Starslinger

It's been a while since I posted anything by Manchester's Starslinger (see previous post about him here); he's been pretty busy on the remix front. He's tweaked the cheeky lyricism of Childish Gambino's 'Freaks & Geeks', blending in a few summery melodies and exaggerating the already relatively bassy beats. Equally awesome is his take on H-Town's 'They Like It Slow'; featuring a really wierdly arpeggiating, squeaking synth line, Starslingers 'refix' takes the sultry R&B croonings of the original and translates them to a more beat heavy context.

H-Town - They Like It Slow (Starslinger refix)

Childish Gambino - Freaks & Geeks (Starslinger remix)

Tennis

Tennis (previously blogged about here) are back with a video for their track 'Take Me Somewhere', directed by Ian Perlman. It's a typically cutesy affair, filmed on a vintage 16mm Bolex and retaining all the summery elements usually present in Tennis tracks.

Tennis - Take Me Somewhere

Clams Casino (mixtape review)

Clams Casino is a New Jersey based producer who's made beats for a whole host of rappers (Lil B being the most notorious example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfrZekogXNQ); he's released a mixtape, 'Instrumental Mixtape', which you can get for free online, consisting of 13 instrumental tracks. His beats still work really well without the context of a rap song; they're atmospheric, melancholic, and evoke tenderness whilst still retaining a pretty gritty feel through the thumping kicks and snares. There are vocal elements too; samples come heavily smothered with effects, whether its the warped, pitched down fuzz of 'The World Needs Change', the chopped loops of 'Im Official' or the ethereal warbling of "Illest Alive'. Other highlights come by way of the bombastic 'Motivation', the droning synths/ doubletime hi-hats of 'Real Shit from a Real Nigga', and the haunting, tribal 'All I Need'.

Clams Casino - Motivation

Clams Casino - All I Need

Love Inks

Love Inks are a really endearingly accesible three piece pop act from Austin; their single 'Black Eye', taken from their upcoming debut 'E.S.P', due May on Hell Yes!, is really short and sweet. It clocks in at just under two minutes, and has an appropriately mellow, dreamy video made by the same guy (Christin Turner) who made the Dum Dum Girls' video I blogged about a while back.

Love Inks - Black Eye

Austra

Austra are a stridently gay trio from Toronto, Canada; their debut album, 'Feel It Break', is out on Domino on the 17th May. They make melancholy tinged electronic music, but with a more uptempo, dancy vibe than anything from the 'witch house' scene (Salem, oOoOoo, White Ring etc). They have a 3 track EP, 'Beat and The Pulse' out on One Big Silence at the moment, which is pretty sweet. The (EP version) title track is a swirling 6 minutes of gloomy arpeggios and echoing vocals; 'Energy' combines syncopated rhythms and simplistic drum patterns, and 'Young and Gay' has a really clubby vibe, pulsing and undulating around Katie Stelmanis' brazen lyricism.

Austra - Beat and The Pulse

Austra - Young and Gay

Dom

Dom are a five piece from Massachussets. They've been about for a little while, with their EP 'Sun Bronzed Greek Gods' out in April of last year; a remastered version is being released this year on Burning Mill. I'm for sure a big fan of how fun their music is; Dom's (the lead singer) keen ear for a memorable hook compliments his ridiculous falsetto pretty nicely. It's generally just the right side of cutesy though, with fuzzed out guitar riffs alongside lo-fi synth sounds and lots of reverb ensuring their music is poppy but in an endearing, garagey way rather than irritatingly babyish. 'Bocicha', an ode to his cat apparently, rattles away with off-kilter energy and 'Jesus' has an awesome, undulating bounce to its rhythms; 'Living In America', a tongue-in-cheek love song to the joys of American nationality, lashes a sparkling, synthy chorus to warped, fuzzy bass and acoustic drums.

Dom - Bocicha

Dom - Jesus

Dom - Living In America

TV Girl/Dirty Gold split single

TV Girl and Dirty Gold have just released a split single; you can download the MP3s for free over at TV Girl's facebook page, as well as their awesome EP. The single features the two bands covering each other, with TVG tackling DG's 'Overboard' and DG remaking TG's 'On Land'. The cover of 'Overboard' sees TVG add their characteristic heavy hip hop beats whilst retaining the original's essentially summery flavours, while DG reduce 'On Land' to a more simplistic, shimmering effort than the bombastic original. The collaboration is definitely interesting, both bands usually have similar content in terms of the whole surfy, beachy vibe but make music with fundamentally different approaches, so it's cool to see how well the re-workings slot in with each other.

TV Girl - Overboard (Dirty Gold cover)