Guitarist / vocalist Ed O’Brien of Radiohead recently released the first single, “Brasil,” from his upcoming solo record. It’s a dreamy track that mixes synthwave, house, and psychedelia with O’Brien’s excellent vocals. He started writing “Brasil” back in 2013 and it’s now available to stream and pre-order as a 12″ single. You can also watch the cool video here.
Keep your mind open.
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Dawn Chorus, the excellent new house music album from Jacques Greene, is music for an afterparty or what comes after the afterparty. It’s the sound of what’s buzzing in your head as the lights in the club are turned on to move you onto the streets, the sounds of those streets, or the sounds coming from your car stereo or in your earbuds as you head home from a long night of raving.
The opener, “Serenity,” is warm and still danceable. You’ve achieved a fuzzy bliss from all the dancing and making out that’s been going on all night. The drums on the track have you dancing and the bright synths are almost like alarm clock klaxons reminding you it’s time to start thinking about what comes next. “Drop Location” thumps along with you as you cruise home in your car stuffed with friends or on the train with just a few bleary eyed party-goers and early morning workers.
“Do It Without You” is empowering house that builds to a slick beat and begs you to come back to the dance floor. “Night Service” is Greene’s testament to how nights at the club are like church for many. They’re a community gathering where love is expressed and a place where transcendence can be found among beats, lights, and sweaty bodies. “Sel” touches on some psychedelic elements that flow nicely into “Let Go” – a song that tells us, “Love isn’t lust, unless you say it.”
The words “Girls, ’cause I’m too hot for love” are looped throughout the instant hit floor-filler “For Love.” The tribal beats alone are worth the purchase price. “Sibling” and “Whenever” add synthwave elements to house beats for excellent effect. “Understand” starts off with a cool, warped sound that reminds me on sunlight bouncing off a skipping record.
The last two tracks, “Distance” and “Stars,” invoke images of dawn breaking as you shuffle into your place after the long night of fun, drop your keys in the bowl next to the front door, and put on some house music as you undress and then brush your teeth. You’re not quite ready to lose the beats running through your head just yet, but the moment you’re in calls for a wind-down, and you’re happy for it.
This is one of the best house music albums I’ve heard in a long while, and it should be high among lists of such. It will be on mine.
Keep your mind open.
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Los Angeles’ Prettiest Eyes make music that’s been described as “post-industrial” by other folks, and I suppose that’s as good a description as any other, because I’m not sure I can come up with another. I mean this as a compliment. The trio of Paco Casanova (keyboards and vocals), Pachy Garcia (drums and vocals), and Marcos Rodriguez (bass and vocals) make a wild chaotic mix of new wave, no wave, post-punk, psychedelia, techno latino, and, yes, industrial. As you can imagine, playing this kind of controlled chaos requires a lot of energy, and that energy comes through in their live sets and on their new album, Volume 3.
The opening alarms and snappy beats of “Johnny Come Home” remind one of early Devo tracks. Casanova’s synths seamlessly meld the track into their fun cover of Crash Course in Science‘s “It Costs to Be Austere” – a pogo-inducing rocker that reminds us that being plain and stern in our beliefs does have a price. It sounds like all three of them had a blast recording it, and it’s a blast to hear live.
“I Don’t Know” is a solid psychedelic jam with great keyboard work from Casanova. “Mr. President” is a sharp techno track that dances along the edge of darkwave as Garcia sings about marginalised people seeking recognition (“Mr. President, say my name!”). Speaking of darkwave, the subject of matter of “Nekrodisco” falls into that category, but the instrumentation is straight-up industrial dance music. Rodriguez’s bass licks are relentless throughout it and carry the weight of the track with what appears to be ease but is actually damn hard work.
The squelching, wailing sounds of “The Shame” almost overpower you, and then “Another Earth” comes along – a dub track that throws you for a trippy loop. “Marihuana” is wonderfully bonkers with some of Rodriguqez’s grooviest bass work. “Summer in L.A.” has an underlying menace that you can’t escape. It might induce paranoia in those of weaker minds. “No More Summer” might be the most radio friendly cut, but I doubt they care about such things. “Strange Distance” gets back into psychedelic territory and the closer, “La Maldad,” ups the feedback and fuzz for the finale.
