radioSpin

INTERPOL Interpol

The long-awaited fourth album from New York’s Interpol finds them exploring dark musical landscapes of layered depth and intensity. In contrast to 2007′s Our Love To Admire, this self-titled opus hangs together as an album, a set of very different songs that thematically connect. From the highly melodic Barricade and Lights through the snarling Memory Serves and the extraordinary triptych of connected tracks that close the album, Interpol have never made work this emotionally resonant or packed with crescendos. Mixer Alan Moulder has brought the rhythm section back to the fore, anchoring a thicket of orchestral sound that brings to mind touchstones from black metal to 70′s art rock, but always remains identifiably Interpol.
Hypnotic, bizarre, always indelible, Interpol is the band’s magnum opus.

ARTIST: Interpol
TITLE: Interpol
LABEL: Matador
RELEASE DATE: September 07, 2010
TIME: 44:35 min.
WEB: http://www.interpolnyc.com/

01. Success [03:23]
02. Memory Serves [04:58]
03. Summer Well [03:22]
04. Lights [05:37]
05. Barricade [04:33]
06. Always Malaise (the man i am) [04:09]
07. Safe Without [04:36]
08. Try It On [03:38]
09. All of the Ways [05:13]
10. The Undoing [05:06]

Interpol – Lights

FREEDOM OR DEATH
Freedom or Death

Debut self-titled EP for Toronto-based duo Freedom Or Death: six eclectic tunes full of different sounds and textures, soft electronica mixed with actual post-rock firmly anchored by its pop sensibilities. Freedom Or Death demonstrates the band’s ability to work multiple textures into the framework of a single song, intersecting great melodies and harmonies into slightly synthetic patterns that you will hardly forget.
Free complete stream on MySpace.

ARTIST: Freedom Or Death
TITLE: Freedom Or Death
LABEL: unsigned
RELEASE DATE: June 10, 2010
TIME: 25:08 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/freedomordeathmusic

01. Lost in Dances [04:46]
02. Back For More [04:00]
03. Soldier [04:38]
04. This Crowded Room [03:56]
05. Sober [03:52]
06. Meter Maid [03:56]

Freedom or Death – Back for More
Freedom or Death - Sober

removed by request

CROOKED MOUNTAIN, CROOKED SEA I Watched It From the Roadside

Hailing from Brighton, post-rock / post hardcore four piece Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea have covered a lot of ground since they began playing shows last year. Their sound is ever-evolving, taking a staid genre and making it poignant, relevant and interesting again: complex rhythms and intelligent lyrics sung with agitated, shouted vocals lead to far flung comparisons ranging from Cursive for their similarly narrative songs, to the restrained rage of Fugazi and At the Drive-In, and in quieter moments the introspection and melody of Red House Painters.
Their new EP I Watched It From the Roadside features six tracks, each as well thought-out as the next, the sophisticated build-ups laced with relentless hooks, and lyrics by the two singers that shout bloody murder.
Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea bring new lifeblood to an almost anaemic genre.

ARTIST: Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea
TITLE: I Watched It From the Roadside
LABEL: Smalltown America
RELEASE DATE: August 16, 2010
TIME: 18:23 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/crookedmountaincrookedsea

01. Slow News Day [02:58]
02. They Don’t Mean [03:38]
03. Out in the Dark [03:00]
04. Mice in the Cellar [02:19]
05. That Drums Discordant Sound [03:18]
06. Time and Place [03:10]

Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea – Slow News Day

BAND OF HORSESInfinite Arms

Infinite Arms is Band of Horses‘ third full length album and major label debut. Produced by Band of Horses with additional production by Phil Ek and mixed by Dave Sardy, the songs on Infinite Arms project the essence of the different American locales that became the setting for the recording and songwriting process, yielding the group’s most focused and dynamic recordings to date.
Band of Horses is Ben Bridwell, Creighton Barrett, Ryan Monroe, Tyler Ramsey, and Bill Reynolds. Infinite Arms marks the recording debut for Ramsey and Reynolds, while Barrett and Monroe graced the last album Cease to Begin. Through extensive touring over the last two years, Band of Horses have become a cohesive force, with all members making invaluable contributions to the unmistakable sound that has Bridwell has crafted since the band’s inception.

