2ppm:

turn it up.

(via deadgirlfriends)

Two Door Cinema Club (Taken with Instagram at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q)

welikeitindie:

LIARS :: WIXIW

“If we aren’t confusing ourselves with what we do, then we’ve failed.”

Liars’ 6th LP, WIXIW, is quite the surprising left turn for the band; Minimal, nocturnal, haunting, slightly creepy & sometimes even lethargic. Each track (and perhaps the whole album) is built on a single idea, stripped back & fleshed out & while they don’t bleed into each other, the songs set themselves up near seamlessly.

NPR called it “the best Radiohead album since Kid A” & while I can certainly see where the comparison came from I can’t entirely agree. Being stacked against Radiohead is something most artists fear. It happens. A lot. And it is generally founded on a single rather trivial principle like an approach to songwriting, a certain “weird” quality of sound or singing in a high falsetto. Radiohead’s catalog was so prolific & divisive to a particular generation of fans that being compared to them can spell a certain doom for a group. How could they ever be expected to live up to the preconceptions? Kid A was given to us over a decade ago now, what would a band be thinking to emulate it now? How could they be relevant?

And here we have WIXIW (pronounced “wish you”) with its sparse beats pittering away while washes of electronic gurgle & abstracted lyrics drive our thoughts toward dark places. The persistent & layered Kid A sound is present but there isn’t nearly as much paranoia, it’s more of a self-loathing for past decisions & a curiosity for whatever is next. Kid A’s disconnection came from an oppressive worldview, an Orwellian dystopia, where citizens had best be looking over their shoulder. It was a strange precursor to 9/11. But WIXIW is embracing a post-internet stance in a world where Bin Laden is dead but we still can’t find each other in the rubble of the last decade. This music is born of a time where society is tired of missing the mark online & looking to form a tactile real world connection. If only we hadn’t already forgotten how. This is our new conundrum.

This thought builds throughout the recording. The first notes are glacial & beautifully enamored with distant romance, lost & “The Exact Color of Doubt.“ The 2nd track shows the other side of the coin, darker & slightly menacing. Even if love was found… “Believe me, I would break your heart.” The albums 1st single “No.1 Against the Rush” hits that note of idealistic optimism one has at the onset of a personal journey but the subsequent tracks prove the journey arduous & disappointing. It is one obstacle after another, highlighted by the title track, a transformational piece both in execution & emotion. The uphill trek continues until the albums penultimate “Brats,” a song that long-time Liars fans, perhaps aghast at this recording so far, will find thankfully familiar. “Brats” finally lets the lid blow in a cybernetic dance punk frenzy that puts all angst on the frontline & rams it into the proverbial wall. Then the dust settles & the album closes with “Annual Moon Words.” A song that offers a ray of hope with its opening guitar strums. The wall may be torn down after all.

Liars should be commended for making WIXIW work as a whole & carry a statement through it’s entirety instead of simply churning out a collection of singles in a day when no one buys albums anymore. If more artists committed to this type of integrity, I think we would see a genuine shift in the audience’s expectations & desires, laying the foundation for a new era (perhaps post-post-internet). Kid A is now regarded as being ahead of its time & nearly pre-cognitive in regards to the textured & electronic based music that followed in the years after its release. Perhaps WIXIW can prove to be as influential if we give it the cultural push & allow it the psychic weight it seems to call for.

- Sleeperwolf

The entire long player is currently streaming on Souncloud. Go check it out and stream Vince Clarke’s re-interpreation of “No.1 Against the Rush” below.

welikeitindie:

M83 // I Break Horses 05.18.12

Having been a M83 fan for quite sometime now, I was looking forward to this past Friday’s show at Stubb’s for months. It’s been interesting to study the band evolve over the last several albums from an experimental shoegaze outfit to a chart topping powerhouse act that sells out shows. The psychic weight of anticipation can sometimes skew the perception of an actual event, but this sense assaulting performance left little room for analytical thoughts anyway. I have to admit forgetting how hyped I was and just getting caught up in the noise.

A rewarding experience for any concertgoer is being surprised with an opening act they’ve never heard of and are actually taken with. I Break Horses was a good pairing for M83, setting the tone and continually raising the stakes through their too short set. They wore their My Bloody Valentine and Jesus and Mary Chain influences on their sleeve; buried vocals, walls of sound, emotionally ambiguous melodies and a nod toward pop sensibility. They also carved out their own sound with organic song structures that allowed the music to build naturally; what generally started as just a synth drone or high school prom drumbeat ended up being a full on spiritual release. My rule of thumb for excellent shoegaze is “does it give you goosebumps?” The last 2 minutes of this set had my hairs standing up and sent a genuine shiver through my spine. I went home and dug up every track I could find.

