Foxes In Fiction - Alberto EP (320)

Any regulars of 4chan's /mu/ might already be familiar with Foxes In Fiction, the Toronto-based project of Warren Hildebrand. It's a funny story, actually, as he gained his initial success through someone reposting his songs as alleged new material by Atlas Sound on, where else but 4chan. People quickly spread the songs around and he wound up getting a record deal and even a lovely pitchfork review in the process.

I can only say I'm extremely grateful for that. The man certainly knows what he's doing, and I'd honestly go as far as to say that his first LP, Swung From The Branches, was one of my most loved albums of last year. Seriously, if you like indie, shoegaze, ambient or any of that stuff you basically kind of HAVE to like Foxes In Fiction. Pitchfork described it as Warren making the follow-up to Logos that he wanted because he just couldn't wait. That's certainly a valid comparison, but it's not something he should be defined by. There's a lot more than just avid Bradford Cox fanboy-ism at play here.

So Alberto, his newest 2011 effort is his attempt at making slightly more structured, poppier songs, a direction I was kind of hoping he might take. His songs literally relieve stress for me.

So, I'm gonna dump a few links on you now.

First, download all of his music (for free) from his site. Swung From the Branches can be downloaded here.
You can get Alberto here, packaged by me.

You can listen to a personal favorite of mine, "Fifteen Ativan," here.

So when you're done gasm-ing all over, FINALLY support this man by buying his album here.

Asobi Seksu - Fluorescence (V0)

I haven't listened to this enough yet to make a poignant analysis, but from what I've heard it's much more similar to the earlier, probably more popular Citrus than its quieter, dreamier sister, Hush. It's nice to see that these guys have made this step backwards; with all of the positive reviews given to Beach House's early release last year, Asobi Seksu have still managed not to be caught up in the hype.

Download.

Mint Julep - Adorn (V0)

"So there's this girl singing"
Uh huh
"and dream pop and electro is going on in the background"
uh huh
"and you like it"
do I really
"yeah"
oh okay.
"and I think you want to have sex with me"
if you say so

Shine by Mint Julep.
Download.
Support the Helios side-project here.

SPC ECO - Silver Clouds EP (V0)

What do you think of female fronted shoegaze bands like Pinkshinyultrablast? Well, as we both know, you fucking love them. Yes you do. Totally. So for the Pinkshinyultrablast fan looking for a more Slowdive-esque approach to shoegaze this is for you, and since I'm already making the assumption that everyone goes to sleep every night listening to Happy Songs For Happy Zombies then I'm sure this EP is for every god damn one of you.

If you aren't in love with this song after the 2:40 mark passes then I might hate you, no I think I WILL hate you.

But lucky for you I'm very forgiving, and here's the download.

California Wives - Affair EP (320)

Well. I wasn't expecting this.

I initially heard this band because I saw that they were opening for The Helio Sequence at a show I'm going to in January. Needless to say, my love for The Helio Sequence impelled me to check out the opening bands, and what I found was pretty awesome.

California Wives are a band that is still in the process of publicizing their music, and I thought it would be nice to contribute to that. Their music is what could best be described as shoegaze done by a pop band. They don't have the thin and foggy sound that similar bands like Wild Nothing have, but they seem to have absolutely no apprehensions about cranking their phase shifters to 11. The melodies that their multiple vocalists spin over the hazy guitars are catchy but leave a sizable distance between themselves and the listeners. The Affair EP, which is the most representative selection of their songs available, is really worth the short 21 minutes it will take to listen to it.

You can acquire it here and purchase it here.

Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Heart In Your Heartbreak (320)

For anyone who is a fan of Pains of Being Pure at Heart or related projects, here's a new single out from their upcoming album Belong. It's going to be released in 2011, hopefully early in the year.

No matter what you take, you're never gonna forget.

Have A Nice Life - Time of Land EP

Just wanted to make sure you all got this amazing gem of an EP that was released by Dan earlier this year. It was released for free by enemieslist a while back, but it didn't really garner much attention. Go figure.

It's very much the HANL we've all come to know and love, but with a much more drone oriented sound on some tracks, especially Wizard of the Black Hundreds, the opener. Woe Unto Us is a splendid track that also reminds me that lo-fi and home recorded music is still legitimate, although taxed by the scores of bands purposely attempting to get that sound. Anyway, you should probably be getting this instead of reading my drivel. Why haven't you started the download?

Get this now.

RIGHT NOW DAMN IT!

Download.

Spiritualized - Laser Guided Melodies (FLAC)

Way back when I first started developing a real palette for music, Spiritualized was one of the first groups that I was genuinely interested in exploring. Jason Pierce's music is attention-grabbing when it needs to be and mind-numbing when it doesn't; it's one of the perfect albums to listen to for anyone just beginning to appreciate lesser known but still culturally celebrated music.

