Youth Lagoon is Trevor Powers, a 22 year old musician from Boise. He recently released two awesome tracks, 'Cannons' and 'July', which you can grab for free over at his bandcamp. Powers makes really deceptively lo-fi feeling music which is all about the gradual buildup; both tracks open with twinkling piano lines before subdued percussion and vocals filter in, further building with guitar and overdubbed vocal harmonies, developing what initially appears as melancholy into music of a more soaring, euphoric nature.
His debut LP, 'The Year of Hibernation' is released digitally on Juno Beach Records on July 5th, with a 10" format release scheduled soon after.
The kind folks over at Work It Media have been lovely enough to send me over an advanced release of the upcoming Love Inks LP 'E.S.P', due May 2nd on Hell Yes! As previously blogged about, Love Inks are a three piece based in Austin, with Sherry LeBlanc handling vocals and the other instrumentation consisting of a really simple formula of a few guitars and a drum machine, with a Moog making an occasional appearance; although this is inevitably a slightly limiting approach, the trio have still managed to put together a 10 track release that rarely grates.
Although the use of the drum machine helps to really firmly emphasise the trio's minimalist approach, you can't help but feel that the odd acoustic snare and kick would be far more effective than the soulless, repetitive thumps and clicks of the programmed equivalents; they do add a certain poppy sheen to the more uptempo, floating jauntiness of 'Wave Goodbye' and 'Black Eye', but render some of the album's more poignant moments a little flat.
Love Inks are at their best when their minimalism is used in a slightly less groove reliant format, when jaunty uptempo beats are exchanged for a more wistful, War Paint-esque navel gazing approach; 'Can't Be Wrong' is probably my favourite track, with a bass line that develops more than any of the others and reverby guitar flourishes. LeBlanc's woeful refrain of 'You can't be wrong... you can't be wrong' through a chorus underlaid with repetitive, muted percussion and simplistic strumming is perhaps the album's most evocative point. 'Skeleton Key' is similarly successful, with droning synth punctuating LeBlanc's wails. 'Down and Out' and 'Too Wild' are also highlights, striking the right balance between wispy, echoing vocals and solid, mechanical drum sounds.
Idiot Glee is James Friley from Kentucky. He's had a scattering of singles and EPs, which you can listen to and download on his bandcamp; he also has a full length LP, 'Paddywhack' dropping on Moshi Moshi later this year in June. Self described as 'Post Doo Wop', his music is composed of ghostly harmonies and echoing keyboard melodies; the track recently released from the LP, 'Let's Get Down Together', has an intro that sounds uncannily like the motown classic 'My Girl' before wavering synths filter in. Friley's vocals shimmer with a really ghostly quality, but are grounded by underemphasised groovy melodies and subtle percussion.
Unfortunately the track has yet to hit youtube so I've put up a slightly clunky live version, but the video can be viewed here.
FOE is London based Hannah Clark. She had an awesome track, 'A Handsome Stranger Called Death', last year and has just dropped an EP, 'Hot New Trash', on Mercury. Adam Crisp of Entrepeneurs fame is on production duties; the pair have collaborated on a few of Entrepeneurs' tracks and there's a fair few nuances typical of his musical approach that emerge, noticeably a lot of the percussion during the EP's more raucous points. I prefer the stuff that the duo have produced under Crisp's alias, but there's something really special about Clark's vocals that prevails despite the slightly different context; they sound really sleazy when laid over warped fairground samples and a harpsichord intro, but the cutting lyricism and nonchalant delivery means that the EP feels grimy in a way that's more considered and refined than offputting, if occasionally slightly overwhelming.
Pageants are a three piece from long beach in California; they make stripped down, surfy jams. I'm a big fan of Rebecca Coleman's warbling vocals, which are thin but in a fragile, tender way rather than being reedy and uninspiring. With the standard slight echo/reverb applied, they're evocative on 'Edible Rust' and soaring on 'Cacti for Clothes' (which you can download from their bandcamp).
Moon Duo are Erik Johnson (from Wooden Shjips) and his partner Sanae Yamada. They've had a few singles, and an EP, 'Killing Time' on Sacred Bones, as well as another longer effort 'Escape, on Woodsist. Their debut LP, 'Mazes' is out on Sacred Bones now. I haven't really heard much of their earlier stuff, but it seems like they typically produce pretty repetitive music, with a simplistic guitar/keyboard combination at the heart of their sound. But there's something really alluring about the foggy, droning wall of noise effect that characterises a lot of Mazes, and its psychadelic nuances, whilst still retaining depth, are led by really poppy hooks. The eponymous track 'Mazes' sees piping synth entwined with the endearing warmth of the fuzz, 'Scars' models the drone around clanking percussion and undulating, wobbling rhythms and 'When You Cut' is accented by bouncy, punchy snares and maracas. 'In The Sun' features distinctly un-sunny organ sounds and 'Goners' ends the LP with seven minutes of noodly, wandering guitars. The album is pretty simplistic in that a lot of the songs are constructed from sparce instrumental ingredients and are repetitive, but throughout it Moon Duo definitely succeed in creating really engaging, trippy soundscapes, which are only improved by the heavy emphasis on melody complimenting drone.
Hunx and His Punx are a group from California. Formed by the ridiculously gay Hunx (real name Seth Bogart) in 2008, they make brash, punky 60s pop in a similar vein to the late Jay Reatard. The videos for their singles feature whacky outfits, over the top props (the giant pink telephone in 'Teardrops on My Telephone' is a great, bizarre example) and prolific posing from Hunx: the most appealing thing about their music is for sure the complete lack of pretention; it's lo-fi, kitsch and almost entirely concerns teenage heartbreak.
They had a collection of singles called 'Gay Singles' out in 2010 on True Panther Sounds; more recently, they released an album, 'Too Young To Be In Love', on Hardly Art, which is definitely worth checking out. Brittle, minimalistic percussion accompanies simple chord sequences and distorted backing vocals, with all of the band's members taking turns to accompany Hunx's wierd, lisping nasal tones.
Hunx and His Punx - You Don't Like Rock & Roll (Gay Singles)
Hunx and His Punx - Badboy (Too Young To Be In Love)
