Here’s another massive compilation, featuring 21 tracks that made March one of the best months for new artists I’ve seen this year. There’s a bunch of great stuff here from a wide array of bands, featuring unsigned groups with a very bright future (The Twees, Que? Zoo and Dr Skull, Rural Ghosts), those just about to break out (Dent May, Fly Golden Eagle, Deep Sea Diver), and already-successful favorites (Beach House, Lotus Plaza, James Iha, Damon Albarn). There’s a little bit of everything here, and I hope you enjoy it. Springtime finds everything in full bloom, along with the variety of new talents we’ve been treated to. The compilation starts with two funk-disco homages, and then retreats to the ethereal realm of dream-pop. From that point you can find just about everything in between. Enjoy.

01. Dent May – Best Friend (post)
02. Fly Golden Eagle – Take You There (post)
03. Lotus Plaza – Strangers (post)
04. Beach House – Myth (post)
05. Sindie 4 – Antisleep (post)
06. mr. Gnome – The Way (post)
07. James Iha – Summer Days (post)
08. Moonface – Headed For The Door (post)
09. Lower Dens – Propagation (post)
10. Deep Sea Diver – Ships (post)
11. The Twees – Tempermental Health (post)
12. The Smiling Lies – Space Elevator (post)
13. Jessie Baylin – Hurry Hurry (post)
14. Damon Albarn – The Marvelous Dream (post)
15. I Used To Be A Sparrow – Life Is Good (post)
16. New Build – Do You Not Feel Loved? (post)
17. Rural Ghosts – Rural Ghosts (post)
18. Titus Andronicus – Upon Viewing Oregon’s Landscape… (post)
19. Que? Zoo and Dr. Skull – Poem (post)
20. Woods – Wind Was the Wine (post)
21. Dunes – Jukebox Adieu (post)

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The post Obscure Sound: Best of March 2012 appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

Treefight for Sunlight is an apt name for the Danish four-piece. Well, the Sunlight part at least. Their sun-drenched, euphoric harmonies emit every existing positive emotion.  When their eponymous debut album was released earlier this year, I assumed it would be thrown into the spotlight and serve as one of the year’s most praised alternative releases. For reasons that I cannot understand, this was not the case.

When jumping into their unique sound of ecstatic summer pop, it’s easy to think of The Beach Boys, The Zombies, Beach House, and MGMT, all uniting their sounds to create an accessible sense of pop-laden euphoria. They combine falsetto vocals with dreamy compositions that transport you to the happiest place in the world.  They somehow create this magical effect with just their voices, a keyboard, guitar, bass and drums. At this point, I don’t want you to get the wrong impression; they’re not cheesy. They make glorious pop music in a way that still retains rawness and creativity.

Some songs do stand out more than others. Among a few, “What Became of You and I?” always sticks out as a strong number. The precise and tight drumming from Mathias Sørensen puts all focus on the trance-like, catchy melody beautifully carried out by Christian Rohde Lindinger. He also demonstrated the power of his voice when I saw the band live; they played a note-for-note cover of the Kate Bush classic, “Wuthering Heights”. It was phenomenal. “Facing the Sun” was the first single and epitomizes the entire album. Its upbeat tempo and complex rhythms, combined with jovial riffs and catchy vocals, make for a track that never fails to put you in a good mood.

One song is an oddity, in that it isn’t in the same style as the rest of the jolly album. “Tambourhinocerous Jam” is a conciisely dark instrumental, tambourine-based jam. Usually, I would put this down to pure pretentiousness; however it fits in well with the record. It keeps you alert and stops you losing interest in the golden formula that the band seems to have found. Any darkness left from that track is quickly hidden away by the familiar brightness of “Riddles and Rhymes” with its fantastic climax of an ending.

On the whole, Treefight for Sunlight is one that is an instant source of upbeat optimism. From the explosions of pure ecstasy at the start of “The Universe Is a Woman” to the enchanting tone of the guitar in “Facing the Sun”, it is clear that these four young Danes posses huge amounts of talent as instrumentalists and songwriters. Regularly playing and writing music together since they were children has, without a doubt, paid off.

RIYL: The Beach Boys, The Zombies, Beach House, MGMT, Kate Bush, Figurines, Gruff Rhys, Sea of Bees, Wild Nothing, Twin Sister, Tennis, Lower Dens

Treefight for Sunlight – What Became Of You And I?

