Rhye – the project of LA-based musician Michael Milosh – returns with “Beautiful” via Loma Vista Recordings. Known for his “reserved, understated and brilliant soul” (NPR Music), “Beautiful” is Rhye’s first proper single since the release of 2018’s JUNO-Award winning Blood. It’s sophisticated in its subtlety, opening with a flurry of strings and a taut percussive beat. Throughout, the song gently surges with humming organ and piano. Milosh’s voice shimmers over a mellow bass line and is instantly recognizable as he advocates for finding beauty in everyday life. This idea is being presented via A Beautiful Weekend on the Rhye website, where the song is paired with accompanying visuals of beauty.
“As we all share in this collective crazy moment that is quarantine, there are many ways to deal with the isolation, many ways we can truly fall into ourselves,” says Milosh. “For me, celebrating the beauty that is my partner has been a huge inspiration for me and a saving grace. Beauty is something we truly need to be open to in this moment. Find it in music, art, your loved ones, or yourself.” Listen to Rhye’s “Beautiful” – https://found.ee/Rhye_Beautiful
Milosh has been filling his isolation time recording new music and performing livestreams as part of Secular Sabbath, including a morning ambient performance with Joseph August and the Corona Sabbath with Diplo. Secular Sabbath, the LA based creative community founded by his partner Genevieve Medow Jenkins, initially focused on live ambient music events. During quarantine, it has blossomed with a range of offerings.
In conjunction with the “Beautiful” single release, Rhye is offering a limited edition Box of Beautiful care package which includes a tote bag, a custom scented candle by Joia, a vegan leather embossed notebook and pen, a postcard, engraved selenite, and a bandana. This custom box is available via the Rhye webstore. There will be more Rhye news in the coming weeks.
Legendary South Sudanese pop star and 2019’s BIGSOUND Levi’s Prize winner Gordon Koang releases a new track/ video, “Mal Mi Goa (Ginoli Remix).” As remixed by Ginoli (moniker of James Ireland, Perth-based producer and drummer of Pond), is an eclectic mix of Koang’s joyful voice, thom (an East African stringed instrument that Gordon has modified to suit his unique style of playing), and danceable, swelling synth. It marks the first release from Music In Exile REMIXED EP, out June 5th, part of a series of collaborations between producers from Australia’s burgeoning electronic scene and artists from a refugee and migrant background.
Gordon Koang was born blind and began playing music from an early age, busking on the streets of Juba and producing his own self-released CD-R’s and cassettes. He became a crowd favourite and began recording a series of singles and music videos celebrating South Sudan’s cultural wealth. His music went viral, spreading throughout the country, and his reputation quickly grew as the poet and homegrown hero of the Nuer people, sometimes called the “Michael Jackson of South Sudan.”
In 2013, while Koang was performing to expatriate Nuer communities in Australia, renewed conflict broke out at home. He made a difficult and heartbreaking decision to not return to Sudan, applying to the Australian government for humanitarian protection. After six long years of waiting, living in a foreign country far away from his family, he now proudly calls himself an “Australian,” and eagerly awaits the day he will rejoin his wife and children in safety.
With “Mal Mia Goa (Ginoli Remix),” Gordon hopes to reach as many new listeners as he can in his adopted country, and around the world. He wants everyone, and he means everyone, to hear his message of peace and unity, regardless of religion or cultural differences. After a painfully first-hand experience of what these rifts between people can create, Gordon has devoted his life, and his music, to a simple message of peace, love and unity.
Jon Hopkins presents “Singing Bowl (Ascension),” the first in a new series of “Meditations” that is available to stream now and appears on “Quiet,” his 24-hour long collaborative playlist for Spotify. Designed with deep meditation experiences in mind, “Singing Bowl (Ascension)” perfectly fits into Jon’s transcendent selections. To create this piece, Hopkins recorded a range of vibrations created by a 100 year-old singing bowl found in an antique shop in Delhi. He then fed these into a laptop running a simple, generative system that triggered the hits and drones at random. This would allow synchronicity to play a central part in the composition process, and remove as much “thinking” as possible from the writing. An earlier version of this generative piece was used as a sound installation at last year’s Helsinki Arts Festival.
