MORE THAN DISCO: Region 2

Showing posts with label Region 2. Show all posts

PREMIERE | I, Us, & We

The Doverspike brothers from Southern California have been songwriting and playing music together for over ten years, but they’ve only chosen to record and release their first EP as a band this year. Mono, which was recently featured on Tom Robinson’s BBC Introducing mixtape, is escapist dream-pop that reaches deeply into thoughts of love and the human consciousness, taking with it all the inherent self-reflection that comes from one’s experience navigating their way through an often complex and trying world.

“An eclectic mix of sonorous guitar hooks complemented by synth leads eerily narrating times past, all the while remaining boldly in the present.”

After two landmark album releases, two EPs and a host of remixes, LA’s The New Division returns in 2015 with new single, Senseless, as premiered on Flaunt Magazine.

The sun-kissed metropolis of Los Angeles has often been a mecca for bourgeoning electronic acts, but only few seem to strike that right balance between a classic 80’s synth sound and the intoxicating high of a love-soaked pop melody. Whether it’s the unforgiving complexity of a breakup or the false security of sex addiction, Pr0files find a fitting context within their “twisted” East Coast surroundings to explore unresolved emotions through electronic music, writing songs about unforgiving emotional complexities as a powerhouse producer duo; film composition and hip hop songwriting only touching the surface of their combined career accolades. One half of Pr0files duo, Lauren Pardini, discusses the aches of writing a breakup song, and why Los Angeles is the perfect home for making electronic music.

Recorded at the legendary Mission District and Grammy/Oscar award-winning studio Different Fur (Antony & The Johnsons, Alabama Shakes, Gary Clark Jnr, Phoenix), is the latest single Silver from Oakland indie pop/rock quartet Phosphene, recorded with the engineer hands of Sean Paulson.

The dark tale of young lovers is cinematically depicted in the epic new clip for GEMS’ Sinking Stone, taken from their phenomenal debut EP, Medusa. The Washington D.C. dream-wave/pop duo began making music together in 2012 but it was only until last year that we got to officially hear their debut - and a thoroughly impressive debut it was. Sinking Stone’s clip has been likened to Bonnie & Clyde and Romeo & Juliet in its destructive narrative of two ill-fated lovers, with the depiction of what is an inevitable journey that will lead to an abrupt end; “I need to know our love’s not a sinking stone."

“Neo psychedelic for the digital age.”

Recently named this week as the “Best Rock Band of Day 1” at CMJ by NPR’s All Songs Considered and also celebrated by NYLON Magazine as having title track of the week is Brooklyn garage/lo-fi rock duo, Sunflower Bean.

“Their work alludes to an exploration of the human form and its role within digital communication.”

(Tiny Mix Tapes)

After a series of mixtape and video clip releases since their 2011 beginnings, experimental/goth R&B duo, 18+, are set to release their highly anticipated debut album later this year, with second release track, All The Time, taken from the upcoming November release. The largely anonymous and unnamed LA duo – except when operating under the moniker of Boy and Sis – follow suit with their second 2014 release single in its video clip exploration of sexualised bodies and gender identity through the use of CGI characters, which are mostly women. With suggestive vocals and tantalizing, darkly erotic bass lines, All The Time has all the air and detached grace of a high end fashion soundtrack; Prada did, after all, use one of their earlier singles (Drawl) for a 2011 fashion campaign.

The despondent corners of a Lithuanian disco may be far from the bright lights of New York but the inspiration for such flickers of the night can present itself in many forms. Dark-wave duo, Tempers, build their own private narrative within a song whilst using the complexities of feelings, particularly those that are unresolved, to evoke moments connected with life meaning.

Brooklyn’s dreampop/shoe-gaze outfit Dead Leaf Echo have toured back-to-back over the last twelve months, tipping over 100 shows across every major city in the U.S. supporting the likes of Beach Fossils, Weekend, Whirr, The Warlocks, The Telescopes and The Ocean Blue.