Treefight for Sunlight – Facing the Sun

Treefight for Sunlight – Time Stretcher

Treefight for Sunlight – Wuthering Heights (live)

Official Site / MySpace / BUY

The post Treefight for Sunlight appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

This site aims to emphasize newer releases, many of which have not been released yet. Several times though, I feel an artist is so criminally under-exposed and relevant to today’s scene that a feature just begs to come out. One of 2010’s most talked-about albums was Twin Shadow’s Forget, a wonderful hybrid of post-punk and synth-pop that accommodated songwriter George Lewis Jr.’s fetishism for Morrissey-inspired emotive new-wave. It attracted glowing acclaim from this site and others, most taking note of Lewis’ ability to make melodically nostalgic music with nods to specific artists who influenced the current indie-rock scene in general. Embracing the most immediate trends in electronic-pop and indie-rock, Forget treads the line between melodramatic romanticism and post-punk angst with beautiful precision. Its tributary cohesion of genres was to be admired, but not as much as the graceful songwriting that accompanied it.

Nicolas Makelberge is essentially what you get would get in a mish-mash between Junior Boys and Twin Shadow. The elusive Stockholm-based duo have gathered a small but steady following since the release of their full-length debut, Dying in Africa, in 2006. The group’s vocals resemble something in the vein of Morrissey or Lewis Jr. with its downcast sobriety, while their music recalls the fascination with swift electro-pop, italo-disco, and atmospheric dance that another duo – Junior Boys – have found success with. Prior to his eponymous project, Makelberge worked as a guitarist for several Swedish indie-rock bands of the ‘90s, but a fascination with electronica and atmosphere turned him on toward a more original path. He named his solo project after himself in 2005 and Johan Tuvesson joined shortly thereafter. The duo’s debut EP, South America, was released later that year; it exposed two standouts from the following year’s Dying in Africa in “So Young” and “South America”.

“So Young” is a near-flawless electro-pop gem in several regards. A thumping electro-bass establishes the lead with a slight snare kick in the back. When the fluttering synth arpeggio appears, the percussion shows its first sign of flexibility. And while the percussion never approaches the mish-mashy intricacy of Junior Boys, it is not a necessity. The work of Nicolas Makelberge is certainly more melodic than it is rhythmic, and this is one of the elements that place it closer to italo-disco and new-wave than the latest crop of electro-poppers. “So Young” is arguably the finest example of the duo’s sheer grasp of melody. The fantastic chorus glistens with a gauzy synth pad, twinkling lead synths, and a sullenly reverbed keys; the latter even resemble fellow Swedes The Tough Alliance to a certain extent. This is especially evident during the final two minutes, when a club-ready synth progresses through several stabs – some monophonic and others polyphonic – to craft a breakdown of epic proportions. Considering the bevy of mediocre pop acts in Sweden climbing the charts, I am shocked that “So Young” never received substantial airplay. It is irresistibly catchy and difficult to criticize.

The self-titled effort from their first EP, “South America”, is a swifter and more pulsating effort that reaches a similar level of infectiousness as “So Young”, albeit with a darker tone. The bass is noticeably heavier and deeper, the synths continuing to glisten but not to the same extent as its effervescent counterpart. Lines like “I’ll drive a fast car in South America” elicit the image of one driving suavely in a convertible as palm trees pass by instantaneously. It is wildly appropriate considering the track’s tendency to maintain consistent repetition throughout, only veering off the road in subtle forms (like the bass alteration around 02:15). It could nearly call itself a precursor to chillwave, though an effort like “Dying in Africa” may be more appropriate for that classification.

With its obvious nods to italo-disco, Dying in Africa’s self-titled effort is clearly one of the album’s strongest. Its stirring synth arpeggio is richly integrated over Tuvesson’s soothing vocals. And even with the occurrence of a hectic drum fill designed for dance floors, the evolving solemn emotions of the track remain in focus. “Love feels so sweet when you’re rejected,” he sings during a beautiful interlude absent of a rhythm section. Before the bass and drums kick back in with the plea of “I can’t get over you”, the music remains entrenched in forms of electronica, but structural twists like these bring to mind Morrissey-idolizing post-punkers. Similarly, the bleakly responsive “If You Knew” offers up lines like “I know you say men are swine, but so are you” over whirring synth pads and contrasting synth lines, easily being the most comparable to Twin Shadow in both lyrical sentiment and musical aim.