Hopkins further explains the inspiration behind the track: “Like so many people I felt pretty paralysed by this situation when it first unfolded. All my plans for the year were cancelled, and everything felt so weird and dreamlike. But gradually I found I wanted to create something – to find peace and perspective through making music, as I have always done. It felt beautifully pure to just use one acoustic sound source, and no synths. It was liberating to write something without playing anything on a keyboard – to avoid the familiar diatonic scale for the first time, and thus avoid any of my own conditioned playing habits. There was a magic in setting this generative system in motion then just letting the vibrations of this bowl create their own world. I listened to harmonics layering on top of harmonics for hours and was transported.”
Jon Hopkins Tour: Wed. Aug. 12 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre w/ RÜFÜS DU SOL Thu. Aug. 13 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre w/ RÜFÜS DU SOL Sun. Nov. 11 – Stockholm, SE @ Gota Lejon Mon. Nov. 12 – Oslo, NO @ Sentrum Scene Thu. Nov. 5 – Brussels, BE @ Cirque Royal Mon. Nov. 8 – Copenhagen, DK @ DR Koncerthuset – Koncertsalen Mon. Nov. 9 – Paris, DR @ Salle Pleyel Wed. Nov. 11 – The Hague, NL @ Zuiderstrandtheater Mon. Nov. 16 – Berlin, DE @ Philharmonie Fri. Dec. 4 – London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall
“[‘Still Here’ is] light and densely nuanced at the same time.” – Nylon
“[‘Still Here’] is delicate and rollicking and propulsive and lovely.” – Jezebel
“‘Still Here’ is built around a brisk, frenetic backbeat that seems like the foundation of a dancefloor banger, but the meat of the song is melancholy balladry on the indie-pop wavelength. The resulting contrast is deeply appealing…” – Stereogum Kllo – electronic pop duo of Melbourne cousins Chloe Kaul and Simon Lam – will release their new album, Maybe We Could, on July 17th via Ghostly International. Today, they share the new single, “Insomnia,” which simmers in a similar melancholy of lead single “Still Here.” “Insomnia” skitters with steely beats and tender keys. It’s one of the few songs written from separate locations when both artists were in North America independently, and its feeling reflects a sense of jet-lagged joy and displacement, the “high highs, low lows” as one line goes.
“It’s one of our favourites off the album and is heavily influenced by our time in North America,” says Kllo. “The song is about laying in bed fantasizing that you’ll give your all to something and that someone else will too, but knowing deep down it will never happen. The moment of the night where you can’t switch off and differentiate your truth from your imagination.“
Following the release of their adored full-length debut Backwater, two years of global touring, a handful of singles, and a near-breakup, Kaul and Lam both took time away from Kllo to make solo work. The experiences served as a reset, giving them space to learn separately, and, ultimately, to appreciate what they have together. Largely written and recorded upon their return, Maybe We Could signals a new start for Kllo. Ten tracks pairing the rhythms of dance music to emotive chords and melodies; revealing two artists at their strongest yet most vulnerable, operating as their truest selves, honest with each other and their craft. Songs on Maybe We Could grapple with familiar dynamics: unrequited love, doubts, desires, and decisions. Musically, the album finds Kllo following their impulses, embracing a more subdued and nuanced tone.
Maybe We Could mirrors the progression and growth of the two artists behind a singular project. The title references a phrase they repeat often when recording. A collective strategy towards facing uncertainty, taking chances, and making choices. Ones that become more deliberate as time rolls on. Lam sums it up, “It’s like the album started off with ‘maybe’ and ended with ‘definitely.’” Stream “Insomnia”: https://youtu.be/QJdm3I0gcnI
here’s always been something perversely funky about New Fries’ freaky no-wave radiations NPR
For New Fries, their goal isn’t to create a sound, but a spirit VICE
The group’s frenzied energy sounds like the source for a mad scientist’s latest and most troubling creation The FADER
New Fries has never been interested in being a band. Yet, the Toronto-based experimental No-Wave inspired band have become one of the best kept secrets in the city, with New Fries gaining legendary status for their unconventional, ever-changing sound, and their rapturous live show. Is The Idea Of Us, out August 7th on Telephone Explosion is the band’s first new material since 2016’s More, which saw the band team up with Holy Fuck‘s Graham Walsh. Today, to announce their new LP, they are sharing the single “Ploce“, and you can stream the animated video from Amy Lockhart below.