Laser Guided Melodies is Spiritualized's first release following the official breakup of Spacemen 3, and in it Pierce demonstrates once again the enormous talent that he brought to Spacemen 3 and the influence that he continues to exert on the psychedelic music scene. Each song is unique and unconventional in it's own way, and even though Laser Guided Melodies is perfectly entry-level, I still find myself going back to it not only to experience the nostalgia that I associate with it but to experience the new and vivid sensations that it brings with each listen.

A favorite song of mine is 200 Bars, mostly because of the mind-boggling that I went through the first time I listened to it. The way that each instrument layers itself over the others and is introduced seamlessly, in such an organized manner (maybe similar to Ravel's Boléro), is so impressive that I really had no other words to say than, "Oh my fucking God." This was before everything dropped out and Kate Radley's angelic voice plainly counted, "200," at which point I exclaimed, "Oh my FUCKING GOD!"

Shine a light on me.

Epic45 - May Your Heart Be The Map (V0)

*ahem* This little thing is unrelated to what's inside the album, but is how I've decided to describe the tone and mood this album portrays:

We came across the trees just then. Finally, everything would be alright again. Finally everything would be good. I could think happy thoughts, and think of them for a long time. But the trees ended, the day persisted and the sun rained heat upon our skulls. This was the rest of our night. This was every night.
My heart was the only map we had, and we were lost and never coming back.

Download because this isn't an album where anything can be taken out of context, so you'll just have to get the whole thing to find out.

The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead (320)

The Helio Sequence are Brandon Summers and Benjamin Weikel. Any Modest Mouse fans reading this will surely recognize Ben as once having drummed for them during 2003 and 2004, when they were releasing Good News.

This album has incredible sentimental value for me, as it was basically the first non-mainstream music that I really got into. I was doing a search for the best albums of 2008 and this repeatedly made its way onto my screen; I just couldn't ignore all the people saying it was a masterpiece, so I gave it a listen.

What I found was undoubtedly the most eye-opening experience I have ever had from a musical standpoint. Even now I feel like they transcend being defined by a single genre. It's not enough to just say shoegaze, or electronic, or alternative rock. Those things together don't even accurately describe The Helio Sequence. Tags are certainly just a formality here, and there isn't a person I can think of that wouldn't be able to at least find some joy in this album. The themes are universal, the music is aesthetically intriguing, and the tone of Brandon's voice sounds like a younger Bob Dylan, creating a feeling of antiquity throughout the songs. For these reasons, Keep Your Eyes Ahead is, without a doubt, my favorite album of 2008.

It's just authentic, I guess.

Download here and buy it here.

Suuns - Zeroes QC (V0)

Do you know what something awesome sounds like?
No, seriously, do you?
No, that wasn't nearly as awesome. Neither was that. Oh shut up, you didn't nearly enjoy Sgt. Pepper's or Pet Sounds enough to actually say that honestly.
This here, this is fucking amazing.
Pie IX might as well be named as one of the greatest 3 minutes of sound ever put into a recording. Yeah, I said that, and yeah you're going to disagree now but you wouldn't disagree if I didn't say it so you can just go and cry in shame, you easily influenced swine.
You need this in your collection now because its the only way to redeem yourself. You need this mess of sludgy tones, pop goodness, and passive shoegazing.

Download what's going to pretty much be the best album of 2010 (for me) here.

Twin Tigers - Gray Waves (256)

I went to an Interpol show earlier this year with my friend, and had the pleasure of being introduced to Twin Tigers, an amazing pop-shoegaze outfit who was opening for them at the time. I actually enjoyed them about as much as I did Interpol, which is saying something, since Interpol is one of my favorite bands of all time.

Gray Waves is their first album, released this year on Old Flame Records. It has obvious My Bloody Valentine influences, coupled with catchy hooks over the layered guitars.

I actually got to hang out and talk to a couple of the band members who were just loitering about in front of the venue. One specific member, named Forrest, even offered to get me into the next show for free, which made my car troubles all the more frustrating the following day.

You will enjoy this if you like shoegaze acts of any kind, and probably if you enjoy alternative rock, too. The vocals on this track are almost squeaky at times, and there's plenty of harmonies with bassist Aimee Morris. Try and catch these guys live sometime, they're incredible.

Download here and buy it here.

Working For A Nuclear Free City - Jojo Burger Tempest (V0)

WFANFC’s JoJo Burger Tempest is like a more upbeat Dead Cities, Red Seas, & Lost Ghosts (by M83), and well... I wish there was more to say about the album but really that’s what it is. It contains all the “epicness” of that album, a similar instrumental focus as that album (only saying similar because this one actually makes use of vocals a LOT), and the major difference being that it’s happier. It’s not an “everyone drink up and be merry” kind of happy but it’s definitely a lot more optimistic than M83’s soundtrack to the beginning of the end. In fact, the first line of the M83’s album is a pretty good estimation of what this album is (quoted at the bottom, as the download link).

