SIMA

Sima’s music can best be described as old world meets new. Old world, that comes in the shape of the classical composers who are clear influence. We’re talking, Part, Prokoviev, Bach. Stockhausen.

And the new comes in the form of the modern production techniques that are layered over the top of the piano foundations. And the end result is something which has the best of both; something which is a little haunting, a little catchy, but ultimately has been put together quite nicely.

The latest EP is called Texture, you  can listen to it below and purchase it from Bandcamp. Why Texture?

Well it’s a private study or experiment about texture in the musical context, and each track has a number of textures. 

THOMAS COLLINS

                                                    A Tom Collins


"Thomas Collins sat down to dip his feet in the pool. His namesake cocktail in one hand and his aviator glasses in another. The sky was too grey to justify actually wearing the glasses. The disappointing weather that the Big Apple had to offer meant he switched off a little. Losing himself in the shallow azure his thoughts turned to Miami – the city that never disappointed. 

Melodic and echoey music swirled around in his head as his internal synth machine starting whirring.  It would be forty five minutes before he would look up from the pool and gaze out at the metropolitan skyline. He was now running very late. Perhaps, he thought to himself, his friends were right and he was a little too relaxed about life.”

Now unfortunately Thomas Collins isn’t a real person: but the music, thankfully, is real and it comes courtesy of Andrew Nichols on vocals and Abe Quezada on production. The debut EP came out last month - and you can listen to it below – it’s slow pop music which has a metropolitan, US of A feel to it that is distinctive to these European ears; the cover of Miami is well worth listening to. 


Thomas Collins will be coming out with more new material in the near future, perhaps at the tail end of an Indian summer, which would be ideal really.

100 days of (gloomy) Summer

If, like me, you agree that the summer so far has been a bit disappointing then this is for you; a little rabble of tracks ideal for when the trip to beach or the grassy knoll has been cancelled.

I’m off to buy a suitably thick jumper. Enjoy.

 100 days of (gloomy) Summer by TobyBakare 

tracklisting

Umber – Tommorow We’ll Throw Out Some Old Shoes

Psychologist – Come In Waves

Simiah - Everlast

Jeniferever – Silesia

Waking Aida - Sundances 


Factual error alert. The Psychologist EP is called Waves of OK, not Comes in Waves. My bad. Sorry.

oscar buzz

Here's the video for the single Propeller, from the aptly named Psychologist. Fantastic performance from the guy and, understandably, it's generating a lot of Oscar buzz.



Propeller EP is out on 15 August on Moshi Moshi.

HALLS

Halls is South Londoner Sam Howard and his music is a bit of treat; I’ve put his self titled EP on here for all to enjoy and got to asking him how he would describe his music. Here is what he said:


I guess I'd describe my sound as atmospheric and moody. The songs from the first two EPs were written as it was becoming winter, so I guess they reflect the sombre feelings people experience as it gets colder and darker. The new music I've been working on has a broader range of influences, such as choral and classical music, as well as different forms of electronic music.

There has to be a certain irony then that his music can produce such a warm feeling of contentment.  

Solace is the other EP from Halls and both of them are available from Bandcamp. In terms of what’s next from Halls, there is new material in the offing which promises to be “ very open and sad”.  I hope I bear up listening to it. 

UMBER

Umber’s music is a coalescence of so much of the music that I love, folk and drone and ambient beat making. The Morning Pass EP is well crafted, with not too much of one or the other.

So, I had to ask, how does one bring it all together?

Morning's Pass EP uses a lot of instruments. Most songs are based around a drone or a loop and then I begin to add other instruments such as a guitar then a banjo or a harmonium. I'll probably then layer up some more drones, add some effects into the mix and then I’ll have a song! Repeat this six times and I’ve got an EP!

And a very good EP at that. It’s available from his Bandcamp for internet prices.I was in the mood to ask questions, so I followed up with this one: do you make any other music?

I have this project where I record a song a week and it's more of a folk outlet for me. I'm using only acoustic instruments and sometimes a field recording of the birds outside my bedroom window. It's a lot of fun doing that because I limit myself to 3-4 hours on a Sunday to write and record a song.

You can follow Alex Steward's journey on his tumblr page. 

