (Sat + Sun)

A self-proclaimed ‘micro-festival’ at The Old Blue Last pub in Shoreditch, which might be practically very small-scale but is packed full back-to-back with new, electronic talent. For many of the artists playing, this will be their first show. Favourites on these pages who will be in attendance include Acid Glasses (making their UK debut), Seams (who just released his Binnacle 2011 mix) and Conifers. You can read the full line-up over at Safe Concerts. Not to be missed for any London-based fans of experimental electronics and blissful lo-fi dance music. Grab MP3s from international debut-makers Sun Glitters and MOTHS below. Tickets here.

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Monday

• Still Corners @ Cafe Oto, London (Tickets)
• Dirty Beaches + Ela Orleans @ Bush Hall, London (Tickets)
• Mother Mother, Younghusband, Birdy Hunt @ The Lexington, London (Tickets)
• Iron & Wine + Fujiya & Miyagi @ Shephard’s Bush Empire, London (Tickets)

Tuesday

• Spiritualized @ Royal Albert Hall, London (Tickets)
• Fanzine @ Madame Jojo’s, London (Tickets)
• Still Corners @ Rough Trade East, London (In-store)

Wednesday

• Cloud Control + Born Blonde @ Scala, London (Tickets)
• Nadja + Petrels + The Plurals @ Cafe Oto, London (Tickets)

Thursday

• Mazes + Milk Maid @ The Lexington, London (Tickets)

Friday

• Mazes + Fear Of Men @ The Hope, Brighton (Tickets)
• The Kills @ Concorde 2, Brighton (Tickets)

Saturday

• James Vincent McMorrow + The Staves @ St. Bartholemew’s Church, Brighton (Tickets)
• Binnacle 2011 Festival (Day 1) @ The Old Blue Last, London (Tickets)
• Joy Orbison + Julio Bashmore @ Digital, Brighton (Tickets)
• Drums Of Death, Solar Bears + More @ The Macbeth, London (Tickets)

Sunday

• Apparat @ The Haunt, Brighton (Tickets)
• Binnacle Festival 2011 (Day 2) @ The Old Blue Last, London (Tickets)

What have I missed? Contact me via @thismusicwins / the comment box below, or on peter@thismusicwins.com

Resonance FM #21 - Deptford Goth, Ducktails, Dirty Beaches, Eternity Zone, Porcelain Raft, Elvis Depressedly

MP3 of show / listen to Resonance FM

A strong week indeed for experimental music, starting with an earlier post we made on London producer Deptford Goth’s new single “No Man”, which you can find here. Below we play an older part of his collecton, the Moby-esque “Real Love Fantasy”.

Deptford Goth - Real Love Fantasy (MP3)

We caught up with Ducktails at Field Day 2011, and were pleasantly surprised to find him band-less (though retrospectively this might have been predictable) and commandeering the electronics solo. Today we play the B-side from his A-side single with Animal Collective’s Panda Bear “Killin’ The Vibe”. Both extremely catchy, beware.

Ducktails - Sit Around With Ya (MP3)

Some research in to venues in the North of England which I’ve been concerning myself with in recent weeks led me to discover that Dirty Beaches has recently toured with WU LYF. Now what a show that would have been! This lo-fi, heavily stylistic 80s revival, and above-all, filmic arrangement is intense and evocative - lead single “Lone Runner” dropped earlier this week, as detailed here.

Dirty Beaches - Sweet 17 (MP3)

A song from little known project Eternity Zone, which serves as a track surprisingly pro-active despite its titles’ connotations. Its only after the three minutes have set in that its density and complexity reveal themselves as actively disengaging. Find them on Soundcloud.

Eternity Zone - Unconsciousness (MP3)

Porcelain Raft signed to Secretly Canadian earlier this year - and Memoryhouse have a big label to match, the latter release a re-recorded, re-mastered and re-released version of The Years EP on Sub Pop next month, and alongside that release comes an excellent remix they’ve done for Porcelain Raft. Download below.

Porcelain Raft - I Found A Way (Memoryhouse Remix) (MP3)

Closing today’s show is a piece from the droning side project of Mat Cothran’s excellent Coma Cinema project, which I’ve been an advocate of for some months now. Elvis Depressedly, who we wrote about in detail earlier this week, is dark and oppressive, and warrants repeated background listening. An interesting angle to pursue, but one which haunts you at the times you least expect it. Download below.

Elvis Depressedly - Bummer Dreams (MP3)

For more updates on artists listed above - follow me on twitter @thismusicwins

New Track: Dirty Beaches - Lone Runner

Ever since Dirty Beaches’ Badlands first emerged, its commentators have been quick to point out an overbearing filmic quality in its overall conception, drawing parallels in particular to such pioneering audio-visual artists as David Lynch and Wong Kar Wai in contrast to Alex Zhang Hungtai’s early 80s Gothic contemporaries. But in pure Goth music this misanthropist fails to find solace - an influence is squeezed from modern lo-fi, a smattering of 40s and 50s swing and pop fades gently through his repertoire, as does, finally, a fading conviction of sparse keyboard-synthesiser.  

Dirty Beaches allows such a grim medley of circumstance to bind him; the crevices of silent experimental film and bleak, colourless imagery is brought upon himself willingly and effectively, for in Lone Runner, his newest release, a 7” single due on cult label Suicide Squeeze later this year, we have perhaps his roughest and coldest initiation to date. A crushing beat-keeper is awash with Crystal Stilt-ian garage verb as a bassy baritone vocal winds between the poles; pick this one plus its B-side ‘Stye Eye’ up for just $6 on a limited run of 750 this October 4th.

Dirty Beaches - Lone Runner by Surfing on Steam