Summer is here and the record industry is rushing its schedule before the season break. As usual, plenty of album streaming action, beginning with our favorite Swedish pop star. ROBYN offered ‘Body Talk Part 1’ the first of three mini albums she plan to launch over 2010, through her Myspace page. The nine track record contains already well known cuts such as ‘Fembot’; ‘Dancehall Queen’ or the single ‘Dancing On My Own’, one of our favorite tracks of the year so far.
And electronic masters THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS return with ‘Further’, enjoying an extra boost by the current trend digging in the sounds of electronica from the 90’s. After several misses, ‘Further’ has been saluted as some sort of creative recovery. It’s currently one of the albums that can be heard at the always reliable NPR first listen post.
NPR also offers the latest work from multidisciplinary artist LAURIE ANDERSON, who in ‘Homeland’ engages on a deep scrutiny of the current social and political state of affairs in the US. Broken Social Scene affiliate act STARS also presents their new album ‘The Five Ghost’, in which they carry on their fine blend of nicely arranged indie pop.
JULIAN LYNCH, a singer songwriter from New Jersey in the orbit of recent bands such as Ducktails and Real State presents his debut opus ‘Mare’. The album has been championed by everyone who’s anyone in the blogosphere for months and is a subdued, slow-burning grower that may require a bit of effort to get into, but doesn’t disappoint. Other notable debut from an American solo artist is ‘Learning’ by PERFUME GENIUS, the moniker under which Seattle based artist Mike Hadreas sign his records.
Two decades since their latest studio effort, New wave classics DEVO finally released their new album ‘Something For Everybody’ after months of peculiar online research to shape everything on it, from artwork to tracklist.
Other US bands offering their new albums for streaming were Spencer Krug’s most celebrated band WOLF PARADE with their ‘Expo 86’ and the eponymous debut of BLUE GIANT, formed by members of Vice Versa and other bands from the always exciting Portland scene.
Dominique Young Unique – Domination by Toast Press
In freebie land, another healthy bunch of mixtapes and tracks were given away during the last seven days. Up and coming young female rapper DOMINIQUE YOUNG UNIQUE treated us to her latest mix, ‘Domination’, via Soundcloud. Other artistS giving away new mixtapes were half of Gnarls Barkley’s CEE-LO GREEN with his ‘Stray Bullets’ anticipating a new solo album; Romy from The XX curating a mix for The Pop Manifesto website and a look at some of the newest US bands from The Road That Goes Ever On.
The Philly hip-hop collective THE ROOTS finally got their long-time delayed new album ‘How I Got Over’ prepared and to celebrate it they have made this widget available for everyone to sample a minute of each track, plus getting a free download of one of them, ‘Doin’ It Again’. The album is making waves online for their approach to musicians of the new generation of alternative bands such as Dirty Projectors or Monsters Of Folk; even sampling Joanna Newsom in one of its tracks. A bridge that brings together two very different genres.
New lo-fi skate-punksters WAVVES keep the fire burning for the arrival of their sophomore album, ‘King Of The Beach’, which is meant to be one of the highlights of the summer. The first taste ‘Post Acid’ is being offered for free via the Green Label Sound series of MP3 gratis, where the likes of Chromeo or Neon Indian have already added their contributions.
In the UK MAGNETIC MAN, the first Dubstep supergroup formed by Benga, Skream and Artwork gives us their first track ‘Mad’ as a presentation card.
New Yorker Luke Temple’s project HERE WE GO MAGIC gives away ‘Casual’ the shimmery and colourful second single from his acclaimed second album. Newcomers TEAMS got a full EP of ethereal and exotic sounds ‘Catch Pool’ available for nothing. And Kurt Cobain’s favourite Scottish indie band from the 80’s THE VASELINES is back with a brand new album and to make their way back to a new audience, they are previewing it with the single ‘I Hate the 80’s’.