Contact High

So after four years of being that band that everybody was like "what the fuck happened to them?", Architecture in Helsinki are back with a followup to 2007's Places Like This. Moment Bends is set for release on May third. Apparently the album took like, two years to record but who cares. Anyway, they've been nice enough to release their first single Contact High as a free download.


Contact High

Julian and The Boys take on Round 4.


Yes, that's damn right. It's a new Strokes single. I really don't know what to think of this whole idea. I haven't even given it a listen yet, so, I guess I'll have to get feedback from you kids on this one.
Alls I know is they have a godamn lot to prove. If it's anything as crap as the last Interpol release then I'm not sure I want to even bother. Rumours that surfaced recently put Weezer's Rivers Cuomo pictured in a studio with Julian - a little while after the new Album's date was released - have not helped things either. Rivers' last attempts at making music have smelt like a putrid pile of dogshit; and his colab's with com-pop peeps have done little to assuage the strange feelings of guilt that might be welling up inside him. See this godamn awful video at your peril.
Everyone seemed to have some disastrous ideas about the third Strokes album, however, it doesn't irk me that a band changes their sound, in fact, it's quite necessary. If it's not a good album, it isn't. And it wasn't. Let's hope they cauterise that wound and move on.

Chill Out, Dude!


Rob Cass (aka The Real MC) threw this at my face the other day//It's not often i get totally surprised by a chill artist anymore, because, like the whole beach/surf-rock upsurgence, there has been a lot of saturation. A saturation of shit. But that happens to every new trend, doesn't it? And it's always two or three years later. Noticed how much Electro is influencing pop music these days? As much as it must irk most of you, grab a listen to some radio-vibes sometime or flip onto MTV. You can literally hear the electro seeping through the miasma of awfulness.
Some people say that Chill has reached it's heydey and that the Golden Age is over; but it's every so often something just springs out at you - such as MillionYoung - that completely throws you off that vibe and renergises your batteries. Ducktails' new album did the same for me as far as psych/drone/beach-vibes go.

So, in essence, I'm saying there is a large bunch of shit in every new genre. But every now and then something pokes up outta the band-wagonism and says hi.

Craig Cruiser is defs for shore one of these.
From the first track - beautiful flowing watersounds and float-y synths over a lovely little picked guitar - I know this shit is going to make me feel pretty effin' sweet.
The second track is a cover of New Theory by Washed Out (one of the purported grandaddies - in blog years - of the Chillvibes) which is bladdy awesome. It's a cover (Hooray! Not a remix!).
It is nicely ambient, pushing the already downtempo big-beat vibes of the original down-BPM and losing the crunchiness of the originals pushy synths. Then Chill Out, Dude hits and my oh my it is an awfully fantastic song. The bassline gives me serious krills. Then the vocals give me double krills.
I think you know, if you like Chillwavves, what to expect from the rest of this record. Like said above, it is nicely ambient, and if that kinda thing is your cup of tea...

Earlier Risers


Made this 2-disc mix for a super early drive through to the Drakensberg on New Years Eve. Luckily it was drizzling. It isn't mixed very well as it was done very quickly the night before & there are some obvious mix-tape faux pas. Please forgive me and enjoy, if you can. Disc 2 [Early Risers] to follow. Please copy the above picture and paste it as the album art, thank you.

001 - Atlas Sound//Christmas Synths
002 - Jonquil//Lily
003 - Jonquil//Sudden Sun
004 - Julian Lynch//Just Enough   
005 - Yo La Tengo//Green Arrow    
006 - Memory Tapes//Swimming Field
007 - Altar Eagles//You Lost Your Neon Haze
008 - Blackbird Blackbird//Float On
009 - Small Black//Sun Was High (So Was I) [Best Coast Cover]
010 - Casiotone For The Painfully Alone//Streets Of Phildadelphia (W/ Concern)
011 - Casiotone For The Painfully Alone//Nashville Parthenon (Redux)
012 - Ra Cailum//Waterfalls
013 - HEARTSREVOLUTION//Digital Suicide Lullaby
014 - Beach House//Saltwater    
015 - CocoRosie//By Your Side   
016 - XXL (Xiu Xiu & Larsen)//Sunday
017 - Lotus Plaza//Whiteout