05-10-2018 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX

OCS aka Orinoka Crash Suite

05-10-2018 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [from the recent past] # OCS aka Orinoka Crash Suite, Maston, Quilt, Gorillaz, Cowboy Junkies, The Sha La Das, The Holydrug Couple, Bully, Adrian Younge, Tough Age, Léonie Pernet, Guerilla Toss, And So I Watch You from Afar, James, The Pretty Reckless

M U S I C

pres_perf_mix # The player always plays the latest playlist tracks. / A lejátszó mindig a legújabb playlist számait játssza. 

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John Dwyer's post-Coachwhips lo-fi psych-folk band, put on ice for Thee Oh Sees, then brought back to life in the late 2010s.  While playing in the bands Pink & Brown, Zeigenbock Kopf, and the Coachwhips in the late '90s, guitarist/vocalist John Dwyer found he needed an outlet for songs that didn't reach the same level of frenzied noise as those groups. He chose the name Orinoka Crash Suite, or OCS for short, and began recording the folky psychedelic songs in a lo-fi manner, mostly on his own at first.
OCS
Memory of a Cut Off Head 4:47
On and On Corridor 5:50
from Memory of a Cut Off Head 2017
As if he weren't busy enough cranking out records with the Oh Sees, making weird electronic albums as Damaged Bug, and co-running the prolific Castle Face record label, John Dwyer needed another outlet for songs and sounds, so in 2017 he brought the OCS name back to life and released Memory of a Cut Off Head. OCS was the early incarnation of the Oh Sees, making lo-fi and experimental records before the band evolved into a garage punk juggernaut. Memory of a Cut Off Head doesn't revert back to the scruffy, sometimes off-putting sound of those early records; instead, Dwyer and co-conspirator Brigid Dawson take a step away from the pounding power of the Oh Sees in favor of something hazily psychedelic and expansive, a little bit folky and rustic, with every nook and cranny filled by a wide array of instruments meticulously arranged into something that would make the Incredible String Band sit up and take notice...  She and Dwyer fit together like a warped hippie version of Lee & Nancy, or George & Tammy, each complementing the other perfectly. Her contributions show that she should definitely start working on her own stuff soon. Really, they should both work on more OCS music soon, since this album is a trippy, spooky delight.

Frank Maston puts his own spin on the retro studio stylings of inspirations like Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks, and Ennio Morricone. Multi-instrumentalist Frank Maston grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, soaking in both the summery atmosphere and the musical and cultural history of his surroundings. Early on, Maston developed a love for the sunny chamber pop of Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson, as well as more California-inspired moments of rock magic from Harry Nilsson and Phil Spector. He eventually sculpted these influences into what would become his own music, a completely self-sufficient menagerie of dark pop sounds informed by '60s and '70s studio magicians and loner geniuses.
Maston
Swans 1:55
Old Habits 2:03
from Tulips 2017
... the Los Angeles native's follow-up, Tulips, shifts focus to the era's European film music, specifically that of the French New Wave and Ennio Morricone. Maston was drawn to these overseas influences after extensive touring in Europe that included living part-time in the Netherlands (hence, "Tulips") to play keyboards for Jacco Gardner. Completely self-made until it was sent to Jasper Geluk for mastering, the almost entirely instrumental album relies on grooving electric guitar and bass, Mellotron, and other vintage sounds to craft loose, whimsical lounge music for the indie crowd...

Quilt weave a tapestry of float-away guitars, Eastern melodies, and languid, intimate harmonies for a modern take on psychedelic folk. The brainchild of Shane Butler and Anna Fox Rochinski, who formed the band while studying at Boston's School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Quilt craft psychedelic pop that evokes '60s idealism without feeling too indebted to it.
Quilt
Passersby (Quilt) 4:16
Searching For 3:07
from Plaza 2016
After spending much of 2014 on the road touring in support of Held in Splendor, Quilt began working on songs for their third album in a historic building in Atlanta -- a long way from their Boston home base. Being so far from home may have contributed to the rootless, restless feeling underpinning Plaza; nearly all of its songs are about being in flux... Even if Quilt don't always find the answers they're looking for on Plaza, they've found some of their most confident and cohesive music.

