The best music on the web this week…
Three musical visionairies combine for a limited vinyl-only release featuring two new songs of atmospheric dubstep and electronic productions.
Listen at Gorilla vs. Bear
Beyoncé’s sister, Twin Shadow and Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor team up for a charity single to raise funds for the Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN), an organisation aiming to bring drinking water to two million people in Africa by 2015.
Written for the movie Win Win, Think You Can Wait is the Brooklyn-based band at their slow-burning best.
The National – Think You Can Wait by weallwantsome1
Whether that’s a band name or a cryptic date-based message is up for debate but there’s no doubting the intrigue is high after their The Knife-esque electro tune He Didn’t Want A Love Song was picked up by music bloggers last week.
By no means is this a definitive list, but it is a list of the 10 best mixtapes we’ve heard in the last eight months or so. There’s plenty to love here. Do tell us if we’ve left anything out.
The cultivation of Ke$ha
Gawker examines how the singer transformed from country singer to rebellious pop-star.
http://short.ie/kesha
Listen to the new Four Tet album
There Is Love In You is streaming now on Soundcloud. The album is released today.
http://short.ie/4tet
The 20 most bizarre Craigslist ads
The popular classified ads site has thrown up some gems over the years, like the robber who stole a woman’s purse and “felt a connection”.
http://short.ie/clist
In which Digital takes a trawl through the music blogosphere to find some overlooked songs and soon to be huge bands.
The constant wave of new bands can be a strain on your ears and that’s where music bloggers can help you separate the wheat from the chaff. Last week, a lot of electronic-leaning bloggers went gaga for the Burial/Four Tet 12” release and rightly so. The two prolific producers have quietly released a collaborative and limited split vinyl of superior quality and the best place to hear it is on the music blogs.
In the new music department, I was most impressed by retro-futuristic dance act Vega’s ‘No Reasons’ which has been gaining some new fans particularly after Gorilla vs. Bear posted it last week. The UK’s Wave Machines funky and sparse tune ‘Keep the Lights On’ is been given away free from their website while the alt-shoegaze of Sweden’s Liechtenstein is a delight if you’re into ’80s-inspired noise pop. Also from IKEA-land, the electro/hip-hop pairing of Lorentz & M.Sakarias are starting to permeate beyond Scandinavia and Ireland’s own MP3hugger is enthused by the 10 minute drone rock of The Chasms. Top of the pile though, especially if you’re into Little Boots and La Roux, is another UK electro-indie-pop girl here to steal your heart. Her name is Ellie Goulding and her cover of Bon Iver’s ‘Woods’ is a scene-stealer.
The term “blog-house” didn’t come into existence for nothing for music blogs are a breeding ground for ambitious new producers and opportunistic DJs looking to exploit the latest hit for their own gain. More often than not, these remixes are transparent but there is always some impressive official reworkings to be found. The Fred Falke near 8 minute remix of the Little Boots single ‘New in Town’ has an epic dance quality not many can muster, Calvin Harris amplifies Passion Pit’s buzz (and his own) with his bassline-heavy remix of ‘The Reeling’ , L.A. duo Classixx improve Phoenix’s ‘Lisztomania’ with their spacey house version and remixers du jour, The Golden Filter add to Empire of the Sun’s already over-subscribed remix trail with this admirable stab.
