Kaos / Digitalism / Holy Fuck / New Wine

Hello internet, here is some electronic dance music I am currently fond of.


//// German DJ Dennis Kaun, also known as Kaos, makes cold sounding but somehow still uplifting electro/house music that takes you right to the clubs of his native Berlin. Both of these tracks are a few years old, but I didn't discover him properly before now, and you shouldn't miss out either!

mp3: Kaos - Lessons In Love (feat. Erlend Øye)

mp3: Kaos - Cerebral Tremolo (Brennan Green Edit)

//// Another German artist, Digitalism is a duo from Hamburg, which together with Berlin is one of Germany's major electronic music hubs. The Daft Punk influenced duo rose to international fame with their 2007 debut album Idealistic, which has been described as 'dance punk' or 'house-rock hybrid'. Their debut was very innovative and fresh sounding, and one of my favorite electronic albums of all time, so I was very excited when they released a new track to the internet earlier this week. Unfortunately 'Blitz Trailer' is literally just a 'trailer' to their upcoming EP, but it still makes me hungry for more. Download it below, and also check out two older tracks if you're new to these Hamburgers.

mp3: Digitalism - Blitz Trailer

mp3: Digitalism - Idealistic

mp3: Digitalism - Pogo (Shinichi Osawa Remix)

//// Holy Fuck is a quite unusual electronic band, with highly progressive songs that fall somewhere between post-rock and electronica in their sound. While Digitalism merge Electronica with the beats of danceable indie rock bands, Holy Fuck pushes electronica towards soundscapes closer to bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor. Another band to emerge from the booming alternative music scene of 00s Toronto, Canada, the members of Holy Fuck of course are intertwined with the other alternative music artists of the city that we have covered so extensively in this blog, most notably Broken Social Scene. BSS producer Dave Newfeld also produced Holy Fuck's debut album, and band member Brian Borcherdt used to play in By Divine Right, a Toronto band who also counts (Broken Social Scene's) Brendan Canning and Leslie Feist to its former members.

mp3: Holy Fuck - Silva & Grimes

//// Norwegian dance-synthpop-band The New Wine (which I most recently covered a month ago) just released their debut album in their home country, and are aiming to internationally release their blend of guitars, funky bass lines and retro Nintendo-esque samples sometime around new year's. Check out the track 'Words on Fire', which in the band's own words is one of the album's "more clubby/dancy songs".

mp3: The New Wine - Words on Fire

Rare EPs, part 3

Keeping it simple. This is Sigur Rós' Ný Batterí EP.

1. Rafmagnið Búið
2. Ný Batterí
3. Bíum Bíum Bambaló
4. Dánarfregnir Og Jarðarfarir

While I'm a big fan of everything Sigur Rós and their frontman Jónsi have ever released (including all Sigur Rós LPs and Jónsi's two recent side project albums), their sophomore album Ágætis Byrjun will always stand out as something special to me. This masterpiece is one of my definite favorite albums of all time – an intense 1-hour long deep dive into Sigur Rós unique and mesmerizing world. The track Ný batterí is in my opinion one of the most hypnotizing out-of-this-world experiences on the whole album, and I'd almost call it one of the album's highlights, if it wasn't for the fact that I think there are nothing but highlights on the entire album.

Ný Batterí's perfect progression, its beautiful build-up, is what really does it for me, and I used to think it was perfect – until I discovered this EP a couple of years back. On this EP, Sigur Rós extend Ný Batterí's initial horn section by almost five minutes, and dub this introductory part Rafmagnið Búið. Since this track continues directly into Ný Batterí, the result is essentially a twelve-and-a-half minute long extended version of one of my favorite songs. Track 3 and 4 on this EP are cover versions of two well-known Icelandic songs. Sigur Rós originally recorded these amazing cover tracks for the soundtrack to the Icelandic movie 'Angels of the Universe'.

For anyone out there who loves Ágætis Byrjun as much (or even half as much) as I do, these four tracks are bound to be happy revisit to this excellent period in Sigur Rós' career.

Tortoise

Tortoise is credited with helping to usher in the genre of Post-Rock, along with Mogwai. Their 90's releases garnered a good bit of praise from critics and fans of eclectic rock music everywhere. Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996) and TNT (1998) represent groundbreaking forays into more jazz influenced compositions and experimental production techniques that were heard rarely in standard radio rock. The track length of some of their songs is intimidating, and sometimes frustrating (it's much harder to find a specific movement within a song than it is to find a certain track on an album), but it's by no means a dealbreaker.

From Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996)

Glass Museum

From It's All Around You (2004)

It's All Around You

The Octopus Project / Black Moth Super Rainbow

The Octopus Project is a personal favorite of mine. Their album Hello, Avalanche, is one of the most consistently fun and addictive albums I've ever heard. Their sound is a mixture of analog and electronic instrumentation, with an extremely solid rhythm section that faithfully drives every song. 

from Hello, Avalanche (2007)

Upmann

The Octopus Project Website

The video is for the song Truck.

Black Moth Super Rainbow is another band along the same lines as The 

Octopus Project, though a bit more experimental and laid back. They 

collaborated with The Octopus Project on a split album entitled The 

House of Apples and Eyeballs, but I have been unable to get a 

hold of it yet. They have a new album on the way entitled Eating Us. 

Anyway, enjoy the video and the mp3s.

from Start A People (2004)

Vietcaterpillar

I Think It Is Beautiful That You Are 256 Colors Too

Black Moth Super Rainbow Website

Foxhole

They're currently working on an album that they hope will be ready for release this summer.


from Push/Pull (2006)
Forgiving Monarch

from We The Wintering Tree (2003)
The End of Dying