by Mr P on 02-10-2012

As my cousin Rob used to always say, “It makes me want to kill myself that there’s just not enough tunes fusing Radiophonic-era electronics, musique concrète, early European folk music, and 1920s film scores.” That’s where Gultskra Artikler and his latest release, Abtu/Anet, come in. The album, set for release next week on Miasmah, is somewhat of a ‘reissue,’ as it consists of music from a limited 3-inch CD-R from 2007 and an unreleased companion EP from that time. But it’s also somewhat not a ‘reissue,’ as it consists of music from a limited 3-inch CD-R from 2007 and an unreleased companion EP from that time. Anyway, who cares. Just listen and think about my cousin Rob, who is dead.

• Gultskra Artikler: http://www.myspace.com/gultskra
• Miasmah: http://www.miasmah.com

by Lee Michael on 02-09-2012

You remember Lockett from Deerhunter, right? He has a solo project called Lotus Plaza, and “Come Back” is a nine-minute dream pop song off his new collab/split 10-inch with Nice Weekend (his fiancé), set for release on Valentine’s Day via Audraglint Recordings. This glistening track has all the depth of a solo home-studio recording, layer upon layer of reverberating instruments — hours of overdubs — but without the isolation of a lonely musician up all night recording. This feels like a more euphoric exercise. Discs come in old-school tip-on record sleeves. Should serve as a primer for a new Lotus Plaza full-length on Kranky due later this year.

• Lotus Plaza: http://www.last.fm/music/Lotus+Plaza
• Audraglint: http://www.audraglint.com

by C Monster on 02-08-2012

Who’s up for an adventure? Get this: “Squeeze My Nuts In The Barnyard” is a track off Talibam! and Sam Kulik’s newest release Discover AtlantASS about Franklin (a teen abducted by Atlantis) and Stinge (a fish) combating an oil spill eradicating the undersea community. It’s 80 minutes of “Wait, what the fuck? Oh-oh, for the win” moments that Talibam! strives to achieve. Take the trip February 25. Will they save Atlantis? Or will the sea forever be covered in oil?

• Sam Kulik: http://www.myspace.com/samkulik
• Talibam!: http://talibam.bandcamp.com
• Belly Kids: http://www.bellykids.co.uk

by Alexander Slotnick on 02-07-2012

The opening seconds of Space is Only Noise (TMT Review), Nicolas Jaar’s very good 2010 LP, is an achievement in scene setting. Before any music kicks in, we’re treated to over a minute of sea sounds and deep-voiced soliloquy. The effect is an invocation of a beach so calm it must be overcast, a body in the waves, and a gray minimalism that feels related to the black and white pallet of Italian neo-realist film, or something of the like.

For these reasons, this video for “Materials,” a track from the special edition of SION, is a little glossier than one might expect. That’s not to say the video’s aesthetic is clean, per se, or that it bucks Jaar’s now signature minimalism, but rather to point out that the nondescript location, the blank white brick walls, the cement floor, the squalid clowns, are presented through a filter with more sheen and less grit than fans might naturally associate with the music. Even so, “Materials” certainly establishes its own flavor, which might be described (with only half a smirk and with full pleasure) as saccharine Cirque du Solei reformed back to its more raw and uncanny roots. The dropped apple stands out as a visual highlight, as does the fleeting image of the little girl presenting her contorted tongue sideways as a bubblegum-colored shred.

“Materials” was directed by Pondr, a partnership between TJ O’Grady-Peyton and David Magnier. As Jaar’s music continues to draw attention and collaborations, the potential for his newly established Clown and Sunset Aesthetics project looks more and more colossal and increasingly promising. [via Fact]

• Nicolas Jaar: http://www.nicolasjaar.net
• Pondr: http://www.pondr.co.uk
• Clown and Sunset: http://www.csa.fm