BENGELA

(via XLR8R)

Let's be for real -- this shit bangs. Brey's record Brasil drops March 19 on Svetlana Industries. Check a sampler below.

CRYSTAL CAVERNS 1991

Intense new Lone track for stream from the R&S Records Soundcloud. "Crystal Caverns 1991" is from Lone's new record Galaxy Gardens, out soon on R&S. Thanks to XLR8R for the tip on this one - they call it a "logical progression" from his last two records, which means Lone has returned with his euphoric club batteria intact.




There's also this little ambient piece from Lone's Soundcloud:




And this Model 500 track from R&S Soundcloud is killer.

OH MERCY

Psyched on this new Food Pyramid track and their migration into tight dance territories. This move has been brewing for a while but really got spicy with their recent Kollider/Kontraband 7" split with Deep Earth. Both contributions to that split are pulsing monoliths of danced-up kraut. The Deep Earth portion is decidedly more cosmic and can be streamed/downloaded below, but I suggest tracking down the 7" to enjoy the A-side as well.

"Oh Mercy" is from Food Pyramid's new LP/CD Mango Sunrise, out March 6 on Moon Glyph. Stream that below and pre-order the record

I'VE GOT FEELINGS TOO

Killer new Soundcloud streamer from Slava. "I've Got Feelings Too" is from Slava's Soft Control EP, out next week on Software.

GENEVIEVE

Hippos In Tanks will release White Car's Everyday Grace on February 28 (cover art above). White Car is Elon Katz. I posted about his Tomb of Transition EP last year. Check out two tracks from the record below plus "Genevieve," a recent digital single (via No Conclusion). FACT recently spoke to some of my favorite dualities in Katz's music, its ability to balance "metal and flesh, pleasure and pain." Psyched to hear the new record.


White Car - She The Bodiless

White Car - Now We Continue


GENEVIEVE by White Car

ICON GIVE THANK

Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras, & The Congos - Happy Song by RVNG Intl.

PARTICLE LANGUAGE

Last time I mentioned Portland multi-instrumentalist Matt Carlson it was in the context of Golden Retriever, the duo of Carlson and Jonathan Sielaff. More specifically, I spoke on last year's Emergent Layer cassette on NNA Tapes, a killer piece of synthesizer stutter and cavernous clarinet. Carlson's 2012 starts off right with his debut vinyl release Particle Language, out now on Draft Records. M.K. Youngblood posted “The Perceptron” for stream on Visitation Rites so check that out then sample some highlights from all the free Matt Carlson material I've digested over the past few days below. Now I wait patiently to year that entire Golden Retriever record Thrill Jockey released last year that I didn't hear about til now (album preview also below).


Matt Carlson - Warped Geometry

Matt Carlson - American Standard

golden retriever - light cones (album preview) by experimedia

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PREVIOUSLY:


Golden Retriever - Tumuli

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ALSO:

Check this live Golden Retriever set shot for Portland's Experimental ½ Hour.

Experimental ½ Hour - Episode XXI: Golden Retriever & The Cysts from Experimental ½ Hour on Vimeo.

AFRI-COLA

I've been enjoying one of Coyote Clean Up's alternate Soundclouds called My Coca Afri-Cola over the past week or so, getting lost in the extended spans of gauzy house and techno. As if on cue, I caught word last night that CCU will be releasing Frozen Solid sometime soon on 100% Silk. Check the video below for album track "At Home" in addition to some of my favorites from the Afri-Cola Soundcloud.




blonde aztec by my coca-africola

dream_girls by my coca-africola

lobster energy by my coca-africola

TARO

Killer new Ssaliva jam uploaded to Soundcloud. While this one does not appear on his new record RZA (out Monday January 16 on Vlek Records), it is certainly not lacking. "Taro" is built on a screwed carnival slap, a would-be banger if not for the drugged swirling. Note the once-machinegunned-but-now-sluggish hi-hat rolls.


TARO by ssaliva

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Speaking of RZA, the whole record is now available for stream. Check a couple of my favorites below, including a remix by Sagat, then grab outtake "Drugged Out Quest" at XLR8R.


