Evenings

Shoegaze headphone electronic atmospheres for your perpetual Ryan Gosling phantasies (ie Half Nelson OST). 

"An Overture Might..."

Hittin'

Check out this label comp EP from Friends of Friends.

Random Goodness

 Here are some very unrelated things that caught my eye or ear today...

• via Foreign Policy - a closer look at the emerging gray market economy known as System D, a $10 trillion/year economy that functions completely outside the "real" global economy. Read it here.
• via Friends of Friends - a retrospective mix by Laurent Fintoni that covers some gems from the West Coast label's first two years in business. If you like hard-to-categorize-but-generally-left-field-downtempo, then this is worth your time. Listen or download here. 
• via Wired - Is Chernobyl a Wild Kingdom or a Den of Decay? Find the answer here. 

Face Wrecking Nonsense

This track is devastatingly good. The whole comp is fun. Awesome electronic musicians re-imagine popular music of the last 50 years. Everybody wins. Friends of Friends, I wish we were friends, because you're consistently putting out music I love.

Groundislava

Part of the West Coast future beat explosion known as the WeDidIt Collective, Groundislava drops an EP to whet appetites for his upcoming full length on Friends of Friends. He's got a good thing going - rooted solidly in 8-bit traditions, but with a melodic sensibility and attention to textural details that puts him head and shoulders above most post-nintendo-ists.
 Grab a copy here.

Shlohmo "Birthday Beat"

This 20 year-old beatsmith hailing from L.A. is on his way to big things. This is a new track off his upcoming "Camping" EP that will be out on Friends of Friends in mid-June. It's got that stuttering west coast beat vibe, but keeps it pastoral. Can't wait to check out the rest of the EP.
Birthday Beat - Shlohmo - Camping EP by FoFMusic


For more info on Shlohmo, click here.

Ernest Gonzales "Dancing in the Snow"

 Here's a seasonally appropriate track for your enjoyment.

"Dancing in the Snow" by Ernest Gonzalez, a San Antonio-based electronic musician who also goes by Mexicans with Guns. I've been thoroughly enjoying his musical output lately.

His debut album on Friends of Friends "Been Meaning to Tell You" is out February 9.

Ernest Gonzales

This EP, Self Awakening, by Texas-based Ernest Gonzalez was a really pleasant surprise, and pretty much put Friends of Friends on lock as my favorite new label of the year, or however long they've been around now.

This 7 song EP is the fanfare sounding in the distance as a full-length release quickly approaches. Up until this point, FOF's releases have been split discs (Daedelus/Jogger) and Larytta/Bauchamp), but EG's flips the script and instead has a gifted cadre of folks taking cracks at remixing his stuff.

The end result is in tone, vaguely reminiscent of a more electronic Broken Social Scene circa You Forget it in People. The fun thing about the remixes is that they really bring an emotional and stylistic range to the album that are largely unattainable for solo productions. The various interpretations vary enough to move the album along, but in sharing origins, also create broader musical themes that span several tracks.

Here's the title track, "Self Awakening", unremixed.



At it's core, the EP's function as an appetizer served prior to this LP entree, Self-Awakening is a success. My appetite is whetted, and I am hungry for some more music from Ernest Gonzalez.

Friends of Friends Remixed

A while back, I posted something about how Daedelus and Jogger were doing the debut release of the Friends of Friends label.

A remix of that project is on it's way, with a stylistic smorgasbord of folks having their way with the originals, including Eliot Lipp, Nosaj Thing and Michna.

One of my favorites so far, is the remix of Jogger's "Nice Tights" by Mexicans with Guns.



The results are a wild dance track that is reminiscent of Fantastic Plastic Machine but with more acid-y basslines and ridiculous percussion. It's all topped with vocals analogous in effect to those of Hot Chip's early works.

How about a shirt with your album?

An interesting press release just landed in my inbox: a new label called Friends of Friends releasing digital download albums with t-shirts...an interesting addendum to a previous post that musicians are in the t-shirt business.


This is FoF's first t-shirt.

Their philosophy is pretty interesting:

The concept in short for our inaugural release is FoF invites an artist to join the FoF family by signing on to do a split EP; they in turn invite another musician or group to complete the split release and commission a designer to create the EP's artwork on a limited edition T-Shirt which will include a download card(100% seed paper card; Included will be the release, exclusive remixes and special content: ie videos, mixes etc).

Their first release will come from electronic musician Daedelus and his friend Jogger:

For the first in the Friends of Friends series, FoF has invited a great friend and HERO of ours: Santa Monica based electronic genius Alfred "Daedelus" Darlington whom you may know from his solo work on labels such as Ninja Tune, Mush, Plug Research and more or even more recently with his wife as The Long Lost (also on Ninja Tune).
With the power to choose his cohorts, Daedelus has brought in homies Jogger; Amir Yaghmai and Jonathan Larroquette for their first EVER release! Not only did Alfred attend High School with Amir but the duo are the active live band members of Alfred's The Long Lost project with wife Laura as well as collaborators on his 'Exquisite Corpse" release. He's also managed to bless us with the INCREDIBLE husband and wife art duo Kozyndan for the cover art/t-shirt design. They all 5 are truly friends and we're happy to now call them ours!

Tracklisting for the album:
1. Daedelus - C'est Super
2. Daedelus - LA Nocturn
3. Daedelus - Off to the Races
4. Jogger - Nice Tights
5. Jogger - Litre o' Cola
6. Jogger - Nephicide

Then, if you buy it with the t-shirt, the download card also features:
Daedelus - C'est Super (Michna remix)
Daedelus - LA Nocturn (Eliot Lipp remix)
Daedelus - Off to the Races (Meanest Man Contest remix ft. Cuzzo)
Jogger - Nice Tights (Nosaj Thing remix)
Jogger - Nice Tights (Mexicans with Guns remix)
Jogger - Nice Tights (Grahm of Thunderheist remix)
Jogger - Nice Tights (Keenhouse remix)
and more to come...