Month: June 2019

Bleached releases “Rebound City” ahead of new album and upcoming tour.

Photo by Nicky Giraffe

Bleached – the Los Angeles-based duo of sisters Jessie and Jennifer Clavin – share their fourth and final pre-release single, “Rebound City,” from their forthcoming album, Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough?, due July 12th via Dead Oceans. Bleached have championed their new direction through a trio of exhilarating singles; “Kiss You Goodbye,” “Hard To Kill”, and “Shitty Ballet.” “Rebound City” is a guitar-driven, power-pop song that paints the landscape of a disintegrating 1980’s Sunset Strip era. Throughout, Jennifer references various mishaps – waking up with a friend’s ex, an obsession with a stranger, and the remorse that comes with breaking someone’s heart. “This song is a brief history of the mistakes I’ve made…except there really are no mistakes, they’re all lessons in the end.” Just like the crumbled rock ‘n’ roll glam era that “Rebound City” draws upon sonically, rebound relationships are born from nostalgia of better times, and sparkle with false intrigue and decorum. “It’s a one way Boulevard,” Jennifer sings, and she’s not wrong.

Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough? is Jessie and Jennifer Clavin’s first LP written from a place of sobriety. That clear-eyed perspective serves as the guiding force in every corner of its sound, yielding a courageous, honest, and sonically ambitious album.

Bleached returned to their dynamic as sisters – Jessie handled the bulk of the instrumentation and Jennifer handled the lyrics and melodies. Producer Shane Stoneback (Vampire Weekend, Sleigh Bells) helped open every door to experimentation, wanting to be exploratory while keeping the sound singularly Bleached. The album glimmers with inspiration found in touring with the likes of The Damned and Paramore whose arena-ready, incisively catchy pop was a palpable influence helping to push Bleached’s sound in a new realm.

Following a hometown record release show in Los Angeles, Bleached will kick off their North American tour in September. All dates are below.

Listen to “Rebound City” – https://youtu.be/inxS8IrzHak

Watch: “Kiss You Goodbye” – https://youtu.be/InvEKijp7WM “

“Hard To Kill” Video – https://youtu.be/bQYgcc02m5c

“Shitty Ballet” Video – https://youtu.be/v8pGMcSylH4

Pre-order Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough? – bleached.ffm.to/dontyouthink

Bleached Tour Dates: Thu. July 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge Thu. Aug. 22 – London, UK @ The Lexington Sat. Aug. 24 – Reading, UK @ Reading Festival Sun. Aug. 25 – Leeds, UK @ Leeds Festival Thu. Sept. 5 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah Fri. Sept. 6 – Pomona, CA @ The Glass House Sat. Sept. 7 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar Mon. Sept. 9 – Austin, TX @ Barracuda Tue. Sept. 10 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada Wed. Sept. 11 – Houston, TX @ Satellite Bar Fri. Sept. 13 – New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa Sat. Sept. 14 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade (Hell) Sun. Sept. 15 – Raleigh, NC @ Motorco Tue. Sept. 17 – Washington, DC @ U Street Music Hall Thu. Sept. 19 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere Fri. Sept. 20 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA Sat. Sept. 21 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall Mon. Sept. 23 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern Tue. Sept. 24 – Columbus, OH @ The Basement Wed. Sept. 25 – Nashville, TN @ Exit In Fri. Sept. 27 – Urbana, IL @ Pygmalion Festival Sat. Sept. 28 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry Sun. Sept. 29 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall Mon. Sept. 30 – St. Louis, MO @ Firebird Tue. Oct. 1 – Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room (Outdoors)* Thu. Oct. 3 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall* Fri. Oct. 4 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room* Sat. Oct. 5 – Boise, ID @ The Olympic* Mon. Oct. 7 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile* Tue. Oct. 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret* Wed. Oct. 9 – Portland, OR @ Star Theater Fri. Oct. 11 – Oakland, CA @ New Parish* Sat. Oct. 12 – Los Angeles, Ca @ The Lodge Room* *= w/ Dude York

Keep your mind open.

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Blanck Mass shares new single and announces North American fall tour.

Photo by Harrison Reid

Blanck Mass – the solo electronic project of Scotland-based musician Benjamin John Power – shares “No Dice” from his new album, Animated Violence Mild, out August 16th on Sacred Bones, and announces a fall North American tour.

