New release Tuesday.

It’s the day the new releases come out, and we have a few albums to mention. We sold our first copy of the Notwist before we could even post about it, but it’s back in stock now. We have two limited “loser” editions of Lyla Foy’s album “Mirrors the Sky” from SubPop after these are gone then standard black vinyl editions will be coming in. Tough choice this week as I’m enjoying all these albums, but Lyla Foy’s offering is where I keep going back to.

Mar 2014

 

Dead Rider  – Chills On Glass – LP
Todd Rittmann, infamous from his daze in U.S. Maple, is a guitar warrior with intensive craft at his fingertips. For the past five years, he’s been furthering his reputation by doing further damage with his instrument and others, and by spreading the carnage wide with Dead Rider (Matthew Espy, Andrea Faught, Thymme Jones and Rittmann for Chills On Glass). It’s allout entertainment. Dead Rider move relentlessly around the borders of their sound, finding new textures throughout, which act as candy to our ears – future candy, like Day-Glo Good & Plenty in a variety of flavors approximating the savory taste of hair on flesh, the sweet smell of sub-gases and the ambivalence in the aroma of a cube of clear gelatin bombarded with micro-currents. Chills On Glass, Dead Rider’s third ride, is as distinct from the second time around as The Raw Dents was from their debut, Mother of Curses. There’s no point in venturing out unless you intend to see something new – and so Dead Rider do, making new known again. Meanwhile, the search for the perfect teenage love-affair continues, the guessing game that will tell them (and by proxy, us) who the new favorite bedroom wall poster-idol might be. This way ecstasy lies…. The goal for Dead Rider, always: super-heavy, super-driving, more ‘up’ moments than ever before. An album experience; listening, you’re put through some changes. Illusions radiating out from the real. You’re rocked into submission, but asked to participate on the listening level. Rebuilt, regrooved, with favorable upgrades. Chills On Glass moves forward in this tradition, juxtaposing high and low values – serious playing, danceablity, controlled-outcomes experimentation, don’t-give-a-fuck rad-itude.
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Lyla Foy – Mirrors the Sky – LP
While the vibe on Mirrors the Sky is still restrained romanticism and dreamy drama, Foy had no problem scratching her pop itch on songs like the electro-grooved “I Only” and “Feather Tongue” and the slightly rockier (in a Christine McVie way) “Impossible.” Just try getting those choruses out of your head. Blips and bleeps comfortably mix it up with live drums, and Foy’s keys, guitar, and bass help fill in the rest of the gentle soundscape. Throughout the record, synthesized and organic sounds play off each other’s strengths, giving everything a cool edge while burning with passion.
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The War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream – LP / CD
Lost In The Dream is the third album by Philadelphia band The War on Drugs, but in many ways, it feels like the first. Around the release of the 2011 breakthrough Slave Ambient, Adam Granduciel spent the bulk of two years on the road, touring through progressively larger rock clubs, festival stages and late-night television slots. As these dozen songs shifted and grew beyond what they’d been in the studio, The War on Drugs became a bona fide rock ‘n’ roll band.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/122923868″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

 

The Notwist – Close to the Glass – LP
During the recording of Close to the Glass, Martin Gretchmann was more the mad-scientist than ever before, standing behind a small mountain of analog modular synths, not only playing but also manipulating the performance of his bandmates as they played. The strong connection and creative trust between band members allowed for the traditional lines between roles to blur more than ever before. With everyone playing anything, the band felt they could take their music anywhere, from sheer noise to kraut-rock beat pocket to arena rock ride out. Close to the Glass is also full of vocal leaps for Markus Acher, experimenting not only with effects but also with his range, leaving the comforts of his signature style to take this album somewhere new.
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