We’re excited to give you all a first view at the new video for Clu‘s “Evening Ever”, the moniker of the two Dublin-based producers Sean Cooley and Kevin A. Freeney that we stumbled upon last month. Enjoy below.
We’ve had our eyes focused on the rapidly (internet) expanding music scene of Tokyo for a little while now, and it seems that more and more sweet electronic tunes from this pulsating city keep dropping into our inbox. The Fader were perhaps a bit faster on this than us however, pulling one of those never-dying references “My Bloody Valentine-esque shoegaze” in the description of LLLL‘s S/T four-track EP, but whatever: the sky-gazing purity of LLLL is nothing but impressive with its beat loaded production and highly pitched vocals.
Free download via their Bandcamp.
We’ve reported about Chicago synth pop group Golden Birthday‘s forthcoming full-length Blue Island a couple of times over the course of the last twelve months but once in a while, things just need a little longer. In any case, we now finally got a definite release date, and having listened to the whole thing, we can confirm that it was worth the wait.
Below, take an exclusive listen to album standout “Our Love Is Free”, a swirling, expansive six and a half minute ballade that takes quite a few inspirations from mid-eighties high-end charts pop as well as some darker, minor tones of classic era new wave, which both has never been a bad idea. There are some added twists such as subtly distorted vocals and and a nicely shuffling rhythm, which make the song picture perfect for late afternoon daydreams of your half-forgotten high school prom night, when you simply didn’t dare to ask Nancy to dance with you.
Blue Island is out June 26 via Rainbow Body Records.
Co-premiere with Ad Hoc
We’ve been informed that the music of San Gabriel aka Los Angeles resident and Pit Er Pat“>Pit Er Pat co-founder Butchy Fuego has created for his debut Volfe EP shall be labeled “mountain rave”. Now there ain’t any decent mountains anywhere near Berlin, so we cannot evaluate if raving to these tunes high up in thin air enhances the experience in any way, but we can confirm that Fuego achieves a surprisingly massive impact with strikingly few means. With a thick, pounding bass and minimalistic, yet intricate drum patterns, Fuego creates a weird hybrid between R&B and global club music not far from his friends Nguzunguzu, which in short means that you can rave to it just about anywhere.
The Volfe EP is out May 22 via Time No Place.
As reported last Friday, Berlin resident Steven Warwick aka Heatsick will play as a special guest at the upcoming 100% SILK showcase as part of the CTM-initiated Polymorphism concert series at Kater Holzig on June 1.
And we do understand why Amanda Brown is such a big fan of Warwick’s work. Just like last year’s stellar Intersex, his new 12 inch Déviation is all polyphonic playfulness, upbeat and diverse and weird and completely irresistible, with a truly unique approach to electronic dance music. This is disco, but in an original way that most contemporary producers wouldn’t even dream to come up with. Listen to the title track below.
Round number 4: here’s yet another impressive track from our mysterious friend Unknown.
London-based duo Helium Robots will release the debut LP Voltopia via This Is Music on June 11. The second single from the record is “Lacrimosa”, a glittering example of sophisticated British electro pop. You may listen to the original over here – below we have UK producer Brassica‘s excellent take on the track, resulting in six minutes of House extraordinaire.
From the fine tastemakers at Father/Daughter Records, Portland’s redolent 80′s pop duo Pure Bathing Culture will release their S/T EP next Tuesday, and we think you have all reason to be excited. As a little peak of what to expect from next week’s release, listen and download the newly recorded and mastered version of “Silver Shore’s Lake” below.
The vinyl can also be pre-ordered here.
Just so you know, I don’t know. Like I get a mail on my birthday that says I should check out those links when I’m bored. I’m not bored at all. It’s my birthday after all. Still, I check out those links, and they lead me to a Soundcloud that has a post-ironic internet age customer-optimized name which not only namechecks the search engine we use instead of our own brains but that also contains one of those witch house-friendly symbols that in general cause allergic reactions among the NFOP staff. Plus, it turns out to be one of the many semi-anonymous internet age “supergroups”, including, according to Last.fm, “Fr<>ze, I¢y Pharmaceuticals, Party Trash & ƸC†OPL∆SM”, in other words even more artists/bands with freakish symbols instead of old-fashioned letters, and just remember that it’s my birthday so theoretically, as of today I might be too old for this shit. On the other hand, “Hollow” turns out to be quite a decent tune with a nice beat, gloomy yet not that witch house-dripping at all, plus, above all, it features prominent contributions by two absolute NFOP favorites, Top Girls and Coyote Clean Up, so what to do? Right. Post it and let you decide.
After seeing Eric Wahlforss’ outstanding deep electronic project Forss at Berlin’s Berghain last week, we realized that his visual-audio project Ecclesia might perhaps be one of the most exciting releases this year, 9 whole years after his debut album. About 16 hours ago, two brand new tracks from Ecclesia were uploaded on his Soundcloud page, and there is no doubt that this Swedish producer and Soundcloud founder continues to impress us. Listen below.
