Psychedelic revivalism seems to be a hot genre these days. London’s Antimatter People are no stranger to it, but don’t cast them with the rest of the crowd. In an era when most psych acts opt follow a retro, lo-fi approach to their music, Yehan Jehan’s outfit opts for a crisp sound and production style — reminiscent of Pink Floyd at their finest — which ironically does more justice to their forerunners than do their compatriots. Give “Mossy Grounds” a listen below and you’ll see what we mean.
Teaming up yet again with director Tyler T. Williams, Youth Lagoon’s new video for “Mute” is a lovely adventure through dystopia. What begins as a story of a hapless youth skating around suburbia turns into a surreal tale complete with vanishing showgirls, glowing dinner guests and phantom horses. The eerie yet beautiful visuals make for a compelling — if confusing — story that builds upon the lo-fi psychedelic sound that Mr. Powers is known for.
“Mute” is the latest single off Youth Lagoon’s Wondrous Bughouse, out now on Fat Possum Records.
Say hello to A.A. Wallace, Nova Scotia’s latest treasure. Only a month out from releasing his debut EP, (disambiguation), the Halifax-based producer has chopped and spliced his way into our hearts with his latest tune, “Temporal Suspension.” This lovely piece of glitchy bedroom-pop reminds us of Passion Pit, STRFKR and Her Space Holiday in all the right ways. Stream it below.
A.A. Wallace’s (disambiguation)comes out May 6th via Arcadian Embassy.
I first saw Cocorosie when they were opening for Bright Eyes on the Digital Ash In A Digital Urn tour back in the day. As sisters Bianca and Sierra Cassidy began their set – playing on synth boards and what looked to be an array of children’s toys – I wasn’t exactly sure what I was listening to, but I was pretty sure that I liked it. So it goes years later with the duo’s new track “After The Afterlife,” off their upcoming album Tales Of A GrassWidow. The track alternates between a delicate piano and slick porno synths while smoky, filtered vocals ooze over top. It’s stark, spacy and a little off-kilter, but as is their habit, these women make that combination seem like the most natural thing in the world.
Everything Everything show off their experimental side on the eerie “+Pendolino.” The electronic experimental track is a vinyl-only B-side to the Manchester outfit’s latest single, “Duet.” Stream it below.
Everything Everything’s Arc and the Duet 7″ are out now via RCA Victor.
Weval don’t care about genres. They just want to make something that “feels right.” Although their new Half Age EP just came out on experimental electronica label Atomnation, the Dutch duo’s release is far from inaccessible. While the title track, “Half Age,” has enough of an 8-bit feel to make you nostalgic for the MS-DOS days, Weval also makes use of some Justice-style dynamics in this instrumental piece without sounding like copycats. If you like what you hear, it’s worth checking out the release’s rainy-day debut single, “Out Of The Game,” which contains vocals for the more lyrically-inclined. Stream both tracks below.
Major Lazer hold back the beat on their latest track, “Jessica,” a trippy reggae track featuring vocals from Vampire Weekend‘s Ezra Koenig. The song debuted on Annie Mac’s show this past weekend and will appear on the collective’s forthcoming album, Free The Universe. Get mellow with the radio rip above.
Major Lazer’s Free The Universe is due out April 15th via Downtown.
Jonathan Higgs walks through a volcanic winter in Everything Everything‘s video for “Duet.” Directed by and starring the singer himself, Higgs wanted to visualize the song’s love at the end of the world motif through the powerful imagery of Mount Vesuvius. “The bodies of the people are huddled together while there is death literally raining down,” he tells NME, “That’s what I wanted it to feel like.” The band definitely hits the mark on this one. Watch the video above.
Everything Everything’s Arc is out now in the UK via RCA Victor. Stateside listeners can grab the band’s Cough Cough EP, out now on Sony.
“Runaways” is one of those rare tracks that’s so jarringly good, it makes you stop what you’re doing the second you hear it. Minutes later you’re diving down a musical rabbit hole, devouring every piece of information you can find on the band. In this case, there’s not much: Mirror Kisses is a synth-pop project based out of Harrisonburg, VA that drew some initial inspiration from artists including New Order and the Human League, with the preliminary goal of “making a kind of lost record from the 80s, like something you might find at a garage sale.” But, in the spirit of other experimental pop wizards like Wildarms and Blood Orange, their retrofuturistic sound combines so many different influences -– hip hop, balearica, AOR, electropop -– that it’s hard (and pointless) to pin down beyond maybe calling it post-pop.
Watch their self-directed video debut for “Runaways” above and melt into a tropically inflected daydream full of otherworldly synths, guitars and samples that crash like waves and dart like dayglo meteorites around George Clanton’s haunting vocals. If you like what you hear and want to see Mirror Kisses’ new album Heartbeats pressed on vinyl, show the band some support via Kickstarter.
The evolution of Tera Melos has been an eclectic one. Since the release of 2009′s Drugs To The Dear Youth EP, the Sacramento trio has gone from math-rock upstarts to cult-status indie rock outfit. The “Indie rock” tag hardly does these guys justice, but it’s near impossible to put a tag on such a genre-bending group whose music taps into everything from 90s-era indie guitar rock to freeform jazz. Their latest track, “Sunburn,” gives you an idea of Tera Melos many talents and what’s to come on their next LP X’ed Out. Stream it below.
Tera Melos’ X’ed Out comes out April 16th via Sargent House.
