Ren Sanchez

Ren Sanchez is a dude I know. He does shoegaze-influenced electronic stuff, which is pretty awesome. This is a collection of tracks he composed over the last year or so. Reminds me of Atlas Sound and Mogwai and Grouper and other stuff. Kinda depends on the song. The last two are full-band songs, under a different name: Sun Shower. The first is a pretty standard post-rock tune, but the second puts an organ alongside the guitar, transforming the groove into a dark drive down a rural road. He's writing some pretty ridiculous epic dubstep-ish music right now, which I'm really psyched about. I'll probably post it when he's got enough material.


Soundtrack

Toro Y Moi

I haven't been able to get enough of this album lately -- just listen to the track "Blessa" on his Myspace if you haven't heard it already. I love watching this whole chillwave thing culminate into something with actual songwriting chops instead of just "okay, pop nostalgia, whatever." Kind of like Neon Indian and Memory Tapes, but -- just between you and me -- I wouldn't think less of you for being reminded of Passion Pit at times, and I wouldn't think you're crazy if there's a few parts where you feel like Flying Lotus had some influence.


Causers Of This

Pre-order the LP here!

M. Pyres (Pt. 2)

Yay, finally got around to posting this! You may recall M. Pyres from the post I made about Cast Off / Cold Months. Pretty awesome ambient/post-rock album. The following albums stray far from that -- but not too far. All three are totes srsly recommended. Apart The Echo is kinda like Meneguar and Wavves or No Age or some other lo-fi punk/noise band but really into 90's indie rock and still with the ambient ideas floating around. & New Past Tense, which hasn't been released yet, is like a cross between Apart The Echo and Cast Off / Cold Months, integrating the post-rock ideas into the noisier punk songs. Consider Me, Ghost is a collection of their early demos, but almost all of it is as good as the newer stuff. Get into it, dudes.


Apart The Echo -- Buy it!


& New Past Tense


Consider Me, Ghost (demos)

Myspace

Stella Luna

Stella Luna : Stargazing EP

My friend asked if I had heard Stella Luna's new EP and i freaked out a little bit (read: a lot a bit). after all, as far as i know, this is their only release and it was all the way back in 2002. But apparently, there is some solo artist who goes by Stellaluna.

Forget him. He is not very good. This is the Stella Luna people should be listening to.

They only have 4 songs in the entire world. They were supposed to release an album 7 years ago, and i waited and waited and waited... tragic, right? Claire Records' message board has a post from a few months back saying Stella Luna still exists, so hopefully they're still making music somewhere out there...

Surfer Blood

Astro Coast
Pre-Order
These guys are super fun indie/surf rock from Florida. Saw them play with a bunch of hardcore bands, which was odd, but they were well received. I encourage you guys to get this album when it is re-released in January on Kanine. This is their self-produced cut.

William Basinski

William Basinski - 92982 (2009)


William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops I (2002)


William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops II (2003)


William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops III (2003)


William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops IV (2003)

This last guy has always intrigued me so much, whenever I listen he keeps my mind racing. His stuff is really good. Such nice loops and perfect ambient mood. Don't really know what else to say. Get lost in this stuff!

Loscil

Loscil - Submers (2002)


Loscil - First Narrows (2004)


Loscil - Plume (2006)

I got into this dude real quick, his music was really inspiring for me. Real good to listen to in class and stuff haha but once again you can listen to it wherever you want to. Pretty ambient with nice light kinda percussive stuff layered on top. He's got a real nice selection of music. One of his albums is even up for download for free on his last.fm so i'll give you a link for that: http://www.last.fm/music/Loscil/Stases

Porn Sword Tobacco

Alright i got some droney stuff for you guys, I just took a few artists I've been listening to lately, that all kinda had something similar in their music (or i guess in my mind at least).


Porn Sword Tobacco - Everything is Music to the Ear (2009)

So yeah, this first dude i kinda picked up on i guess in the beginning of the summer. I burned this and one of his other albums to a cd and drove around to it for a couple weeks. So it really just reminds me of good driving music, but you can really listen to it wherever i guess. Anyway it's pretty mellow electronic ambient kinda stuff, some pretty interesting loops and what not.

Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP (2009)

Well, shit. (320k)

Preorder.

H o l o p a w

Oh Glory, Oh Wilderness

I know there are people around looking for this, since it was supposed to be out 6 months ago. If you're not sure who these guys are, or if the name sounds familiar, Holopaw is an altcountry band who used to be signed to sub pop/friends with isaac brock, and now they're releasing another album with bakery outlet (i.e. new album sounds much better).

They're having an art competition on their website here, definitely worth a look (it's all better than the cover art they actually used)

Bygones

You might have seen this when I posted it a while back. I'm only posting it again because it's a better bit rate -- high VBR, around 250 kbps. Oh wait, also, this is one of my favorite records of the year. Nick Reinhart (of Tera Melos) and Zach Hill (of Hella and fucking everything) present something ridiculous and mathy and poppy and heavy in a way that only they could pull off. Whatever man, you probably either already have this or you're not interested. If you're neither of those, the whole album is streaming on Myspace and Bandcamp. Check it out, and then BUY IT!

