Cold Cave

Wesley Eisold, aka Cold Cave, will be releasing a new EP, "Oceans with no End," via Deathwish Inc in the very near future.  Listen to the title track below, another exploration on the industrial, darkwave, synth-goth pastiche that has been (to my benefit) making a comeback of late.

Night Sins

Because it is sunny outside, and because the power is still out at my office from the crazy wind gusts blowing through the Austin area yesterday, we all may as well do a little Gothic shake to the stylings of Night Sins, a post-punk, no-wave act out of Philadelphia.  You can grab the band's 2012 LP "New Grave" from Avant! Records, but listen to "Spectral Bliss" below in the meantime.  It's like a foggy dance party held in the inner sanctums of a steel mill.  Enjoy.

Sally Shapiro

Sally Shapiro's newest album "Somewhere Else" is a wonderful collection of 80's synth-inspired roller disco anthems, and while we've already heard the thumping "Starman," new single "Sundown" slows it down to a steamy crawl.  Dig on that ridiculous sax solo at the end.  Listen below and grab the record from Paper Bag.

Umberto

Of all the synth artists out there creating soundtracks and scores to movies that don't actually exist, Matt Hill's work as Umberto is probably one my favorites.  Equal parts Goblin and Carpenter, the man has crafted some beautiful pieces of music as homages to Italian Giallo movies and slasher films.  "Confrontations" is the latest album, available over at Not Not Fun, and gives us Hill's take on an alien invasion film score.  Listen to "The Summoning" below and grab the record here.

Estasy

I don't know why it's taken me so long to mention the wonderful and eccentric work of Italian Emiliano Maggi and his Estasy project.  I first came across this stuff about a year ago from the always excellent Acephale Records.  Creepy and unsettling, combining elements of drone, folk, and minimal synth and organ, the music parades as some kind of fantastical death march for a fairy or elf funeral.  Move into the next world.  Listen to and download "Wild Wants" below and grab the "Wild Songs" LP here.

1Q84

I don't write about literature or the books i'm reading nearly enough on this blog.  Recently that my be because i have spent awhile wading through Haruki Murakami's "1Q84," a long, dense, surreal tome about love and destiny in a world with two moons.  The novel follows two main characters in alternating chapters; Aomame, a personal trainer and assassin of awful men, and Tengo, a math teacher and aspiring writer who agrees to become a ghostwriter for a young girl's strange entry in a writing contest.  Her story is a fantasy involving "little people" who emerge from the mouth of a dead goat to create an air chrysalis as a cocoon for a doppelganger like being.  As the girl's story and the narrative of "1Q84" begin to merge, things get more and more surreal.

I've always likened Murakami's work as the literary equivalent of a David Lynch film.  There always seems to be something more under the surface of everything, while a general feeling of foreboding emits from every sentence and passage.  Narratives and story arcs are left open ended to leave the reader even more confounded.  To give it another cinematic comparison, think "Donnie Darko" before the director's cut and commentary that tried to explain everything came out.  Remember the first time you saw that movie, and when it ended, you were just left there sitting and blinking.  And you thought about it for days.  What did it mean?  What did it mean?  I dig that.  And like that movie, any book that keeps me thinking about it for a long while after i've finished reading it is one to keep prominently displayed on the shelf.

Murakami is an avid music lover, and it usually winds up in his work.  Below is a video of the BBC Symphony Orchestra performing the final movement of Janacek's "Sinfonietta," a piece that plays prominently into the novel.  Enjoy.

Now go read the book!

Hotel Mexico

Japanese Ariel Pink acolytes Hotel Mexico have released a video for their trippy, poppy new track "A.I. In Dreams" from their "Her Decorated Post Love" album.  Watch it below.

Friendzone

Friendzone has been popping up on the radar lately as a pretty good crafter of hip-hop and electronic beats. New mixtape "Kuchibiru Network 3" will be out next week, but you can listen to and download the lovely, floating beeps and boops of "Moments (Part 2)" below.

Club 8

Sweden's Club 8 have been on my radar for a number of years, mostly thanks to my friend Mike's infatuation with all things indie-pop.  Their jams have always been such bouncy, danceable, sing-songy pieces of pure pop joy, that their latest single "Kill, Kill, Kill" is all the more jarring.  Somber and hypnotic, with an occasional organ death knell, the song is a meditation on animal cruelty and slaughter.  The accompanying video is intense and uncomfortable, but the song will stay with you for days.

Georgiana Starlington

Georgiana Starlington is Jack and Julie Hines of The K-Holes, a more mellow, country and Americana-tinged project as compared to the raucous, gutter-punk of their other band. The duo have and album, "Paper Moon" out on Hozac in March, but in the meantime, listen to the sun drenched and wistful "Gust" over at Pitchfork.

(Evidently there are two different Georgiana Starlingtons, and i had the above information associated with the wrong song.  Many apologies and thanks to those who caught the error.)