LA2019

Here is the video for Arctic Stars Melt The Clouds, the leadoff single from Deco, the debut EP from LA2019. It reminds me of Brighton, and coincidentally, is set in Brighton. I asked LA2019, or Tom Skyrme what was the inspiration behind the video:

Arctic Stars Melt the Clouds was the second track I wrote for the EP so the video was shot a while back when I was living in Brighton. For me, the song really captured the essence of living in Brighton. I wanted to embed that into the video. I wanted to take the solidarity and camaraderie that you have with really close friends and place that into the concept of the EP. The video really reflects the EP concept in a multitude of ways, with its heavy film and nostalgic future influences. 

I like the video itself because Jacob Perraton [Director] slowed it all right down, edited and coloured it in a way I hadn't even imagined and it fit perfectly. I'd have to say what I enjoyed the most was staying up until 4am with Akin, Jake, Sean and Teej drinking, waiting for the perfect blue sky to start shooting.

Staying up late, as usual, has been entirely vindicated. So Deco is out on 15 July and what can we expect? Well, from the horses mouth, I’ve been told to expect synths and drum machines held together by a “1980’s film sound.”   

The release of this is an intriguing one as there are a limited number of individual photos, taken by Tom on holiday, that are available along with a download code. The future is indeed now. 

Hachiko

Hachiko, the debut album from Waking Aida came out on yesterday. The EP has 5 lovely tunes for you to listen to and comes complete with a sample from my favourite Phillip Seymour Hoffman film, sublime artwork courtesy of Asphensia and  a price tag to suit any budget.

Apparently this is one of two out this year. The mouth waters.

Everytime that we meet I skip a heartbeat

I promise to write soon. In the meantime enjoy this great video from Three Trapped Tigers.

Until soon.
Toby

1st ever Explosions In The Sky video!

preach

Holy Roar records have put together an epic free sampler, their first for quite a while, of music that they’re putting out now and in the near future. We’re talking Gallows. Brontide. Rosa Valle. Rolo Tomassi (whose marathon Eternal Youth album is well worth a listen).

The link to it is here.

By way of a sampler of the sampler here is some Rosa Valle to listen to whilst your downloading. 

 Dust Wasp by Rosa Valle 

what from what

This self titled album comes out on 27 June, I wish it all the best and hopes it makes that whole break/cross into the mainstream as it is very good and SBTRKT, so I'm told, are from my neck of the woods.

Listening to: Brontide

Aside from slowed down dub the other thing that I have been listening to alot lately is Sans Souci, the debut full length from Brontide. There has been, understandably, alot of attention on the band as the three of them are clearly talented songwriters. Luckily Sans Souci doesn’t disappoint; you get well crafted songs, but there is less a desire to reach a crescendo and more a desire to mix up the slow and the fast.

The end result is post rock melody which almost falls into the category of easy listening. Almost. Anyway below is one of their tracks, enjoy.

 Matador by Brontide.

The palace of Sanssouci

PLANKTON WAT

Portland, OR does seem to produce an abundance of guitar-led experimental music (as I've mentioned earlier), and the music of Plankton Wat, with its instrumental guitar sound is a continuation of that fine tradition.

Known to friends as Dewey Mahood, Plankton Wat has some new material coming soon, via the Sweat Lodge label, in the form of a 37 minute EP called The Outer Lands. Thanks to the wonders of technology I’ve managed to have a bit of listen to some of it; think sparse and sparing arrangement, if you’re a fan of any sort of drone music then you’ll like this.

The song that I’ve listened to is below for you to check out. I managed to get to ask Dewey what we could expect from the impending release, here’s what he had to say:

On The Outer Lands I explored electronic sound more than any other Plankton Wat album. There aren't any acoustic instruments used except for some bells and my voice. Otherwise it's all electric guitar, synth, and drum machine. I try to leave a lot of space in the music, and focus on meditative moods.

Well it certainly like sounds worth a listen.

And the future for Plankton Wat looks bright as well, there’s an album due out in 2012 called Islands as well as a split LP with another band, Super Minerals which is in the works.

Here’s the song:

 Plankton Wat - The Outer Lands (upcoming cassette on Sweat Lodge Guru) by Solar Commune 

And here’s a YouTube vid of some of his other stuff:

who doesn't like trains

Melancholic post-rockers iLiKETRAiNS are back with a new video for their single Sirens.

It’s great to see a band put so much effort into their videos - there is a story to this one, the second part a nautically themed trilogy, which is interesting and also a little haunting. So you have been warned.