EP Grab Bag vol. 104

I have been working on this post for a long, long minute. Sorry it took so long but I can't keep up with this shit very well anymore. It is like have bills to pay or some shit. Anyhow, this were some cool fucking EPs. I hope you like.

To be had here:

Hierofante Púrpura - Boas Bestas EP (2015)

Pilgrims, I love this band. I get they're strange, at bit hard to dig straightaway because they're conforming to much popular music conventions. It is a bit like they're scaring us away at first but if you listen further its like something of a Jad Fair and Lou Reed fusion in Portuguese. Experimental psychedelia at it's goddamned best. Also, this isn't the first time I'm posting this outfit from Mogi Das Cruzes, Brazil. Their album from last year, Sutil Arte de Esculhambar Música Alheia, is great and did not get nearly enough attention.

Exploding Clouds - Exploding Clouds EP (2015)

An incredibly well-made electronic project from a fellow based in Greenville, South Carolina. It doesn't fit a genre cleanly, like many of my favorite electronic releases. Rather is combines snyth-pop, ambient and shoegaze together in various combinations to form something unique and markedly engaging. Manages to be both retro and futuristic, like watching a sci-fi film from the 80s. Truly worth checking out by everyone, even those disinclined to listen to snyth-heavy songs, this could be the one to sway you otherwise.

Baswoon - Baswoon EP (2015)

A rather stripped down post-rock release from an Portuguese musician. Baswoon's songs are surprisingly cinematic and evocative without requiring constant shimmering guitars and methodical drums. Get me straight, I don't feel post-rock is mostly these things, but they can be over done, and yet Baswoon has an incredibly understated approach. The final track, "Embrace me, float with me" is perhaps my favorite and the most outstanding example of this understated style.

Copneconic - Never Knows Best (2014)

A new EP from the Copneconic, who hail from the "Fenton area" of Michigan. I like how they called it that, I always have to say the "Port Huron area" when I refer to where I raised (as few know where Marysville is). Anyhow, I posted a prior EP called Bein Sweet, and it sounds like they have advanced markedly in their composition and technique since. All this will having recorded the EP for a mere $100 is very impressive. Fuzzy Midwestern garage pop that's charming as fuck.

Unqualified Nurse/Azzurro Peaks - Split Single: Whatever Happened to Syd? / Dickheads Anonymous

A bit of a rare thing on this site, a split single. Two British bands, one I one for a goddamned fact I post and the other I feel like I recall listening to but I can't find evidence of posted. The first track is from the latter, an electronic rock outfit called Azzurro Peaks that is very catchy. The song bears repeated enjoyable listenings. The former made the second track, a band that specializes in being especially low-fidelity, Unqualified Nurse. Naturally I am a fan though the songs hasn't too much to it, but who said a song need much? Also hear his other stuff while your at it.

Mariscal De Campo - Recordatorio (2014)

When Larry started the Scenes of a City series I hadn't a clue it would become so popular. They've generated it more attention and responses than most anything else we've ever done and for that we're thankful and bashfully proud. Yet in the course of searching around for the music from a particular city sometimes there'll be various other threads that appear which are insufficiently related to the post we'll be writing to be included but are simply begging to be pulled. Mariscal De Campo is a band I found in this backwards route, via stumbling upon the Argentine label Fuego Amigo Discos.

So the whole website is in Spanish, but what can be sussed out despite the language barrier is that Fuego Amigo Discos is an independent label that at least sometimes gives albums away on their site. Recordatorio by Mariscal De Campo is just such an album. Only other thing I could figure out from the site is that this band is from the coastal town of Punta Alta. So everything hereafter is mere conjecture, or in other words business as usual. The simplest way to explain Mariscal De Campo is that they make snythpop. However, this fails to fully elucidate the interesting interplay between dreamy and dancey sounds they've brilliant incorporated. The songs "Dejame" and "Escapada" show off their more new wave-tinged dance rock capabilities excellently, with "Otra Canción" and "Eso Que Ni Pensamos" show more dreamy snyth playing. All wonderful, and there are tunes like "La Comodidad" where all bets are off and it certainly a new wave hit. A live set by this band could be amazing. Surely gonna have to see what else Fuego Amigo Discos has to offer after this.