Following the “forceful beat + vocal sample combination” [Tiny Mix Tapes] of lead single “House vs. House,” “No Dice” is led by crashing percussion and punctuated by warped vocals. “‘No Dice’ is about denial. It’s the voice in the back of your head stopping you from moving forward, the separation between your head and your heart,” says Power. Animated Violence Mild is Power’s fourth full-length as Blanck Mass, and his most emotionally direct statement yet. The album was written throughout 2018, at Power’s studio outside of Edinburgh. These eight tracks are the diary of a year of work steeped in honing craft, self-discovery, and grief – the latter of which reared its head at the final hurdle of producing this record and created a whole separate narrative: grief, both for what Power has lost personally, but also in a global sense, for what we as a species have lost and handed over to our blood-sucking counterpart, consumerism, only to be ravaged by it.

Stream “No Dice” – https://youtu.be/Lsnb6GBrQP8

Stream “House vs. House” – https://youtu.be/7DJ12asti2k

Pre-order Animated Violence Mild – https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sbr220-blanck-mass-animated-violence-mild

Blanck Mass Tour Dates (w/ Helm): Fri. Sept. 20 – Boston, MA @ Great Scott Sat. Sept. 21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere Mon. Sept. 23 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA Tue. Sept. 24 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe Wed. Sept. 25 – Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s Thu. Sept. 26 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle Fri. Sept. 27 – Detroit, MI @ UFO Sat. Sept. 28 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground Sun. Sept. 29 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz Tue. Oct. 1 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey Thu. Oct. 3 – Portland, OR @ Holocene Fri. Oct. 4 – Oakland, CA @ Starline Sat. Oct. 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Andre Bratten – Pax Americana

“I’ve always been fascinated with how a sound can make you feel without being something you can touch,” Oslo-based DJ and producer Andre Bratten writes in the press release I received for his newest album – Pax Americana.  Recorded in a studio he built in his garden after stepping away from late night DJ sessions at clubs around the world, the new record is indeed an evocative piece that changes your perspective and makes you move.

Lead single, “HS” (one of my favorites of the year so far), is a great example of this.  It’s bubbly yet laced with a little darkness to keep you grounded as you let it sink into your feet to get them tapping.  The title track, comparing the current state of the U.S. to the Roman Empire, has an underlying nervous tick that bumps against soothing synths.  I’m not sure if Bratten is trying to tell us Americans that everything will be all right, despite what some may fear, or the reverse of that message.  It works either way.

“426” continues the dark themes, with bass lines that slow to a creepy crawl while up-tempo electro high-hats move like a rattlesnake around you.  The gothic “Commonwealth” is like an Art of Noise track if Art of Noise decided to make synthwave music for horror films that take place in the year 2999.  “Ranx” goes further down the darkwave rabbit hole to the point where you’re not sure it’s fading out or lulling you into a trap.  The closer, “Recreation 26B,” starts with a simple beat and then builds like a rising morning tide with bright synths.  It’s the kind of track that tends to take you by surprise.  You’re enjoying the opening riffs and then find yourself in another mental place by the end of it and wondering how you got there.  It’s a worm hole in space and time.

Pax Americana is a soundscape more than a dance record.  It’s a soundscape for your garden studio, your garden party, or your mental garden (which, let’s face it, all of ours need cultivating).

Keep your mind open.

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WSND DJ set list for June 27, 2019

It was another fun (and much needed for my stress levels, to be honest) show this morning on WSND. Thanks to all who listened and contributed, and again to the University of Notre Dame’s security services for letting me into the building again. Here’s my set list:

  1. John Mayall – Ain’t No Brakeman
  2. Buddy Guy – She’s Nineteen Years Old
  3. Led Zeppelin – What Is and What Should Never Be (live)
  4. And Now the Screaming Starts radio ad
  5. Little Feat – Fatman in the Bathtub (live – request)
  6. David Bowie – I’d Rather Be High
  7. The Beths – Future Me Hates Me
  8. Franz Ferdinand – Darts of Pleasure
  9. Scissor Sisters – Somewhere
  10. Jenn Champion – O.M.G. (I’m All Over It)
  11. Duck Duck Punch – Words Like Salt
  12. Mighty Quinn and the Oakland Ronin – The Nu Punks
  13. POW! – Color the System
  14. Devo – Sumthin’
  15. The Legend of Spider Forest radio ad
  16. Bassnectar – Ping Pong
  17. The Kills – Dreams
  18. The Flaming Lips – Oczy Mlody
  19. The Flaming Lips – Race for the Prize
  20. Jack White – Highball Stepper (request)
  21. Terror in the Wax Museum radio ad
  22. Doug Brown and the Omens – Youth & Experience Bob Griffin campaign ad
  23. Los Straitjackets – Wrong Planet
  24. Gary Wilson – King of Endicott
  25. Hum – Stars
  26. Morphine – The Way We Met
  27. Radiohead – Videotape
  28. Shannon & the Clams – Onion (request)
  29. Elephant Stone – Where I’m Going
  30. BadBoE – Ease the Funk

