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MIAOUX MIAOUX
Light of the North

Any guy that names himself after French cat chatter makes you doubt about his possible mental disorder. The bonus is that Julian Corrie makes brilliant music too. The ex-Maple Leaves, singer-songwriter, remixer and producer has been knocking out tunes from his Glasgow base for a few years now, but Light of the North is Miaoux Miaoux’s first full-length proper. And we’re glad he finally got around to it.

ARTIST: Miaoux Miaoux
TITLE: Light of the North
LABEL: Chemikal Underground
RELEASE DATE: July 17, 2012
TIME: 38:47 min.
WEB: http://miaouxmiaoux.com/

01. Sweep Clean [03:14]
02. Autopilot [04:02]
03. Hey Sound! [04:40]
04. Better For Now [03:58]
05. Cloud Computer [03:50]
06. Is It A Dream? [03:44]
07. Virtua Fighter [03:25]
08. Stop the Clocks [05:59]
09. Singing in the Rain [03:32]
10. Ribbon Falls [02:25]

Miaoux Miaoux – Cloud Computer

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THE ELECTRONIC ANTHOLOGY PROJECT
of Dinosaur Jr.

“I truly love bands like Talk Talk, Men Without Hats, and Orchestral Maneuvers In The Dark, but I also love bands like Dinosaur Jr., The Replacements, and The Pixies. So what if I merged my two loves together?”. This is what Built to Spill bassist and solo artist Brett Nelson said two years ago before putting his talent for music up to a challenge and creating The Electronic Anthology Project, an EP that took seven songs from the Built to Spill catalog and magically created them into 80s synth-pop awesome. To add to it, The Electronic Anthology Project had newly recorded vocal tracks from Built to Spill frontman, Doug Martsch. Apparently, reviewers didn’t take this original project seriously, and in true musical fashion Nelson didn’t stop doing what he loved. He promised he would be back, and lo and behold he has created the latest installment titled The Electronic Anthology Project of Dinosaur Jr. Again, J. Mascis, Dinosaur Jr.‘s leader, recorded all new vocal tracks for this remixing of the original music. We’d love to hear more often experiments like these.

ARTIST: The Electronic Anthology Project
TITLE: of Dinosaur Jr.
LABEL: The Electronic Anthology Project
RELEASE DATE: April 21, 2012
TIME: 33:21 min.
WEB: http://electronicanthologyproject.com/

01. Sludgefeast [04:30]
02. Pond Song [03:17]
03. Raisans [04:01]
04. In a Jar [03:36]
05. The Lung [03:30]
06. Kracked [02:51]
07. Tarpit [02:57]
08. Little Fury Things [03:27]
09. Feel the Pain [05:12]

The Electronic Anthology Project – Tarpit

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK – #117
as seen on radioSpin

ARTIST: Twin Shadow
TITLE: Five Seconds
ALBUM: Confess
WEB: YouTube

directed by Keith Musil

RS HOT SPOT – #07
stay update with radioSpin

- Oh, Dirty Projectors made a movie!
- What..?!
- They’re a band, mom.

Well, yes: David Longstreth can’t be quite.
It must be a curse, or something like that, but Dirty Projectors‘ frontman simply isn’t able to sit in peace, listening to music, reading a book, smoking an havana: he has to do something. That’s why Dirty Projectors‘ impressive brand new album Swing Lo Magellan wasn’t enough. That’s why we are here, now, speaking about his crazy movie: Hi Custodian is an impressionistic-looking film that stars Longstreth and his band of fellow musicians/harmonizers in such roles as a yōkai (a shapeshifting Japanese ghost), a truck driver and a newborn (same person plays both), you know, funky people like that.

PARENTAL ADVISORY
this short movie is baby-safe: but only if the babies are completely stoned under LSD.

verified source.

SEBADOH
Secret EP

After nearly 14 years of silence, Sebadoh is almost ready to release some new material.
The Secret EP features five new tracks written by Lou Barlow and Jason Loewenstein.
Secret apparently won’t be given a full release, but it will be available at future Sebadoh shows and on Bandcamp by now. The Dinosaur Jr. side-project is expected to release a new full-length in early 2013, its first since 1999’s The Sebadoh and the band assures that none of this bunch of songs will be in the forthcoming LP.