To be had here:
Mariscal De Campo - Recordatorio

Scenes of a City, Vol. 7: Bern, Switzerland

Someone might be connecting the dots as to which cities I tend to choose, not necessarily remote or obscure cities, those might be too hard to pull off still even with sharing on the internet as it is. However, I tend to like the second city of a nation, not the capitals nor largest by population (my method has nothing to do with Larry's amazing picks). And again my choice today is the second most populated of Switzerland, Bern. Constitutionally Bern is the "federal city" rather than the capital, as the ever-neutral Swiss even avoided proclaiming a capital city. Bern like many places in the Western world has an abundance of hip-hop and dubstep to choose from, but fuck that noise. I don't know shit about that shit at all and furthermore I am hunting for the lo-fi, the eccentric and the folksy at all times. So here's what I genuinely enjoyed digging around for albums from Bern and they reflect the Swiss position as a modern, globalized state and haven't much at all to do with being Swiss in particular as much as European or more broadly Western.

To be had here:

Silver Firs - EP#2 (2014)

This is the band that provoked me to do a post on music from Bern. Silver Firs began with some singles but now have released two EPs, of which this is the latter obviously. Both this and the first EP are fucking wonderfully upbeat, largely instrumental songs that pull from various folk sounds from around the world to create a psychedelic, dream pop soundscape. The music is astounding in its ability to wake me up and get me going. I have really been enjoying listening to them with a beer or two as I try to plow through whatever piece of fiction I have decided to read.

Molotow Brass Orkestar - Asoguet (2013)

A band that plays gypsy and klezmer inspired music that emphasizes the brass instrumentation something that is unique to Bern by any means. Eastern European music has a definite allure to the West that's not to be underestimated. Just of the top of my head groups like A Hawk and a Hacksaw, the Instruments and Black Ox Orkestar pop to mind. Nevertheless it is something that I can't tire of. Molotow Brass Orkestar does a job that is on par with all of the previously mentioned acts, and that isn't anything to scoff at as they're all amazing.

The Tides - The Tides (2011)

The Tides have a most righteous lo-fi rock vibe going on.  The tags on this album are nonsense like "alternative" and "noise" as the former means nothing and the latter is inaccurate for this band. I am not sure what to tag it, but the playing reminds me of these post-grunge bands I've been hearing more of. Sung in a deep, accented English employing light echoes and a few psychedelic techniques it has a foreignness to it this is very subtle yet incredibly charming. If not for exploring what Bern had to offer I'd have surely missed out on this band, and it was have been a tragedy for they're most righteous.

Magnetfisch - Lieder Maximo (2014)

Could I leave out some crazy snyth-driven instrumental music? Not likely, they do speak German in Bern after all, so you gotta suspect they have some snyth-lovers. Truthfully, the band is a trio with a bass, guitar and synthesizers from a veteran band, they state this as their eleventh release. All the experience must be paying off, for they've got the four songs of this EP tightened down into a very cohesive new wave electro-pop display. While I thought all the tracks were good, I really felt my ears perk up when "Lennitz" came out of the loudspeakers. Very stylish, and almost spooky at moments, like a crazy 80s movie.

Samuel Boat - Tasting Like A Broken Fence (2014)

This is the second album that Samuel Boat has released this year. Some of you might recall Soda Pop Rock that was put out back in May and written up my yours truly as well as covered on the podcast. Stylistically, this new album hasn't strayed too far from the prior, however it does seem to have a bit more melancholy mood. You know that sweet bedroom pop melancholy were sadness is mixed up with cheerful instruments and it makes for a contradictory feeling that hard to express in words alone yet music excels at. Tasting Like A Broken Fence has several fine examples of this capacity with tracks like "walkin'" and forlorn love song "rain day."

The album is short, with a playtime of only 20 minutes, hardly longer than many EPs we share. The brevity is an asset as soon as you get to listening the final track, "from the best," you'll find yourself wanting to right back to the beginning and hear it all over again. The songs are among the best earworms I've heard come from the submissions to the blog. Basically, I am gushing because I can't get these damn tunes out of my head, with the catchy keys and soft guitar and what-have-you. Also check out the two tracks that he put out back in November, Thanksgiving Sampler.