It was a big night for M83 as well. This was their 100th show and they pulled all the stops to make it a memorable one, even making quite an entrance. As the lights went low and the “Intro” track from Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming played, the alien/monster/fantasy creature from the album’s art emerged and stood in front of the audience. In a moment not unlike Klaatu’s arrival on Earth, he slowly raised his hands over us, blessing the night’s show and empowering the crowd. …Far Out. When he lowered his arms, the band launched into what would be a full hour and half set that spanned their entire catalog.

At the first beat of the first measure of “Teen Angst,” the girl directly in front of me collapsed. I don’t know if it was epilepsy, drugs, locked knees, the alien on stage or her seeing Anthony Gonzales in person for the first time, but that was when I knew without a doubt things were getting very real.

Lead songwriter Gonzales is known for being a perfectionist. None of his other cohorts are considered full-time members of the group, but M83 came across as a very tight and well-rehearsed act. Big props to Jordan Lawler, the young kid that “won” his way on tour during the YouTube auditions M83 held last fall. Given his stage presence you would think he had been touring for years with the group. He was all over the stage and, at one point, led a full on dance party as he faced off with Morgan Kibby at her synth station during the incorrectly titled “Sitting.” I don’t see how any one sits through that track. Kibby, who records on her own as White Sea, is always a welcome angelic addition. Her Kate Bush like voice finds the space between the ambience and the shear drive of the reverb soaked chord progressions that define M83’s style and she owned “We Own the Sky.” Loic Maurin’s drum set was elevated over the others and it was nice to be able to see and anticipate every powerful fill and emotive cymbal crash that was about to hit you in the face.

When “Midnight City” started I feared the show was over, but the group used it to pivot into a more steady, subdued, almost house-y last quarter of the guantlet run, where songs like “Kim & Jessie” and “Colours” (from their John Hughes’ inspired Saturdays = Youth LP) could find the room to breathe. When the set did finally close, there was no encore, but it felt right. M83, the band named for a galaxy, had made their statement.

Here’s to another 100 shows.

- SleeperWolf

P.S. There were no less than 2 extended saxophone solos at this gig.

recycleculture:

Grimes - Genesis (The Recycle Culture Revelation)

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“Recycle Culture installs a high pulse dance drive to back the entire thing. As the song progresses it becomes more a tribute to the beauty of Grimes’ track, taking on an emotional tone of its own that differs greatly but holds up equally to the original.”

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autoentropy:

Earth

by Michael König6 months 1 week ago

Time lapse sequences of photographs taken by the crew of expeditions
28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October,
2011, who to my knowledge shot these pictures at an altitude of around 350 km.
All credit goes to them.

HD, refurbished, smoothed, retimed, denoised, deflickered, cut, etc.
All in all I tried to keep the looks of the material as original as possible,
avoided adjusting the colors and the like, since in my opinion the original
footage itself already has an almost surreal and aestethical visual nature.

Music: Jan Jelinek | Do Dekor, faitiche back2001 
w+p by Jan Jelinek, published by scape Publishing / Universal
janjelinek.com | faitiche.de

Image Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory,
NASA Johnson Space Center, The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth
eol.jsc.nasa.gov

Editing: Michael König | koenigm.com

Shooting locations in order of appearance:

1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night
2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night
3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia
4. Aurora Australis south of Australia
5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night
6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean
7. Halfway around the World
8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East
9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East
10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night
11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay
12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night
13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam
14. Views of the Mideast at Night
15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea
16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night
17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean
18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night

Dream Baby Dream (Four Tet remix) - Neneh Cherry + The Thing

http://www.smalltownsupersound.com/2012/03/21/neneh-cherry-cherry-album-june/

M83 !!! (Taken with Instagram at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q)

Keep Calm and Gaze at your Shoes (Taken with Instagram at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q)

welikeitindie:

Local ATX audiophile + Welikeitindie’s review writer, SleeperWolf, has thrown together a new mix of recent tracks to chew slowly on. More than a few of the tunes were featured right here on the site. This mix is perfect for hanging on your patio & sipping red wine while it rains at sunset. Mostly because that’s what was happening when it was made. So chill out, Winners.

Don’t forget to grab your Welikeitindie tees. Ms. Alysha Nett is sporting one, grab them here. Stay tuned, very limited Don Diablo & Pink Holy Days shirts coming soon!



tracklist:

00:01 At Dawn We Rage - Chill Out, You’re Already a Winner
02:43 Jai Paul - Jasmine (demo)
06:39 Purity Ring - Obedear
10:00 Unicorn Kid - Pure Space
13:49 Dntel - Bright Night
17:45 Elite Gymnastics - We Fly High
21:24 YACHT - Le Goudron Edit
24:55 Sexytime - Lost in Translation
27:40 Gold Panda - 4
29:31 Danny Brown - Grown Up
31:25 Cadence Weapon - Conditioning (Grimes Remix)
35:19 King Felix - Spring 01
39:18 Tycho - Dive (Keep Shelly in Athens Remix)
43:42 Major Lazer - Get Free (feat. Amber of Dirty Projectors)