Never afraid of collaboration or change, Is The Idea Of Us is a product of working closely with Carl Didur (Zacht Automaat, formerly U.S. Girls), resulting in a new direction, focusing more on space and repetition, finding the in-between and reflecting on it, examining that transition. The album is anxious in its repetitions and is unsure of genre, so much so that over half of the tracks on the record bear that very name. “Ploce” is more sure of itself and more focused, one of cornerstones in the collage that is the forthcoming new album.
Is the Idea of Us is the situation of musicians and non-musicians making music together, perhaps completely illegible in the music on this record and to the random listener. There are enough bands out there; New Fries insist on do it differently.
On the new track, the band explained, “Ploce is the name of Tim’s fish who passed away—the figure of speech (not the place in Croatia). It refers to words repeated for emphasis. On the internet some examples provided are:
“I am stuck on Band-Aid, and Band-Aid’s stuck on me.”
“First she ruins my life. And then she ruins my life!”.”
Is The Idea Of Us is out on August 7th on Telephone Explosion. It is available for pre-order here.
Today, Protomartyr present a new single/video, “Worm In Heaven,” off of their forthcoming album, Ultimate Success Today, which has had its release date moved to July 17th, out onDomino. Additionally, Protomartyr must sadly cancel their scheduled 2020 tour dates. Ticket buyers should seek refunds at the point of purchase. The band looks forward to bringing these songs on the road as soon as safely possible.
Following lead single “Processed By The Boys,” “Worm In Heaven” winds with meandering guitar, mellow drums, and Joe Casey’s consuming voice: “I am a worm in heaven / so close to grace / could lick it off of the boot heels of the blessed.” Eventually, the track rises with crashing instrumentation and a repeated refrain. The accompanying video, directed by Trevor Naud, is a collection of abstract still images stitched together. It was inspired by the 1962 Chris Marker short film La Jetée and was shot using limited resources, mainly a 35mm film camera, with no film crew. As the video goes on, the images grow stranger and more off-putting.
“The idea is a sort of dream chamber that has lured its creator into a near-constant state of isolation,” says director Trevor Naud. “She lives out her days trapped as the sole subject of her own experiment: the ability to simulate death. It is like a drug to her. Everything takes place in a small, claustrophobic environment. With soft, yet sterile visuals. Perhaps a strange combo to reference, but imagine the cover of the Rolling Stones’ Goat’s Head Soup and the character of Carol White in Todd Haynes’ 1995 film Safe.”
“I’d been experimenting with shooting multiples of still photographs and stitching them together so that there’s subtle movement,” explains Naud, “almost like a 3-D camera effect, but awkward and sort of unsettling–like looking at a photograph under shallow water. I shot upwards of 700 still frames on a Nikon F Photomic camera. I embraced the lines and artifacts from the film scans, which give a sort of Xerox quality to some of the images. All the special effects were done in-camera using mirrors, projectors and magnifying glasses.” WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “WORM IN HEAVEN” http://smarturl.it/WormInHeaven
Protomartyr is Joe Casey (vocals), Greg Ahee (guitars), Alex Leonard (drums), and Scott Davidson (bass guitar). Following the release of Relatives In Descent, the band’s critically acclaimed headlong dive into the morass of American life in 2017 (featured on myriad “best of” lists, including The New York Times, Esquire, Newsweek, and more), Ultimate Success Today continues to further expand the possibilities of what a Protomartyr album can sound like.
“There is darkness in the poetry of Ultimate Success Today; the theme of things ending, above all human existence, is present,” says Ana da Silva, founding member of The Raincoats and friend of the band. “There are exquisite, subtle gifts from other instruments that always heighten the guitar, instead of fighting with it. They help to create a harmonious wall of sound all of its own. This was intentional. Ahee wanted to use different textures other than pedals, and the drone quality of some of those instruments colours the guitar and the whole sound with a warm, rich in reverb, landscape for Casey’s voice.”
Ultimate Success Today features guest musicians Nandi Rose (vocals) a.k.a. Half Waif, jazz legend Jemeel Moondoc (alto sax), Izaak Mills (bass clarinet, sax, flute), and Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello).
