Ghost Mountain - Summer Tapes EP (320)

I remember the first time I heard Ghost Mountain. The video for Eye Rings was in my 'Recommended Videos' list on YouTube and had a pretty cool still shot, so I decided to check it out. Being someone who had just stopped listening to Mindless Self Indulgence and just started listening to Animal Collective, Ghost Mountain was like nothing I had ever heard before (it still isn't really like anything else out there, for the record). This Black Moth Super Rainbow influenced duo from Texas have been blowing my socks off from day one with their psychedelic rhythms and catchy beats. Daniel Berkowitz's vocals are also something fresh that often add something very special to Ghost Mountain's already unique sound.

Favorite tracks: Eye Rings, The Tree Wall, Star in my Wishing Well, Ninja Turtles

My rating: 9.3/10

Download it here. If you liked it as much as I did, order one of the awesome homemade VHS tapes that has all the songs and their videos (that are made of tapes found at garage sales and the like) and comes with a CD and a poster that has all the lyrics on it, along with other Ghost Mountain merch here!

Adam & Naïve - Summer in the Storm Cellar (FLAC)

Upon my first listen of Summer in the Storm Cellar, spring was just starting to show itself from behind winter. Snow was melting at a rapid pace, birds were beginning to fly back from their vacation to Mexico, and the blue of the sky was finally starting to push away the clouds. Season might seem irrelevant to some, but I have gotten in the habit of listening to music based on scenery and mood, among other factors.

It may seem a bit cliche, but the only proper way that I could describe Summer in the Storm Cellar is sunshine to a rainy day. This album puts a twist on the thought of rain as being dismal, and speaks of it as a pass to play hide and seek, splash in puddles and enjoy youth in general. With these happy songs that speak of love, vacation and someone pretty, melancholy songs about virginity, a strange city with warped streets and conversations are well placed and give the album a great mix of ups and downs.

Favorite songs: Pretty 2, Rainy Day, Sunbrella

My rating: 8.8/10

Download it here.
Download in V0 here.

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing..... (V0)

A record created entirely out of samples of jazz, psychedelic and hip-hop albums from DJ Shadow's own record collection, which contains more than 60,000 records. Released in 1996, two years before Massive Attack's Mezzanine, Endtroducing..... did for trip-hop what Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden or Bark Psychosis's Hex did for post-rock.

Download.

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.

Big Spider's Back - Turns (320)

Big Spider's Back released his third EP this year back in August, for free from his website. It features two completely new songs and three remixes of tracks off of his 2009 EP, Warped. The two tracks that are new are definitely more pop/dance than his previously releases, which were clearly more influenced by bands like Blind Man's Colour and Washed Out. His remixes, two of which are for Perfect Machine, skate around the old melodies and psychedelia of the original versions to create songs less about chilling out and more about getting on your feet and dancing a little.

Download.
Website.

Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People EP (V0)

New Sufjan Stevens material from August 2010. Definitely enough material here to keep Sufjan fans busy until the release of his next full-length, The Age of Adz, in October. Features influences from Sufjan's diverse career, including electronics and orchestras, centered mostly around two versions of the title track. It seems to have received mostly negative reviews from professional music websites, but it also seems primarily as a result of preconceptions that music reviewers have about Sufjan's sound since his most recent full-lengths. Also check out Too Much, from The Age of Adz, coming out October 12.

Download.