Chairlift
The big blog buzz of the week (besides Lana Del Rey think pieces of course) is for Chairlift’s second album Something, a gratifying collection of ’80s synth and new wave sounds paired with Caroline Polachek’s singularly strong pop vocals. Just don’t mention the name.
Listen to the album on Soundcloud
Miike Snow feat. Lykke Li
Superproducers Miike Snow return with fellow Swede Lykke Li for the atmospheric and building arpeggiated synth tune Black Tin Box. It’ll appear on their second album Happy To You in March.
Tennis
First capturing the attention of bloggers in 2010 with their “couple live on a boat and make music while sailing the Atlantic” shtick, Tennis are back with a second album of more full bodied breezy indie pop songs. Set sail.
facebook.com/tennisinc
No Ceremony
Reverberating piano chords and twisted vocals combine to devastating and uplifting effect in HurtLove, the disintegrating new single from Manchester’s No Ceremony.
The best music on the web this week…
Iggy Azalea
She’s been called the Australian Nicki Minaj. She’s also been called the Australian Kreayshawn. She’s also been called a “femcee”. Let’s not utter that word ever again. Time will tell on that who she really ends up like but for now, enjoy her bad-attitude rap style on My World.
Santigold
Santi White is back with a block-rocking frenetic new single called Big Mouth in which she calls out Lady Gaga and appears alongside her awesome SG1 dancers in a crudely animated video. Santigold > M.I.A.
SlowPlaceLikeHome
Keith Mannion from Ballyshannon in Donegal is the lone creator behind SlowPlaceLikeHome, a project of rich instrumental electronic music which could be described as expansive, pensive and seductive. Music to watch fields by.
Alt-J
Described by one music blogger as “the dubstep of indie-rock” and counter-acted by The Blue Walrus with “pigeon-hole these Leeds boys at your peril”, Alt-J are actually ambitious in doing their own unique thing. One of this year’s ones to watch…
Cold Specks
Canadian born folk via Alan Lomax field recordings from the young Al Spx, whose voice has a rich blues, soul and folk heritage.
soundcloud.com/coldspecks
The Beatles 8-Bit
After tackling the music of Kraftwerk in chiptune form, the Gameboy-obsessed 8-Bit Operators are back with a collection of Beatles covers called Wanna Hld Yr Handheld, Vol. 1 which focuses on the avant-garde and electronic side of the Fab Four.
Nujabes
Jun Seba, a Japanese producer who sadly died in a car crash last year has posthumously released his final album Spiritual State of uplifting instrumental music to much acclaim.
hypem.com/artist/Nujabes
WZRD
Rapper Kid Cudi has been immersing himself in punk rock of late and his WZRD project and collaboration with Dot Da Genius and Brake is the first taster of that absorption with its stoner rock histrionics.
Listen at Earmilk
A$AP Rocky
Throw yo’ dolla signs up. The news of a $3 million record contract proceeded the arrival of A$AP Rocky, a Harlem rapper with a Southern rap style whose LiveLiveA$AP mixtape featuring the tracks Pe$o and Purple Swag has made him the most hyped rapper around.
asapmob.com
Florence covers Drake
Florence Welch shows her love for the title track from the Canadian rapper’s North American chart-topping Take Care album. The original features production from Jamie xx as well as vocals by Rihanna. Florence’s version injects it with her typically airy orchestral arrangements.
Listen / Watch at When The Gramophone Rings
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The 100 Greatest Dance Records
Starting at 1965, DJ History compiles a century of songs that are the finest examples of making people move comprising of artists like Shirley Ellis, James Brown, Donna Summer, The Clash, Model 500, Underworld and Major Lazer. There’s also a Spotify playlist.
http://www.djhistory.com/features/100-greatest-dance-records
Kool Thing
From Sydney and Dublin via Berlin comes Julie Chance and Jon Dark armed with synthesizers, guitar and an art-dance ethos. Listen to The Sign and wait for it to kick in. Gratifying.
bit.ly/koolthing
First Rate People
Someone Else Can Make A Work Of Art is a gentle and catchy dance-rocking tune from Canadians First Rate People. The technical term is an earworm. The whole EP is also a free download from Bandcamp and it includes the uplifting autotune-assisted Summer Job.
firstratepeople.bandcamp.com
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New Build
Members of Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem team up with Planningtorock for a new musical project in the form of a distinctly bright pop band who release a very limited three-track EP this month.
Tennis
The nautical-loving Denver couple return from the high seas of, ahem the recording studio with new material from their second album, the delightful singalong Origins.
Lethal Dialect
Irish rap continues to improve with this Blanchardstown rapper and his professionally-done video for the knowledge-dropping Keep It Real.
Emeli Sandé x Disclosure
Underage Londoners remix rising Scottish R&B singer Sandé and the result is a post-dubstepping club pop hit.
Tipped by the always on the money pop blog and label Neon Gold, NYC producer St. Lucia’s We Got It Wrong sounds like the Pet Shop Boys put through a modern electro-pop filter.
Celebrated masked rapper teams up with Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke for the unfortunately-named Retarded Fren for Lex Records’ 10th anniversary album Complex.
Two Different Ways is a twisting and pulsing dark and long live band techno jam that sounds made for warehouse parties. The London trio’s single comes out via James Murphy and all at DFA Records this month.
A bumping pop song with iridescent brass samples and floaty synths, Don’t Move marks the return of New York duo Phantogram with their Nightlife EP.
Already huge in his native Australia, Goyte’s single collaboration with Kiwi singer Kimbra Somebody That I Used To Know has racked up over 13 million views since July yet his album Making Mirrors isn’t released here until February officially. Check out the second single Easy Way Out, a Beck-esque fuzz number for a idea of Wally De Backer’s depth. Yes, that’s his real name.
19 year-old London hopeful releases a second single of nuanced dark-gilded electro-pop with Nuclear Seasons, the verse of which sounds like No Doubt’s Just a Girl.
CharliXCX – Nuclear Seasons by charlixcx
A French/Finnish duo who have had success in the French charts, The Dø are hoping their new second album Both Ways Open Jaws will do it abroad too. Have a listen to the tribal powerhouse of single Slippery Slope to judge for yourself.
This Dublin-based 21 year-old producer from West Somerset in England has quietly released five EPs of high-quality ambient and electronic music. One to watch.
