radioSpin

EMIKA
DVA

Bristol-born, Berlin-based musician Emika has been operating on the margins of electronic music for some time, coming close to making a real breakthrough with the dark dubstep influenced pop of her well-regarded self-titled debut. Her second album DVA carries on the sound established on Emika. It sees the classically trained musician and producer operating from an even wider sonic palette to create a follow up with more colour and dynamics.
DVA is a progression from what has gone before and it nevertheless represents Emika as a fascinating artist with immeasurable promise.

ARTIST: Emika
TITLE: DVA
LABEL: Ninja Tune
RELEASE DATE: June 11, 2013
TIME: 60:44 min.
WEB: http://www.emika.co.uk/
PURCHASE: price – 9.99$

01. Hush (interlude) [01:51]
02. Young Minds [03:30]
03. She Beats [03:58]
04. Filters [04:02]
05. After the Fall [04:48]
06. Sing to Me [04:13]
07. Dem Worlds [04:08]
08. Primary Colours [04:08]
09. Sleep with my Enemies [04:48]
10. Wicked Game [03:56]
11. Fight for Your Love [03:50]
12. Mouth to Mouth [06:28]
13. Searching [04:09]
14. Centuries [03:30]
15. Criminal Gift [03:25]

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TRICKY
False Idols

Bristol’s godfather of beats cleanses his palette after his Domino deal went sour with a 10th album released on his newly minted own label, also named False Idols. Presenting new vocal collaborators Francesca Belmonte, Fifi Rong and Nneka, False Idols finds Tricky punching hard and lofty once more. His seminal debut, Maxinquaye, was released 18 years ago, but finally, with this 10th album, he’s returned to similar territory.

ARTIST: Tricky
TITLE: False Idols
LABEL: False Idols / !K7
RELEASE DATE: May 28, 2013
TIME: 44:56 min.
WEB: http://www.trickysite.com/
PURCHASE: price – 9.99$

01. Somebody’s Sins [02:39]
02. Nothing Matters [03:21]
03. Valentine [03:15]
04. Bonnie & Clyde [03:04]
05. Parenthesis [02:56]
06. Nothing’s Changed [03:18]
07. If Only I Knew [03:13]
08. Is That Your Life? [02:44]
09. Tribal Drums [03:34]
10. We Don’t Die [03:10]
11. Chinese Interlude [02:15]
12. Does It? [02:58]
13. I’m Ready [02:36]
14. Hey Love [02:57]
15. Passion of the Christ [02:56]

PREVIEW: Tricky (feat. Nneka) – Nothing Matters

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PORTFOLIO
We | Humans

Brand new EP from Reggio Emilia-based post-rockers Portfolio, featuring two unreleased tracks plus Beth Gibbons e Kim Novak, taken from their debut The Standing Babas, but here nicely re-worked. The first remixed by Silent Panda | Deadly Panda (a.k.a. Luca G from Julie’s Haircut), who plays guitars also on James Horses Chariot and Sion. The second one shows a wonderful different skin with less electronics and the introduction of a string quartet. An appreciated appetizer while waiting for their second full-length, sweetly enhanced by Laura Loriga‘s (Mimes of Wine, Giardini di Mirò) voice.

ARTIST: Portfolio
TITLE: We | Humans
LABEL: This Is the Land
RELEASE DATE: May 06, 2013
TIME: 24:54 min.
WEB: http://www.facebook.com/portfoliothesound
PURCHASE: special offer – NAME YOUR PRICE

01. James Horses Chariot [06:08]
02. Sion [07:17]
03. Kim Novak (with strings) [04:09]
04. Beth Gibbons (silent panda | deadly panda remix) [07:20]

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VONDELPARK
Seabed

Someone was waylaying Vondelpark. Seabed took a bit longer to arrive than hoped but after the early guessing games, and two excellent EPs, their debut is the “coming of age” the band hoped it to be. Striking a balance between the restless lo-fi drench of Sauna, and the dreamy textures that emerged on NYC Stuff and NYC Bags, this is a beautifully blissed-out record, coloured by minimal rhythms and Lewis Rainsbury’s isolated vocals. A sighing R&B-infused beauty that submerges your yearning sense of escape in a gossamer haze.

