This is easily the best music video I've seen in a while... The shoot occurred in a swimming pool in the middle of winter (gutsy enough) and the plan was for a single take video of the song being sung under water (very gutsy). It took a fairly hefty 15 aborted takes before they managed it and even on the succesful cut the singer Simon still almost drowned (you can see him run out of breath at the end of the second verse)!
Still, spectacular and a pretty good track too!
Paracosm is Ernest Greene's second full-length album as Washed Out and he's back together with producer Ben Allen. At first glance it may feel a little bit like business as usual for Greene, one of the first break-through acts from the chill-wave scene and along with Toro y Moi, one of its most successful alumnus.
Unlike Toro y Moi, Greene is yet to stray significantly from the genre that broke him, and Paracosm isn't set to change that. Everything contained within this album is wrapped up in the same dreamy ice cream sundae feel that Washed Out are known for. But that isn't to say this is a simple sequel to debut Within and Without, which itself felt like an extended and widescreen version of Life of Leisure (albeit with all new material). For every moment that feels familiar (the opening verse of 'All I Know' ploughs recognisable territory) there are moments that mark an expansion of Greene's sound.
The Washed Out approach has deliberately been changed up on Paracosm, embracing a range of instruments beyond his standard synth and computer combo. More than 50 different instruments feature on the album including a wide range of vintage keyboards, such as the Mellotron, which was featured on the Beatles' 'Strawberry Fields' and was constructed using pre-recorded sounds, with individual notes recorded for each key in the chromatic scale.
The result is an album that feels even dreamier, but grounded via a deeper sense of nostalgia that feels like the accumulation of dust in the groove of a record player and faded photography from your youth, like authentic versions of those hipster Instagram photos belched out into the world at a rate that dwarfs everything else the human race has ever created up until now. Of course, Paracosm isn't old or dusty, and so in some ways it is just the aural equivalent of those Instagram shots itself, only Washed Out feels modern and psychedelic at the same time.
In adding instruments to his second album Greene has added a crucial depth to his music, but it comes laced with complexity and a certain darkness. 'It All Feels Right' is trodden in grit and spectral patterns that create a spellbinding concoction, a little like Röyksopp remixing Tame Impala covering the Beta Band. 'Don't Give Up' reflects the inclusive DJ styles of the long-mourned Avalanches and, even closer still, Boards of Canada. Its analogue and manages to be boyant in it's willingness to place a bet on rusty production and elegant touches.
Where chill wave felt spent and empty Paracosm is richer. Faced with some subtle yet significant changes it is perhaps the future that is the most exciting element of Washed Out's new album.
Paracosm is out now on Weird World, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP or MP3 [affiliate links].
Holy Ghost's new release picks up where their somewhat brilliant last release, 'Dumb Disco Ideas', left off.
This is similarly dumb and fun disco inspired pop but where 'Dumb Disco Ideas' was sassy with its excessively punky synths and Arthur Russell-style moog 'Teenagers In Heat' is far less aloof. There is an intensely melodic nature to this track - listening to it is like mainlining Wham! bars whilst listening to Yellow Magic Orchestra.
The pitch-adjusted synths zip along atop a chugging drum beat and ridiculously rapid hi-hats whilst a series of bells ring out a melody that grants the track a Japanese feel. It's ridiculously over the top but it is precisely this fact that makes it as enjoyable as it is - and the instrumental version only emphasises how extreme the track is. It might not have quite the long-lasting appeal of Holy Ghost!'s best work, but it's pretty likeable all the same.
The new album from Holy Ghost!, Dynamics, is out on DFA on 10 September. Check out the video for 'Teenagers In Heat' below or download the track for free from Soundcloud.Holy Ghost! drop a new single.
Slouch-garage-rock from Chicago Illinois band The Orwells here on this video for 'Who Needs You'. The track is lifted from the forthcoming National Anthem / East End Records release, due 9 September.
David Sitek produces this lead track and it's a surprisingly rough & ready sound for him, though not too far from his early (and more recent) Yeah Yeah Yeahs production work.
You can catch the band on tour next month:
Youngblood Brass Band are a ten-piece acoustic jazz punk funk band who are set to launch their fourth album, Pax Volumi, in September. Originally formed in the 1990s by school friends in Wisconsin the band now encompasses members from all over the US, including Madison, New Orleans, New York, Nashville, Minneapolis and Chicago.
The second single lifted from the forthcoming album, Ain't Nobody opens with the title track of the EP, an instrumental cover of the Chaka Khan original which is launched into with much aplomb and no small amount of passion. The band lay down the track with intensity but in a relatively traditional approach compared to the rest of this release. There's a huge amount of energy though and the track really demonstrates the group's musical ability.
The second track on side-a, 'Ê la ê', is more influenced by hip-hop, a summer-celebrating Latin-jazz party track. It's another instrumental that displays the band's strong percussive skills and also lays in some electronic components that give the track a fresh, modern feel despite the fairly timeless nature of its main hook.
The final track, 'The Plank Will Nod And You Will Go' is featured in both instrumental and original flavours. It is here that the Youngblood Brass Band show off their real contemporary edge, with Henzie-Skogen delivering some ferocious vocals that sound a little like Rage Against The Machine's Zack de la Rocha. His delivery alternates between somewhat subdued in the verses to an upbeat and aggressive scatter-gun delivery in the choruses that forces the music to break into a run just to keep up. Overall it's an interesting and varied release and a promising taster of that forthcoming album.
Ain't Nobody is released on Tru Thoughts on 12 August, available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link].