Mind Over Mirrors

On the cusp of New Year's Eve, and with yet another short-lived sabbatical on the horizon, we here at the incubator felt it necessary to present some year-end tunes to leave 2011 to.  Not party jams mind you, but some electronic drone to pass away the time while we watch the end of the universe unfold in an awesome cosmic rip.  Hazaa!  Listen to Mind Over Mirrors' "The Voice Rolling" LP from Digitalis Recordings at the link below.  Unfortunately, it's sold out.

http://soundcloud.com/mindovermirrors/sets/the-voice-rolling

Better late than never...Congrats to Drew Brees

Being as i'm a football fan, and from New Orleans, i'm appalled at myself for not posting this on Monday.  Big congrats to the big pimpin' Drew Brees for breaking Dan Marino's 25 year old single season passing record (and also for spanking the Falcons and winning the NFC South while we're at it).  Who Dat?  Who Dat indeed.

Yacht

Late again.  Late again.  I want some slack to be cut, but considering the energy displayed by Yacht at last month's Fun Fun Fun Fest performance, and the fact that they played my favorite B-52's jam ("Mesopotamia"), no slack shall be given.  At any rate, this year's "Shangri-La" from DFA is a lot of fun, a head-bobbing, jumping, electro-party album.  Hells yeah.  Listen to "Dystopia (The Earth Is On Fire)" below.  Hooray!

Dystopia (The Earth is on Fire) by RADIO YACHT

Chillerama

Looking for some thrills and chills that only some good, old-fashioned B-movie sleaze can provide, then look no further than the drive-in mayhem of "Chillerama," a collection of B-movie tributes from a slew of modern horror directors.  Giant killer sperm!  Homosexual werebears!  Zombie orgy!  And Joel David Moore's pitch-perfect comedic take on Hitler in Adam Green's "The Diary of Anne Frankenstein" is not to be missed.

Adolph Hitler...mad scientist and showtune singer.

Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!!!

And we are on sabbatical for the next couple of days.  Merry Christmas!  Hope Santa brings you everything you asked for.

Symmetry

It's almost Christmas, so here's a sprawling 2 hour magnum opus from Symmetry (Glass Candy, Chromatics, Mirage, and Desire).  "Themes For An Imaginary Film" is just that, a conceptual score for non-existent movie.  And it's awesome, so, Merry Christmas.

Look for the triple LP to come out some time next year.  In the meantime, enjoy the music below.

SYMMETRY / THEMES FOR AN IMAGINARY FILM by JOHNNY JEWEL

The Weekend - Echoes of Silence

The latest mixtape from underground R&B wunderkind The Weekend is now available for free download from the artist's website.  More cool jams coming straight at your face, including an opening cover of Michael Jackson's "Dirty Diana."  Get it here.

Big K.R.I.T. & Clams Casino

Check out Jersey producer Clams Casino's remix of Mississippi rapper Big K.R.I.T.'s "Moon & Stars" courtesy of The Fader's X Squared series.  Dig that brass.

Big K.R.I.T., "Moon and Stars (Clams Casino Remix)" by The FADER

Mirror Mirror

So, as the year winds down to its inevitable conclusion, it's that time of the season where we start scrounging around the web and find all the great stuff we managed to miss as the days flew by.  The current winner (and probably something that would have gotten a mention on the year-end best-of lists had i discovered it months ago) is the awesome band Mirror Mirror and their excellent "Interiors" LP available from RVNG Intl.  There's definitely a TV On The Radio vibe going on here, but the swing and sway feels kinda like Peter Gabriel, David Byrne, and Thin White Duke-era David Bowie took a cocktail of hallucinogens while Eno recorded the whole thing.  Awesome stuff.  Get it here and listen to the whole thing below.  Hooray new discoveries!

Interiors by Mirror Mirror

Futurecop!

The 80's-inspired electro-jams flow like wine around here, and the hits just keep on coming.  Dig on the upcoming release from England's "Futurecop!" and their faux film score for an imaginary movie i would totally watch.  You know you would too.  You're so predictable.