I should be back on air July 1st at midnight EDT. I hope you’ll tune in for the show. It’s going to be a “Best of 2019 So Far” show, so send me your suggestions.

Keep your mind open.

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WSND DJ set list for June 26, 2019

Thanks to all who listened to my show this morning.  I’m back on air at midnight tonight (EDT) to celebrate National Onion Day, among other things.

Here’s my set list from this morning, which is also available as a YouTube playlist for those of you who missed the show (or want to relive it).

  1. Idles – Danny Nedelko
  2. Motorhead – Ain’t My Crime
  3. Soundgarden – Let Me Drown
  4. Beast from the East – Could’ve Been Great
  5. Dinosaur, Jr. – Plans (request)
  6. Faith No More – Land of Sunshine
  7. The Ramones – Rockaway Beach (live)
  8. Heartless Bastards – All This Time
  9. The Amityville Horror radio ad
  10. Hi-Fi and the Roadburners – Chi-Town Hustler
  11. Captain Beefheart – Hot Head
  12. Happyness – When You Wake Up
  13. Vazum – Silo
  14. The Easybeats – Coca-Cola ad
  15. Bangs – Tiger Beat
  16. Enter the Dragon radio ad
  17. Reel Big Fish – Gigantic
  18. Froth – Laurel
  19. The Legend of Hell House radio ad
  20. 13th Floor Elevators – You’re Gonna Miss Me (request)
  21. DJ Shadow – The Tiger
  22. Sepalcure – Hold On
  23. LCD Soundsystem – Emotional Haircut
  24. The Orwells – Body Reprise
  25. G Love and Special Sauce – Some People Like That
  26. Partner – Everybody Knows
  27. Harry Nilsson – Coconut (request)
  28. Ceu – Comadi 
  29. CHAI – Great Job
  30. Tinariwen – Fog Edaghan

Keep your mind open.

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Pitchfork Paris 2019 festival lineup includes Chromatics, Belle & Sebastian, Jamila Woods, and more.

Halloween is fun.  Halloween in Paris would be even more fun (although I’m not sure how big the holiday is there).  Halloween in Paris while a music festival is happening would be even better.

Pitchfork Paris has revealed its 2019 lineup, and it includes heavyweights like Chromatics, Belle & Sebastian, Charli XCX, Ezra Collective, Jamila Woods, Weyes Blood, and more.  Get your tickets now before they go up in price.

Keep your mind open.

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Khruangbin to release “Hasta El Cielo” – a dub version of “Con Todo El Mundo.”

Photo by Andrew Cotterill

“On their second album, the Houston-based instrumental trio crafts a unique, psychedelic vibe that hangs between continents and eras.” — Pitchfork

“The result is a border-blurring convergence, one likely to propel whatever dance floor is lucky enough to receive it.” — Los Angeles Times

“Buy it, stream it, hear it, get it, live it: It’s been a spell since one of those all-things-to-all-people albums has come along, but Khruangbin’s second full-length, Con Todo El Mundo, seems to be just that.” — VOGUE

“…Khruangbin gives us a window seat on an invigorating musical experience with a serious groove.” — NPR Music (Best Albums of 2018)

“…funky, jumpy tendrils of guitar, mixed with hazy washes of surf rock…” — Vulture

Globetrotting Texan trio Khruangbin are set to release Hasta El Cielo, the band’s glorious dub version of their acclaimed second album Con Todo El Mundo, on July 12th via Dead Oceans/Night Time Stories. The full album has been processed anew along with two bonus dubs by renowned Jamaican producer Scientist. Stream lead single, “Mary Always,” below.

