Buttering Trio - Toast (2014)

The ME may be going to hell in a hand-basket, but the beats and music from the region keep rolling on towards a better and brighter day. Or maybe a darker one. I don't have a clue.

What I do know is that the ME, and Israel in particular, is the home to some great musicians who are making music that is pushing the boundaries of pop globally. I have championed Memory in Plant on this site and on the podcast, and this record by Buttering Trio is a perfect flip side to their music. Both are experimental and creative in their approach, but while Memory in Plant creates disjointed post-punk music for the pop crowd, Buttering Trio creates vibrant sounds-capes through the use of electronics. You can't always tell a book by its cover, but the sleeve to this record perfectly encapsulates the sound within.

When I say this is an electronic record, you should not expect disco and techno beats to coldly pound a simple vocal harmony into your eardrums. This is "warm music" that is often hard to come by in the electronic genre. Rather than forcing you do deal with the cruelty and dissonance of the modern world, Buttering Trio wrap you in warm embrace of beats. Then, and only then, do they share the horror that is the world.

Get it here:
Buttering Trio - Toast (2014)

Yorkshire Fields - Dummo (2013)

The 80s are back you say? Then why don't I see lines of coke at every club? I can't stand the stuff personally, but it did provide ample opportunity to taste the fairer sex.

Yorkshire Fields from Louisiana owe a lot to the synth/electro culture of the 1980s, but this is not a project built entirely out of retro-resurrection. After the funky pop of "Light Leaks," the band charts a path closer to the fuzzed out electronic indie rock than anything resembling Culture Club. My favorite track, "Did We Get Old" rests just off the coastline of my imagination with its buzzing guitar licks, calling me to swim at night even when I know sharks are out there waiting to take a bite. I saw Kisses play at the Soda Bar in San Diego last night, and these kids would have fit well on that bill.

No physical release (yet), but it is a free digitally, so grab it before they run out of free-downloads.

Get it here:
Yorkshire Fields - Dummo (2013)

T.E.A.M.S - Sierra City Center (2013)

Sense of beat: troubled
An Epic distant reverb 
To build peace and bliss

Get it here:
T.E.A.M.S - Sierra City Center (2013)

Eero Johannes - Eero Johannes (2008)

This is something I meant to post a while ago but simply forgot as life happened. Despite the time between my original listen and today I still find this a rather enjoyable album and see fit to share it even if I am late in doing so. Especially I feel drawn to do so because of my recent attention to Finnish music, as Eero Johannes is a Finn. Very much like my mentioned mystification by Icelandic names, Eero is perhaps one of the best names I've ever heard. Names aside, as they don't effect the quality of the music anyhow, this album is electronic but until Shogun Kunitoki it is far funkier yet still gamewave infused. Has a impression of art school being applied to the dance floor in the best possible fashion. I wonder if anyone who reads this blog has ever played Space Quest 6 because of the beginning where Roger Wilco visits the night club is what this album reminds me of. Sadly, that is as far as I got in the game as my copy was shit and crashed after that forever scarring my mind with unfinished business. Additionally, I found out that there is a name for Nordic electronic music that in influenced by funk, r&b and soul. It is called skweee, which doesn't even look like a real word. Stay tuned for more good shit in the near future as I am back on the lame side of metro Detroit and will have shit tons of time for music listening.

To be had here:
Eero Johannes - Eero Johannes [192 VBR kbps]

P.S. I read some requests that I re-upload the Super Roots albums from a post I did a while ago. I saw no reason not to do so. Therefore all the links are again functioning thanks to mediafire shaping up and allowing files over 100 MB. Please do savor it fondly.