A3 - Trimensional by vlek

A4 - B Adventures by vlek

Ssaliva - Night Landing (SAGAT Remix) by vlek

GREEN CHILD

I posted about Bill Gillim a.k.a. Megafortress and his synthesizer/voice work one time a-year-minus-ten-days ago. The past 12 months saw no new tunes from Gillim. If you assumed he was hard at work on new material, you were correct -- Software is set to release his new self-titled record at the end of this month. The label has offered up a stream of album track "Green Child" in addition to the promise of four video collaborations with video artist Grant Nitsch, one for each track on the EP. Last year Nitsch put together video for Megafortress piece "Freedom From Fear." Excited to experience more of their audiovisual mixers.


Megafortress - Green Child by softwarelabel

Megafortress – Freedom from Fear from Grant Nitsch on Vimeo.

SEWER GOO

salted slugs - tie dye mutant dog boy from SURF KILL on Vimeo.

Somehow missed this Cupp Cave + Dynooo + Salted Slugs (Cupp Cave/Dynooo collab) Sewer Goo EP from last year. There's videos for each song. My favorites are above and below. The other two are here. Apparently there's still vinyl copies left for purchase. Thanks Surf Kill.

dynooo - onion funck from SURF KILL on Vimeo.

SAVAAN

New Ssaliva record RZA drops January 16 on Vlek Records. The label is revealing the record track by track on Soundcloud. Vlek is also giving away a copy of the EP for "Liking" them on Facebook. The packaging looks beautiful, all hand-screenprinted and embossed by DimRun, Vlek's graphic designer.

Ssaliva - Savaan / VLEK06 - "RZA" from Vlek Records on Vimeo.

VLEK06 - Ssaliva - Unveiled Tracks by vlek

AQUIFER

In daily romps through the internet I have been bombarded with year-end praise for Laurel Halo's six-track Hippos In Tanks release Hour Logic. It is fantastic.

Laurel Halo - Aquifer

Laurel Halo: Hour Logic by alteredzones

TRAGEDY

Feel like such a dorkus for passing over these three recent Jesselisa Moretti clips for Leaving Records associates Julia Holter, Sumsun and Speculator. The three are all very different, Holter's teetering between chaos and zen, Sumsun's being a wild collaboration with Miko Revereza and Speculator's playing out like a goofy Saturday morning cartoon bump complete with what I believe to be cereal. For those keeping track, Speculator's Nice LP is out now on Underwater Peoples and Sumsun's Samo Milagro tape has been out on Leaving for a while. Holter's Tragedy is available on vinyl record from Leaving with sleeve designed by Moretti. The second pressing of 500 ships next week.

RAIN SOURCE

I've been hopelessly obsessing over the new-ish Future Shuttle record Water's Edge, out now on Intercoastal Artists/Holy Mountain. The album is a serious space trip, with multiple sources likening it to Tangerine Dream. However, my favorite passages seem to cite Slowdive's more ambient groovers (the sound of a spaceship floating and rotating meaninglessly) while capturing an essence I refer to as "Peaking Lights sans air-of-hippie" which may as well be a whole genre itself dubbed "Space Hippie" where one can make music as a hippie but they're way out in space (also referred to as "Far Out") so no one can smell that burnt-ass reefer cos there's no fucking oxygen up there, homie.

Stream the whole thing below and watch the video and download the demos and then just buy the 12", yeah?


Future Shuttle: Water's Edge by alteredzones

FUTURE SHUTTLE - Fields Of Dreams from Future Shuttle on Vimeo.

REPLICA

(credit: Joyce Nelson via iPad)

As I sit here sipping Bud Lite Lime eating a small amount of fun sized candy contemplating the past weekend's unfortunate snow-and-car-related events, I can't imagine a more perfect soundtrack than the three songs that have been made available for public listening from Oneohtrix Point Never's new album Replica, out soon on Software. I dug the first drop, "Sleep Dealer," and am teetering on the edge of obsession with "Nassau," the newest Replica bite. A jerky affair, "Nassau" skates around the skipping sound of "Sleep Dealer" but sounds more like machines and weather and NFL football. Check out all the stuff below including the Hype Williams directed mini-video.



Oneohtrix Point Never - 'Nassau' by BOILER ROOM

Oneohtrix Point Never - Sleep Dealer by Mexican Summer

Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica by Mexican Summer




EDIT:

You can now stream the whole album.


Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica by Mexican Summer

COSMONAUTES FUNK FOR 2 JOYSTICKS

The fantastic Vlek Records has just announced the release of AMAI 3, the third in a series of four 7" split/compilation records following groupings of Dem Hunger + Cupp Cave and Squeaky Lobster + Lapti. This time around the 7" features three artists as opposed to the usual two: DZA (Russia), Herrmutt Lobby (Belgium) and Richard Colvaen (Belgium). I know next to nothing about any of these guys, but all three tracks are streaming from Soundcloud and each one is Autumn-crisp, futuristic and mighty severe.

VLEK05/A - AMAI3/4 ft. DZA, Herrmutt Lobby & Richard Colvaen by vlek

Pre-orders ship October 31, official release two weeks later November 14. Oh, and the 7" sleeves are printed in either gold or glow-in-the-dark ink. Dope.

Also there's this video for the Richard Colvaen track that I don't care too much for.

Also I quickly checked out DZA's Soundcloud and this demo was sittin pretty right on top:

dza - Feel sexual (demo) by DZA

ANGELS IN AMERICA

I've been sort of obsessed with the creepy new Angels In America album Narrow Road To The Interior, out now on Ehse Records. Inside we find AIA's female half Moppy Pont mumbling out spoken word terror over tense horror flick atmospheres, complete with dank, foggy drips and scratches from somewhere off in the distance. The entire record sounds pained, as if the spoken musings were squeezed up through Moppy's throat against her own will, like a near-empty tube of toothpaste gripped hard by a possessing force.

However, my favorite track is the least dark of the bunch. "Follow Me Out" actually sounds hopeful next to all the grey coffin sounds spread over the rest of the record, like dawn breaking on a mass grave where the falsely-presumed-dead are squirming their way out between the accurately-presumed-dead. Narrow Road To The Interior is available for free download and for purchase on vinyl LP and CD. A bunch more AIA material is available for free download from the Free Music Archive including a live WFMU set from last month.



Angels In America - Follow Me Out

FLEER ULTRA

So Stephen Bruner a.k.a. Thundercat is this berserk bass player who is something like Flying Lotus's protege and he also plays in Suicidal Tendencies (I know, right) and he has played on the last couple Erykah Badu records and he's all set to release his Flying Lotus-produced debut solo record The Golden Age Of Apocalypse through Brainfeeder (where else?) on August 30. The length of the album is a gorgeous blend of bubbling jazz fusion and soulful space age electronics, an essential listen for anyone who needs to just chill out and get a grip. The record's most serious soul bleeds through in his George Duke cover "For Love I Come," melting pants off during the song's sensual opening with mischievous bass fingerings then really picking up in the second half where the drummer kicks in. I wish I could share my favorite tracks with you ("Fleer Ultra" and "It Really Doesn't Matter To You" are a couple), but all the label is offering is the Duke cover so enjoy that and then buy the record next week.



Thundercat - For Love I Come

INNERCITY / DIAMOND CATALOG

NNA Tapes officially got into releasing vinyl records this past spring with the Magnified Palette 12" from Diamond Catalog, a.k.a. Hubbard, Oregon's Lala Conchita R. and Pat Maherr (a.k.a. DJ Yo Yo Dieting, a.k.a. Indignant Senility, etc). The duo craft a dark version of dance music blurred to obscurity behind chugging electronics and haunted whizzes of noise, crossing way more into danceable territories on this years record than on their last tape We Are 138BPM. NNA has offered up "Valveneration" for free download. Also check out the promotional video featuring an alternate version of album cut "Aries Vieweight."


Diamond Catalog - Valveneration





Now NNA is set to release their second slice of vinyl, Innercity's "Dada Les Apocalypses" / "The Pyramids Of Northeast Belgium" 7" on August 29. Innercity is Hans Dens from Belgium. He has releases on labels like Not Not Fun and Upstairs CDR, though I have heard none of his previous work. "The Pyramids Of Northeast Belgium" melds tinkling electronics, new age swells and distant house propulsion into a soothing yet alien take on mutant psychedelia.



Innercity - The Pyramids of Northeast Belgium