Romantic States - The Fourth

DJ Nerd42 - Deltron 3742 (2011)

Bandcamp

9.3

/Mash-up, Plunderphonics, Cut and paste, Sampledelic, Urban music, Hip-hop, Sound collage, Experimental hip-hop, Avant-hop/

Comment: future-hop? Sci-fi-hop? Dystop-hop? First of all, it is a gem of great beats (made from sampling Final Fantasy VII soundtrack), tense milieus and stoned yet hypnotizing lyrics (by Deltron 3030). Indeed, aliens come over to conquer the streets. Or are these people to mask and fight their eternal war forward? In fact, the future is now.

Ielangir - planet's end, planet's elegy (2011)

Tsukimachi
Bandcamp

9.5

/J-pop, Shibuya-kei, Dream pop, Toytronica, Easy listening, Nu-jazz, Experimental indie/

Comment: wow, it is undoubtedly a crafty set of 4 tracks. More concretely, it mostly balances between jazz-alike standards and amusingly infantile shibuya-kei-ish gliding. It chimes and twists incessantly. Like a dream having no possibility to be matched in your brain and glias. In conclusion, such soundscape could make your day...and your tomorrows as well. And improves you to be reborn and get a better person too. Seriously.

Polyvinyl - Sampler (2011)

Polyvinyl

8.0

/Indie pop, Experimental indie, Alternative pop/rock, Art pop, Shoegaze/

Comment: Polyvinyl has been the home place for many important indie artists. The label celebrated its 15-year anniversary this year. Here are represented the likes of Deerhoof, Of Montreal, Xiu Xiu, Architecture In Helsinki, Asobi Seksu, Japandroids and many others. Indeed, enjoy and pay tribute to Polyvinyl either.

Lizard Kisses - Pinch

Matt Stevens - Relic (2011)

Bandcamp
Lastfm

9.3

/Experimental rock, Art-rock, Post-rock, Math rock, Progressive rock, Experimental electronica/

Comment: if someone would be able to have a bird`s-eye view upon this 10-track albumthen this would just be entitled as post-rock. Actually it has much more to be hidden for the tight sight above and below the layers. For instance, flamenco-infected guitar arpeggios are merged with sublime dance-appealed cadences which in turn are blurred with lofty advance making to be transmitted to progressive rock/and math rock now and then. Futhermore, it incorporates the concepts of biting wave-edit techniques/digital noise. However, the Londoner Matt Stevens`s approach resembles a bit of the doings by the Mancunian Vini Reilly (Durutti Column) - could you remember for those easy, flyaway guitar chords conjuring up the whiffs of magic and free spirited grits around the listener. A potent result undoubtedly.

Wolfredt - Wolfredt (2011)

Bandcamp

8.8

/Shoegazetronica, Post-rock, Indietronica, Experimental indie, Alternative, Leftfield/

Comment: behind Wolfredt hides himself Margus Voolpriit (born in 1973) who has been known as the drummer in some eminent Estonian indie combos (Dreamphish; Pia Fraus) throughout 90`s and 00`s. Regarding Wolfredt he has traded drums and kits to guitars and electronic devices. He makes his vista up with the help of rising, atmospherical guitars, pulsating electronics, a few sonic effects, which ultimately provides enough aesthetical joy and relaxing ambience. Stylistically it mostly veers away indietronica, post-rock, and electronic shoegaze. The last track is a cover version of a track of Picnic, an indie group consisting of a couple of the previous members of Dreamphish (indeed, the issue needs more for such sort of lush (female) vocal lines provided by Marju Taukar aka Marjusass).