Pretty Lights - Unreleased 2010 Remixes (2011)

The Pretty Lights

8.7

/Hip-hop, Electronic pop, Funk, Urban music, Remixes, Club dance, Live session/

Comment: The cult dance music figure Derek Vincent Smith from Colorado is back again, more detailly, this time having joyously remixed the luminaries such as Pink Floyd, Jay Z, Kanye West, James Brown and others during a gig in the end of 2010 in Chicago. No doubt, this live session was fulfilled with hypnotic gear frequencies, cinematic samples, psychedelic synth cores and fluttering digital funk frames, as the final result, the album only strenghtens his reputation as a magical beat wizard.

The Home Stretch - The Home Stretch (2010)

Giant Manilow

Lastfm

8.4

/Lo-fi, DIY, Alternative pop, Electro-indie, Experimental indie, Avant-garde, Psychedelic/

Comment: Ben Churchill-headed project and by his friends (Gentle Friendly; Noise Jordan) assisted record is a quite weird output consisting of prettily flowing AOR-pop and lo-fi/DIY-esque guitar strumming and at times primitive pop approach over to electro-pop drives and J-pop glimpses. Besides all of those described above, however, the album does have more obscure and vanguard-ish, into darkness sinking and elemental noise-infiltrated characteristics as well. A convincing result.

Syd Lane - Hypatia (2011)

Quixodelic
Bandcamp
Lastfm

9.0

/Dream folk, Alt-folk, Drone folk, Noir folk, Singer-songwriter, Psychedelic, Slowcore, Experimental folk, Indie folk, Folk indie, New Weird Europe/

Comment: Firstly I shall have to express my bewilderment about how underrated have the issues by this fairy-alike singer-songwriter been so far. Yet, she has released 8 albums during past 7 years and got 365 listening times at Lastfm to date, yet, her songs are not a kind of arty-farty posing but solidly built-up oeuvres. In true, her side projects (with Jeremiah James) like The Loaded Whispers and Chansons De Geste have been a bit more successful ones. However, this time she has been assisted via some guitar solos and mastering by Jason Raspa (Frogville) and the recent release reflects upon diverse aspirations (as it earlier used to be as well). For instance, from the organ-backed slow motion a la Beach House and rigid, organ-droning folk conceptualization a la Fursaxa to slightly psychedelic yet heartbreaking, growing folk songs a la The Wind Whistles and the borders of noir folk will have crossed many times in her contemplative sadness as well. In a nutshell, the concept makes obvious withdrawals from the realm of urban life to be drowned into omnipotentious bucolic idyll for.

Beko_ lsr 01/10/11 (2011)

Beko DSL

9.2

/Neokrautrock, Chillwave, Lo-fi, DIY, No wave, Avant-pop, Experimental indie, Electronic pop, Poptronica, Psych-pop, Ambient/

Comment: This is a hilarious compilation by Beko DSL, including the artists like Dirty Beaches, Wet Hairs, Gremlinz, Jeans Wilder, Terror Bird and other ones. Those 11 tracks are an example of riding on the beauty of imperfectness, searching for a tight connection between lo-fi/DIY-esque experimental-biased aesthetics and gorgeous melody hooks and harmonic sense. Lots of hints at diverse genres and (innovative) pop eras are presented here, yet, first of all, this is an idiosyncratic brooding of nowadays angst in a nutshell.

Shattered Darlings and Liquid Kisses - Chick Pop Vocals (2010)

Nana Records
Archive.org

8.9

/Alternative rock, Fuzz rock, Psychedelia, Noise rock/

Comment: Having listened to some of the releases by this NY-based group I think I can guess that the members of SDLK have spent much of their time while listening to the albums of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine respectively. This time those 4 tracks are filled in with dynamical, almost fusible guitar glides, fuzz-backed psychedelia drive, thereby being at the recent moment much closer to their famous fellow townsgroup than to any shoegaze-hued glimpse sets. Indeed, it is rock`n`roll on its own purity and potency.

Inca Gold - Inca Gold (2011)

Bandcamp
Lastfm

8.7

/Alternative rock, Psychedelic pop, Soft rock/

Comment: The debut issue by this London-based group is filled in with mainstream appealed pop rock touch and and subtle pop psychedelia. Yet, this is positioned out far enough from chillwave and drone pop notches as was claimed at some music sites so far. First of all, it sounds similar to the likes of Keane, The Doves and early Coldplay. More detailly, moving on space-y mode via vast and almost unbounded synth progressions, it makes out as beautiful pop album really worth be detected for a follow-up.

Ostenvegr's Travel - Crossing the Wild Wild "Oak Wood" (2010)

Jamendo

7.5

/Field recordings, Synth pop, Electronic pop, New Age, Crossover, Mood music/

Comment: This 6-track album is apparently a simulacrum of nature sounds, mixed above the borders of electronic/synth pop, new age-esque plectrums, and Morricone-esque film scores. The last influence is pleasingly brought forth at Moonlight (chapter V) and Outro (chapter VI).

Lowercase Noises - Ambient Songs (2010)

Bandcamp

8.7

/Ambient, Guitar ambient, Ambient rock, Post-rock, Minimal, Post-shoegaze, Epic, Instrumental rock/

Comment: Lowercase Noises is Andrew Othling who has released four albums during last years. Ambient Songs is written and taken onto tape with one shoot during live sessions. Anyway, this is a long-running issue with long-running tracks incessantly carrying on guitar based chords and elaborations, which ideological roots harken back to the mid 90`s, more detailly, to the Slowdive`s last album Pygmalion which did have nothing common with their shoegaze sound yet, and the reflection of still life conjured up by Pan American for instance.

Roberto Daglio - Bigbossa (2010)

Jamendo

8.4

/Nu jazz, Acid jazz, Chillout, Mood music, Fusion, Soul funk, Funk jazz/

Comment: This release of 7 tracks may become a classic one once. Made by a 52 year-old Italian bass player, however, who is intended to get a journey through lots of genres and making masterful dodges from soothing jazz and soul funk to chillout and downbeat, reminiscent of the workouts by Weather Report and 80`s Miles Davis and Morricone-esque blissful milieus (Ray Of Light; New World).

Antonina - Pakike (2010)

Bandcamp

8.6

/Poptronica, Chillwave, Remixes, Deep house, Fusion, Electro-house, Club dance/

Comment: Antonina is one of the flagships of nowadays new wave bands from Estonia with Music For Your Plants, Maria Minerva, and Laulan Sinule among others, loving to exploit and blend the details of poptronica, indie pop, chillwave, and the milieu of 80`s Soviet pop era. Herein are two original tracks, one of them (Pakike) is solidly remixed by three Estonian club dance gearheads, more concretely, veering from electro-house to deep house and fusion-infused shimmerings. A decent single with all the additional stuff indeed.