ARTIST: Sebadoh
TITLE: Secret EP
LABEL: self-released
RELEASE DATE: July 23, 2012
TIME: 16:46 min.
WEB: http://www.sebadoh.com/

01. Keep the Boy Alive [04:07]
02. My Drugs [04:05]
03. Arbitrary High [03:08]
04. I Don’t Mind [03:53]
05. All Kinds [01:33]

Sebadoh – I Don’t Mind

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WILD NOTHING
Nocturne

Jack Tatum‘s one-man bedroom pop-shoegaze project Wild Nothing releases his second album, following-up of the highly-acclaimed 2010′s Gemini and walking along the same musical path of its predecessor. Nocturne features the string-infused lead single (and opening track) Shadow and the listener will be able to choose his favorite artwork between six different album covers.

ARTIST: Wild Nothing
TITLE: Nocturne
LABEL: Bella Union
RELEASE DATE: August 27, 2012
TIME: 44:37 min.
WEB: http://wildnothing.bigcartel.com/

01. Shadow [04:21]
02. Midnight Song [03:07]
03. Nocturne [05:20]
04. Through the Grass [04:30]
05. Only Heater [03:16]
06. This Chain Won’t Break [03:40]
07. Disappear Always [03:31]
08. Paradise [05:33]
09. Counting Days [03:54]
10. The Blue Dress [03:30]
11. Rheya [03:55]

Wild Nothing – Shadow

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PASSION PIT
Gossamer

Gossamer, Passion Pit’s second full-length release, comes nearly three years after the band’s debut album, Manners, which itself dropped almost a year after Michael Angelakos’ Valentine’s Day demos caught the attention of music blogs and major labels in 2008. The gestation period, long by today’s publish-or-perish standards, belies a record that wasn’t easy for Angelakos to make. It’s not the easiest to listen to, either: dark topics and production difficulties slam against Passion Pit’s glittery sound to create an album that, while peppered with catchy melodies, is overstuffed and under-edited. Gossamer is a tortured beast, disguised in a crunchy candy shell.

ARTIST: Ariel’s Pink Haunted Graffiti
TITLE: Passion Pit
LABEL: Columbia
RELEASE DATE: July 24, 2012
TIME: 47:33 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/passionpitjams

01. Take A Walk [04:25]
02. I’ll Be Alright [04:23]
03. Carried Away [03:42]
04. Constant Conversation [03:56]
05. Mirrored Sea [04:06]
06. Cry Like A Ghost [04:23]
07. On My Way [03:47]
08. Hideaway [03:51]
09. Two Veils to Hide My Face [00:34]
10. Love Is Greed [04:20]
11. It’s Not My Fault, I’m Happy [05:06]
12. Where We Belong [05:00]

Passion Pit – Constant Conversation

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ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI
Mature Themes

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti enliven our summer with their new album, Mature Themes.
It’s the band’s second album for 4AD and the official follow-up to its 2010 breakthrough full-length, Before Today to which, sonically, it’s comparable: a sweet, crazy mixture of lo-fi synths and electro-poppy arcade jokes. A smart sonic carillon.

ARTIST: Ariel’s Pink Haunted Graffiti
TITLE: Mature Themes
LABEL: 4AD
RELEASE DATE: August 21, 2012
TIME: 50:55 min.
WEB: http://www.4ad.com/artists/arielpinkshauntedgraffiti

01. Kinski Assassin [02:59]
02. Is This the Best Spot? [01:47]
03. Mature Themes [02:47]
04. Only in My Dreams [03:12]
05. Driftwood [04:22]
06. Early Birds of Babylon [05:16]
07. Schnitzel Boogie [04:35]
08. Symphony of the Nymph [04:35]
09. Pink Slime [02:11]
10. Farewell American Primitive [02:55]
11. Live It Up [04:03]
12. Nostradamus & Me [07:25]
13. Baby [04:48]

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Only in My Dreams

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THE INVISIBLE
Rispah

Rispah, the second LP from the trio The Invisible, is named after their genial frontman Dave Okmu’s mother, who passed away during its writing. It is, palpably, a collection affected by loss, where vocals float ghostly in the mix, ethereal atmospheres draped over tender arrangements performed with bewitching poise. Rispah possesses a proud confidence carried by compositions never cluttered with unnecessary instrumentation: every element serves these songs, with nothing added just because it can be. But repeat listens reveal salubrious textures, tiny details that bring these slight pieces to brilliant life. Records like this don’t need to be forced upon the listening public. Rispah is brilliant enough for the listening public to find it naturally, in their own time.

