Last year (or 2012, to those who stumbled across this page through a poorly curated museum in the future), I spent countless hours trawling through the perpetual disappointment machine known as Bandcamp. You know how it is, you start out with one regional emo group, go via a few pub rock acts and come out by some bossa nova, but one of the more pleasurable surprises was Ann Arbor’s fantastically named Pity Sex. They won me over via their Dark World EP, a quite lovely blend of Pains of Being Pure at Heart power-shoegaze and whiney, naval gazing emo at its most glorious. Which was a nice little break from the stinging mediocrity of most things that also happen to exist. Cut to today however, and the group at but a week away from releasing their debut effort entitled ‘Feast of Love’, a record that appears on first blush to sideline the emo in favour of a more polished, textured approach to poppy shoegaze. It’s also blissfully short, so, you know, if you’re in a rush or something.

You can hear the entire album above right now, and pre-order it below via Run For Cover Records.

HERE, HERE, PRE-ORDER IT HERE.

Alec

Now, be honest, when you first heard that Kanye West was soon to release the follow up to his much adored 2010 effort My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, it wasn’t the promise of more soul sample re-purposing that got you hyped, was it? No, like most others, you caught wind of something else, something properly exciting blowing in from the east. Indeed, word came in that Kanye, in promotion of Yeezus, had filmed an American Psycho parody with a couple of his new chums and intended to air it at listening parties. Unusual, you might think, but I ask you this; what else could he have done?  Now, freed from the shackles of those exclusive listening parties, that parody had found its way onto YouTube holding the promise of a redefinition of the term HD in one hand, and all your hopes and dreams in another. You can see it above.

Yeezus was officially released today, a total of 4 days after everyone in the world managed to hear it. Just remember, it’s never too late to actually buy it.

Alec

This afternoon-nap aesthetic remains with the first single off of ‘Paracosm’ (due out August 13 on omni-delightful Sub Pop), with much of Greene’s shtick present. Washed Out certainly isn’t washed up, though, and attempts to resist looming chill-wave shackles are obvious – the song has a fuller sound, matching a whining synth coda with a Caribbean rhythm that’s more Marley than ‘Rids The World…’. At points, the percussion seems to pay homage to the aforementioned ‘Feel It All Around’, echoing Greene’s whispered assurances to “Close your eyes, think about the old times” in the subdued chorus.

The sounds of joyous cheering punctuate the track, just as they could do to any of Greene’s. This certainly isn’t a fresh new direction for the project, but a reminder that steady and fruitful progression can be just as, if not more, rewarding as cold experimentation.

Kick back and listen below:

Liam

Legendary electro-kraut outfit Kraftwerk is, according to Ralf Hütter, working on a new album. In an interview with the Guardian, Hütter stated “Now we can concentrate on number nine” echoing similar claims made last year; their last release was 2003’s ‘Tour De France Soundtracks’, which received middling reviews. No luck on getting an estimated time of arrival though – on that subject, Hütter offered the Wiseau-lite “Of course. It’s music nonstop!”

To get suitably hyped, listen to (and look at) 1978’s massive choon and Steve Albini favourite, ‘The Model’:

Liam

Waiting for David Lynch is practically a full time profession. Between his extensive schedule of directing live web-casts of Duran Duran (really), creating premium coffee brands and running the David Lynch Foundation For Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace (really really) there’s nary a moment (or 6 months) to assemble the cast and crew to make a follow up to 2006′s brilliant Inland Empire. Instead, we make do with what little scraps he leaves behind him as he marches ever forwards. One of those scraps is this, the video for his collaboration with collab-bot 9000 Lykke Li, a hauntingly pretty little dream pop number that sounds closer to Twin Peaks’ ‘Just You and I‘ more than anything else. Remarkably, I’m Waiting Here doesn’t form part of the track listing proper for Lynch’s new record ‘The Big Dream’, and instead appears only as a bonus track. Don’t believe me? Gaze upon it yourself.

01 The Big Dream
02 Star Dream Girl
03 Last Call
04 Cold Wind Blowin
05 The Ballad of Hollis Brown (Bob Dylan cover)
06 Wishin’ Well
07 Say It
08 We Rolled Together
09 Sun Can’t Be Seen No More
10 I Want You
11 The Line It Curves
12 Are You Sure
13 I’m Waiting Here [ft. Lykke Li] (bonus track)

‘I’m Waiting Here’ was directed by Daniel Desure, because apparently Lynch doesn’t even direct his own music videos anymore. Pre-order The Big Dream here (UK or US), it’ll drop on July 15th in Europe via Sunday Best or, the Americans amongst us, July 16 in via Sacred Bones.

Alec

Assuming you don’t live in Yermo, California, there’s a pretty decent chance that you missed out on Boards of Canada’s very latest attempt at getting people hyped for their freshest (and long overdue) LP ‘Tomorrow’s Harvest’. Granted, letting roughly 20 people judge your music is one way to avoid publicity (albeit, in the most publicity friendly way ever invented), but what about the rest of us? We poor 6 billion that just aren’t fortunate enough to live in a town that Wikipedia describes as once having “27 gas stations with mechanics on duty”, hm? What about us? Well, put down the tear buckets and recently blunted objects, because those crazy Scottish brothers are offering us the chance to hear it too, this time in our very own lifeless wastelands (bedrooms) by streaming the album live over YouTube. Join us live as we sit here politely and listen along, it’s sure to be a wild ride.

On the off chance that the stream above fails, backups can be found here and here.

Alec

It’s tough to believe it’s been nearly three years since Gold Panda released his debut LP ‘Lucky Shiner’ into a cloud of hype so dense it became hard to appreciate just how inferior it was to his series of masterful EP releases (later collected on the absolutely recommended Companion LP), but to call it a poor album would be a vast disservice, it was, in fact, still pretty fucking great. Either by chance or intention, dearest Derwin seems to have clocked on to this most fatal of mistakes and worked super hard on not releasing much material between albums this time. Besides a 12″, double A-side single and one lonesome EP offering a slice of Panda at his best, we’ve had precious little to enjoy from the big man besides a near constant stream of anxiety and panic on his Twitter account regarding this, his second LP.

If that terror sounds like something which would spawn a pleasurable listening experience, you’d probably be right, but on the off chance you aren’t, there’s always that big widget up there to find out for yourself.

You can pre-order the album from iTunes here, or as a physical release here.

Alec.

Buy it here.

Alec

Buy it here.

Liam.

Buy it here, stream it here.

Alec