Listen to "Northern Lights" below.

Futurecop! - Northern Lights (Original Mix) by GottaDanceDirty

You Can Count On Me

Here's the official video for Panda Bear's "You Can Count On Me" from this year's amazing "Tomboy" LP.  It's a pretty groovy mix of psychedelic swirls and an ending that my wife is sure to enjoy.  Watch below.

New Die Antwoord

Die fucking Antwoord.  Whoa.  Like everything else this South African electro-hip-hop crew does, new album "Ten$ion," due in February, is crazy, loopy fun.  Will it make you a tad uneasy?  Sure.  Just look at the cover for the new record above and check out the video for the first single, "Fok Julle Naaiers."


FOK JULLE NAAIERS from Die Antwoord on Vimeo.

Favorite films of 2011

As 2011 draws to a close, let's take the time to reflect on the movies that made me a happy panda. Last year, i picked a regular(ish) Hollywood-kinda movie, a B-movie gore fest, and an arty film. I'm doing the same this year. Here we go:

"Drive" - One of the hippest movies i've seen in a long, long time.  A slow burner with bursts of horrific violence, an elevator scene that is pitch perfect from start to finish, a fantastic score that fits the style and mood of the film like a glove, and everything you'd want from a movie.  And the ladies love Gosling.  Hell, even i wanted to take the guy out.

"Hobo With A Shotgun" - Ever since "Grindhouse," some filmmakers (the awesome ones) have started to give their films a retro look to go along with the B-movie schlock we all grew up with and loved.  Visceral movies.  Violence, nudity, and gore.  No bullshit.  If it wasn't so jarring, it'd be refreshing.  Also, any movie that can make me cringe with a gory scene is one i'm going to keep with me forever.  Ahhhh.

"Melancholia" - A stunning, beautiful film about the end of everything as an analogy for the human condition.  Heady stuff, but perfectly scripted, perfectly acted, perfectly shot, and music by Wagner to match the anxiety, dismay, and despondency.  I couldn't take my eyes away.

Honorable mentions:
"Attack The Block," "Tree of Life," "X-Men: First Class"

And, there's probably some that i haven't seen yet that are awesome, but we'll get to that later.  Viva le cine!

New Sleigh Bells

Check out the cool new tune "Born To Lose" from Sleigh Bells.  "Reign of Terror" is due out in February.  Hooray!

Tennis covers Broadcast

Check out Tennis's awesome and sweet cover of Broadcast's "Tears In The Typing Pool."  We still miss you Trish.

Tennis - Tears In The Typing Pool by tennisinc

Lilacs & Champagne

Lilacs & Champagne, the newest project from Grails producing team Alex Hall and Emil Amos, is as crazy a mix of different styles and sounds as you can expect to hear from anyone.  The label says it best:

"Rather than sampling the funk and soul canon of traditional hip hop, they pulled from disparate sources such as Polish private press hippie records, indistinguishable radio noise or the chopped and reversed sounds of Jayne Mansfield’s head being decapitated. Layers of instruments and found sound were then painted over the original samples until entirely new directions were created and taken to their logical conclusion… creating something simultaneously alien and familiar… something like the sound of Nurse with Wound collaborating with J-Dilla."

It practically made me poop myself in excitement.  Pre-order from Mexican Summer and listen to "Everywhere, Everyone" below.

Lilacs & Champagne - Everywhere, Everyone by Mexican Summer

Favorite Album Covers of 2011

Hark and lay thine eyes upon my favorite album covers of 2011! These are the covers that either initially attracted me to the album before listening or just stayed with me. Basically, i just think they're cool. Here we go...

Hank Williams III - "Ghost to A Ghost/Guttertown" - Just a cool pic. The painting he's Christ-posing in front of is revealed in full, awesome detail in the liner notes.

Tyler The Creator - "Goblin" - This one, i can't explain. Something about it just pops to me.

Alvarius B. - "Baroque Primitiva" - It'a bunch of naked girls laying in a circle. How could this not be on the list?