ARTIST: Vondelpark
TITLE: Seabed
LABEL: R&S / Redeye
RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2013
TIME: 46:59 min.
WEB: http://vondelparkmusic.com/
PURCHASE: price – 9.99$

01. Quest [03:36]
02. Blue Again [05:10]
03. Dracula [04:38]
04. Come On [04:59]
05. Always Forever [02:53]
06. California Analog Dream [05:53]
07. Closer [04:37]
08. Seabed [05:37]
09. Bananas (on my biceps) [04:07]
10. Outro (for ariel) [05:29]

PREVIEW: Vondelpark – Dracula

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ARCHIVE
Demos and Tracks from the Archives 2

A stunning piece of art for collectors. A brand new compilation made of ten previously unreleased tracks and demos emerged from (forgive us for the calambour) Archive‘s archives. Demos and Tracks from the Archives 2: no title could be more self-explanatory.
Keep the secret, and enjoy.

ARTIST: Archive
TITLE: Demos and Tracks from the Archives 2
LABEL: Archives 2
RELEASE DATE: December 22, 2012
TIME: 56:38 min.
WEB: http://archiveofficial.com/
PURCHASE: pre-order

01. I Will Find [08:00]
02. You Make Me Feel (demo) [04:05]
03. Cloud in the Sky [05:22]
04. So Sad [04:25]
05. Harpsichord Song (demo) [04:46]
06. Say Nothing [05:03]
07. Organ Reprise (demo) [09:45]
08. Love in Summer (demo) [04:04]
09. Distorted Roads [03:29]
10. I Will Find (reprise) [07:39]

Archive – Say Nothing

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AA.VV.
RS Top50 2012

So here we are again: just like every late December, it’s summing-up-time! It has been a really really hard work (but someone’s gotta do it, you know) to select the best albums of 2012. As usual, no claim to be exahustive round here: it’s a matter of musical taste, and surely we’ve missed some fantastic release (we pre-apologize for that), but we’ve tried, and here are the RS-TOP20 album between the ones featured on radioSpin.
Let us know what you think about it.

01. BAND OF SKULLS – Sweet Sour
02. ALT-J – An Awesome Wave
03. PINBACK – Information Retrieved
04. ARCHIVE – With Us Until You’re Dead
05. HUMAN DON’T BE ANGRY – Human don’t Be Angry
06. CHROMATICS – Kill For Love
07. DIVINE FITS – A Thing Called Divine Fits
08. REDRUM ALONE – De Redrum Natura
09. GRIZZLY BEARS – Shields
10. GIARDINI DI MIRÒ – Good Luck
11. Fairmont – Automaton
12. ORBITAL – Wonky
13. JASON LYTLE – Dept. of Disappearance
14. TWIN SHADOW – Confess
15. SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS – Ghostory
16. TINDERSTICKS – The Something Rain
17. SOULSAVERS – The Light the Dead See
18. BRETON – Other’s People Problems
19. CALEXICO – Algiers
20. SOUNDGARDEN – King Animal

Here below (and, of course, inside the concerning section) a slighlty mixed exclusive podcast (downloadable at the end of the post) with the previous tracks.
And then, in the end, like last year, the rest of the chart, from position 21 to 50.

