Jens Lekman // Erica America

Jens has made people wait a while for a follow up to 2007's 'Night Falls Over Kortedala'. Not that he hasn't been busy in the meantime, with his 2011 'An Argument With Myself EP' the most recent in a string of minor releases.

Erica America is a first taste of what to expect from his forthcoming 'I Know What Love Isn't' LP, with his wistful folk and melancholic, absorbing pen as sharp as ever. Check out the video below.

 

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jj // High Summer EP

Swedish duo jj have just dropped a free five track EP, 'High Summer', for your listening pleasure, a record of lush, angelic electronica interspersed with lyrical profanity and paranoia. In lieu of a new record proper (jj no. 4) this will most definitely do nicely thanks.

'High Summer EP'
jj // High Summer
jj // 10
jj // My Name
jj // Big Hearts, Big Dreams
jj // Times

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50 albums of 2011 // 20 - 11

The fourth installment, and an incredible set of ten albums that have soundtracked our 2011. From SBTRKT's soulful dub step to Yuck's 90s leaning grunge pop, from Bon Iver's epic folk through to Timber Timbre's dramatic noir, it's testament to the top 10 we've picked that these records didn't quite make it in.

11. Bon Iver - 'Bon Iver'

Bon Iver // Holocene

12. SBTRKT - 'SBTRKT'



YT057 - SBTRKT - Living Like I Do by Young Turks

13. Toro Y Moi - 'Underneath The Pine'

Toro Y Moi // Still Sound

14. Yuck - 'Yuck'



15. Peaking Lights - '936'

Peaking Lights // All The Sun That Shines

16. Timber Timbre - 'Creep On Creepin' On'



17. Braids - 'Native Speaker'

Braids // Lemonade

18. Ghostpoet - 'Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam'



19. I Break Horses - 'Hearts'

I Break Horses // Winter Beats

20. The War On Drugs - 'Slave Ambient'



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The War on Drugs // Baby Missiles

The new track from Philidephians The War on Drugs is a pulsating romp, nodding to the urgent pop of Talking Heads and The Boss' anthemic rock. There's even some harmonica and visual train imagery thrown in to empasise the rocking across the USA vibe Baby Missiles evokes.

Their new record Slave Ambient is out on 16th August on Secretly Canadian, and the band are in the UK to support it in September.



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Gardens & Villa // Black Hills

Secretly Canadian just don't sign up bad bands. They don't even consider bands without artistic verve and un-checked ideals. And so it is with Gardens & Villa, the label's newest roster addition and a band preparing for its debut album release in July.

The video for freely downloadable single Black Hills recalls ET or The Goonies as much as 50s noir, while the song itself brings to mind an amped up Cat Power over pulsing Germanic synths.

Gardens & Villa Black Hills by INDIGENOUSPromotions

Black Hills by Gardens & Villa from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

Little Scream // The Heron and The Fox

You can never go far wrong with a Secretly Canadian signing, the record label home of Here We Go Magic, Yeasayer, JJ and Antony & The Johnsons acting as signpost for innovation and future genius.

It would seem careless therefore not to herald a new SC signing with some attention. Unlike her label contemporaries there's more of the traditional in Little Scream, with a lush, hushed voice that invites comparisons with Joni Mitchell, yet behind the innocent visage lies perhaps a more deviant edge, singing of showing truckers what she's got and that she would be the fox to her muse's heron.

Ok, perhaps not deviant, but there's plenty to love in this celebratory free download that certainly whets the aural appetite for her forthcoming debut 'The Golden Record' out 11th April.

Little Scream - The Heron and The Fox