For critics that found the style of Dying in Africa to be a one-trick-pony despite its immediate melodic allure, the duo followed up with another full-length, The Unforgettable Planet, last year. Many fans of Dying in Africa were upset to find out that the album included no vocals and was an entirely instrumental effort. Call it an ambitious process or one that was rushed; it is hard to judge whether this was a desperate response to critics or a genuine artistic pursuit. Regardless, it lacks the infectious qualities of Dying in Africa, leaving there much to be desired in its bland arrangements and spotty transitions. Highlights like “The Promiscuity of the Failed Romantic” show glimpses of brilliance, but many of these newer efforts are neither intricate nor interesting enough to serve as instrumental stand-alones. They barely gravitate beyond background music in the most subdued of scenarios. It is not a bad release, just one with a failed premise. If the duo can return to the sparkling and invigorating pop of Dying in Africa, then it should only be a matter of time before Nicolas Makelberge is exposed. In the meantime, their (earlier) material continues to be criminally overlooked.

RIYL: Twin Shadow, Junior Boys, Morrissey, The Tough Alliance, The Russian Futurists, How to Dress Well, Wild Nothing, Toro y Moi, James Blake, The Robot Ate Me, Games, Lower Dens, Baths

Nicolas Makelberge – So Young

Nicolas Makelberge – South America

Nicolas Makelberge – The Promiscuity of the Failed Romantic

Official Site / MySpace / BUY

The post Nicolas Makelberge appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

I plan to start publishing The Top 50 Albums of 2010 feature shortly, in 5-part increments as usual. The site has been somewhat shaky lately though on account of transferring to a dedicated server, and I apologize for that. But the move should prove very beneficial. Since traffic is at its peak whenever the Top 50 is published, I want to get it done before it’s published. The last thing I would want is for the server to crash in the middle of the year’s biggest feature. Also, please let me know what you think of SoundCloud – the java applet appearing at the bottom of posts this month that streams songs. I am considering upgrading to a premium package there, which should provide unlimited downloads and faster loading times. I will only spend the cash though if you guys think it’s worth it; let me know in the comments.

In the meantime, check out the latest compilation. Girls’ new EP, Broken Dreams Club, really impressed me quite a bit, so it makes sense to start it off with the excellent “Alright”. Os Mutantes’ “Caminhante Noturno” was released three decades ago, but they are still making the touring rounds and I had the privilege to see them (with opener Ariel Pink). This is one of their best tracks, in my opinion. The next three artists – Bad Braids, Lord Huron, and Lower Dens – are all quite new, and it looks like they have big years ahead. Their respective releases the past few months have been impressive enough to keep them on the radar. The second half is quite diverse, from popular yet infectious artists like Kid Cudi to post-punk revivalists in the vein of The Soft Moon or Blank Realm. Either way, I hope you enjoy them all, along with the incoming Top 50.

01. Girls – Alright (post)
02. Os Mutantes – Caminhante Noturno (post)
03. Bad Braids – Oh Righteous One (post)
04. Lord Huron – Mighty (post)
05. Lower Dens – I Get Nervous (post)
06. The Russian Futurists – Plates (post)
07. Antonio Paul – City Dreams (post)
08. The Soft Moon – Tiny Spiders (post)
09. Kid Cudi – Scott Mescudi vs. The World (ft. Cee-Lo Green) (post)
10. Blank Realm – Full Moon Door (post)

DOWNLOAD ENTIRE COMPILATION>>> (45.2 MB, .RAR)

The post Obscure Sound: Best of November 2010 appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.

Here we go again. The first “Albums for Autumn” feature went well, providing a good variety of albums new and old that are best suited for autumnal listening. As I said in that post, these albums are recommended to be listened to in their entirety. The MP3 snippets are just to get you going.

Wire – Chairs Missing

Wire’s emergence in the UK almost coincided with The Ramones’ in the U.S.. At such an early stage in punk, both groups were doing interesting but varied things; British punk up-starts like Wire and The Jam played with less urgency and ferocity than American counterparts like The Ramones and The Germs. Despite drawing from the same garage-rock influences and sounding distinctively punk-rock, the artistic choices from both sides of the sea differed enjoyably. Punk fans could give a shit where a quality punk band came from, even though most could tell by sound and subtle style alone whether one was from the U.K. or U.S..