21. CLARK – Iradelphic
22. THE SHINS – Port of Morrow
23. dEUS – Following Sea
24. YEASAYER – Fragrant World
25. TWILIGHT SAD – No One Can Ever Know
26. DRINK TO ME – S
27. DINOSAUR JR. – Silent Running
28. CAT POWER – Sun
29. SOFA SURFERS – Superluminal
30. SWANS – The Seer
31. METZ – Metz
32. LOTUS PLAZA – Spooky Action at a Distance
33. TY SEGALL – Twins
34. PAUL KALKBRENNER – Guten Tag
35. MARK LANEGAN – Blues Funeral
36. THE EYES IN THE HEAT – Program Me
37. PURITY RING – Shrines
38. SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO – UnPatterns
39. MIAOUX MIAOUX – Light of the North
40. ERRORS – New Relics
41. THE XX – Coexist
42. BETH ORTON – Sugaring Season
43. BAT FOR LASHES – The Haunted Man
44. LANA DEL REY – Born to Die
45. BLOC PARTY – Four
46. APOLLO 440 – The Future’s What It Used to Be
47. DEFTONES – Koi No Yokan
48. CRYSTAL CASTLES – III
49. SCUBA – Personality
50. SQUAREPUSHER – Ufabulum

AA.VV. selected by radioSpin – RS TOP20 2012

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FRANK OCEAN
Channel Orange

Frank Ocean has character. He’s rare. In a world that divides up art by genre, that constantly seeks to quantify cool, he is impossible to miss, like a panda bear in a pine forest. And over the past year or so, he’s become harder and harder to ignore. Frank had long labored behind the curtain (writing for Brandy, Justin Bieber, and John Legend) but after hooking up with L.A.’s Odd Future collective he has realized, with this high-acclaimed Channel Orange, he’s ready to stand alone. And amongst. And maybe above.

ARTIST: Frank Ocean
TITLE: Channel Orange
LABEL: Def Jam
RELEASE DATE: July 10, 2012
TIME: 62:19 min.
WEB: http://frankocean.com/
PURCHASE: price – 11.99$

01. Start [00:46]
02. Thinkin’ Bout You [03:21]
03. Fertilizer [00:40]
04. Sierra Leone [02:29]
05. Sweet Life [04:23]
06. Not Just Money [01:00]
07. Super Rich Kids [05:05]
08. Pilot Jones [03:04]
09. Crack Rock [03:44]
10. Pyramids [09:53]
11. Lost [03:54]
12. White [01:16]
13. Monks [03:20]
14. Bad Religion [02:56]
15. Pink Matter [04:29]
16. Forrest Gump [03:15]
17. End [08:44]

Frank Ocean (feat. Andre 3000) – Pink Matter

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DJ SHADOW
Reconstructed (the best of)

DJ Shadow, is rightly regarded as one of the most influential and consistently innovative artists to emerge from music in the last 20 years. 20 years that fill with fuel this Reconstructed: The Best of DJ Shadow which ranges from the early pre-Mo Wax days right up to the present and his most recent album, The Less You Know, The Better. Perhaps most exciting to Shadow fans is the inclusion of two brand new tracks, including the pop masterpiece Listen, featuring legendary vocalist Terry Reid.

ARTIST: DJ Shadow
TITLE: Reconstructed: The Best of DJ Shadow
LABEL: Hip-O
RELEASE DATE: October 2, 2012
TIME: 67:29 min.
WEB: http://djshadow.com/
PURCHASE: http://www.amazon.com/

01. Midnight in a Perfect World [05:00]
02. High Noon [03:59]
03. I’ve Been Trying [03:13]
04. This Time (i’m gonna try it my way) [03:04]
05. You Can’t Go Home Again [04:43]
06. Scale It Back [03:40]
07. Listen [03:00]
08. Stem [03:27]
09. Six Days [05:01]
10. Won’t You Be [03:36]
11. Organ Donor (extended overhaul re-edit) [04:28]
12. Lonely Soul (U.N.K.L.E. feat. Richard Ashcroft 7′ version) [04:21]
13. Blood On the Motorway [08:16]
14. You Made It [02:45]
15. Redeemed [04:27]
16. Dark Days (main theme) [04:29]

DJ Shadow – High Noon

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SOFA SURFERS
Superluminal

White noise, rumbling and threatening, before the avalanche: the sound of Sofa Surfers covers the listener, and there is no escape. An unstoppable march, threatening drums, shining bass and guitar riffs whispering in the glaze of the speakers that spit them out. It seems almost a paradox, here, what the title Superluminal should mean: faster than light. Because amongst these samples, light goes slower, doing what she has already made from the debut and fifteen years and seven albums have varied and refined away, to discover ever new sliding tempo, haunting ever new groove patterns.

