Aves - Shoreline

Once again some fine music has been deemed junkmail by my oh-so-trusty e-mail, but luckily as I was checking up on my penis extension and viagra offers I happened to notice an e-mail from Stereotype Helsinki.

Stereotype Helsinki are an audio-visual arts collective from, you guessed it, Helsinki, Finland who blog, have their own radio show, organize club nights and now, it would seem, are branching out towards becoming a record label.

"Ooh ooh check me out, I'm a busy bastard!" is what they're all saying whilst all smugly enjoying all the blog-love their first release is getting. What is this release you ask? Well it's Helsinki's very own Aves and Aves' first single 'Shoreline'.

What is Aves? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a bloke with a synth who hasn't left his dark flat in two months? Who knows? I really don't...

Anyway, Shoreline's a summery synth-number which sounds like what I'd imagine The Doves would sound like if they were into chillwave.

Aves - Shoreline (mp3)

Laura Marling - Sophia

Just how bloody prolific is this girl?

21 years old and her third album is just about ready for release. With her new single Sophia, she sounds more mature than I'll probably sound my entire life. Starting off slowly and familiar, Sophia builds up towards its booming crescendo via some brilliant Joni Mitchell-esque final verses.
.


Laura Marling's third album 'A Creature I Don't Know' is out September 12th but available for pre-order here. Do so and you'll get a download of Sophia.

Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Atlas Hands (Mike Skinner remix)

Ah man, I've been waiting to hear this remix ever since I heard it was on the cards.

So Mike Skinner from The Streets has gone and remixed Benjamin Francis Leftwich's Atlas Hands, which is the second single from the super acclaimed young singer-songwriter's debut album 'Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm'.

The original goes a little like this:



Skinner seems to have taken such a liking to Benjamin's tunes that he's even come out of retirement to make this ace reworking.

Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Atlas Hands (Mike Skinner Remix) by Dirty Hit

New Flying Lotus

On actual music related terms, beatmaestro Flying Lotus has banged out two new tracks for us.
Lullaby and Heave(n) mix 2 are the new tunes. Super heavenly spaced-out hip hop beats that are just so recognizable as FlyLo.
Maybe they're off an up and coming album, or maybe he just does this stuff for fun. Who knows?

Flying Lotus - lullaby by Flyinglotus

Flying lotus - heave (n) mix2 by Flyinglotus

Thought I'd use this moment to let you lot in on what's going on.

I've reached a milestone in my life. Great deeds are being done all over the world every single day, but my milestone, my achievement has nothing to do with anything like that.

Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in my life, I had a real life drink thrown in my face.

Fantastic.

I've never entirely understood why throwing your drink in someone's face has become such a strong and almost iconic gesture, because it's more or less a waste of a perfectly good drink. Coming from my alcoholic Ebeneezer Scrooge mindset, if you go round carrying free glasses of water just in case someone happens to piss you off, then, it's perhaps totally justifiable, but otherwise you're just losing money and alcohol.
To make the most of the situation I did the old "sucking-on-my-alcopop-drenched-clothes-just-to-get-drunk" thing, you know which one I'm talking about...

Perhaps I was being a dick or perhaps it was an unfortunate misunderstanding but whatever it was it has gained me entrance to the elite club which is generally reserved for the worst kinds of chauvinistic pigs and of course who could forget French dubbed Amanda Righetti (see video)



Anyway it's almost time to kick off Karuna Unplugged which starts in a couple hours in our back garden. Branded "THE best unplugged festival between Paimio and Kemiö" and this time featuring even more international superstars than last year. It's gonna be huge! Whoop whoop.

Gonna fistpump to Jukka Kuoppamäki.
Check it out:

The wedding

I attended my mate's wedding on Saturday.

I haven't been to a wedding in roughly 20 years but it would seem that I've now reached the age where it's starting to happen that friends and relatives of a similar age to me are expressing their desire to "love and be loved until they die".
Seeing as I haven't been to a wedding in a while, I'd forgotten how tough they can be.
Finnish weddings with an open bar are in particular physically very demanding. It's been like 72 hours and I'm finally starting to show signs of life again.