It's not like me to so bluntly pull out tracks, but I need to for this album.

One is the final track, with the same name as the album title. It’s 30 minutes long, and to explain what it is in words is best expressed in the following statement:

It’s an audio only interpretation of the movie Space Jam.

Other than that, Alphaville and Brown Owl are damn well the top tier choices of the album, Alphaville focusing on a more dream-pop setting than the rest of the album (and eerily similar to something out of The Radio Dept.'s Pet Grief), and Brown Owl which plans to bring optimism so bright that it could make you believe a movie like “You Again” might be worth seeing.

Sun is shining. Birds are singing. Flowers are growing. Clouds are looming and I am flying.

Glissade - Further (V2)

I guess I can start with the last.fm description.

"Glissade creates a soundtrack to a dreamy and distorted version of reality by combining shoegaze inspired guitars & textural waves of sound. the tracks are both meditative and dramatic with melodies melting into a soothing and hypnotic ocean of atmospheric noise."

Shoegaze, for me, has always been about finding a more perfect atmospheric aesthetic, which is why bands like My Bloody Valentine and to a lesser extent Slowdive have not been so appealing to me as I've come to enjoy the genre. The shoegaze I like is often a mellow blend of post-rock and textures, sometimes even blurring the line between shoegaze and drone. Now, this album doesn't incorporate drone, but it is very atmospherically oriented. It's great to relax to, to think to, or even just to breathe to. It's not so willfully exotic in the way that trip-hop is, but it still manages to make you aware of yourself. Swirling melodies and whispered vocals.

All textual wanking aside, if you are a fan of shoegaze and ambient, this is something you will enjoy greatly. Can't recommend it enough.

Get it here.

Buy it here.

I'm not sure what they are up to nowadays, or if they're even still together. All I know is that this album is one of the most played shoegaze albums that I own.

Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You (V0)

It's like, if when you were born, you got to choose the size of your dick.
It's that good.

Download it here.

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy (FLAC)

The Jesus and Mary Chain's debut album, Psychocandy, remastered in FLAC. Adding pop melodies and monotone vocals, the Reids single-handedly (or double-handedly; think about it) reinvented rock music. With searing guitar textures and feedbacking, intuitive melodies and economic drumming, The Jesus and Mary Chain created a behemoth combination of two already enormous '80s music scenes: first wave noise rock, with its experimentalisms and extensive collages of fuzzed-up guitars, and Smiths-esque jangly pop, with its easily digestible sensibilities and bread-and-butter formatting. What came out of this was something completely unique, something like an unstable element, shedding noise and radiation in its wake, searching for that pop sound but falling just short, warped and disfigured.

Get it in FLAC here.

The Depreciation Guild - In Her Gentle Jaws (V0)

You could be my cloud,
You could follow me around,
And you'd promise me the shadows,
Because the sun is not allowed.

I floated in from listening to this.

A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head (V0)

Exploding Head is the sophomore release by New York noise rock band A Place to Bury Strangers. Their music is an almost lyrical combination of space rock, shoegaze, post-punk and My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything-era noise rock. Exploding Head presents a refinement of A Place to Bury Strangers' debut release, with the occasional delve into post-punk guitar tones and even surf rock. The phrasing and chord changes seem timed almost perfectly to match that exact "diving in" moment in each song, which can only be compared to jumping off of a skyscraper or suddenly finding oneself in a boiler room. If you can get past the Jesus and Mary Chain-esque screeching guitars, this album is a perfect amalgamation of all of the shoegaze and noise rock efforts of the last three decades.

50 miles of desert sky

Wild Nothing - Gemini (320)

Earlier in 2010, I was becoming less aware of what my personal album of the year would be. Other albums had worn thin since I had heard them, and I needed something fresh on my plate. Being a big fan of the shoegaze and dream pop genres, I was excited to learn about the release of Gemini (albeit a little late). Gemini is an album that quietly speaks of being a teenager with a background of light, distorted guitar, catchy drum beats and friendly synths. This album is extremely consistent, with just enough variation between songs to not be repetitive. I find that there isn't a song on the album that I don't like; but it still lacks a little something. It could be the growing familiarity that comes with each consecutive listen.

Gemini is an album that you will like right away, but not necessarily an album that continues to draw your attention in different ways every time you give it another listen. Not to say that it isn't great, because it most definitely is.

Favorite tracks: Confirmation, The Witching Hour, Chinatown, Gemini

My rating: 8.6/10

Getcha self some here.