It’s officially crisp here in DC, which means it’s time for some more music. So here you go: Five bands that might be new to you, with ten tracks that seem to linger at the top of my playlist.
Download all twelve here (ZIP file, 70mb).
The Carps
“Ladies and gentleman, stand away from your speakers, please, I beg of you…this just might be the rawest thing you’ve ever heard.” So begins The Carps’ “Let’s Fall In Love, four minutes of raging drums, staccato bass, and over-the-top R&B vocals. And the thing is, they just might be right.
I can barely find a mention of Toronto’s Carps in indie circles, but they’re the friggin’ hottest new act I’ve heard this year (and I got turned onto them by gotta-check-it-every-day blog Eardrums Shall Fail). All the over-sincere banter (during a bridge, the lead singer breathlessly asks “Hip hop, I loved you as a boy…where have you gone”, possibly while burning his copy of Elements of Style) might push these tracks too far into irony-land, but it gets held back by that crazy bass: A staggering, stammering off-rhythm monster that’s constant a half-beat before or after the vocals. LISTEN TO IT.
Kissy Sell Out
British DJ Tommy Bisdee makes dance music out of silly old early-90s synth, but, sped up to some Justice-level insanity. These remixes of Groove Armada and Human Leagues are packed with energy and ridiculously complicated keyboard riffs. I must see this man live.
Battles
The best album I’ve bought in forever, “Mirrored” is a magical mathrock journey through musical experimentation. Barely a minute of “Mirrored” goes by without trying something completely crazy, from the hyper-vocal intro of Ddiamondd to the lurching samples at the end of Atlas. Somehow, despite all the weird rhythms and shifting musical scales Battles crams onto the album, it solidly rocks from start to finish. “Atlas” is probably the most accessible track, but I’ve found that the other songs have grown on me exponentially with each listen.
RIAA
RIAA’s Dirt Bacharach is a free download, 15 tracks of the best of the worst of the 60s crossed with L’il John, Limp Bizkit (seriously, go download it just for “Always Something Rollin’.”), Alanis Morrissette, Korn, and, well, the best of the worst of my college years. Both sources are jarring: Burt Bacharach’s orchestral flourishes are absurd and otherwordly; so ridiculous that you can hardly believe they were ever recorded, but then, so is a song in which the chorus is “Rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ whaaat? Rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ come on!”
SebastiAn
Another genius on the Ed Bangor label, SebastiAn’s been remixing Daft Punk, Uffie, and the like for a while now, constantly appearing here or there and rocking my headphones. None of these remixes somehow match the simple ferocity of his “Killing In The Name Of” remix, a solid block of distortion and laptop vocals. My only complaint is that I think he mis-heard the best line in the song, and this fact is very distracting for me.
Recent Comments