Prettiest Eyes are one of those bands that, after you hear them (and definitely after you see them live), you mention to anyone during any conversation about music. “I just heard this wild band from L.A. called Prettiest Eyes. They might be my new favorite thing,” will be a typical response.
Keep your mind open.
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“You get the sense that exploring unfamiliar equipment in new spaces has helped him find new possibilities in his own work—that by plunging himself into guitar pedals and classic French-house compression modules, he’s ushered in a new era for Jacques Greene without losing sight of his unique sentimentality.” — Pitchfork
“The dozen tracks on ‘Dawn Chorus’ capture the hazy, ambient feeling of joyful exhaustion. It’s an elegant soundtrack to a real moment in many ravers’ lives, and rather than create the music you might listen to then, he scores the scene as if it were a movie.” — Billboard
“‘Dawn Chorus’ hangs together as a cohesive work, even when Greene is pushing genre omnivorousness to giddy new extremes.” — Bandcamp
“Coagulating in the form of a sprawling 12-track collection of diversified cuts, the project maintains the producer’s idiosyncratic arsenal of club-heavy textures, albeit repurposed for listening outside of the normative dancefloor atmosphere.” — Hypebeast
Fresh off the release of his “intimate and immense” (Pitchfork) new album, Dawn Chorus, via LuckyMe, Jacques Greene is pleased to announce a slew of 2020 European and North American tour dates. Last week he debuted a sold out run of launch parties in Berlin, London, Manchester, New York, LA and Montreal. In early 2020 he returns to Europe and North America (Boston, Brooklyn, Detroit, Portland, Vancouver, and Oakland). A full list of dates is below.
In conjunction with this announcement, Greene also released the video for “Stars” – the second part of a narrative which started outside a warehouse party in his “Do It Without You” video. The track features spoken word from Canadian artist Sandrine Somé – who reconciles memories from her childhood over understated kik drums and synths. An evocative closer to the album, Mathieu Fortin’s piece of impressionistic cinema seeks to express early AM euphoria as we settle back into reality after a night out. It’s an apt conclusion for an album which has been applauded for his cinematic atmosphere.
Watch Video For “Stars” –
https://youtu.be/ZmXuiFluhB4
Jacques Greene Tour Dates:
Wed. Jan. 29 – London, UK @ Studio 9294
Thu. Jan. 30 – Manchester, UK @ YES (Pink Room)
Fri. Jan. 31 – Dublin, IE @ Lost Lane
Sat. Feb. 1 – Belfast, IE @ The Menagerie
Tue. Feb. 4 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
Wed. Feb. 5 – Leeds, UK @ Headrow House
Fri. Feb. 7 – Paris, FR @ Badaboum
Thu. Feb. 20 – Boston, MA @ Middlesex Lounge (DJ Set)
Fri. Feb. 21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere (DJ Set)
Sat. Feb. 22 – Detroit, MI @ The Red Door
Thu. Feb. 27 – Portland, OR @ Holocene
Fri. Feb. 28 – Vancouver, BC @ The Beaumont
Sat. Feb. 29 – Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club
Purchase Dawn Chorus – https://jacquesgreene.com/
Watch/Listen/Share:
“For Love” video – https://youtu.be/GzdMcHhM7tQ
“Do It Without You” video – https://youtu.be/ftBguTzzVYI
“Do It Without You” stream – https://bit.ly/2mRYy8n
“Night Service” b/w “Silencio” (Feat. Cadence Weapon) – https://youtu.be/S1JaoIYJ-PE
“Night Service” (Whatever/Whatever Night Version) – https://youtu.be/_x3Ysk3po4k
“Night Service” (Whatever/Whatever Day Version) – https://youtu.be/iltM5sg-f8g
Keep your mind open.
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I became aware of Palm Daze when I saw them open for Bayonne in Tucson, Arizona earlier this year. They played a cool blend of electro and psychedelia that I enjoyed. Controls is a five-song EP they put out two years ago that sounds like it could’ve been released yesterday.
The weird warping synths of “Angles Pt. 1” get the EP off to a trippy start, and then “Company Calls” takes us into full synth wave mode with bright keys, distant vocals, and sharp beats. “Angles Pt. 2” seems to nod at Vangelis‘ Blade Runner score, and why not? The synths move like slow waves across a mountain lake and the vocal effects turn the lyrics into alien communications. The title track has near hip hop drum beats behind video game synths, and “Everything, Everyday” ends the EP with big, bold synths that fade into sounds like a dwindling Morse code message.