ARTIST: The Invisilbe
TITLE: Rispah
LABEL: Ninja Tune
RELEASE DATE: June 11, 2012
TIME: 49:38 min.
WEB: http://theinvisible3.tumblr.com/

01. A Particle of Love [01:29]
02. Generational [04:58]
03. Wings [03:28]
04. Lifeline [04:37]
05. What Happened [03:03]
06. The Great Wound [04:04]
07. Surrender [04:25]
08. Utopia [04:28]
09. The Wall [06:02]
10. The Stain [05:18]
11. Protection [07:46]

The Invisible – Wings

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK – #116
as seen on radioSpin

ARTIST: Cocorosie
TITLE: We Are On Fire
ALBUM: We Are On Fire
WEB: Vimeo

directed by Emma Freeman

REDRUM ALONE
De Redrum Natura

“no guitars were used in making these tracks” could be the main statement this time: and it is. Redrum Alone is a Bari-based Italian duo who’s able to perfectly combine (if we have to necessarily be into music tags) electro-space, electro-funk, techno-ambient and indie-dance. In a few words, no guitars needed to put the focus on synthesizers, drum machines, sampler and vocoders (maybe a bit too much of vocoders: the ghost of Daft Punk is drifting – sweetly drifting, we must admit – along the whole album). De Redrum Natura is their first full-length and it is simply almost perfect: not dispersive but at the same time not annoying, it reveals the right balance between sonic experimentations and sounds tributes to such big ones as Justice and the whole Ed-Banger-style european electro scene. The icing on the cake is the presence of two smart and astonishing cover/remix: Joy Division‘s great classic She’s Lost Control and Emilia Paranoica, C.C.C.P.‘s Italian 80′s post-punk manifesto.
Let things take their course and you will get wind of Redrum Alone, that’s for sure.

ARTIST: Redrum Alone
TITLE: De Redrum Natura
LABEL: Ufo Solar
RELEASE DATE: June 28, 2012
TIME: 38:07 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/redrumalone

01. Redrum Alone [02:26]
02. RevolutionAir [04:21]
03. She’s Lost Control [04:01]
04. Remote [04:02]
05. Emilia Paranoica [04:23]
06. User Interface [05:14]
07. No Guitars Were Used in Making These Tracks [03:22]
08. MidiNight [03:19]
09. OniricAct- part 3 (extended) [04:48]
10. Enola Murder [02:40]

Redrum Alone – Remote
Redrum Alone – Emilia Paranoica

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SANTIGOLD
Master of My Make-Believe

After four years of hide and seek in which blogs blew up at the sudden release of any track with her name attached to it, it’s now time for Santigold to present Master of My Make Believe. Through chopped pianos, the clink of glass bottles, and the peaking blast of motorcycle engines, her new release accounts for 21st century details of life from the heart’s center to the mind’s periphery. In her pen and in her voice, the breadth of substance presented in Santigold‘s songs is immediate and complex. There are valleys here wherein the drudge of daily living is met with caution and confronted by mortality, but underneath it all there is the celebration of each person’s power and vision to fight toward what they believe. Consider this your invitation.

ARTIST: Santigold
TITLE: Master of My Make-Believe
LABEL: Atlantic
RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2012
TIME: 37:45 min.
WEB: http://santigold.com/

01. Go! [03:24]
02. Disparate Youth [04:44]
03. God from the Machine [03:52]
04. Fame [03:28]
05. Freak Like Me [02:17]
06. This Isn’t Out Parade [03:54]
07. The Riot’s Gone [03:30]
08. Pirate in the Water [02:54]
09. The Keepers [03:34]
10. Look at These Hoes [02:57]
11. Big Mouth [03:11]

Santigold (feat. Karen O) – Go!

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COM TRUISE
In Decay

It seems a bit early in the game for a Com Truise rarities and B-sides collection (Seth Haley has but one album under his belt with this punny moniker), but here we are. You know what we’re speaking about: mid-fi, synth wave and slow-motion funk. Haley is a devout champion of hardware synthesizers, outboard gear and vinyl records as showcased to glorious effect on his 2011 debut album Galactic Melt. In Decay will offer a rare glimpse of the experimental and formative ideas that came before, some of which even predating his first release.

