Generationals - Con Law

Firstly, apologies to the millions of fans out there for the lack of posts lately. Ive been lending a hand over at alensdiary trying to get his life back on track and back with reality. Some people cant handle college life.

Moving on. 

Often smaller bands that tour with larger bands are very worthy of listening too. This is the case with Generationals. A group of young guys from New Orleans, theyve been opening shows for Two Door Cinema Club across the states for the past months, a nice little tour to have on the resume given Two Doors' explosive success over the last 12 months. 

However, their music is not like Two doors', so dont go expecting 'throw your hands in the air' anthems like Undercover Martyn. These guys produce a dreamy mix of indie-pop and acoustic, full of cool harmonies and hammock swinging guitar/drum rhythms. Some of you may recognise the smash single off the album 'When They Fight, They Fight' which was somewhat of an indie-summer classic over in the states this year, and catapulted Generationals into the playlists of many unsuspecting ipods. 

The full length debut album 'Con Law' continues where 'When They Fight, They Fight' left off. Its a record that's solidly enjoyable from front to back, serving up songs suited to afternoon bbq's, pointless conversations and hot chicks in summer dresses riding cruiser bicycles eating over sized pieces of watermelon (hot chicks are so hot). I particularly like the songs 'Nobody Could Change Your Mind' and 'Faces In The Dark'. 

Generationals are a delight to listen too.

I'll post up a couple of songs tomorrow, in the meantime check out there Myspace and a couple of these clips from youtube.

Happy Halloween.

Get Ya Groove On!

It's been too long since i've posted up some house music. The last months have been out of control for good house music. I get the feeling its going to be an epic summer of parties (kicking off with Circoloco in 2 weekends time!). These tracks below are a bit of mix of sounds from some great producers, i hope you enjoy them!








Downloads (all 320kbs)

Gabriele Baldi - All I Want

Pleasurekraft - Tarantula (Hugo Remix)

Jeff Mills - If (You and Me Edit)

Delay Trees - Self Titled Debut!

 This delicious indie-pop quartet from Finland bring soothing loveliness to your ears. They're first single, "About Brothers" found its way onto my computer at the beginning of the year. I consequently forgot about this band completely, that's until i stumbled across the full length album today. Due for release at the end of October, Delay Trees self titled album is full of airy, summer chill songs - described on their own website as 'brighter than a children's TV presenter, and about as threatening, but so innocently enjoyable that you'll feel instantly removed from the miserable norm'. Take from that what you will, however this is a great debut album. Good stuff.

Here are my two favourites off the album so far.

MP3: Delay Trees - About Brother
YouTube Link

MP3 - Delay Trees  -  Tarantula / Holding On
YouTube Link

Taylor Steele - from where anyone with any idea, would rather be

Makes me wanna get outta here, knock the top of some frothies, grab the board and lose myself!

Marty McFly - 2015 Nike's

This custom made Nike shoe was worn by Michael J. Fox as “Marty McFly” in Back to the Future II. When Doc Brown and Marty arrive in the year 2015, Doc asks Marty to put on clothes similar to Marty Jr. To help him pass for a contemporary teenager, Doc Brown gives Marty the latest in high-tech outerwear. The first thing he puts on is the self-lacing future Nikes. This particular shoe was specifically made for walking around. Original future Nike 2015 self-lacing shoes are extremely rare and one of the most sought-after props from one of the most iconic Sci-Fi movies ever made, all yours for the price of $15000.

RIP CURL - New Boardies Campaign

Grab some of the best surfers in the world, a wave pool and some hectic photography equipment and you've got yourself the new Rip Curl boardshort campaign.

“In collaboration with Timeslice Films, Rip Curl took on an ambitious bullet-time campaign shoot in Malaysia’s Sunway Lagoon Wavepool with lead surfers Mick Fanning, Stephanie Gilmore, Owen Wright and Matt Wilkinson.

The revolutionary campaign captures surfing in a way never seen before, with the final visuals baring more resemblance to a fight scene from the famous Matrix movies than a promotional surfing video.

The two-day rental of Sunway Lagoon Wavepool allowed Rip Curl and Timeslice to operate in a more stable environment than the open ocean offers. The Rip Curl surfers were repeatedly towed into the machine-controlled waves by Jetski and their operational space was determined by the 52-camera rig set up in the pool. “

And the behind the scenes footage.

