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Love this big dream pop track from Stockholm duo Cape Lion. Taking inspiration from everything from the Beach Boys to Tears For Fears, vocalist/producers Carl-Johan "Oa" Sevedag and Martin Wiklund delivery a massive tropical hit of summer joy on Called You Mine. I simply can't get enough of this, it's a great big bear hug of a record!
This Soft Machine cites both Yellow Magic Orchestra and the Ramones as influences, and they made their debut via a two hour mix for Nicholas Jaar's Other People label. On this double a-side debut release for Eskimo we have Nicholas Jaar's Darkside band mate Dave Harrington handling guitar work and Cut Copy's Dan Whitford providing synths.
With those influences and collaborations it would be difficult to know what to expect, but the resulting record is actually a relatively straight forward combination of the atmospherics and experimentation of an Other People release, the big pads of a Cut Copy track and a little bit of LCD Soundsystem style percussion. Throw in some deadpan Nancy Wang like vocals from Lorraine Nicholson for opening track On & On and it feels like you could be listening to a super group formed from some of the best bands of the past ten years.
Whether it borrows from contemporaries or just draws from the same inspiration is up for debate... What isn't is that the two tracks here provide a solid introduction to this Australian-born producer, now based in Berlin via Japan.
Check out On & On above, the full release will be available from Monday on Eskimo Recordings.
Big electro R&B track from LA musician SIVIK. His sound combines a beat-led production style with light, airy vocals as he portrays that initial emotional rush when you first meet someone you are into. In his words:
"High is about the beginning stages of attraction and lust when you first meet someone you're into ... The following songs that will be released in this collection will describe what happens next....so look for that!"
This has Been on my list to post for a few days - sadly sometimes life gets in the way! The new track from Glastonbury residents Dive In is way too good to sleep on though.
There are plenty of dream-like pop melodies to this track - sounding like Ben Gibbard fronting M83, it's all emotes, all the time. The band take inspiration from the epic PPP of classic bands like Genesis and the Police. Apparently they are both okay to cite as references now. The world has a funny way of catching you off guard like that.
In the words of frontman Matthew Guttridge, "Eighteen was born from a loop pedal jam in our old residence ... it was inspired by another day of watching the village's festival fences go up. It was the product of excitement and the, what some may call delusional idea that we could one day amount to the successes of the bands/aritsts that descend upon our village each year."
Check out Eighteen below and look out for the EP of the same name, mixed by Alan Moulder and due out on 25 May through Vagrant. It's a short but infectious rush of a release.
I accidentally stumbled across this remix of Niia's track Body today and I'm oh so glad I did... Both the original and the remix are great - the latter adds a lovely lazy Sunday feel and I can't get enough of it! Remix first, original after...