I find Wire to be one of the most fascinating punk groups of them all. Their brilliant debut Pink Flag was the most original debut in first-generation British punk. 21 songs comprised 36 minutes, and Wire did not waste one moment with their brilliantly spontaneous punk-rock minimalism and twisted power-pop. It is their second album though, Chairs Missing, that is my autumnal choice. Just as brilliant as the debut, this 1978 masterpiece found Wire expanding from minimalist punk to fleshed-out, atmospheric post-punk. The brooding development of “French Film Blurred” shows Wire at their darkest, a series of whirring guitar crescendos complementing Colin Newman’s scraggly vocals with brilliant appeal. “Practice Makes Perfect” and “Another the Letter” show the hurried punk minimalism of the debut, but with more expansive development where tempo is slower and ideas are more plentiful.

At times, Chairs Missing resembled psychedelia more than punk. It contained revolutionary production that would serve as a standard for punk-minded innovators, along with arguably the best presentation of Wire one will ever hear. The dark and somber tone of the album, with frosty trickles of guitars and synths prevalent with downcast samples, makes it an ideal album for autumn or winter. The morbidity of the album is enjoyably present in more ways than one, and an amazing album like Chairs Missing wears that on its sleeve well.

Wire – French Film Blurred

Wire – Practice Makes Perfect

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Disco Inferno – D.I. Go Pop

Speaking of Wire, the late-’70s punk greats were a heavy influence on many – including Disco Inferno. The Essex-based quartet also sounded distinctively British, but with the modern bite of sampling and electronic soundscapes to later serve as influences themselves. That is not to say Wire was never proficient in that regard, as another one of their landmark albums – 154 – played with synthesizer-laden production long before it was conventional in punk or rock. You can hear the tinge of punk in Disco Inferno’s work – along with a vocal delivery containing a similarly concise snarl to Wire’s Colin Newman – but the singular originality of both groups is dominant. This is especially true today, where Disco Inferno’s influence can be heard in a wide variety of artists, from Animal Collective to most Damon Albarn projects. If you ever heard Gorillaz’s Iceland tribute “Stop the Dams” then you should have proper expectations for Disco Inferno’s sound. Just add some startlingly innovative and cohesive sample use, with an even higher emphasis on experimentation, and you have the sound of these Brit-pop pioneers.

The select work from Disco Inferno would be their second album, D.I. Go Pop. This 1994 release is sprawling in what makes Disco Inferno so pivotal in molding future indie-rock; their astute grasp of sampling was incomparable at the time among their stylistic niche, and their experimental tendencies never overrode the clever pop hooks that maintained accessibility (note the ironic use of the album title). The sound of crashing waves in both “In Sharky Water” and “Even the Sea Sides Against Us” may bring to mind summer on its own, but when combined with Disco Inferno’s muddled guitar riffs, cold and remote sonar-like keys, and Ian Crause’s half-monotone delivery, one receives a sound more characteristic of autumn. Even on the warmly translucent keys that “Footprint in Snow” thrive on, the blurred production seems to position itself as an actual forerunner on “chillwave” genres associated with the likes of Neon Indian, Washed Out, and others. Their ornate instrumentation nearly hides itself under fragmented bits of rhythms and sampes, always meshed in a sort of serene quality best characterized as a cross between idiosyncratic post-rock and early shades of lo-fi pop.

Disco Inferno are far from a lo-fi band, but the cloaking of their intricacies with regard to the prevalence of hooks makes it seem as such. D.I. Go Pop is not one of those conventional autumn albums – like Van Morrison with his naturally progressive allure – but the mood and atmosphere of Disco Inferno within certainly fit well. Enjoy this one with an Imperial Stout as the leaves start to change colors, and then the album should begin to unfold beautifully.