Tim Hecker - "Ravedeath, 1972" - Aside from having one of the coolest titles of the year, the picture of a picture of a bunch of college kids throwing a piano off a building speaks to me on a level even i don't understand. It just barely missed the cut for albums of the year too.

Thee Oh Sees - "Carrion Crawler/The Dream" - It's like Iron Maiden's Eddie is all ready for the revolution, but he's got to wade his way through all these intestines first. And we have a winner. Sweet.

All of these albums are worth having by the way.

New Radiohead single

Look for a new Radiohead single later this month, featuring "The Daily Mail," and one of our favorite songs of the year, "Staircase." Hooray!

Radiohead - Staircase ('From the Basement' session) by mysteryfallsdown

This Will Destroy You & Holy Other

Instrumental mopers This Will Destroy You get the cold and blissful remix treatment from Holy Other on the "Black Dunes" 7" courtesy of Suicide Squeeze Records. Check out the original, slow burning version of the jam and the equally excellent remix below. Get it here.

Black Dunes by This Will Destroy You

And the mix...

This Will Destroy You - Black Dunes (Holy Other's Woman In The Dunes Mix) by HOLY OTHER

Bollywood Bloodbath

This is just too awesome not to devote a little time to it. Finders Keepers manages to find some of the hippest, weirdest, and funkiest jams from all over the globe, from Turkish psychedelia to French pop to Czech film scores. The latest mix is a collection of B-movie horror soundtracks from India's Bollywood film industry. It's absolutely everything you would want it to be, a crazy mix of prog, folk, psych, funk, electro and Bollywood madness. Here's a blurb from the label:

"You've heard Italy’s most famous composers when they soundtrack unwatchable Roman slasher flicks with on their own uncompromised and underpaid terms? Well that blueprint just turned blood red with sub-shoestring, low-budget studio wizards gambling with rigamortis rock, disjointed disco and low-voltage electronics for seldom screened scenes of desi Draculas, lycanthropic lady killers and psyched-up swamp monsters. Ever wondered what the DJ would play in a 1981 luxury hotel that was built on an ancient Christian cemetery? No? Well it sounds like someone just got possessed by Jimmy Page and Nile Rogers at the same time. Help!"

Perfect. Get it here and listen to Hemant Bhole's "Sansani Khez Koi Baat" below.

HEMANT BHOLE - SANSANI KHEZ KOI BAAT by Finders Keepers Records

Heavenly Beat

Check out the A-Side from the forthcoming 7" from Heavenly Beat, the side project of Beach Fossils" John Pena. It's got kind of a Balearic beat meats island jam vibe. Lovely. Listen to "Faithless" below and get the record from Captured Tracks.

Heavenly Beat - “Faithless” by Creeping Wave

Julia Holter - Marienbad

Realizing that we just posted about the lovely Ms. Holter for the first time the other day (late to the party as always), finding out that she has a new album coming out from RVNG in March just makes our day. "Ekstasis" feels like it will be just as heavy and full as "Tragedy," but this time around, some of the cold and doom and gloom have been lifted to reveal a lusher, clearer production. The single "Marienbad" feels almost whimsical, but it's a beauty. Listen below. (The album cover reminds me of something that Coil or Chris and Cosey would have done.)

Julia Holter - Marienbad by RVNG Intl.

Mux Mool

Producer/electronic musician Mux Mool (also known as Brain Lindgren) is readying his newest release, "Planet High School," due out in February from Ghostly. It's a fluid piece of mellow-ish instrumental hip-hop for the bobbing and weaving set. Take a listen to "Raw Gore" below.

Raw Gore by muxmool

Attack The Block

Everything about this movie is awesome. I can't believe it took me this long to see it.

TRS-80 & Daft Punk & Ariel Pink

TRS-80 reworks the Daft Punk song "Sky Sailor" from the "Tron: Legacy" soundtrack with a little help from Ariel Pink singing some new vocals for the piece. Meditative robot rock. Hazaa! Get the 10" release from Vinyl International and listen to the jam below.

