Daily Jam - Got My Sunshine

I will always be a sucker for Slowdive, but during their break up years, a few members of the band made mellow indie folk as Mojave 3.  And that stuff was pretty cool too.  So here's a number from the band's third album "Excuses for Travellers."  Listen to "Got My Sunshine" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - On the Horizon

When perusing through my CD collection, one may notice several discs with radio station call letters on them…call letters from the station I deejayed for in college…promo discs distributed to the station…radio copies. So I stole some CD’s from the radio station I worked for. So what. I guess I’m a bad person, but I totally discovered some wonderful tunes whilst being said bad person. And one of those tunes is “On the Horizon,” the trippy, Neil Halstead-assisted album closer from Locust’s 1997 LP, Morning Light.

Though it never became quite the cultural juggernaut that maybe it could have been, trip-hop was a fairly prevalent music genre in its day, specifically the late 90’s. And while acts like Portishead, Massive Attack, and Tricky lead the proverbial charge, there were plenty of smaller artists that fit the mold too. Combining chilled electronica, hip-hop beats, mellow instrumentation, and some well placed samples, Locust was one of those oft overlooked artists. Morning Light is a pretty solid effort from start to finish (there’s even a wonderful Karen Carpenter sample in the mix), but it’s the finale, featuring Neil Halstead of Slowdive and Mojave 3 fame on vocals, that really cements the deal. “On the Horizon” begins with some off kilter orchestration, vibraphone and reverb, an array of different instruments both live and synthetic, and Halstead’s soft, dreamy vocals. It takes a couple of minutes before everything begins to come together, the string section and a haunting beat forming like dark clouds in the distance. Melancholy reigns.

The song has always made me think about an old friend of mine who endured an unreal familial tragedy when we were in college, and her subsequent emotional distance that was the result. Over the following years, we grew apart and eventually lost touch entirely. And that has always made me sad. “On the Horizon” encapsulates that feeling perfectly. I still love her dearly, and I hope that she’s all right wherever she is.

“She’s fixing her wings just to fly…”

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Slowdive

Woke up this morning to the news that Slowdive are back with new music.  Happy day!  The band's new album, "Everything Is Alive," is out in September.  Pre-order it here from Dead Oceans and let's all listen to the dreamy "Kisses" while we wait for the rest of the thing to drop.

Daily Jam - In Love with a View

Into the salt mines i go.  Hopefully i'll emerge sometime Sunday morning.  It's going to be a busy three days.  Here's some Mojave 3 to play me off.  Listen to "In Love with a View" below, our Daily Jam.

Mary Lattimore

LA artist and harpist Mary Lattimore released her new album, the Neil Halstead produced "Silver Ladders," today, and it's the gentle and soothing aural balm we probably all need right now.  Listen to the album opening "Pine Trees" below and get the record here from Ghostly International.

Slowdive - Star Roving

It's been 22 years since their last album, but the reunited Slowdive have been hard at work on new material since they started playing together again.  And today we get our first new jam, the driving and uplifting "Star Roving."  The band seem to be getting back to their shoegazey roots, leaving the more ethereal electronics of 1995's then swan song "Pygmalion" behind in favor of layers of guitar and floating vocals.  It's wonderful to have them back.  Listen below, download it here, and be on the lookout for a full-length hopefully in the very near future.

Black Hearted Brother

Early 90's shoegaze act Slowdive have been one of my all-time favorite bands for a long time now, so any time former front man Neil Halstead gets involved in some new music, i take notice, especially when that new work is something as spacey and dreamy and beautiful as "(I Don't Mean To) Wonder," the first release from Halstead's new project with Mark Van Hoen (Seefeel, Locust) and Nick Holton called Black Hearted Brother.  The trio's "Stars Are Our Home" is out in October on Slumberland Records.  I cannot recommend this enough.  Listen below.