ARTIST: Sofa Surfers
TITLE: Superluminal
LABEL: Monoscope
RELEASE DATE: September 25, 2012
TIME: 45:29 min.
WEB: http://www.sofasurfers.info/
PURCHASE: http://www.amazon.com/

01. Out, Damn Light [04:39]
02. Valid Whithout Photo [04:12]
03. World in a Matchbox [03:27]
04. Edgelands [04:04]
05. Broken Together [04:46]
06. In Vain [03:53]
07. Begin (the shadow line) [05:20]
08. Bound [06:15]
09. Superluminal [04:29]
10. Glitches, Crashes & Ashes [04:24]

Sofa Surfers – In Vain

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ARCHIVE
With Us Until You’re Dead

Archive began life about eighteen years ago as a trip-hop band, and like most successful artists, have evolved and changed over the years into an orchestral/electronic/prog collective with an established sound. With core members Danny Griffiths and Darius Keeler providing the backbone of the tracks, four different singers provide varying elements that mean the tracks invite comparisons from artists such as Massive Attack, Radiohead, U.N.K.L.E. and Pink Floyd. This last work, With Us Until You’re Dead, has been produced by Jerome Devoise, who has produced a lot of soundtracks, and so definitely has a cinematic element running through it: he introduced Archive to orchestras, and they’ve never looked back. The whole album is an awesome hybridisation of orchestral and electro genres with a bit of edgy prog rock thrown in: vocals evoke every emotion and the drum beats provide the spine of the songs in a creative way and anchor all the sounds together producing an excellent release.

ARTIST: Archive
TITLE: With Us Until You’re Dead
LABEL: Dangervisit
RELEASE DATE: August 27, 2012
TIME: 55:32 min.
WEB: http://archiveofficial.com/
PURCHASE: http://www.amazon.com/

01. Wiped Out [06:20]
02. Interlace [04:43]
03. Stick Me in My Heart [03:57]
04. Conflict [05:02]
05. Violently [06:14]
06. Calm Now [03:54]
07. Silent [05:39]
08. Twisting [04:02]
09. Things Going Down [01:52]
10. Hatchet [04:16]
11. Damage [06:46]
12. Rise [02:47]

Archive – Interlace

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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

ALT-J (∆)
An Awesome Wave

It’s hard to place Alt-J. The triangle (∆) comes originally from Leeds, but they spend their time in a Cambridgeshire basement making their own brand of uniquely dubbed “folk-step”. However, the noises that An Awesome Wave emits far escape the dull, dark depths such a creative location suggests. Instead, it’s a stunning and encompassing affair of both innovative and electrifying musicianship and exemplary song writing.
Album of the year? In running, for sure.

ARTIST: Alt-J (∆)
TITLE: An Awesome Wave
LABEL: Infectious
RELEASE DATE: May 28, 2012
TIME: 41:09 min.
WEB: http://altjband.com/

01. Intro [02:38]
02. (interlude 1) [01:12]
03. Tessellate [03:03]
04. Breezeblocks [03:47]
05. (interlude 2) [01:17]
06. Something Good [03:38]
07. Dissolve Me [03:59]
08. Matilda [03:49]
09. MS [03:59]
10. Fitzpleasure [03:39]
11. (interlude 3) [00:54]
12. Bloodflood [04:09]
12. Taro [05:05]

Alt-J – Breezeblocks

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK – #99
as seen on radioSpin

ARTIST: Lana del Rey
TITLE: Born to Die
ALBUM: Born to Die
WEB: YouTube

directed by Woodkid

LANA DEL REY
Born to Die

Sometimes stars emerge. Sometimes stars are thrust upon us. And sometimes stars simply slip into the atmosphere as if propelled by something otherworldly. It is into this last category that the astonishing presence, voice, look and feel of Lana Del Rey (born Lizzy Grant) falls. Musical stardom is not an option with Ms. Del Rey: it is her vocation. She calls herself the “gangsta Nancy Sinatra” and defines her genre as “Hollywood pop/sadcore”, a dramatic new loop for pop music. Lana Del Rey‘s direct influences were visual as well as musical: David Lynch, soundtracks for ’50s black and white movies, the whirring sound of the Ferris at Coney Island, fame itself. She lived in a New Jersey trailer park and decked her homestead in flags, streamers and seasonally inappropriate Christmas lights: this was Lana’s world now and it needed to sparkle. Whether or not it will work? That much we don’t know, but Born to Die says it seems likely that it will.

