Dom's new EP, Family of Love (out now on Astralwerks), sees the group dial down the thick layer of lazy fuzz that perpetrated their debut, Sun Bronzed Greek Gods. The 5 track release's more honed production values help emphasize the inherent poppiness that went hand-in-hand with the grungey bass riffs of 'Living in America' and the like; 'Telephone' is a truly infectious, sparkling little song, complete with telephone solos and catchy vocal hooks but the EP highlight is undoubtedly the flitting guitar trills of 'Happy Birthday Party', with its sincere yells of "It's time to get Gnarly / Happy Birthday Party Party". Dom always feel to me like a band that should probably qualify as a guilty pleasure, but their particular brand of rousing grunge-pop is way too good to ignore.
The thudding, haunting 'Romantic Streams', from the upcoming Sleep ∞ Over LP has been reworked into an atmospheric, sub-bass fuelled jam by the awesome Balam Acab.
Sleep ∞ Over - Romantic Streams (Balam Acab remix)
'Our Own Dream' is a fresh slice of melancholy dreaminess from the Athenian duo, who have an EP of the same name out later this year on Forest Family records.
Lo-Fi-Fnk recently dropped their sophomore album, 'The Last Summer', on PopFrenzy Records. Despite a thickly spread layer of swedish electro-pop sincerity occasionally becoming a little overwhelming, the duo generally manage to capture a really sort of tender, hushed vulnerability, with poignant electronics, thin vocals and house-y rhythms being complimented really nicely by some properly funky basslines.
I've decided to branch out and blog about some design and illustration; the first designer to be featured is the extremely talented Ink Klub.
Ink Klub, otherwise known as Clare Brown, has a real talent for eccentric, loud lettering. I've put up a picture of her 3 colour screen print, 'Sea of Bees', which you can see more of over at her flickr page.
My enigmatic friend Declan's band WTF TKD, based over at Bangor University in Wales, finally have a tumblr. On the site you can listen to a few of their covers, and admire Declan's photography.