Daft Punk, TRS-80, Ariel Pink - Sky Sailor (Float Away) by TILTmag

Glass Candy's tribute to Drive

Here's a nifty little tribute to one of the best movies of the year featuring music from the always groovy Glass Candy. Enjoy.

tribute to drive from tom haugomat & bruno mangyoku on Vimeo.

Julia Holter

"Tragedy" comes to us from Cal Arts alum Julia Holter. It's an intriguing record that draws from the Greek tragedy "Hippolytus," from Euripides, and slowly unfolds in a swirl of nonlinear melodies: synth bits, jarring pieces of sound, drone and human ambience, discordant sections of strings and vocals, and the crackle of phonographic recordings and far away drums. The sense of doom pervades. Listen to "Try To Make Yourself A Work of Art" below and buy the 2nd press of the LP from Leaving Records.

Julia Holter - Try to Make Yourself a Work of Art by coracle Pia

Because you demanded it...Favorite Songs of 2011

Hooray! Another year end list! Because if i don't chronicle and categorize all the things i liked, then how will we know if they truly existed? I've limited myself to one song per artist, with the exception of any collaborative efforts. You gotta have rules and standards man. Here's the jammy-jams i've been diggin' on for 2011: 52 songs, one for every week of the year. (You can probably find all of them on Soundcloud or The Hype Machine or any other number of music streaming sites for your listening enjoyment.) So without further ado:

1. Active Child - Hanging On (White Sea remix)

2. Alvarius B. - You Only Live Twice

3. A$AP Rocky - Palace

4. Azealia Banks - 212

5. Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place

6. Bjork - Crystalline (Omar Souleyman remix)

7. Cities Aviv - Float On

8. Cults - You Know What I Mean

9. Cults and Freddie Gibbs - Bad Things (remix)

10. Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi (with Norah Jones) - Black

11. Death Grips - Beware

12. Lana Del Rey - Video Games

13. Destroyer - Kaputt

14. Dirty Beaches - Lord Knows Best

15. Ducktails - Killin' The Vibe

16. Xander Duell - Emma Baby

17. Dum Dum Girls - Coming Down

18. Ford & Lopatin (with Shannon Funchess) - Snakes

19. Fucked Up - The Other Shoe

20. Gang Gang Dance - Adult Goth

21. Ganjatronics - Sorrow Tomorrow

22. Girls - Vomit

23. The Go! Team - Back Like 8-Track

24. PJ Harvey - Written On The Forehead

25. King Dude - Born In Blood

26. Locrian - Chalk Point

27. Julian Lynch - Terra

28. John Maus - Believer

29. M83 - Midnight City

30. MIA - Bad Girls

31. Mike G. - Forest Green

32. Panda Bear - Benfica

33. Peaking Lights - Tiger Eyes (Laid Back)

34. Preteen Zenith - Breathe

35. Pure X - Twisted Mirror

36. Fatima al Qadiri - Hip Hop Spa

37. Radiohead - Staircase

38. Sad City - Jaya

39. The Sandwitches - In The Garden

40. Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie XX - NY Is Killing Me

41. Ty Segall - You Make The Sun Fry

42. Britney Spears - Til The End Of The World (Salem screwed mix)

43. Thee Oh Sees - The Dream

44. Twin Sister - Kimmi In A Ricefield

45. Tycho - Hours

46. Tyler The Creator - Yonkers

47. Washed Out - Eyes Be Closed

48. Weyes Blood - Romneydale

49. White Denim - No Real Reason

50. Hank Williams III - Guttertown

51. WU LYF - Heavy Pop (album version)

52. Zombi - DE3

This list could have gone on and on and on and on...

Twin Sister & Lindstrom & Prins Thomas

Check out this groovy disco reworking of Twin Sister's "Bad Street," courtesy of Lindstrom and Prins Thomas. Fun stuff.

Twin Sister - Bad Street (Lindstrom & Prins Thomas Remix) by DominoRecordCo

Favorite Albums of 2011

It's December. I'm a music blogger. Do the math...it's end-of-year-list time. It was kinda hard to bring it down to only 20 albums this year. Having to leave records off the list makes me sad, but it's time to man up like a black metal kitten. Here are my 20 favorite albums of 2011. Sound the trumpets.