Disco Inferno – Footprints in Snow

Disco Inferno – Even the Sea Sides Against Us

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Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights

I know, I know. You already heard this album, saw the band follow it up with a number of disappointments, and put it in the back of your mind. That does not take away from Turn on the Bright Lights being one of the top-three indie-rock debuts of the past decade. For the only time in their career, Interpol was able to diversify themselves from the hordes of Joy Division imitators, who shamelessly rip off Peter Hook’s concisely impactful bass lines or Stephen Morris’ hypnotizing percussive fills and scatter boring indie-rock riffs over them. Interpol wrote songs though. Gorgeous ones. The album’s longest effort – the six-minute “Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down” – mixes a devastating guitar build-up with cleverly pessimistic metaphorical imagery, its chanting chorus bringing to mind Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control”. Like many other songs on the album, it combines the post-punk of Joy Division and noise-rock of Sonic Youth to produce an imaginatively unique sound that resounded with clamoring emotion and voracious riffs.

Two fairly underrated efforts – “Hands Away” and “The New” – show best why Turn on the Bright Lightsis an essential album for autumn. These tracks are dripping with mood propelled by brilliant instrumentation; vocalist Paul Banks takes a back seat to these bustling arrangements, which in “Hands Away” evolves from a singular guitar tremolo into a combination of serene synth pads and echoing bass lines, all of which support the initial tremolo. If someone passes any sort of judgment on Interpol without listening to their remarkable debut, their outlook is absurdly linear. Even if Interpol never releases an album close to the quality of this again, they certainly made their mark.

Interpol – The New

Interpol – Hands Away

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Lower Dens – Twin-Hand Movement

Lower Dens have received heaps of praise since they released their debut, Twin-Hand Movement, in July. Perhaps the lack of further recognition was just seasonal, as Twin-Hand Movement is brimming with nocturnal atmospheres, rhythmic ambiance, and lulled guitars. Perfect for autumn! The leader of the Baltimore group, Jana Hunter, is known in freak-folk circles for her collaborations with Devendra Banhart. Her creative tendencies take on a coherent vision on Lower Dens’ debut, with a more polished and direct sound reminiscent of dream-rock than her past material. Unlike the past, Hunter does not toy with over-ambition. The darkly intense atmosphere of Twin-Hand Movement is propelled by expectation in that their songs could go anywhere; a concise pop hook seems just as likely to occur as an epic outro of polyrhythm and multi-guitar experimentation.

“A Dog’s Dick” powers on with heavy reverb on both guitar and bass, the latter of which pronounces itself with a tender push reminiscent of Pixies or Guided by Voices. A slick guitar lick follows, with multiple tonal frequencies taking on a melody that evolves in both distortion and rhythm placement. Its pace is placid in a sense, but also with enough vigor reminiscent of Pixies or even The Smiths with its sparking guitars and pivotal bass drenched in reverb characteristic of early-’80s mod revival. “I Get Nervous” has that sort of dream-like buzz in its production that brings to mind the likes of Beach House, Grizzly Bear, and Tamaryn, but perhaps more accurately borrows from the type of production that The Joshua Tree made famous. In fact, this sounds like U2 back in their heyday, if not for Hunter’s serenely calming voice of course.  If Hope Sandoval sang for U2 instead of Bono during their heyday, it would probably sound similar to this. Add the excellent hook that occurs right near the 01:55 mark and you have an excellent song, full of brilliantly constructive visions of dream-pop and post-rock that coincide beautifully with the crisp feelings of fall.

Lower Dens – I Get Nervous

Lower Dens – Holy Water

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Gotye – Like Drawing Blood

I wrote about Gotye’s Like Drawing Blood several years ago, also calling it the 24th best album of 2006. I prefer to leave a feature like this for albums I have not written about before, but this album remains criminally overlooked and still sounds great so this provides a nice opportunity. Mainly I want to again mention “Hearts a Mess”, an absolutely beautiful song that should appeal to fans of Jens Lekman, The Divine Comedy, or any other powerful songwriter with a knack for orchestral triumphs. Like Drawing Blood contains styles ranging from New Orleans jazz to Ennio Morricone-like acidic orchestral backdrops, but frontman Wally de Backer’s shining moment comes in “Hearts a Mess”. Here, he laments softly, “Let me occupy your mind, as you do mine,” before an explosive string arrangement comes to the forefront. You can learn more about Gotye in this feature, but all you really need to hear is “Hearts a Mess” to be sold on this Aussie talent.

Gotye – Hearts a Mess

Gotye – Learnalilgivinanlovin

The post Albums for Autumn, Pt. 2 appeared first on Obscure Sound: Indie Music Blog.