Ultimate Success Today is available to pre-order now on LP, CD and digital formats. A limited blue-in-red colored edition of the LP is available exclusively on the Domino Mart. WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “PROCESSED BY THE BOYS” http://smarturl.it/PBTBYT
“Casey once again casts his drunken-philosopher gaze on the world’s ills, backed by a reverb-laden stomp that builds into the kind of cacophony this band does best.” – Stereogum
“A post-punk stomper, the track vibrates with meditations from the guest performers’ reed instruments.” – Consequence of Sound
“”the classic wall-of-noise feel of a Protomartyr track” – Paste
“The seismic first cut off the Detroit band’s fifth LP Ultimate Success Today rattles with ‘cosmic grief beyond all comprehension.’ Its video, a bizarre tribute to the Brazillian meme ‘Gil da Esfiha vs Galerito,’ is equally discombobulating.” – The FADER
Khruangbin, the Houston-based group comprised of bassist LauraLeeOchoa, guitarist MarkSpeer, and drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson, are pleased to announce their new album, Mordechai, out June26th on Dead Oceans, in association with Night Time Stories. Mordechai comes two years after the release of their beloved and acclaimed breakthrough, 2018’sCon Todo El Mundo, and was preceded earlier this year by TexasSun, the group’s collaborative EP withLeonBridges. Today, they present the vibrant, Felix Heyes & Josh R.R. King-directed video for Mordechai’s lead single, “Time (You and I)”.
Khruangbin has always been multilingual, weaving far-flung musical languages like East Asian surf-rock, Persian funk, and Jamaican dub into mellifluous harmony. As a first for the mostly instrumental band, Mordechai features vocals prominently on nearly every song. It’s a shift that rewards the risk, reorienting Khruangbin’s transportive sound toward a new sense of emotional directness, without losing the spirit of nomadic wandering that’s always defined it. And it all started with them coming home.
By the summer of 2019, Khruangbin had been on tour for nearly three-and-a-half years, playing to ever-expanding audiences across North and South America, Europe, and southeast Asia in support of both Con Todo El Mundo and their 2015 debut, The Universe Smiles Upon You. They returned to their farmhouse studio in Burton, Texas, ready to begin work on Mordechai. But they were also determined to slow down, to take their time and luxuriate in building something together.
It’s a lesson Lee had recently learned with the help of a new friend, a near-stranger who had reached out when she was feeling particularly unmoored, inviting her to come hiking with his family. That day, as they’d all made their way toward the distant promise of a waterfall, Lee had felt a dawning clarity about the importance of appreciating the journey, rather than rushing headlong toward the next destination. When they reached the waterfall at last, Lee’s friend urged her to jump, a leap she likens to a baptism. As she did, he screamed her name—her full name, the one she’d recently taken from her grandfather. In that instant, Laura Lee Ochoa was reborn. She emerged feeling liberated, grateful for what her friend had shown her. His name was Mordechai.
Ochoa’s rejuvenation found its expression in words—hundreds of pages’ worth, which she’d filled over a self-imposed day of silence. As Khruangbin began putting together the songs that would make up Mordechai, discovering in them spaces it seemed like only vocals could fill, they turned to those notebooks. Khruangbin had experimented with lyrics before, but this time Ochoa had found she had something to say. Letting those words ring out gave Khruangbin’s cavernous music a new thematic depth.
Chief among those themes is memory—holding onto it, letting it go, naming it before it disappears. The sun-dappled disco of lead single “Time (You And I)” evinces the feeling of a festival winding down to its final blowout hours. Its accompanying video features comedian Stephen K. Amos and Lunda Anele-Skosana. The duo wander around London, placing singular sandcastles throughout the city’s various scenery.
Musically, the band’s ever-restless ear saw them pulling reference points from Pakistan, Korea, and West Africa, incorporating strains of Indian chanting boxes and Congolese syncopated guitar. But more than anything, Mordechai became a celebration of Houston, the eclectic city that had nurtured them, and a cultural nexus where you can check out country and zydeco, trap rap, or avant-garde opera on any given night. It is a snapshot taken along a larger journey—a moment all the more beautiful for its impermanence. And it’s a memory to revisit again and again, speaking to us now more clearly than ever.
