Here we go again, friends. Here's my curated look at fresh videos created for already-dropped 2015 LPs, stand-alone singles, cuts off forthcoming LPs, remixes, and anything else that's new, tasty and should be in your ears, plus a condensed peek at what's coming up this Fri., July 31, with links to full album streams included...Big Scary, "Organism"
The Aussie indie pop duo made up of frontman/producer Tom Iansek and drummer Jo Syme have been working on material for a follow-up to 2013's Not Art, and have just dropped this track marked by ominous organ notes and synth fuzz, pounding rhythms, spooky hooting vocal harmonies, and honking alto sax notes paired with heavy bassl grooves that add an extra dimension of unexpectedly sinister lowend. About the song, Iansek has said "it's moving back towards Jo and me as a band and the dynamic between us. It's refocusing on the duo. With this has come a lot of stripping back of the non-essential, using less to create more. Using new and unfamiliar textures but keeping the performance firmly grounded in that of two people playing." Listen below.
Battles, The Art of Repetition mini-documentary
I don't know about you, but when I heard Battles was touring, I got super excited, and then I peed myself a little when the tour announcement was followed by confirmation that a new album was coming from the experimental math-prog-psychotronic outfit featuring three most amazing musicians — guitarist/ keyboardist Ian Williams (Don Caballero), guitarist/ bassist Dave Konopka (Lynx), and drummer John Stanier (Helmet). Said album, La Di Da Di, is due out September 18, and has been described as "a mushrooming monolith of repetition, an organic techno thrum of nearly infinite loops that refuse to remain consistent." In conjunction with Ableton, the trio produced a mini-doc, The Art of Repetition, that, over the course of 17 minutes, visits Battles at their New York rehearsal space as well as a studio in Rhode Island as they record the new album, and follows them onto a German stage for an intense live performance. The flick also offers a look at the band’s set-up and unique methods of composing along with shedding some light on each members' unique personality.
Doomtree, "Generator" video
The Minneapolis hip-hop collective-cum-record label unleashed a new James Gundersen-directed video for "Generator" off third official full-length, All Hands, which dropped earlier this year. AV Club called the track "a bombastic call to arms that also showcases the group's pop-culture acumen..,." with Doomtree members Mike Mictlan, P.O.S. and Dessa spitting verses on the streets of their native town during a bleak Midwestern winter. Favorite line from Dessa: "Coquetting’s clever yet, but Venus de Milo’s better with her bayonet." Here We Go Magic, "Falling" video
And finally, I'm concluding with another band I am super stoked to learn will be releasing a new record October 16 on Secretly Canadian — Here We Go Magic, the sublime psych-Krauty prog-pop project of Luke Temple. The album, Be Small, is made up of “overtly major and optimistic" songs according to Temple, mixing deep grooves with light sound collage experiments and scaling back on production of 2012's Nigel Godrich-produced A Different Ship (a favorite) to explore more intimate sonicscapes. The new LP was recorded and mixed entirely by the band, apparently inspired by Brian Eno and John Cale’s Wrong Way Up and Robert Wyatt’s Shleep. Pulsing debut single "Falling" (video below directed by Sam Kuhn) builds on arpeggiated synths and a blend of acoustic and fuzzed-out guitar that gather momentum with each phrase about falling in love — should it be celebrated or dreaded? — until the whole affair suddenly somersaults into chanting weirdness.
DUE OUT THIS FRIDAY, JULY 31
Benjamin Clementine, At Least For Now [Full Album Stream]
CFCF, Radiance And Submissio
Ricardo Donoso, Machine To Machine
Elbow, Lost Worker Bee EP
Finger Eleven, Five Crooked Lines
Gunplay, Living Legend
Albert Hammond, Jr., Momentary Masters [Full Album Stream]
High Tides, High Tides [Full Album Stream]
Insane Clown Posse, Marvelous Missing Link
Joss Stone, Water For Your Soul [Full Album Stream]
Knuckle Puck, Copacetic
Lianne La Havas, Blood [Full Album Stream]
Los Manglers, Between Worlds
The Maccabees, Marks To Prove It
Manatree, Manatree [Full Album Stream]
Migos, Yung Rich Nation [Full Album Stream]
Daniel Romano, If I've Only One Time Askin'
Seapony, A Vision [Full Album Stream]
Teenage Time Killers, Greatest Hits Vol. 1
Titus Andronicus, The Most Lamentable Tragedy
Wake, Wildest of Places