I haven't seen the film 4 weddings and a funeral, but I'm pretty sure it's just about this one guy going to 4 weddings in a row, getting shitfaced at every one of them and then just simply dying. His death is a horrible, painful one. Serves you right Hugh Grant you smug bastard.
I felt pretty damn close to this on Sunday.

Anyway, the ceremony was lovely. Everyone looked super pretty and looked to have enjoyed themselves rather nicely... At some point as the night progressed, the newly-weds had enough and fucked off to a different country, but I'll be damned if this was going to stop me having a good time.
As the night neared its end and I was ordered to stop tearing up the dancefloor, I gathered up a troupe of merry (ie. absolutely hammered) wedding guests and some extras (the bar staff) and we headed on a vodka-fuelled quest towards the local beach. We were like a shit Lord of the Rings and some members of our group even had the demeanor of orcs.
I was, of course, Aragorn son of my mum, King of awesomeness.
Our quest? A little late-night swimming, which btw. is exactly the kind of thing you're always warned not to do, and a lot more late-night drinking.
We only stopped to pick up (steal) my little sister's giant inflatable crocodile, which I then named Steve Irwin.
Steve quickly lived/died up to his name as he suffered a fatal puncture which instead of a pissed-off stingray was caused by a pissed-up group of young adults. So without the aid of inflatable toys we were forced to entertain ourselves.

Three things I noticed:

1) Trying to pull running backflips into the water just isn't going to happen at 5 in the morning while you're holding a bottle of Jaloviina.

2) Forcefully trying to remove the clothes of your female companions because "swimming's totally awesome and they should deffo swim with the guys" just makes you (look like) a desperate pervert.

3) The water was actually quite cold and I most probably screamed "like a bitch"

And it was that entertainment which ultimately tired our posse, as they all in turn managed to crawl back to our place and pass out, for some reason, each on a different step of our staircase.

Phew.

Two more weddings this year.

Becoming Real - Spectre EP

Although Becoming Real released his Spectre EP over 6 months ago, his record label Not Even records have just uploaded the EP onto Soundcloud with the added bonus of having the track Like Me as a free download. Dubbing his music as ghoststep, Becoming Real's greatest feat is of course naming one of his tracks Showdown in Chinatown. You know, almost like this here blog you're reading...

Becoming Real - Like Me feat. Trim by NOT EVEN

Pretty Lights vs Summertime

I stumbled across this the other day and it kind of makes sense to post this tune called Summertime, which is essentially a mashup of several summer related tracks, during the summer. I'm not entirely sure if it would go down as well in the middle of winter at -20°C as it does now. It was all put together by Derek Vincent Smith aka. Pretty Lights and just like a certain Daft Punk mashup that was doing the rounds on the internet, this one must've taken ages and effort to pull off. It's a bit hip-hop, a bit electro, a bit this, a bit that, a bit cwoar!
Bravo bravo.

Pretty Lights vs Summertime (Free Download) by prettylights

Seekae

I've never properly understood the saying:
"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

Feel free to explain its meaning to me because the way I see it, it should be:
"Fool me once, shame on me; fool me twice, double shame on me for being such a gullible fucker."

That had nothing to do with anything, I just wanted to get it off my chest. So now that we've got my "proverb of the day" out of the way I feel obliged to steer you in the direction of Australians Seekae and their brilliant 2nd album +DOME


Seekae are being championed by and have been touring extensively with Mount Kimbie so it's no real surprise to hear the subtle changes from their largely experimental first album The Sound of Trees Falling on People to smoother Crooks & Lovers -style atmospheric post-dubstep soundscapes on +DOME.

This album is going to rank way up there on my end of the year highlights list.

Seekae - Blood Bank (Single) by Rice Is Nice

---------------------------------------------------------------

As a bit of ps. I should add that Black Lips & Dum Dum Girls are playing at Turun Klubi tonight and tickets are whatever 18€ or something. So basically fuck all for a line-up that sweet. I wouldn't miss it for the world. But this time "the world" is being stuck in the countryside, broke and all flu'd up. Bummer.

Guitars and guitars. Athletes in Paris & T H E S L O W D O W N

When I was but a young boy bands had guitars and the likes of other real instruments. So in an attempt at pseudo-nostalgia I've had a gander at a couple of more traditionally equipped acts.