Mordechai Tracklist: 1. First Class 2. Time (You and I) 3. Connaissais de Face 4. Father Bird, Mother Bird 5. If There is No Question 6. Pelota 7. One to Remember 8. Dearest Alfred 9. So We Won’t Forget 10. Shida
“Amélie Rousseaux moved halfway across the world to heal, and it is a pleasure to hear her processing.” – Pitchfork
“Bolt trades in understated indie rock ” – The Guardian Sofia Bolt (a.k.a. Amélie Rousseaux) shares a new single, “All She Wants;” the second standalone single since the release of her debut album, Waves, in 2019, which drew praise fromRolling Stone, Stereogum, Pitchfork, and more. “All She Wants” was recorded live at Electro-Vox Studios in Los Angeles, a song written for listeners to move to. The video was created by animator Jenna Caravello.
“I always wanted to write music for people to dance to at my shows,” says Rousseaux. Her songwriting was influenced by harmonies and guitar riffs found in 1970s jazz-funk records. “My goal was to play around with tension and release while keeping a forward momentum. I listened to a lot of The Meters, Cymande, Roy Ayers while working on ‘All She Wants.’”
Sofia Bolt is the project of French-born musician and songwriter Amelie Rousseaux. In early 2017, pent-up in Paris and searching for transformation, Rousseaux moved to Los Angeles. Her first few months in LA were a revelation – she found herself surfing every day, reflecting on her relationship, and immersing herself in American culture and music. This shock to the system brought a creative blossom that gave rise to the sweeping, beautiful, honest, and acclaimed debut album Waves, released in July 2019.
Recorded live in a whirlwind five days by a cast of LA all-stars, Waves is at once casual and tightly constructed, with Rousseaux’s pop melodies leaping and diving over a bed of guitars and roomy drums. Since the release, Rousseaux has created the soundtrack to Hedi Slimane’s winter 2020 Celine collection and has toured both the States and Europe, opening for Sharon Van Etten, Interpol, and Stella Donnelly. Watch Video for “All She Wants” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXQCI7RUck0&feature=youtu.be
“The pounding four-on-the-floor rhythm section on ‘Melt!’ makes for both a club banger and a political comment, a dazzling dance macabre for impending environmental collapse.” — Pitchfork, “Best New Track”
“[Kelly Lee Owens] makes skittish techno that makes the hairs on your neck stand up and demands to be heard in a dripping warehouse.” — The Guardian
“a fathomless, flickering techno banger” — Gorilla vs. Bear Convention-blurring techno producer/musician Kelly Lee Owens releases a new song, “Night.” The track appears on her new album, Inner Song, which has been moved to August 28th on Smalltown Supersound. Following techno banger “Melt!,” “Night” opens with a monopoly synth and Owen’s soft, intimate vocals, before transforming with a danceable, staccato rhythm and jockeying beat.
“This track speaks as to how feelings and insights are more accessible to us at nighttime – how the veils are thinner somehow and therefore how we are more able to connect to our hearts true desires,” says Owens. “I wanted to release this track as a gift to you during this crazy time, to give a part of my heart to you all.” Listen to “Night” by Kelly Lee Owens https://KellyLeeOwens.lnk.to/night
Liam Kazar, a Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, releases his debut single/video, “Shoes Too Tight.” Throughout the last decade, Kazar has been recognized for his adaptability and deftness in the studio and on stage, leading to tours and collaborations with Jeff Tweedy, Chance the Rapper, Steve Gunn, Daniel Johnston, Kids These Days, amongst others. His first offering, “Shoes Too Tight,” presents Kazar’s joyful and vulnerable world.
“Shoes Too Tight” is born from the strange and quick combination of the well-worn sound of a clavinet, blended with whatever noise you get when you turn on that weird synth sitting in the corner of the studio. The track features childhood friends Lane Beckstom (bass) and Spencer Tweedy (drums), who have shared stages with Kazar since they were young, plus vocals from Ohmme. It follows a single theme through all its nooks and crannies to a warm, tender end; a collage of lyrics that deal with lost time, lost chance, and the reconciliation of the two. In the accompanying video, directed by Austin Vesely and shot at Chicago’s Constellation, he and his background dancers channel 60s crooners, Lindsay Kemp, and Kazar’s own contemporary groove, daring you not to join them.
Since filming “Shoes Too Tight,” Kazar has spent the last many weeks staying at home in Kansas City, where he sometimes lives. He’s recorded a new song, “Holding Plans,” and created an accompanying lyric video. Additionally, Kazar is raising money via his Bandcamp for Constellation and the Hungry Brain, a treasure and hub for Chicago’s music community.