Stream “Mary Always” — https://youtu.be/Cwv1adTliYA

The band’s exotic, spacious, psychedelic funk aligns with the dub treatment particularly well. Indeed, keen fans won’t find this a surprising release. Dubs of tracks from their first album The Universe Smiles Upon You appeared on limited vinyl releases of “People Everywhere” for Record Store Day 2016 and “Zionsville” on the BoogieFuturo remix 12”. The especially eagle-eared will have caught a dub of “Two Fish And An Elephant” playing over the credits of the track’s celebrated video.

“For us, Dub has always felt like a prayer. Spacious, meditative, able to transport the listener to another realm. The first dub albums we listened to were records mixed by Scientist featuring the music of the Roots Radics. Laura Lee learned to play bass by listening to Scientist Wins the World Cup. His unique mixing style, with the emphasis on space and texture, creates the feeling of frozen time; it was hugely influential to us as a band. To be able to work alongside Scientist, a legend in the history of dub, is an honor. This is our dub version of Con Todo El Mundo.” — Khruangbin

Formed of Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald “DJ” Johnson on drums; Khruangbin’s sounds are rooted in the deepest waters of music from around the world, infused with classic soul, dub and psychedelia. Since the release of Con Todo El Mundo, Khruangbin have continued their almost non-stop approach to touring, playing over 130 dates in 2018 alone, most of them selling out well in advance, including sold-out shows across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Khruangbin closed out 2018 supporting Leon Bridges in North America, and have already graced the stages of numerous festivals this year, including Coachella, Marfa Myths, Fortress Festival, FORM Arcosanti, Lightning in a Bottle, and more.

They’ll kick off their summer tour with select shows in the Northeastern US, including a sold out show at Central Park’s SummerStage in NYC, before heading overseas for festival performances at Green Man, Latitude, Mostly Jazz, Funk & Soul Festival and Barclaycard British Summer Time. They’ll return to North American to play Pitchfork Music Festival, Pickathon, Lockn’, and THING. A full list of dates is below.

Hasta El Cielo Tracklist: 01. With All The World 02. Sisters & Brothers 03. Mary Always 04. Four of Five 05. How I Love 06. Sunny’s Vision 07. A La Sala 08. The Red Book 09. Order of Operations 010. Hasta El Cielo 11. Rules – Scientist Dub (Bonus Track) 12. Cómo Te Quiero – Scientist Dub (Bonus Track)

Pre-order Hasta El Cielo — https://khruangbin.ffm.to/hastaelcielo

Khruangbin Tour Dates:  Fri. June 21 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre Sat. June 22 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre — SOLD OUT Fri. June 28 – Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter Sat. June 29 – Sete, FR @ Worldwide Festival Sat. June 29 – Sat. July 6 – Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival Tue. July 2 – Montreux, CH @ Montreux Jazz Festival Sat. July 6 – Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival Sun. July 7 – Beuningen, NL @ Down the Rabbit Hole Thu. July 11 – Bilbao, ES @ BBK Sat. July 13 – London, UK @ British Summer Time Sun. July 14 – Moseley, UK @ Mostly Jazz, Funk & Soul Festival Wed. July 17 – Athens, GR @ Ejekt Festival Thu. July 18 – Bern, CH @ Gurten Festival Fri. July 19 – Suffolk, UK @ Latitude Festival Sun. July 21 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival Sun. July 28 – Fuji, JP @ Fuji Rocks Wed. July 31 – Honolulu, HI @ The Republik Fri. Aug. 2 – Sun. Aug. 4 – Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon Sun. Aug. 4 – Kaslo, BC @ Kaslo Jazz Festival Fri. Aug. 9 – Gothenburg, SE @ Way Out Fest Festival Thu. Aug. 8 – Sat. Aug. 10 – Rees, DE @ Haldern Pop Festival Sun. Aug. 11 – Helsinki, FI @ Flow Festival Tue. Aug. 13 – Budapest, HU @ Sziget Festival Thu. Aug. 15 – Paredes de Coura, PT @ Paredes de Coura Festival Thu. Aug. 15 – Sun. Aug. 18 – Brecon Beacons, UK @ Green Man Festival Thu. Aug. 22 – Sun. Aug. 25 – Arrington, VA @ Lockn’ Fri. Aug. 23 – Miami, FL @ The Ground (DJ Set) Sat. Aug. 24 – Sun. Aug. 25 – Port Townsend, WA @ THING Fri. Nov. 15 – São Paulo, BR @ Popload Festival