ARTIST: Band of Horses
TITLE: Infinite Arms
LABEL: Columbia
RELEASE DATE: May 18, 2010
TIME: 46:18 min.
WEB: http://www.bandofhorses.com/

01. Factory [04:35]
02. Compliments [03:28]
03. Laredo [03:12]
04. Blue Beard [03:22]
05. On My Way Back Home [03:29]
06. Infinite Arms [04:09]
07. Dilly [03:32]
08. Evening Kitchen [03:57]
09. Older [03:28]
10. For Annabelle [03:06]
11. NW Apt. [03:01]
12. Neighbor [05:59]

Band of Horses – Factory

FAITHLESSThe Dance

Another masterpiece from Rollo, Sister Bliss and Maxi Jazz, who together have been one of dance music’s biggest successes, consistently tearing up dancefloors and smashing the singles charts across their four-album career with their unstoppable blend of acid house, pop-trance and deep, spiritual lyrics. The Dance sees Faithless collect a series of shacking tunes which will be the soundtrack to many Saturday nights for a while to come.

ARTIST: Faithelss
TITLE: The Dance
LABEL: PIAS
RELEASE DATE: May 16, 2010
TIME: 70:42 min.
WEB: http://www.faithless.co.uk/

01. Not Going Home [06:37]
02. Feel Me [07:26]
03. Crazy Balheads [03:26]
04. Comin’ Around [07:25]
05. Tweak Your Nipple [07:09]
06. Flyin’ Hi [07:12]
07. Love Is My Condition [05:21]
08. Feelin’ Good [07:06]
09. North Star [06:02]
10. Sun to Me [07:59]
11. Scandalous [04:59]

Faithless – The Dance (minimix)

THE NATIONALHigh Violet

High Violet, the new full-length record by The National, is a nervy, melodic, explosive and beautiful set of songs that find the band at the height of their collaborative powers. The music is wide-ranging in its moods, by turns intimate and rough, expansive and spare, full of stark angles and atmosphere. Berninger‘s singing wild, half-broken, sly evokes a feeling of being haunted, by love, by paranoia, by something just out of reach. High Violet may be The National‘s most thematically twisted record to date but it somehow also manages to be their most infectious and immediate.

ARTIST: The National
TITLE: High Violet
LABEL: 4AD
RELEASE DATE: May 11, 2010
TIME: 47:40 min.
WEB: http://www.americanmary.com/

01. Terrible Love [04:40]
02. Sorrow [03:25]
03. Anyone’s Ghost [02:54]
04. Little Faith [04:37]
05. Afraid of Everyone [04:19]
06. Bloodbuzz Ohio [04:36]
07. Lemonworld [03:24]
08. Runaway [05:34]
09. Conversation 16 [04:19]
10. England [05:40]
11. Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks [04:12]

The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio

VANGUARD VILLAINSVanguard Villains

Vanguard Villains formed in January 2009, born out of the remains of various New York bands. This trio seem to have gathered the ashes of grunge too build around them a very personal kind of powerful modern rock. Never easy, never over-elaborated, but always complex and stratified enough. Nice guitar schemes, accurate drumming and really interesting vocal lines and atmospheres.
Keep an eye on them: you won’t be disappointed.

ARTIST: Vanguard Villains
TITLE: Vanguard Villains
LABEL: (self-released)
RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2010
TIME: 36:17 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/thevanguardvillains

01. I Could Save the Day [04:03]
02. Admire [04:42]
03. Insidious [03:42]
04. Fade [04:21]
05. Life Howling [04:29]
06. Unexecuted [04:20]
07. Give It Up [03:24]
08. Shade [03:00]
09. Music for Vampires [04:16]
10. Lover Leave Me Drowning [03:27]
11. The Tailor [03:20]
12. Sadie [03:41]

Vanguard Villains – Shade