Alvarius B. - "Baroque Primitiva" - A lo-fi session from a member of Sun City Girls consisting primarily of Ennio Morricone covers that sound like they were recorded in a bathroom somewhere. It's really basic, but beautiful, raw, and honest. This is the kind of stuff dudes should play on their acoustic guitars to woo the ladies. Oh, if we only lived in a perfect world.

Alvarius B. - You Only Live Twice by Brendan.23

A$AP Rocky - "LiveLoveA$AP" - Mixtapes kicked me in the ass this year. One of the best comes from New York rapper A$AP Rocky. From his laid back flow to the production from Clams Casino on key tracks, it's easy to understand how this kid rose from a Youtube video to a record deal over the course of three months. Can't wait for a proper release.

ASAP Rocky - Palace (Prod. By Clams Casino) by Fresh Like This

The Caretaker - "An Empty Bliss Beyond This World" - Beautiful. Otherworldly. Leyland Kirby's concept behind this remarkable record is based on research with Alzheimer's patients where bits of memory could be retrieved based on music snips from said patients' pasts. The whole thing is a hypnotizing, haunting mix of distorted old big band jazz 78 recordings. The fact that this album exists is reason enough to give it a whirl.

Moments of Sufficient Lucidity - The Caretaker by absentminded

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - "Rome" - A concept album from producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse with Italian composer Daniele Luppi that pays homage to the old Spaghetti Western soundtracks made famous by the maestro Ennio Morricone with several of the original musicians on board, and also featuring vocals from Jack White and Norah Jones? Where do i sign up?

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - Two Against One (Ft. Jack White) by MMMusic

Death Grips - "Exmilitary" - Another mixtape, and the most recent thing on this list that i've discovered. It's insistence is that immediate. Aggressive raps over even more aggressive beats, and random samples throughout, and featuring the always awesome Zach Hill. I fucking love this album.

Death Grips - Exmilitary - 1 - Beware by deathgrips

Destroyer - "Kaputt" - This is honestly the best thing that Destroyer has ever done. Ditching a lot of the old freak folk and moving full steam ahead with an almost Hall and Oates-like, smooth 80's jazz-pop/soft-rock thing seems to work. And that's awesome.

Destroyer | Kaputt by JordelquinoMusic

Xander Duell - "Experimental Tape No. 2, Vol. 1" - Unsure of how to actually describe this record, so i'll just let the label do it instead:

"It’s going to take more than the space provided here to sum up the ideas and talent of NYC’s Xander Duell, who has fused decades’ worth of nuance into these thirteen songs. The implication in the title of this one is at least somewhat correct in that the experimental nature of Duell’s music rears its head in style and content atop songwriting that touches the emotional core without hesitation or regret. There is joy and sadness here, electronics and guitars, grandeur alongside the neon-lit sleaze. Calibrate your expectations appropriately on this one, but be prepared to have them shattered by this outsider work, in the spirit of Scott Walker’s numbered albums and the prime cut of ‘70s soft rock."

And it kicks ass too.

Xander Duell - Live & Learn by Mexican Summer

Fucked Up - "David Comes To Life" - These Canadian hardcore punk rock art kids have yet to disappoint, either through each subsequent release, or their amazing live shows. The new record is a rock opera about a young, factory-working punk in love, and it's amazing. Every band should have a big, fat, bald, naked, hairy guy sweating and screaming at you.

Fucked Up "A Little Death" by The FADER

Gang Gang Dance - "Eye Contact" - Well, Gang Gang Dance finally went and did it. They made the best album of their career. This one pulls a little bit from all they've ever done, touching on the dance music, the world music, the hip-hop, and the prog weirdness to create a beautiful and cohesive work that puts the group into a genre unto themselves. Yeah. (All i could find was an edit of "Glass Jar.")