ARTIST: Com Truise
TITLE: In Decay
LABEL: Ghostly International
RELEASE DATE: July 17, 2012
TIME: 56:22 min.
WEB: http://comtruise.com/

01. Open [04:12]
02. 84′ Dreamin [03:40]
03. Dreambender [04:20]
04. Controlpop [05:04]
05. Colorvision [04:04]
06. Alfa Beach [04:16]
07. Stop [05:07]
08. Klymax [04:24]
09. Yxes [03:52]
10. Smily Cyclops [04:44]
11. Video Arkade [05:27]
12. Data Kiss [04:08]
13. Closed [03:04]

Com Truise – Yxes

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WILLITS + SAKAMOTO
Ancient Future

Ancient Future is the second collaboration between composer and visionary pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto and electronic pioneer Christopher Willits. Built around a series of piano pieces that Sakamoto sent to Willits after the release of the duo’s first record together, 2008′s Ocean Fire, the six tracks that make up Ancient Future are entirely instrumental and yet they speak about the very essence of what it means to be human. As a whole, Ancient Future functions as a piece about the creation, acceptance and completion of one’s fate and all of life’s experiences, following a trajectory through inner conflict, resolution and, ultimately, acceptance. The six-song cycle moves through a narrative of sorts, each piece with a story to tell and an aspect of life to explore. Despite its conceptual coherency, contradictions lie at the heart of Ancient Future, as the album title might suggest. Even within the confines of each track, opposing forces are at play: loops of static and feedback provide the backing for delicate melodies that develop and evolve like ripples on a placid lake. And yet the contradictions never feel like conflicts: instead, the diverging elements come together to create something with its own internal logic, perhaps reflecting the way that we are all the sum of our experiences, both light and dark, positive and negative.

ARTIST: Christopher Willits & Ryuichi Sakamoto
TITLE: Ancient Future
LABEL: Ghostly International
RELEASE DATE: August 7, 2012
TIME: 32:13 min.
WEB: http://ghostly.com/artists/willits-sakamoto

01. Reticent Reminiscence [05:04]
02. Abandoned Silence [04:31]
03. I Don’t Wanto to Understand [07:11]
04. Levitation [04:26]
05. Releasing [03:51]
06. Completion [07:10]

Willits + Sakamoto – Releasing

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MAXÏMO PARK
The National Health

The National Health finds Maxïmo Park playing to their strengths. Produced by Pixies and Foo Fighters regular, Gil Norton, the band’s fourth studio album reveals a more guitar-focused sound and, whilst they are hardly breaking new ground, either on their own sonic turf, or anyone else’s, they appear to have expertly distilled the essence of Maxïmo Park and managed to filter it neatly into 13 fairly solid tracks, to make up their latest long player. Special edition for RS readers, featuring a bonus acoustic EP.

ARTIST: Maxïmo Park
TITLE: The National Health (deluxe edition)
LABEL: V2
RELEASE DATE: June 19, 2012
TIME: 53:57 min.
WEB: http://maximopark.com/

01. When I Was Wild [01:02]
02. The National Health [03:00]
03. Hips and Lips [03:32]
04. The Undercurrents [04:01]
05. Write This Down [03:14]
06. Reluctant Love [03:17]
07. Until the Earth Would Open [03:17]
08. Banlieu [02:51]
09. This Is What Becomes of the Brokenhearted [03:54]
10. Wolf Among Men [02:55]
11. Take Me Home [02:54]
12. Unfamiliar Places [03:49]
13. Waves of Fear [02:41]

01. The Undercurrents (acoustic) [03:35]
15. Hips and Lips (acoustic) [03:17]
16. Reluctant Love (acoustic) [03:15]
17. Until the Earth Would Open (acoustic) [03:23]

Maxïmo Park – Write This Down
Maxïmo Park – Hips and Lips (acoustic)

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PEAKING LIGHTS
Lucifer

Lucifer is the second full length release from West Coast duo Peaking Lights. Aaron Coyes and Indra Dunis continue to crystallize their mesmerizing sound and find new dimensions within. Lucifer also comes at a time of great transition for this married couple and it reflects the possibilities that they have found during this new life era, especially with the birth of their son, Mikko, a guiding light muse for the album. Recorded in Brooklyn at Gary’s Electric studio over the course of a month and self-produced and engineered by Al Carlson (Yeasayer, Ford & Lopatin, 0PN), Peaking Lights consider Lucifer a nocturnal version of their sound: slinkier and full of grooves, it is their most ambitious release to date in terms of its approach and scope. Through their studio experiments, the duo has managed to link their musical loves dub, krautrock, analog electronic dance music, sound collages, pop music all while maintaining cohesive songs.

ARTIST: Peaking Lights
TITLE: Lucifer
LABEL: Mexican Summer
RELEASE DATE: June 19, 2012
TIME: 43:39 min.
WEB: http://peakinglights.com/

01. Moonrise [02:08]
02. Beautiful Son [06:36]
03. Live Love [06:45]
04. Cosmic Tides [06:28]
05. Midnight (in the valley of shadows) [06:18]
06. Lo-Hi [07:20]
07. Dream Beat [06:28]
08. Morning Star [01:36]

Peaking Lights – Beautiful Son

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