Stream Khruangbin’s Con Todo El Mundo – https://spoti.fi/2DN1Y2N

NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert – https://youtu.be/vWLJeqLPfSU

Pitchfork Live Session – https://youtu.be/q4xKvHANqjk

Book A Playlist Curated By Khruangbin via AirKhruang – https://www.airkhruang.com/

“Como Te Quiero” video – https://youtu.be/cxrotrIvqyY

“Friday Morning” video – https://youtu.be/KjQSSYOTXzk

“Maria También” video – https://youtu.be/7hlGqj3ImQI

“Evan Finds The Third Room” video – https://youtu.be/QcD_YXCxxZM

“Cómo Me Quieres” video – https://youtu.be/GHzIl82165g

Purchase Con Todo El Mundo — https://khruangbin.lnk.to/contodoelmundo

Keep your mind open.

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Here Lies Man are “Clad in Silver” on their upcoming EP – “No Ground to Walk Upon.”

“An evolutionary step forward for their sound.” – Metal Hammer

“A woozy wall of Afrobeat inspired fuzzbox riff worship and pounding circular rhythmic power, Here Lies Man connect the stoner rock underground straight to downtown Lagos.” – The Quietus

“Here Lies Man are still really, really good at making riffy, rhythmic psychedelic rock that sounds like the ’60s/’70s but still feels fresh today. Fans of anything from Nuggets to Ty Segall and King Gizzard should take note.” — Brooklyn Vegan

“This is a band ahead of their time.” — The Obelisk

Los Angeles quartet Here Lies Man share the lead single from their forthcoming 7-song mini-album No Ground To Walk Upon today. Hear and share “Clad in Silver” via YouTube and Bandcamp.

Dinked, the UK collective of independent retailers, are offering an exclusive special edition of the release that comes with a signed picture of the band, a patch, and a tote bag, on purple vinyl with orange swirl. For more information see Dinked HERE.

Here Lies Man took the music world by storm in 2017 with their self-titled debut positing the intriguing hypothesis: What if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat?

Since that time, Here Lies Man has expanded and expounded upon their sound and ideas of heavy riff rock and psych within the ancient rhythmic formula of the clave. The L.A. based band comprised of Antibalas members have toured relentlessly over the past 2 years, while also releasing a second album, You Will Know Nothing and an EP, Animal Noises, both in 2018.

No Ground to Walk Upon is due worldwide in August 2019. It continues with an ongoing concept of HLM playing the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, with each song being a scene. The lead single “Clad in Silver” is the soundtrack snippet of a journey to the imaginary place called home, which can never be arrived at. With every step, the character imagines getting closer, but it is a hallucination that fades in and out of perception.

Rough Trade named Here Lies Man in their prestigious Top 10 Albums of 2017. BBC 6 & Classic Rock Magazine deemed it among the year’s best, as well as countless other press outlets singing its praises. 2018’s You Will Know Nothing furthered the band’s reputation for genre-smashing rhythmic experimentation, topping many year-end lists as well as earning features from countless metal and indie rock outlets, plus cover stories in weekly papers. No Ground to Walk Upon is the next step in the band’s rapid ascent to what is bound to be influential upon riff based rock.

“We’re very conscious of how the rhythms service the riffs,” explains founder and vocalist/guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Marcos Garcia (who also plays guitar in Antibalas) of the band’s sound. “Tony Iommi’s (Black Sabbath) innovation was to make the riff the organizing principle of a song. We are taking that same approach but employing a different organizing principle: For Iommi it was the blues, for us it comes directly from Africa.”

No Ground To Walk Upon also includes an interesting conceptual mathematics to the entire proceedings, a theme begun on the prior album. “There are interludes between each song that are 2/3 to 3/4 of the tempo of the previous song,” Garcia says. “The reason it breaks down to 2 over 3 or 3 over 4 is that everything in the music rhythmically corresponds to a set of mathematical algorithms known as the clave. The clave is an ancient organizing rhythmic principle developed in Africa.”

Garcia and cofounder/drummer Geoff Mann (former Antibalas drummer and son of jazz musician Herbie Mann) recorded the mini-album much like they did their previous releases, at their own L.A. studio on a Tascam 388 8-track tape machine. Additional layers were recorded with former Antibalas keyboardist Victor Axelrod and other contributors in various other locations, all while the band continued its rigorous touring schedule.