Smelly Magic

The 2nd Combing

BUY IT! -- Cassette or CDr, seven and eight dollars respectively. Either way, it comes with a free 11x17 poster. Really, you can't go wrong when a free poster is involved.

"Smelly Magic is a trio. Matt Wenzel (dj wisconsin, the good old fashioned sinners), Jared Meyer (painted snake, rad vibes, m. pyres), and Matthew Sage (m. pyres, tables & chairs) take an expansive journey behind a 1/4" 8track tape machine. Focused around two large movements, this record was recorded, dubbed, overdubbed and finished in the month of September. With a sound and fidelity stretching far beyond their first recording -- "the Prim Encounter" -- Smelly Magic reaches into the pockets of noise, jazz, krautrock, postrock, ambient and tribal music to find a good hairy nugget of soul for you to suck on."

Perfect for people who miss Raccoo-oo-oon and Jackie-O Motherfucker but also like their noisy psych-rock to have a little fun.


The Prim Encounter

Yakuza Heart Attack II

Yakuza Heart Attack - Yakuza Heart Attack II

Instrumental band made up of 8bit/noise-loving keyboardists usually described by music media as "keyboard-driven art rock." I would describe it as compositional genius. Please do yourself a favor and listen to this.

Myspace

Panda Bear: Live @ ATP

This is a link to a rip of Panda Bear's live set this past September, when he performed at All Tomorrow's Parties. It was pretty much his only solo show this year, I think? It was broadcast by WFMU (there are some significant glitchy sounds in parts, but overall it remains tolerable), recorded to a computer and then split, tagged, and EQ'd by Collected Animals user Maxwell Hell. I can't believe I haven't posted this yet, because it's quite amazing -- better than the other live bootleg I posted a while ago. It's a totally different set of songs as well, including his "remix" (which is actually more of a rewrite) of The Notwist's single, "Boneless", as well as "Ponytail" and "I'm Not" (two songs he didn't perform on his last tour) and two new songs. And a reworked version of Chores, with an intro that some speculate may represent the vocal melody that will be on "I Think I Can", the last track on Animal Collective's upcoming EP, Fall Be Kind. Have I given you enough incentive to download this yet?

BIBIO (Two EPs)

This is a dude I would never have listened to if it wasn't for Collected Animals' overwhelming enthusiasm regarding the Ambivalence Avenue leak. And now, that's one of my favorite albums this year. Thanks AnCo bros. (We call each other that sometimes, in the CA. lol j/k not reely)



Here are his two recent EP releases: The first,


Ovals And Emeralds, is in the style of his older releases, like Vignetting The Compost. As far as I can tell, this was a limited edition vinyl only available in stores. Weird decaying guitar loops that carve out a tunnel to some 70's folk festival drug trip. The second,


The Apple And The Tooth, is actually a double EP. Or a four-song EP with seven bonus remixes? Whatever. And hey, guess what? The remixes are actually worth listening to. I'm only saying that because (and I'm sure most of you will agree) it is rare that one encounters a decent, entirely listenable remix album. With this EP, I barely feel an itch to skip any of these tracks. They mostly stay true to the AmbAve-era "Bibio spirit", if you want to call it that. One of the remixes is a killer reworking of "The Palm Of The Wave", done by Bibio himself. Another could be called a "fully realized" version of "All The Flowers", extending it three minutes past the original track's teasingly short running time of 63 seconds. Buy it from Insound (I sure did!), "housed in a gold foiled sleeve and strictly limited to 1000 copies." Sounds fancy!

Myspace

Best Coast

Myspace

Remember Pocahaunted? How you couldn't go two months in 2008 without finding out they were releasing something new? And then it all stopped for some reason? And then Bethany started writing songs with a heavy 60's pop influence and recording them in the sunny California heat with the lo-fi haze of her former band? And how it was really awesome? I forgive you if your memory of this isn't as strong as mine, because for me it just happened yesterday.


Make You Mine 7"


Art Fag 7"

Endless Endless Endless

"Our band is a post-noise duo that plays guitar and gameboyDS."

Try looking into those eyes and telling me you don't want to jam on a DS with those dudes.

Here are two of their sweet albums. Reminds me of early Black Dice mixed with newer Black Dice but also Wet Hair and other Not Not Fun Records psych/drone/noise. Also sounds like if the apocalypse was friendly and ice cream was milk churned until the infinite black parts of the internet where the data is stored were suddenly visible and tasty. Imagine that melting from a sugar cone onto your lap in the summer? Kinda blows the mind.


Black Talisman (2009) - Buy it!


Sprawl (2008)

Thee Oh Sees

This is a band I have not been able to stop listening to lately. I'm pretty sure it started as a solo-side project of John Dwyer (Pink and Brown, Burmese, Coachwhips) and is now a 4-piece. They've also had a few name changes along the way. The sound is kinda low fi rockabilly but also lots of high energy fun stuff. Really fun to see live, definitely check em out if you get the chance. If you've never heard these guys before I'd say your best bet is to start with the album "Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion". It's an album of all live field recordings in lots of cool outdoor locations and it's compiled of songs that could be called their greatest hits of that era. Next, move on to one of their newer albums released in early 2009, titled "Help". Both of these albums are flawless, every track is a winner. And lastly, I'm giving you guys a link to check out their newest full releases and it's called Dog Poison.


Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion


Help


Dog Poison