Gang Gang Dance - Glass Jar by rezvanm

PJ Harvey - "Let England Shake" - Oh Polly Jean, how i long for you. And how you delivered with your best album in years, a bit of a concept album about war that feels like you've been hanging around Nick Cave. Hallelujah!

PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder by Vagrant Records

Julian Lynch - "Terra" - Julian Lynch is another one of those indie-wunderkinds who puts out consistently good jams every year, but goes unnoticed for the most part. On "Terra," he combines his indie folk leanings with a bit of prog rock, some jazz elements, and a vibe that makes the record feel like it's the soundtrack to some nostalgic trip that you never actually took.

Julian Lynch: "Terra" by alteredzones

John Maus - "We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves" - Honestly, there is absolutely no reason that a man on stage by himself, with only a mic and a sampler should be nearly as entertaining as John Maus is. But he is. He pours himself headfirst into his little pop masterpieces like a madman on speed, and that energy and love works its way onto every track of this awesome album that would have fit perfectly into a John Hughes film...the best John Hughes film. Bravo.

John Maus - Believer by eeverardo

M83 - "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming." - Speaking of perfect music for a John Hughes movie, enter the latest opus from M83, a sprawling yet tight double album of 80's-hued dance-pop jams that beg you to look back at your childhood days and dream and rejoice for a little while.

Midnight City by M83

Panda Bear - "Tomboy" - A perfect mix of Beach Boys-inspired harmonies, drone and reverb, and wistful vocals creates a dreamy vibe to just surf on for awhile. This is the music of dreams.

Panda Bear, Benfica by MUSIC DREAMERS

Peaking Lights - "936" - "936" is a scratchy mix of reggae, dub, psych-rock, and all around weirdness that sticks in your brain and squishes around in there like the best hallucinogenic drugs in the world. Coming down is not an option. You're one of us now.

All The Sun That Shines by Peaking Lights

Pure X - "Pleasure" - These Austin boys crafted the kind of album that was perfect for the 100+ degree days we had over the summer: music that kind of slows and melts in conjunction with your breathing and sweating. It's like a downer country or blues album with the reverb all the way up, echoing out into canyon, into the sweltering night.

Twisted Mirror by PURE X

Tyler The Creator - "Goblin" - So much press and hype on this album. At SXSW in March, the kids from Odd Future jumped from mid-bill to headliner in a matter of days. They are the hip hop collective equivalent of a punk rock band, all snot-nosed and middle fingers...a giant "fuck you" to everything and everybody, and Tyler is at it's center. This is the kind of stuff kids dig that pisses off their parents. Love it or hate it, it's kind of hard to ignore.

Transylvania (Regular Speed) by splutterheart

Washed Out - "Within And Without" - While i detest that label of "chill wave" and whoever spawned that stupid, fucking phrase, the style of music it attempts to describe can be pretty awesome when done right. Washed Out first surfaced a couple of years ago with a killer EP and some good singles. This year, they outdid themselves, transcending simple bedroom recordings to something grand and warm, like the best summer beach jams.

Washed Out - Amor Fati by subpop

Weyes Blood - "The Outer Room" - This is one of those records that feels like you've just stumbled into and old and forgotten house. Cobwebs cover everything. Gloom hangs in the air like the dust. The melancholy atmosphere overwhelms. But, it's just all so beautiful, like you've discovered something precious that needs to be protected and held dear. Something like that. Haunting, psychedelic folk music for the modern man.

Weyes Blood - Romneydale by nofearofpop.net

Hank Williams III - "Ghost To A Ghost/Guttertown" - A blistering mix of old-school country, punk rock, metal, folk, zydeco, ambient drone, and experimental tinkerings straight from the grandson of a country music originator and the son of someone who for years asked me if i was "ready for some football," Hank 3's double album (one of three different records released this year) is such genre-leaping, career-defining work, that it really does take multiple listens to grasp the whole thing. I realize that this whole list has been in alphabetical order, but this is my favorite album of 2011. I think it's a masterpiece.

Hank III - The Low Line by farfromsea

So there you go. Be back tomorrow for my favorite 52 songs of the year, that is if you're into that sort of thing.