Here Lies Man has already spent much of the past three years on tour, with dates supporting Antibalas, Earthless and Fu Manchu, as well as headlining treks through the EU & UK. The remaining months of 2019 and 2020 will see the band once again performing at numerous International festivals (including Austin’s Levitation Fest in November.)

No Ground to Walk Upon will be available on LP, CD and download on August 16th, 2019 via RidingEasy Records.

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll feel like I’m clad in silver if you subscribe today.]

Mexico City Blondes release the lovely trip-hoppy “Addio” from new album – “Blush.”

Photo by Jenny Diaz

Mexico City Blondes have released the first music video from Blush, their full-length debut album out now on Burger Records. Premiering today on woman artist focused music site Gold Hand Girls, the video was directed by Anisha Sisodia.

Trip-hop tinged “Addio” has its roots in a personal loss experienced by vocalist and keyboard player Allie Thompson.

“Writing the song Addio, began with a loss.” Thompson says. “Over time, it also became about not looking over your shoulder for the next loss to come around. It’s about accepting the unacceptable, about letting go instead of holding on. “

Consisting of multi-instrumentalist / producer Greg Doscher, and vocalist / keyboard player Allie Thompson, both from Santa Barbara, Mexico City Blondes achieved surprise success with the release of their first single “Fade.” The track became a breakout hit after getting picked up by an assortment of music blogs, and landing in the top spot on Hype Machine more than once over the next few months.

The duo’s full-length debut album, Blush was written and recorded in Doscher’s garage recording studio. “The writing was difficult at first because we were approaching it under very different circumstances,” Doscher said of the process of making Blush. “Eventually we hit a certain stride and all the writing and recording seemed to fall into place.”

Blush takes Mexico City Blondes deeper down the dreampop rabbit hole they began to explore with their first release and its subsequent EP. Mexico City Blondes debut full-length album Blush is out now on Burger Records on CD, cassette and vinyl and streaming on all major platforms.

Keep your mind open.

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Carmen Villain releases new single, “Type,” from upcoming album due July 12th.

Photo by Signe Luksengard

“Lush downtempo that splits the difference between Fourth World ambience and smoky trip hop.” – Resident Advisor

Today, US-born, Norwegian-Mexican artist Carmen Villain shares “Type” the second single from her new, instrumental album, Both Lines Will Be Blue, out July 12th via Smalltown Supersound. The track is accompanied by a visual by Norwegian artist Solveig Lønseth.

Villain describes the inspiration behind “Type” : “I was very inspired by Ana Mendieta’s art (still am!), and was especially moved by her video performance art at the time. For example her Silueta series, or her powerful Blood Sign/Body Tracks. The films were spinning around my mind while making this song. After putting down a rough version of it, I had Johanna to come in and gave her free rein to improvise on top, before I finished arranging it.”

Listen to “Type” – visual by Solveig Lønseth https://youtu.be/2I8tQRKZmUc

Listen to “Observable Future” – visual by Ida Aurora Høiklev Ribu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG0auwx9w48&feature=youtu.be

Following 2017’s Infinite Avenue and 2013’s Sleeper, Both Lines Will Be Blue is Carmen’s first full instrumental album. A 7 track collection of cosmic excursions and dubby ambient-jams, the album is written, recorded, played, produced and mixed by Carmen in her Oslo studio. The soothing atmospherics are made up of tapestries of field recordings, synths, piano, drum-programming, zither and modular sounds. Throughout, Carmen’s music is colored by experimenting with different sounds and learning new techniques or by adding new instruments to the mix.

“I’ve been playing around with instrumentals for a long time, and it was something I wanted to do more with after I finished Infinite Avenue,” says Carmen. “Leaving out my voice and lyrics got me out of my own head a bit, which I needed. Working with sound is to me the ultimate meditation and is a more unconscious way of expressing whatever is going on inside.”

The flute, played by Johanna Scheie Orellana, is a central part of this new album. Carmen got her in to the studio to both record melodies that she had written, as well as making plenty of room for impro/freeform. Prins Thomas also appears on the record, playing percussion on “I Could Sit Here All Day.”

Both Lines Will Be Blue Tracklist: 1.Observable Future 2. Are You For Real 3. Type 4. I Trust You 5. I Could Sit Here All Day 6. Sometimes I Love You Forever 7. Impossible Colour

Pre-order Both Lines Will be Blue: http://smarturl.it/sts349-preorder

Keep your mind open.

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