Soundcloud Showcase (The Doldrums, Shells, Hard Mix and a Balam Acab remix)

Bringing back the mighty Soundcloud Showcase again with some more mighty fine tracks you just simply NEED to hear. I've been a bit ill/a bit hungover/watching way too much Entourage to write this post any earlier than now, which is why you might be thinking: "Hey, this is yesterday's news!"

If that's what you're thinking, it means you're obvs way too pretentious anyway...

On to the goods then mi amigos. (I've just started studying Spanish, and that was a little taster of my mad skillz)

I know nothing about the next band The Doldrums and don't intend to find out about them until this post's been written. Lazy journalism yes, but it's all good because I'm hardly the journalist. Y'see, these days I'm just a guy who embeds flippin' Soundcloud clips.

"I'm Homesick Sittin' Up Here In My Satellite" is a catchy tune. In fact as tunes go, it's pretty much a fishing hook made of Velcro  That's how catchy it is.

You want more?

This tune's so contagious that I heard Danny Boyle's thinking of making a film about it called "2.33 minutes later".

 Doldrums - I'm Homesick Sittin' Up Here In My Satellite by NO PAIN IN POP

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We're at that point where the entire world's making remixes of Lana Del Rey's "Video Games", and why shouldn't they? Video Games is an ace tune.

Balam Acab are usually categorized somewhere between Witch House and Post-Dubstep but their remix of Video Games is a wondrously lush track, rich in soft textures with only the slightest modifications on Lana's vocals, which were the main focus point on the original version too.

 Video Games (BALAM ACAB Remix) - Lana Del Rey by BALAM ACAB 

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Shells is a bedroom producer from The UK, whose previous Bret Easton Ellis themed works (Lunar Park EP) have been big ol' favourites of mine. Now he's got a new 2-track EP out Arctic b/w Spiders. I'm pretty sure neither track name is an Easton Ellis reference and I can't think of any other piece of literature it might refer to either. (I thought this was your thing Mr. Shells) Perhaps the closest we can get is my yet-unreleased book: Tundra Tarantulas - A cool arachnid love story.

If you're a fan of Four Tet, Bonobo and Seams, odds are you'll love this too.

 Arctic by shells 

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To end this post on a high, we've got a 10-minute house jam of epic proportions courtesy of South Carolina's Hard Mix. "I Wonder Why You Cry" is a huge track. Using vocal chops from The Originals' "Baby I'm For Real" and Thelma Houston's disco classic "Don't Leave Me This Way" (also heard on Pariah's "Orpheus") to create a wicked kind of shoutback feel to the tune. Banging.

 I Wonder Why You Cry by Hard Mix 

Soundcloud Showcase (Monarchy, 65daysofstatic, Oneohtrix Point Never, KXP)

Here we go folks. A super hot, new and perhaps even recurring theme here on my blog now. Something I'm just gonna call Soundcloud Showcase, because it sounds snazzy and very "now".

In fact it's basically what I've been doing all along ie. posting new tunes off of Soundcloud that I personally love.

- Does that sound like something you might be interested in?
- Well I hope so, because it's all I've got.

So what's a better way to get this party started by posting a hot little summery dance number on a cold, Wednesday morning in November, seeing as I have it on good authority that Wednesdays are the new Saturdays and winter is the new summer.

Anyway, Monarchy came out with their debut album earlier this year, "Around the Sun" is exactly what you've been looking for if "exactly what you've been looking for" is something to fill that chart-friendly electro-pop sized hole in your heart that was left by Hurts only really having one decent song.
Monarchy's bass player obviously thought it wasn't enough to be "exactly what you're looking for" and went on to remix one of the best tracks on the album to make it even better. That's a whole load of better-ness right there. This is Vivien's remix of Monarchy's "You Don't Want To Dance With Me".
Play it, download it, love it.

Monarchy - You Don't Want To Dance With Me (VIVIEN Remix) by AndygoesdowntoChinatown

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65daysofstatic are generally known for their energetic break-neck speed post rock bangers or not known at all, depending on who you are. But now they're on to something special, live-soundtracking the 1972 "classic" movie Silent Running. Not a lot of people tend to do this kind of thing these days, do they?

If the first released song "Burial Scene" is anything to believe, it seems 65dos have ditched the techno-vibes and whipped out the entire Explosions in the Sky discography

Burial Scene by 65daysofstatic

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Slight change in style is also something Oneohtrix Point Never's gone through. After his ace little sidetrack with Joel Ford earlier this year to make the fantastic "Channel Pressure" album, Daniel Lopatin is back to his OPN alias and blessing us with an entirely piano driven slow number "Replica". Not to worry though. The trademark 80's style pulsating buzzsaw-synths are still there and still going strong. As ever with this guy, listening to him brings back memories of that bit where you're stuck in Metal Gear Solid. You know that bit where you have to plug in and play with controller 2 so that levitating psychic motherfucker can't "read your thoughts". Best day of my life when I got past that bit.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica by Mexican Summer

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And finally for today, Finnish kings of drone KXP have got a new tune out. It's the title track from their up and coming 3-track "Easy" EP which celebrates the band's signing to Manchester label Melodic Records. Featuring more vocals than probably their entire debut album put together this is a song you'll find either brilliant or super annoying.

K-X-P - Easy (Infinity Waits) by Melodic Records

D/R/U/G/S

"Drugs are cool." "Just say yes." "There's no harm in Drugs."

These are three quotes that I didn't hear from my parents when growing up.
But you know, I'm a big boy now, and I can decide for myself. I think.

And I think D/R/U/G/S' new Love/Lust 12" totally kills it. Out in May as a physical release, it's already up on Soundcloud to check out.

There's a certain sound going on here that just makes me think:

sweat-drenched late-as-you-can-get dancefloor, drinking Smirnoff ices topped up with vodka just because there isn't anything else to get your hands on but still calling yourself a real man. Dreading the next day because you'll get to sleep 2 hours on the floor of a train and then spend the next day doing team building excercises with people who throw up on you in the middle of the night.


or

so-early-in-the-morning-that-the-postman's-ashamed-of-your-lumbering-intoxicated-dance-moves. Yeah the sun's been up for hours, but that isn't going to stop you climbing across the ruins of a soon-to-be-demolished bridge naked. Normal people going to work, or walking their dogs, kids pointing at you going "mummy, what's he doing?" as you fall off a longboard, naked.

Good vibes. Good times.

Love / Lust 12" by D/R/U/G/S

Psychologist - Waves of Ok

A while ago I wrote about this amazing track Comes In Waves, by someone who goes by the moniker Psychologist, that was circulating the internet. Comes in Waves has pretty rapidly become my favourite song of the year and it was getting a bit annoying just always popping over to vimeo or youtube or whatever to listen to it, for the simple reason that it just wasn't anywhere else on the web.

Comes in Waves by psychologistmusic

Now, ahead of its physical release, the whole Waves of Ok EP is available on itunes or if you're skint and just want to hear what the hell it is I'm so worked up about then Psychologist's got the whole thing uploaded on his soundcloud page.

Waves of OK EP by psychologistmusic

Seriously this IS (one of) the most amazing thing(s) you'll hear all year