"Distinct charm of the well-loved twang of folk guitars combined with hectic horns, drums and vocals that conjure up classic Americana."

(The Line Of Best Fit)

They are now one of the many bands that can say they have graduated from the school of crowd-funding after riding the waves of a being DIY music duo in the lead up to their newly released debut LP. After playing in several alternative and garage bands before the WWL inception, Ash Lamonthe and Elsa Gebremichael later found a harmony in experimenting with a different kind of pop-flavoured music; Pyramids being the result of musical stylings accumulated over four years as a band, creating an effortless mix of disco, synth-pop and indietronica.

Not many 20-year-old aspiring female singers could be mistaken for the sage vocals of Billie Holiday or Nina Simone but Cleveland soul-stress, Lorine Chia, is an old soul with all the makings of a seminal female artist. Her rumoured cameo on Kanye West’s new album sent all the right attention her way following her poignant take on Holiday’s classic Strange Fruit; a case of mistaken vocal identity, nonetheless, but one which generated enough attention in the lead up to her latest second LP release, Naked Truths.

Listeners will remember Washington DC three-piece Sansyou best by their Japanese inspired 2011 EP, When We Become Ghosts, which constructed a post-rock narrative around the photography of ethnologist, Fosco Maraini, of 1960’s Honshu pearl divers. The result was an inherently introspective record laced with ambient post-rock sounds replicating the noises of the submerged and the seafaring with oceanic guitar tones.

“Two old school players coming together to produce something as raw and talented as they are, but completely different than what is expected; a blend of sounds bridging blues, punk, rap, hip hop, and a pronounced Boston sound.”

(ABSOLUTE PUNK)

"It's completely obvious that Boogie Boy Metal Mouth is the devil's music.”

(I HAD AN ACCIDENT RECORDS)

After receiving over 500 remixes through a world-wide producing casting call for their 2012 hit, Eye Wide Open, Brooklyn psychedelic dance-rock duo, Dynasty Electric, decided to abandon the traditional studio approach to record their next album by experimenting with an open source, cross-collaborative platform. Through the help of crowdfunding and the online genius of music networking site Indaba, the Dynasty duo were overwhelmed by the creative responses from stems and tracks which subsequently turned into material for their latest full length album, Euphoria.

High school friends Adam McGinn and Andy Kai Nagashima are about much more than nostalgia. Following on from their debut self-titled release, YDIMITU, the Boston left-field R&B/experimental duo, EARLY NINETIES, return with down-tempo offering, Playboy; a mature composition reflecting on the things we claim to need which are also, consequently, the hardest to receive.

The New Highway Hymnal were recently named the "Best Act of 2012" by Boston Phoenix and made our "Best of Bandcamp" wrap-up in 2013 for their Whispers release late last year. With influences stemming from 60's rock to the later psychedelic bands of North America and Britain, the four pack a live show with enough brooding attitude and psychedelic swirl to see them get noticed among new audiences beyond their debut festival appearance at SXSW and through the live music scene of their hometown Boston.

Any publicity is good publicity, right? So when speculation leaked that Cleveland artist Lorine Chia was sampled on the new Kanye West album, in light of what was actually a sample of Nina Simone, Chia garnered the opportunity to put her spin on the original “Blood on the leaves” classic, Strange Fruit.

Some promising lo-fi pop has arisen from the corners of Orlando in the way of duo, SALES. Composed in an improvised environment with warm guitar riffs, gentle vocals and signature production, Jordan Shih and Lauren Morgan have found a comfortable milieu within pop that allows for sampling, live recording and ad-libbed creativity.

Comparing fame to lightning in a bottle is an association made only after working tirelessly as a live musician and recording artist and understanding that the equilibriums come as thick and fast as the accompanying pitfalls. Loquat, a warmly recognised face of San Francisco’s local music scene for the last thirteen-plus years, has welcomed fame through CW’S One Tree Hill, retail giants Old Navy and Banana Republic, and through the honorary title of "Best Pop Group", as recognised by the SF Weekly.

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