By far my favorite chillwave artist has finally released his debut Lp. Golden Years is exactly how chillwave is suppose to sound. It reminds you of a simpler time perhaps in your childhood. It throws you back into a warm summers afternoon where all you want to do is lounge around or float down a lazy river. The album is altogether a more relaxing experience than his previous releases. There are still some tracks that have a danceable beat but the majority of the album is mellow and ethereal. This will undoubtedly end up on my aoty list at some point.
The more I listen to this album the more I find myself enjoying it. "I Love You, Dude" is a fantastic dance album that will keep you moving while at the same time keep you wanting more. Digitalism is a dance/electrohouse duo out of Germany. They're released two full length albums the first entitled: Idealism.
Out of nowhere I came upon the sophomore release by Work Drugs and I've got to say I'm impressed. Their first album was amazing and I'm seeing the same effort and beauty the first album had. It teeters on a fence between Lo-fi Synthpop and regular Chillwave. Nevertheless the genre you still get songs that make you feel like you're cruising down a main street in Miami in the 80s with the top of your convertible down. Download this if you fancy yourself a fan of good music.
If you've seen me in a sharethread or two you're bound to see me share quite a lot of Russian Post-Punk. I don't really have an explanation for that other than I've found tons of amazing modern Post-Punk coming out of Russia. I came upon Brandenburg a few months back and I downloaded all of their work. They've released a slew of EPs but no full album. That being said this is their latest EP. I sort of guessed they were done putting out new music so essentially this is why I'm sharing this ep. They show great promise and the fact that they're still recording new music is great news. They've probably edged out Motorama or Human Tetris as one of my favorite Post-Punk bands. To be honest I never got into classic Post-Punk so my idea of good Post-Punk may be different than yours.
David Andrew Strackany is a folk musician who plays under the moniker Paleo. A year or so ago I found Paleo through Pandora or something like that. I never really paid much attention to him and he sat in my library patiently waiting for me to rediscover him when I was ready. I came upon the album I had downloaded months before and I like it but it was a bit upbeat for the kind of folk I was expecting from the voice I was hearing and I thought to myself that he could make stellar quiet calm relaxing folk music. Little did I know he had been recording a song every day while on tour around the country. These songs were available on his webpage. I downloaded most of what I could find but I could only come up with 149 songs. Most of the songs start out in a similar fashion. Most songs start out with the line "Time and Time again." It sounds like you can't do much with that template but David takes each song in a new direction filling each song with beautiful lyrics and really heartfelt instrumentation. Recorded mostly on the road the song diary is as hauntingly beautiful as it is Lo-fi. If you dissect some of the songs you get a picture of a emotionally unstable and generally depressed man who just happened to be blessed with an amazing gift for songwriting. This collection will probably stay a favorite of mine until I'm gray and old. No song feels rushed or half assed. I've also included his latest album in which he goes back to his upbeat folk. Be warned though most songs in the song diary are labeled Sunday Prayer (Roman numeral) so if you want to keep track of your favorite songs you'll need to label them yourselves or heart them or favorite them (Whatever your music player does). I also plan on purchasing the entire DVD so upon request I may be able to upload all of it.
The other day some /mu/tant started a bandcamp thread with his project linked in the original post. I usually don't browse these threads but I sure am I did this time. He described his music as "Trip-hop, Downtempo, and Chillout" These seem to fit quite well. The album is sort of this swirling ride that you can imagine playing in the background of a movie as they're traveling across a desert. I find myself forgetting that I'm listening to an entire album. It all sort of blends together into one spectacular song. Usually when I hear an album where all the songs sound alike I can get bored easily because of the repetition. With this album however I can get lost in the music and really appreciate it's beauty as a whole. All in all it's a spectacular album with great instrumentation and execution. The only thing I hate is that damn wallpaper, I mean it would be fine if it didn't have that awful filter. Seeing as that's my only real gripe I'd highly recommend this album to just about anyone.
I've uploaded it onto mediafire but if you enjoy this you should think about purchasing his work at http://kinack.bandcamp.com/album/ondas
Recently I had been messing around with the last.fm radio looking for some new stuff and I came across this French Nu-disco group. I'm fairly certain I was playing a radio station for a group that is a part of the Valerie Collective, a blog started by a musician that goes by the pseudonym "College". Everything included in their blog has a distinct 80s sound and is usually Nu-Disco or some sort of synthpop. Mintel Rose is no exception. Their sound is obviously taking cues from 80s pop. The end result is an extremely danceable and fun album. Enjoy.
Balto is folk at it's best and it's most beautiful. When I first found Balto my first reaction was to try to compare them to some other artist. When in reality they're something totally unique and new. The bulk of the album was written after and inspired by the vocalist's trip through Siberia. He took in all that he experienced and created an album that catalogs his journey and the people he met. This theme isn't an underlining tone or something that you need to search for. It's right there from the beginning, and continues throughout the entire album.
Love Lake is a bedroom project from Minnesota that blends standard indie pop with a lo-fi aesthetic. While upbeat and overall pretty happy Love Lake's debut album still retains some scratches and fuzziness. Tracks on this album can give a lazy and sunny feeling like on "Yasmin" and "Paper Balloon". Other songs give you a quicker and straightforward pop feeling see "Curses" and "Ghosts". There's a lot of promise coming from Love Lake and I'd love to see what he does next.
Anoraak's Wherever The Sun Sets is an album that at least for me makes me feel like I'm out on the town late at night in the eighties. This synthpop album isn't your average quick dancable fun synthpop album it's slower and gives you a feeling of floating down a lazy river. Anorrak is a group coming out of Nantes, France so you can hear the accent in the singers voice but to me it adds character and without the accent the album wouldn't be as strong as it could be. The vocals are primarily male but in a few songs there's a female singer that takes over for a few songs and her voice is also infused with some sort of noticeable accent but it still helps make the album instead of break it. Don't take my word for it. Have yourself a listen.
Here's an Ep I found not too long ago from a band that is showing a lot of promise. Half of the band The Tapeaters, Forbidden Hollywood is a new disco and New-Wave band hailing from the Russian Federation. There's some amazing synth work on this ep. A few seconds into "The Morning After" you're greeted with a blaring synth that leads into a danceable track that should immediately grab your attention. Definitley looking forward to whatever this duo has in store for us in the future.
Kakkmaddafakka is a Norwegian band that is sort of hard to classify. I suppose you could call it Indie Pop even though that isn't all that descriptive. Hest makes use of quick instrumentation and vocals seem to work on every track. I might get some flac from this but their syle reminds me a little of Of Montreal in that it's a quirky and fun at times. There's also quite a lot of variation on this album. "Gangsta" has a reggae sound that is instantly noticeable and it works quite well.
I can't think of any other album to start my blog off with. Lets get started.We've got ourselves a synthpop/disco outfit that hails from Canada. DVAS's debut album has a slew of danceable tracks and even a funky and sexy track thrown in ( Look for "Back 2 Basix").