To be had here:
Samuel Boat - Tasting Like A Broken Fence 

Samuel Boat - Soda Pop Rock (2014)

I don't have any background information on Samuel Boat or his full-length album, Soda Pop Rock, beyond what I've been able to deduce or guess at from the songs themselves. He didn't furnish me with details, and his bandcamp page tagged the release as "rock" and "United States" so either intentionally or not he's played this one close to the vest. Fine with me, I've written up shit that I clearly know nothing about before and I'm sure I will again.

The album is a collection of what sound like lo-fi bedroom pop musings, and that's a very sweet thing. Samuel Boat is likely a multi-instrumentalist and rather good at synthesizing on the computer that has got a load of catchy beats rolling around in his head that needed a quirky, entertaining and just a bit creepy outlet. The songs are full of snyth sounds and together with his singing and whistling the songs seem aimed at juvenile memories. Eccentrically nostalgic songwriting that can be happy and a bit sad or whimsical at the same time, like a good Stephin Merritt tune. "The one for me" and "roses from peru" both show what I am trying to get at exceptionally well, not that I am sure it is what he was angling for. That's art for you, out of your hands and into ours right? Anyhow, I found Soda Pop Rock to be very adorable and highly delightful to listen to.

To be had here:
Samuel Boat - Soda Pop Rock

Abschaum - Teenage Apocalypse (2011)

Teenage Apocalypse is a solo project of French musician going by Abschaum here, who is a member of the earlier posted noise/punk rock band Prypiat. This album is unlike Prypiat however, as it is thoroughly snyth-drenched electronic pop. Now, hopefully my manager won't read this, but when we work together that cat makes me listen to is Pandora. I loathe Pandora, as no algorithm can be allowed me please me, right? Anyhow, the speakers are at the cafe aren't angled for the employees to hear well, so it is like chilling in a bunker under Berlin that shares a thin wall with a dance club. While I imagine German clubs are superior to North American in most all respects (I've never been to one here, and once only in Dresden as far as Germany goes); I still can't see it being my bag. Nevertheless, this Frenchman does a wonderful job reminding me why dancable snyth-laden music should continue being made. Although not my sought after sound, done well it is pretty neat, and this shit is clean as fuck.

To be had here:
Abschaum - Teenage Apocalypse

Kiss Kiss Fantastic - The Red/Blue Shift EP (2010)

This was a lucky find on bandcamp the other day. Actually think I got pointed in the direction of this band by last.fm recommended page, which fails me regularly as the damn site can't keep what I've scrobbled and not straight anymore. Regardless often the method of discovery it is really a better EP than I even anticipated. The Red/Blue Shift EP has some very melodious and lovely dream pop left me hankering for more than just six tracks. I'd say its a god bet you might dig this if you were into Candy Claws, Lovesliescrushing, or perhaps even Broadcast. Hopefully there will be more to come from this group.

To be had here:
Kiss Kiss Fantastic - The Red/Blue Shift EP

Space Ponch - The World Shopping With Space Ponch (2000)

I recently remembered that I even had this album, it is damned bizarro. This fella surely was doing something strange when he decided that making these tracks were a good plan. The power of electronics in a hands of the everyman. Anyhow, if you want some cheerful, odd, and confusing electronic pop music from Japan, Space Ponch is your thing. Just keep in mind, synthesizers make the world go around.

To be had here:
Space Ponch - The World Shopping With Space Ponch [192 VBR kbps]

Slagsmålsklubben - Den Svenske Disco (2003)

College courses recently began for me, and oddly enough I've been posting with much more regularity. I do believe this is because of the added amount of management of my time I have to do, and blogging makes great procrastination. For example, I'm posting on my only day off in 8 days instead of reading about China and working on speeches. You lucky dogs.

Some of the happiest damned music on Earth. Slagsmålsklubben, of most obvious Swedish origins, make some ecstatic electronic pop. The name is less astounding when you learn it is just the book title Fight Club translated to Swedish. I enjoy them regardless of the cinematic roots of their name. Whilst not truly being 8-bit or chiptune, they're strikingly close. In fact, I've heard them called gamewave, which I think is something like what I just said, near 8-bit but not really. I think on the actual release case there were the track titles in both English and the native Swedish, but my tags have only the Swedish. If you want to see the English they're on wikipedia. Otherwise, stop fighting your urges and get this stuff to cheer up your hungover Saturday mornings, for we all know if everything goes right Sunday will be worse.

To be had here:
Slagsmålsklubben - Den Svenske Disco [224 VBR kbps]