ARTIST: Lana del Rey
TITLE: Born to Die
LABEL: Interscope
RELEASE DATE: January 31, 2012
TIME: 41:27 min.
WEB: http://www.lanadelrey.com/

01. Born to Die [04:45]
02. Off the Races [05:01]
03. Blue Jeans [03:30]
04. Video Games [04:42]
05. Diet Mtn Dew [03:43]
06. National Anthem [03:51]
07. Dark Paradise [04:03]
08. Radio [03:35]
09. Carmen [04:09]
10. Million Dollar Man [03:50]
11. Summertime Sadness [04:25]
12. This Is What Makes Us Girls [03:58]
13. Without You [03:49]
14. Lolita [03:39]
15. Lucky Ones [03:47]

Lana del Rey – Born to Die (gemini remix)

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MACHINEDRUM
Room(s)

Great new album from electronica artist Travis Stewart a.k.a. Machinedrum. After a break from producing, Stewart resurfaced in a major way last year with the Many Faces EP. However, for Room(s), he’s well ahead of the curve, approaching recording in a way he’s never done before. On the album, Stewart’s productions turn the 160 BPM footwork conventions inside out, filling the usually fierce, stripped-down form with elegant, sun-kissed and impressionistic songs built from R&B, autotune and dance music history’s most exuberant stabs and kicks. Like the early post-rave sounds of ambient jungle, his beautiful new kind of high-speed, detail-packed mutant pop is psychedelic, exhilarating and strangely relaxing with its fast-paced washes of synths and drums.

ARTIST: Machinedrum
TITLE: Room(s)
LABEL: Planet Mu
RELEASE DATE: August 2, 2011
TIME: 49:11 min.
WEB: http://machinedrum.net/

01. She Died There [04:07]
02. Now U Know the Deal 4 Real [03:529]
03. Sacred Frequency [04:28]
04. GBYE [04:26]
05. The Statue [03:55]
06. Lay Me Down [03:57]
07. U Don’t Survive [04:44]
08. Where Did We Go Wrong [04:20]
09. Youniverse [03:17]
10. Door(s) [05:21]
11. Come1 [06:44]

Machinedrum – Now U Know the Deal 4 Real

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REBERY
Rebery

Rebery was formed in 2006 when Matthew and Elisabeth recorded their first demos, the first one I am a Tear. From there they produced and self-released their first album Dying Species (2007), where all the instruments and programming were recorded by them: a mix of alternative rock with elements of blues, pop, metal and electronic music. Live, Rebery has three aspects, one is more electronic, Matthew and Eli guitar voice, respectively, accompanied by prerecorded bases; another more acoustic, with a warm, intimate sound, just with guitar and voice and finally, one more rock with drums, bass and synthetizers. Their second self-titled album Rebery define all these aspects into a darker but still sweet sound where Black Heat Procession meet Devics, The Gathering meet Massive Attack or simply Matthew meets Elizabeth, and vice-versa.

ARTIST: Rebery
TITLE: Rebery
LABEL: self-released
RELEASE DATE: August 17, 2010
TIME: 39:32 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/rebery

01. Inside of Silence [04:39]
02. Rain Ghost [03:46]
03. Let Me Stay [04:31]
04. Dying Species [04:07]
05. On the Quiet [04:18]
06. Promised Land [06:02]
07. Peeping Angel [04:23]
08. Song for Klaus [05:00]

Rebery - Rain Ghost

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