It’s an interesting EP and one that produces different thoughts upon multiple listens.
Keep your mind open.
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Hailing from Norway, Hans-Peter Lindstrom has delivered a four-song album (the shortest track is 8:49) of ambient-disco-lounge music that is almost more of a feeling than a genre – On a Clear Day I Can See You Forever.
The title track (which was mostly improvised, and the rest of the tracks, while pre-planned, were done in one take) opens the album with synthwave subtlety that floats from your speaker like a three quarters-filled helium balloon moving across city rooftops in a low breeze. The rave synths and beats of “Really Deep Snow” move in so effortlessly that they catch you a bit off guard.
“Swing Low Sweet LFO” is the soundtrack to a 1980’s crime film set on Venus. The closer, “As If No One Is Here,” almost sums up the entire album. Lindstrom creates musical soundscapes that seem to be perfectly at home if no one is listening. They are songs of synth dreams that come to you as you sit in a train car warmed by the rising sun. They are strange yet pleasant visions you can’t explain. They are the sound of an artist enjoying free expression without limits.
Keep your mind open.
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Jacques Greene has released his new single, “For Love,” from his forthcoming album, Dawn Chorus, out October 18th via LuckyMe. “For Love” follows the “spacious and breakbeat-heavy” (SPIN) lead single “Do It Without You” and it’s accompanying video, as well as early single “Night Service” (Feat. Cadence Weapon).
Watch Video For “For Love” – https://youtu.be/GzdMcHhM7tQ
Greene approached the making of Dawn Chorus as if he were a band. He lived in the studio for five months this past winter – half the time at home in Toronto, the other half in Hudson Mohawke’s studio in L.A. – and wrote these songs in a sprint to capture this chapter in his life. While samples played a big part in his early output, his creative process for Dawn Chorus revolved around recording a stellar cast of musicians, arranging new parts. As a result, it’s his most collaborative project to date, featuring additional production and instrumentation from film composer Brian Reitzell (Lost In Translation), cello by London’s Oliver Coates, additional production from Clams Casino and original vocal contributions from ambient artist Julianna Barwick, rapper Cadence Weapon and singers Ebhoni and Rochelle Jordan, all sampled, processed and stitched back into the album.
To craft the sound of the record, he thought about the artists he held dear and researched the gear they used as a means of being in dialogue with their emotional tenor. Some of the gear he sourced included the delay that My Bloody Valentine was renowned for, as well as a compressor used by French Touch producers Alan Braxe and Fred Falke. Working with mix engineer Joel Ford (of Ford & Lopatin), he created a rule book for the album’s sonics that saw each part, from the drums to the pads, be processed in a specific way, through guitar pedals and outboard equipment.
Surrounding the release of Dawn Chorus, Greene will play select shows in Europe and the UK before returning to North America. All dates can be found below and tickets are on sale now.
Jacques Greene tour dates: Thu. Oct. 17 – Berlin, DE @ Burg Schnabel Fri. Oct. 18 – London, UK @ St. Pancras Old Church – SOLD OUT Fri. Oct. 18 – Manchester, UK @ Warehouse Project (DJ set) (late show) Sat. Oct. 19 – London, UK @ Five Miles (DJ set) Wed. Oct. 23 – Brooklyn, NY @ National Sawdust Fri. Oct. 25 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo Sat. Oct. 26 – Montreal, QC @ Ausgang
Pre-order Dawn Chorus – https://jacquesgreene.com/
Watch/Listen/Share: “Do It Without You” video – https://youtu.be/ftBguTzzVYI
“Do It Without You” stream – https://bit.ly/2mRYy8n
“Night Service” b/w “Silencio” (Feat. Cadence Weapon) – https://youtu.be/S1JaoIYJ-PE
“Night Service” (Whatever/Whatever Night Version) – https://youtu.be/_x3Ysk3po4k
“Night Service” (Whatever/Whatever Day Version) – https://youtu.be/iltM5sg-f8g
Keep your mind open.
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I might have given you an odd look in the last year or so if you’d told me that the psychedelic rock pairing of Moon Duo were making a new record that was going to include a lot of stuff that you could easily slip into a house music set.
