Boy-girl duos; we need more of these right? Are Tennis, Summer Camp, Beach House, Big Deal et al not enough to sate your need for love soaked C86 inspired pop? If not, you should definitely listen to Ski Lift, a quite beautiful looking and sounding twosome from the States.
Theirs is perhaps a grander sound than their contemporaries, with baroque string and percussive accompaniments and layered vocals as on Too adding a lush glow to the tracks off Romantic EP, their debut released today. Hear it all below, and let the summer glamour wash over you.
Still Corners have been around for years now, but it's only now that we're getting a debut album proper, Creatures of an Hour, ready to go on Sub Pop and preceded by this, the band's first single for the label.
Cuckoo is an ethereal insight into a troubled relationship of obsession and jealousy, with Tessa Murray's vocals as fleeting as is her presence in the video. Dreamy, chilling, haunting, and other such ghostly adjectives apply. Watch and download below.
London's Echo Lake generate reverb drenched, psychedlic epics, like Jesus and Mary Chain on a trip around the Nordics. Breathe Deep is no exception, the blissful female vocals perfectly pitched against the looping, hazed guitars, with Rob Heppell's video providing an accurate visual interpretation. Enjoy.
We really, really cannot wait for the new Ganglians album to arrive. Melding twee and psych, on Drop The Act the band sound like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart after a long, revelatory night out with Evan Dando's dealer, producing magnificent results. Listen to this and watch the video to Jungle below.
Sampha has helped propel the likes of Jessie Ware and SBTRKT into the public consciousness with his delicious R&B vocals and production mastery.
Here on Indecision he's branching further down the John Legend road than on previous solo releases with a lush, piano-led ballad accompanied by a soulful vocal to pull on those already over-stretched heart strings as he pleads "let is all work out". Can't wait for a full record, but in the meantime listen below to this and his work with Jessie Ware below.
In preparation for their presence at Field Day on Saturday, Spectrals have issued a taster of what to expect from their long awaited Witchita / Slumberland Records debut album Bad Penny.
We've been waiting for Bad Penny to drop for a long time and Big Baby, showcasing Spectrals' 60s influences and expertly wry lyricism, is a step closer towards what could be our favourite record of the year.
When miraculous sideburn sporting Will Wiesenfeld is not making music as Baths he's making ambient soundscapes as his alter-alter-ego Geotic. Productive chap. This latest Geotic cut is a sparse, sweeping journey, at once lonely and comforting as the gentle,looping melody flits in and out under swarming white noise.
Beautiful stuff, more of which you can check out on his ever expanding website.
Stay+, formerly known as Christian AIDS but induced into a name change by a perturbed charity and a horde of burly lawyer types with writs, have given Junior Boys' Banana Ripple the once over.
Where the original is 9 minutes plus of sunburned summer attitude and analogue synths, Stay+ give it a sinister, 4am house twist, upping the beats and layering on the reverb for a more unsettling experience. Check out both versions below.
We blogged about Novella a few weeks ago as one of our local favourites following the online release of some Rory Attwell (AKA Warm Brains) produced tracks, and to back up our views here's a video to accompany The Things You Do.
Directed by Conan Roberts, and featuring a pair of wild stallions and subliminal 'Novella' messaging, the record will get a physical release on Dirty Bingo on August 15th. Before that, catch the band at The Shacklewell Arms for a celebratory launch party alongside The History of Apple Pie and Bone Yards, or even at Tough Love's No Being Weird night on July 30th with Not Cool.
With less than a week to go until Field Day 2011, and what may be the best Field Day of its young life, I cannot stop gaping at the line-up in awestruck paralysis. Some of the best UK artists are on show in the form of Anna Calvi, James Blake, SBTRKT, Anika and Spectrals, while there's a healthy sprinkling of trans-Atlantic big hitters Twin Shadow, Glasser and Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti as well as our European cousins Junip, who I for one don't listen to enough.
Below is a mini-playlist to whet your appetite, led out by the boy-girl harmonies, pounding drums and driving 60s garage guitars of Veronica Falls' new track, plus a few choice extras from Gruff Rhys, Jamie xx, Anika and Junip. We also have a fleshed out Spotify playlist you can grab here.
With their record just released on July 18th, Little Dragon dropped in to the Boiler Room last week and, from the sounds of it, absolutely nailed a set full of past and future hits. Listen below, or check the sets at the Boiler Room site.
While this year's Latitude line-up may not have had quite the commercially attractive draws of its preceeding year, it was without doubt as engaging, diverse and inspiring as ever.
A festival that fails to sell out is perhaps a sign that your ticket investment may not offer equal returns. However, a festival is better judged on the number of tough, band-clash choices you have to make, so with Suede up against Eels, Lykke Li battling Gold Panda, Anna Calvi vying with The Leisure Society, Everything Everything mixing it with Iron & Wine, and Foals locking horns with Paolo Nu... Well perhaps not all decisions were difficult.
Here's our pick of the music we caught at Latitude 2011, with a couple of live videos from The National and Suede, alongside the pick of the rest.
The National: Son and About Today - Friday, Obelisk
Suede: Animal Nitrate - Sunday, Obelisk
Foals: Blue Blood - Saturday, Word Arena
The Walkmen: Angela Surf City - Saturday, Word Arena
Mazes: Summer Hits or J+J Don't Like - Sunday, Lake Stage
Welcome to No Action.
Based in Bow, East London, writing about stuff that sounds good.
No Action has also written for High Voltage and The Fugitive Motel.