First up are Athletes in Paris. The geordie band play their summery pop tunes with a distinct indie-dancefloor vibe. Their new single Heartbeat (mp3) is no exception with its catchy-as-hell hooks that'll have you yearning to find that dancefloor to tear up Crash Bandicoot style.
They're already making quite a name for themselves up north and also played to a packed like sardines crowd at their record label The Animal Farm's sold out showcase at this years Great Escape festival. Grab some more of their songs such as Borrowed Time from their bandcamp

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Next is the band formerly known as B I G S L E E P but now known as T H E S L O W D O W N, either way it's a pain in the arse to type quickly. Gonna make my life easier and call them a string of consonants SLWDWN. Anyway Mancunians SLWDWN are a bit elusive and (note: this next part is heavily edited) and definitely not a bit of a one hit wonder with SEX. But if they were to make any more songs, say one called Ghosts, as good as this then I should bloody well expect them to be huge. Because SEX is huge. No really, sex is huge.

T H E S L O W D O W N - SEX by Dirty Hit

new music: Lucy Rose

Gdansk. A beautiful, beautiful city and the beer was cheap as tits. Not a bad combo me thinks.
I found myself a little safe haven in the form of a bar called Absinthe. T'was here I met a couple of fellow bloggy types from Sucking Lemons and a cool little bunch of exchange students (one of whom was wielding Daddy's credit card with the fury of a nerd with a 1d8 mystic bastard sword at a LARP event)

Anyway, being away from a computer for about a week means that even a small fry blog-type like me manages to get an inbox full of various requests to listen to this-or-that band. I love getting these music related e-mails because it means I get to listen to music that I'd perhaps not otherwise get the chance to listen to.
Sometimes even though some of the bands are pretty dreadful, I'm still very much appreciative of the time and effort they've put into it and because sometimes just sometimes some real gems are uncovered. The latest being Lucy Rose.



As far as I'm concerned 2011 has been the year of the female singer-songwriter. It's not really a scene that ever disappears anywhere, it's just that this year more releases such as Daughter, Emmy the Great, PJ Harvey have caught my eye (ear) than before. Now I need to add Lucy Rose's new single Middle of the Bed to the list. It doesn't get an official release until August 8th but you can listen to it on Soundcloud now.
The simple guitar + the odd clap here and there really accentuate Lucy's gorgeous voice and then when, halfway though the song, the curously electro-ish synth kicks in, the whole song just ties itself together.

Lucy Rose - Middle Of The Bed by Lucy Rose



think you've heard her before? Quite possibly seeing as she also sang on Bombay Bicycle Club's Flaws

some ace new electro before I head off

Gotta catch a plane to Poland in a few hours, but there's just enough time to get these babies out there.

Super blog favourite Seams has a new single out Focus Energy b/w Motive order.

Focus Energy/Motive Order by seams

Obviously everyone knows that originally Focus Energy was a pokemon battle move which was a completely pointless waste of time, much like Magikarp's Splash attack.
And if you didn't know that, then you do now.
Luckily Seams' Focus Energy isn't anything even slightly resembling a waste of time. Moving on from his last EP Tourist Seams aka James Welch has taken on a more techno sound making his tunes even more danceable.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

D/R/U/G/S not busy enough playing at Glastonbury has whipped out a solid gold remix of Lykke Li's Sadness is a Blessing (seems everyone's doing it)
(mp3)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dam Mantle's getting ready for his WE EP release later this month with this tune Not a Word
It sounds like a dubstep children's rhyme.
Not A Word by Dam Mantle

New mix up and ready

Earlier I made a little 20 minute "dj mix" of songs I think are wicked. Never done one before so I thought I'd try it out. Giving the old beatmatching a go. I guess it ended up sounding alright. So here goes: The AndygoesdowntoChinatown House in my house-mix, what do you think?

AndygoesdowntoChinatown House in my house mix by AndygoesdowntoChinatown

High fives, hats off and maybe even a special prize to whoever recognizes the 7 tracks on it.
If you want my magnificent prize then type your answers in the comment box or e-mail me. Or don't. Your loss really.