Sure enough though, and in keeping with their nature to explore any kind of music they like, Moon Duo (Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada) made Stars Are the Light, a fine record of grooves influenced by 1970’s disco, krautrock, synth wave, and, naturally, psychedelia.
The opening track, “Flying,” immediately makes you feel like you’re floating not only off the ground, but through the roof of your house. The vocals never outweigh the trippy instrumentals, they only enhance them. The title track continues our drift around the Earth with bubbly synths and Moon Duo’s lyrics reflecting how all of us are unique stars in this universe.
“Fall (in Your Love)” brings in spaghetti western guitars to the slippery electronic beats. “The World and Sun” is one of the funkiest cuts on the record, mixing spaced-out synths with South American hand percussion and reverb-laced vocals to produce a sweet sound. “Lost Heads” is psychedelic bliss taking you out of orbit and floating toward the star cluster of your choice.
“Eternal Shore” boosts the krautrock influences a bit with the beats, but keeps the vocals firmly in psychedelic territory. The touch of steel drum-like synth stabs is a nice one and reflects the image of a never-ending beach on an idyllic planet. “Eye 2 Eye” brings in fuzzy guitar to race alongside EDM beats for a fast track that belongs on your next favorite anime action film. “Fever Night” slows down the album for the close, but it’s nothing maudlin. It’s a perfect end to a groovy time, almost like slipping into a hot tub after you’ve had great sex.
Stars are indeed the light, and so are we. Each of us are divine beings connected on this small orb in the middle of space. We are connected with each other and what lies beyond our senses. Moon Duo seek to remind us of this cosmic connection and acceptance that is there for us to embrace. Stars Are the Light is like a singing bowl, providing us the tones to remember who we are and who we are to each other.
Keep your mind open.
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Rituals of Mine, the electronic recording project of Los Angeles-based songwriter Terra Lopez and percussionist Adam Pierce, shares a new single, “Heavyweight,” from their forthcoming EP, SLEEPER HOLD, out October 4th on Carpark Records. It follows the lead single / video, “BURST.” “Heavyweight” is inspired by the after effects of grief and trauma in relation to the body and mind, particularly Lopez’s own surrounding her father’s suicide and the unexpected loss of her best friend. To accompany the single they share visuals by Hightechlowlife.
“Once the shock shifted away, my body started to feel the real, tangible effects of grief. For over 2 years, I felt a heavy ring around my temple. I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t concentrate. I had lost my ability to articulate properly,” says Lopez. “I was existing and actually was a very high functioning depressed person but my body and voice felt alien and lost to me. In 2018, I read a book that changed my life called The Body Keeps the Score. It is a detailed, scientific look at how trauma transforms, alters and ultimately changes not only your chemical makeup but your physical makeup. I thought I was going crazy for nearly 3 years and then here comes this book that validates every feeling, every emotion, every physical ailment I had felt but couldn’t prove. This song is the expression of grief work I had to do over the last 3 years in order to get to a place where I could see beyond the loss, beyond the depression and finally look at a life that will never be the same but that can be better if I let it.”
SLEEPER HOLD follows their minimalist debut, Devoted, and is as tense and captivating as its name suggests. Lopez began writing the songs that would eventually inhabit the EP during one of the most harrowing and self reflective times in her life. She flew from California to Florida to work with her longtime collaborator and producer Wes Jones, and began developing a brooding sound that would match the emotional intensity of her writing. Having the intimate space of a studio, occupied by only her and a producer, meant that Lopez could write from the heart in a way that didn’t feel possible when there were more people in the room. Over the course of a few months the two would craft some of the project’s most cavernous and vulnerable songs to date. “This new material is very direct and focused on what I want to express with things I’ve held in for so long.” says Lopez. “It’s finally me addressing all of that trauma because I finally had the space to do so.”
Rituals of Mine will tour across North America this fall. All dates are on sale and can be found below.
Watch “HEAVYWEIGHT” lyric video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nq0Yf7iHsk
Watch the video for “BURST” – https://youtu.be/XpKZ1FtFmzk
Pre-order SLEEPER HOLD EP – http://smarturl.it/rom_sleeperhold
Rituals of Mine tour dates: Mon. Sept. 30 – Bend, OR @ Volcanic Theatre Pub – Tickets Sat. Oct. 5 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s – Tickets Sat. Oct. 12 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Hi Hat – Tickets Sun. Oct. 13 – Oakland, CA @ The New Parish – Tickets Fri. Nov. 15 – Seattle, WA @ Freakout Festival – Tickets
Keep your mind open.