New Era - Japan Style

The Japanese always push the coolness factor - just go for a wander through Harajuku in downtown Tokyo (when you're in the area next). From what i can translate off the Japanese website I found this on, the hat is a take on a military cap worn by a famous Japanese rockstar from the 80's. Anyway, its a cool take on the traditional 59fifty - would you wear it? probly not, but it's one for the hat rack.

Over Your Head(phones)

Say hello to the sheepskin leather luxury headphones by Ultrasone. The brown tan sheepskin leather is the worlds smoothest of its kind, coming to your ears all the way from Ethopia - the design is inspired by a butterfly opening its wings (i missed that too) and expect to pay over $1500 for this ultra-cool head accessory. Not only do they look the part, Ultrasone has a reputation for producing the cream of the crop in terms of sound quality as well. If only.....

Ultrasone Edition 10 Headphones with Sheep Skin Leather Cups

The Crystal Fighters

Not Crystal Castles, not The Crystal Method, not The Crystal Antlers but The Crystal Fighters - yes there are too many bands around with the word crystal nestled in their name, however this doesn't take away from the fact that this 5 piece band are bringing 'basque' smashing into the 21st century. Their single 'Xtatic Truth' was released in 2009, and made enough people nod their head to land them a support spot on Foals tour through the UK earlier this year. 

Consisting of 2 spanish girls, 2 british guys and an american, there quite a bizarre mix of people and i think it comes through in their music.

The full length album was released only last week (2 weeks later than planned) and its an eclectic mix of electronica/acoustic/folk goodness. "We make fast dance music with Basque instruments, synthesisers and our voices" the band explains, adding they fuse heavy dance rhythms with traditional folk melodies and chants gleaned from old basque sheet music - it's an interesting concept (think CSS x Folk Hippie singing by herself in the woods with a synth machine).

The Crystal Fighters - Xtatic

The Crystal Fighters - Plage

The Crystal Fighters - At Home

Chiddy Bang x The Naked and Famous

As a follow up to my review of The Naked and Famous album 'Passive Me, Aggressive You', here we have a cute little remix by hipster boy of the moment Chiddy Bang. It's not better than the original, but its still pretty cool - and it goes to show that these kids from New Zealand are making waves across the other side of the world, as i said in the album review, watch these kiwi's explode.

 Chiddy Bang x The Naked & Famous - "Young Blood" (Remix) by Pretty Much Amazing

Click on the little arrow on the right of the player to download.

xx

Shugo Tokumaru - Rum Hee

Despite having no idea what this guy is singing about, I'm completely obsessed with this song at the moment. Its got a little 'sigur ros - gobbledigook' feel to it, which i am all about. From what i can find about  Shugo, he's a Japanese born singer/songwriter who is a self taught musical genius - owning and being able to play over 100 instruments ranging from guitars to glockenspiels. He producers his own style of indie-experimental-pop, and it wasn't until Sony used 'Rum Hee' in a commercial for a touch screen computer that his name started spread around the globe. This is my spring anthem, enjoy.

MP3 - Shugo Tokumaru - Rum Hee

Shit Robot - From The Cradle To The Grave

Having sound tracked the latter part of the 00’s with LCD Soundsystem, James Murphy has infamously stated recently that it may well be the end of LCD, and boo many of us cried into our skinny ties. However, this will of course give the God-like figure even more time to plough his creativity and brain into his co-owned record label DFA, on which Shit Robot belong.

This new release from DFA sees some familiar names attached to some of the tracks, most notably Hot Chip front man Alexis Taylor lending his vocal skills to the 3rd track 'Losing My Patience'. The melodic lyrics over the electronic backdrop sound like a bonus track from "One Life Stand" (not literally), and is probably one of the highlights of this impressive debut release from Shit Disco.

'I Got a Feeling' boasts a 90s disco groove with some great soul vocals over the top courtesy of Saheer Umar. Its the penultimate track of the CD, and in 8min in length you really have time to get involved in the track. At over an hour long, and only 9 tracks, there is a definite LCD feel to the production side of the cd - with long breakdowns paced between suitably arse shaking beats and basslines.

LCD Soundsystem may possibly be gone (exception: big day out 2011), though with output like this that will quickly be forgiven.

MP3: Shit Robot - Losing My Patience (feat. Alexis Taylor)

MP3: Shit Robot - I Got a Feeling (feat. Saheer Umar)