Trentemøller - teddybear robot

{image by Karen Rosetzky}

Moody March 1.

Anders Trentemøller, a Copenhagen-based Danish producer, was already lauded High Wizard of Electronica by the release of his 2006 Last Resort. Several years and numerous bad-ass remixes later, Trentemøller warmed up his minimal techno sound with 2010's Into The Great Wide Yonder. Go on and cuddle right up to guitar-twang, oxymoronic organic synth and melodic vocals. Admittedly I'd prefer stalking through rain-soaked alleys to this particular soundtrack, but it's all you sugarbear.

Trentemøller // Sycamore Feeling

Under the Covers Monday - Freedom or Death & Nas

An unsigned Toronto-based duality, Steve Fernandez and Sway are DIYers of production and songwriting. With classical training in piano, DJ creds, and band-fronting history, their self-titled debut takes them away from the major hitmaker machine so they can do whatever they like. Goddamn right, and as this 1820's Greek War for Independence war cry crows along for their namesake:

Its the way I want to live my life
Having the freedom to make my own decisions
and not adhere to the rules of others
To make art for my own well being, not for acceptance from the masses
To listen to what my heart beats to, not to slave for anothers
Give me the FREEDOM to make a life I choose - or hand me my DEATH

If you play the "sound-likes" game, you'll have a substantial list by the end of the album - Broken Bells, Radiohead, TVOTR, Massive Attack, maybe even a little Citizen Cope? But we're supposed to loathe the sound-likes game if we're one of those who knows the what-for, right? So we'll take that list, slice it into thirds and masticate it knowing it's not NEARLY as dirty as it reads on-screen.

After you've finished up, digest with some visual collaborations with Spike Jonze and a gorgeously synthed-out snowy lovestory. {warning: not everybody keeps their shearling loincloth on}

Freedom or Death // If I Ruled the World

Diamond Rings

John O, you are fun with a capital R A I N B O W U N I C O R N I C I N G.

Glitter napalming you from Toronto, John O grew up this side of jock before ditching the athlete's foot to fully embrace a well-sequined pair of ballet slippers. A boy of many talents, at a young age he managed to pack in piano, football, guitar, basketball, saxophone, and dress-up seshes pulling from the Tickle Trunk all before he was legal. Makes for an understandably difficult search-for-self growing up. "Are my friends goths or goalies? Punks or pointguards?"

You could presume John O leaned hard in one direction, eventually leading to the October release of Special Affections. Sort of. The other direction isn't too terribly far behind him, which makes for an ecstatically-camp wtf outburst over the "Show Me Your Stuff" music video. Might need 9 more views before I decide if my teeth hurt from irritable grinding or cavity-inducing sugar rush.




Regardless, the grating baritone over excitable synth has me dancing all the way to the color copier.

Diamond Rings // You & Me

Houses, down the street

Some article mentioned Houses, the OTHER Houses (remember the opiate drifting I promised yesterday?), had some of the same hebetudinous haze of Washed Out. You know how I feel about Washed Out. Woof. So of course I'm down.

Chicago bliss-pop lovebirds Dexter Tortoriello and Megan Messina wrote nearly all of the October-released All Night in one week. Show-offs. I guess some time and inspiration living off the grid in Hawaii will do that to you.
Signed to Lefse, same label as Neon Indian and How to Dress Well, their chillwave sound is a natural fit. What is not a natural fit is implemented imperfections to emote vinyl. LBH Houses, you're on a Mac powerbook. I'm not expecting any 45s from you this Christmas. But thanks anyway. Very thoughtful.

Houses // Reds

Future Islands

"B'More: Never Been Scurd - reasons to believe you won't get shot"

John Waters - a mustache such as his doesn't survive in a true 'hood
Baltimore Aquarium - the city would never spend money on those massive tanks if it thought drive-by's were a real threat
Merriweather Post Pavillion - that thing would be a crack den in two days if it was a valid possibility
Janet Diggs - my pupsy whitebread mother managed to grow-up on Sherwood Ave. without skills in knifefighting.
Samuel Herring, William Cashion, Gerritt Welmers - would not be complete fools and move up from Greenville, NC unless they thought they'd make it to 2011 without undergoing a gang initiation, and be able to make sicknasty No Wave music in this underrated city.

Truth is, the scene always has to start somewhere. Places like Brooklyn and Portland weren't always that cool, ok? I wasn't alive back then, but I've heard that was the deal from some trusted sources. Animal Collective, Beach House and Dan Deacon call it home; the latter of which pleaded a good case with the boys of Future Islands, who knew him from days at ECU playing in the performance art band Art Lord & the Self-Portraits.

FI's May release In Evening Air might be one of my favorite albums of this balmy season. Chariot-driven rhythms, dreamscape sounds and focus on musical textures over melodies. And it's a breakup album - I don't care how hysterically in love you are, because we all find luxurious despondence in expressions of ragged heartbreak. Frontman Herring's lyrics of a relationship's decomposition will have any one of us staring into an emptied bottle.
And any time you look like a former linebacker with the stage theatrics of Jarvis Cocker, you're pretty damn solid in my book. I simultaneously want to be fireman-carried by him and participate in a modern dance troupe with him. Weird?

Future Islands // Tin Man
Future Islands f. Katrina Ford // In the Fall

Cold Cave

If you're of the emotive, angsty, poetry reading sort you may already be familiar with Wesley Eisold. A poet and a musician, I'm not sure if he's quite a bard - more of an alumnus of the scene. Or maybe you're a Fall Out Boy groupie and know he's had some songwriting plagiarism beef with Pete Wentz? H-anyways, after years of hardcore punk noise bands like Give Up the Ghost he's taking a cerebral holiday as frontman of Cold Cave with current fellow bandmates Caralee McElroy and Dominick Fenrow.

More Depeche Mode than Fugazi - most of the early November release, "Emotional Rescue," keeps you at arms length. It's like prodding human emotion with a chilled iced tea spoon; stirring things up but everything stays colloidal. This track's an exception - a pulsing thrum of a daydream with the mantra "I"m never going back." The refrain keeps in line with Cold Cave's outlook that one can feel like there's nothing more and everything more. I'll have both with a slice of lemon, please.

Cold Cave // Life Magazine

White Lies - To Lose My Life