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LuckyMe proudly present Dawn Chorus, the new album from Jacques Greene (out October 18th), and present lead single, “Do It Without You.” A bold step forward, Dawn Chorus is also Greene’s most collaborative project to date, featuring additional production and instrumentation from film composer Brian Reitzell (Lost in Translation), cello by London’s Oliver Coates, additional production from Clams Casino and original vocal contributions from ambient artist Julianna Barwick, rapper Cadence Weapon and singers Ebhoni and Rochelle Jordan, all sampled, processed and stitched back into the album.
Stream “Do It Without You” – https://soundcloud.com/jacquesgreene/do-it-without-you/
If Greene’s 2017 debut album, Feel Infinite, was the soundtrack to a dream pregame – amping you up to lose yourself in the club – then Dawn Chorus resides in the post-rave reflective moment. A time of heightened sensuality and latent possibility.
Greene approached the making of Dawn Chorus as if he were a band. He lived in the studio for five months this past winter – half the time at home in Toronto, the other half in Hudson Mohawke’s studio in L.A. – and wrote these songs in a sprint to capture this chapter in his life. Ten years into the game and not yet in his thirties, his perspective on the value of dance music and where it rests with his daily life and inspiration bare out on this album. While samples played a big part in his early output, his creative process for Dawn Chorus revolved around recording a stellar cast of musicians, arranging new parts.
To craft the sound of the record, he thought about the artists he held dear and researched the gear they used as a means of being in dialogue with their emotional tenor. Some of the gear he sourced included the delay that My Bloody Valentine was renowned for, as well as a compressor used by French Touch producers Alan Braxe and Fred Falke. Working with mix engineer Joel Ford (of Ford & Lopatin), he created a rule book for the album’s sonics that saw each part, from the drums to the pads, be processed in a specific way, through guitar pedals and outboard equipment. Dawn Chorus opens with “Serenity,” an all-back-to-mine breaks tune that Greene describes as “a weird, euphoric take on Chemical Brothers.” “Night Service” is a neon-lit hip house anthem helmed by Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon, who drapes a love letter to the club around Greene’s acid-dipped synths. Elsewhere, “Distance” blends ambient textures with sampled birdsong and the snaking lines of Oliver Coates’s cello.
Now 29, Greene has been making music “about the club” for over a decade. His sound could be described as an emotional haze, in that its balance of sonic elements work to illuminate the overlapping feelings that lie between the familiar binaries. Outside of his own releases, Greene has explored his relationship with the club in a variety of contexts, from remixing Radiohead to producing for Katy B and Tinashe and touring with The xx.
He will tour Dawn Chorus in Europe and North America this October. An intimate first live show at the St Pancras Old Church is already sold out in London and another show has been added.
Jacques Greene tour dates: Thu. Oct. 17 – Berlin, DE @ Burg Schnabel Fri. Oct. 18 – London, UK @ St. Pancras Old Church – SOLD OUT Fri. Oct. 18 – Manchester, UK @ Warehouse Project (DJ set) (late show) Sat. Oct. 19 – London, UK @ Five Miles (DJ set) Wed. Oct. 23 – Brooklyn, NY @ National Sawdust Fri. Oct. 25 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo Sat. Oct. 26 – Montreal, QC @ Ausgang
“Night Service” b/w “Silencio” (Feat. Cadence Weapon) – YouTube – https://youtu.be/S1JaoIYJ-PE
Buy / Stream – https://jg.ffm.to/nightservice
“Night Service” (The Remixes) – Whatever/Whatever Night Version – https://youtu.be/_x3Ysk3po4k
Whatever/Whatever Day Version – https://youtu.be/iltM5sg-f8g
Pre-order Dawn Chorus – https://jacquesgreene.com/ Dawn Chorus
Tracklist: 1. Serenity 2. Drop Location 3. Do It Without You 4. Night Service 5. Sel 6. Let Go 7. For Love 8. Sibling 9. Whenever 10. Understand 11. Distance 12. Stars
Keep your mind open.
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