Virtual hip-hop/electronica/indie group comprising fictional cartoons voiced by Blur's Damon Albarn and a revolving all-star cast. Conceived as the first "virtual hip-hop group," Gorillaz blended the musical talents of Dan "The Automator" Nakamura, Blur's Damon Albarn, Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori, and Tom Tom Club's Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz with the arresting visuals of Jamie Hewlett, best known as the creator of the cult comic Tank Girl...
Gorillaz
Humility (feat.: George Benson) 3:17
Fire Flies 3:53
from The Now Now 2018
It's not an unusual move for Gorillaz, releasing a brief, breezy record swiftly on the heels of a magnum opus. The Fall followed Plastic Beach by a matter of 13 months, but that 2011 record was deliberately positioned as an afterthought, promoted as being written and recorded on the road and initially released to the cartoon band's fan club. The Now Now, delivered a mere 14 months after Humanz, echoes The Fall, particularly in how nearly half of its songs carry titles that salute the presumed place of their composition, but this is quite a different beast than any previous Gorillaz album. Recorded in February 2018 so the group could have new material to play on the festival circuit that year, The Now Now by design has fewer collaborators than Humanz, the record Damon Albarn toiled over for the better part of a decade...

Soporific Canadian country dream poppers, captured Americana imagination in the late-1980s & early-'90s. Canada's Cowboy Junkies' create a music grounded in traditional country, blues, and folk, filled with languid guitars and ethereal vocals courtesy of Margo Timmins. Over the late '80s and '90s, the group recorded a succession of critically acclaimed albums...
Cowboy Junkies
All That Reckoning, Pt. 1 3:52
Sing Me a Song 4:20
All That Reckoning, Pt. 2 4:19
The Possessed 3:23
from All That Reckoning 2018
It's remarkable in itself that in 2018, the Cowboy Junkies still have the same lineup that recorded their debut album, Whites Off Earth Now!!, in 1986. But it's even more surprising that more than three decades into their career, the band's essential formula remains very much the same, and what's more, that it still works. Released in 2018, All That Reckoning is less spare and severe than the group's most celebrated early material, with the occasional report of a jagged synthesizer or electric guitar, but even though the arrangements are more fleshed-out and the production more ambitious, the Cowboy Junkies continue to lay out languid, contemplative melodies favoring the low end of the register, with the rich but spectral vocals of Margo Timmins drizzled over the top like honey...

Moody but lush fusion of doo wop and vintage soul featuring three brothers and their father. Harmony is a family affair for the Sha La Das, a vocal quartet whose music is steeped in R&B and doo wop tradition while also adding elements of '60s soul, rock & roll, and psychedelic pop to create a sound that is moody but lush and soulful. Featuring a veteran harmony vocalist and his three sons, two members of the Sha La Das have worked with retro-soul artist Charles Bradley before a producer was knocked out by their close family harmonies and convinced them to record as headliners. They made their debut with a 2016 single before moving on to a full-length album two years later.

The Sha La Das
Open My Eyes 3:45
Love in the Wind 3:15
from Love in the Wind 2018
The history of American popular music is full of enough unexpected second acts to silence F. Scott Fitzgerald forever, and W.C. Schalda is a fascinating example of an artist who has been given a second chance at a successful career. In the early '60s, Schalda (then known as Billy Schalda) was part of a doo wop group named the Montereys, who cut a pair of singles, one of which, "Step Right Up" b/w "Face in the Crowd," would fetch three-figure prices from vocal group collectors decades after the fact. Parenthood and other grown-up responsibilities led to Schalda giving up music as a career, but his three sons picked up the music bug from their dad and ended up working with acts like Charles Bradley & the Extraordinaires, Paul & the Tall Trees, and the Budos Band. Now W.C. Schalda and his sons Paul Schalda, Carmine Schalda, and William Schalda, Jr. have formed a vocal group known as the Sha La Das, with Dad on lead vocals, and they've stepped forward with their first album, 2018's Love in the Wind. There's certainly a doo wop slant to the quartet's harmonies, as one might expect, but one can also hear the strong influence of '60s and '70s soul acts like the Dramatics and the Stylistics, along with a dash of the clean familial vocal blend of the Beach Boys.

Dreamy psychedelic rock duo based out of Santiago, Chile. With a sound that evokes the dreamlike natural wonders of their homeland, duo the Holydrug Couple rose out of the burgeoning psychedelic rock scene rising out of Chile in the early 2010s. Based in Santiago, members Ives Sepúlveda and Manuel Parra cultivated a drifting, sometimes bluesy sound that weaved a gentle, repetitive tapestry of guitar, drums, and vocals...
The Holydrug Couple
Hyper Super Mega 3:58
Forever End 4:00
from Hyper Super Mega 2018
Album number four from Chilean psych-pop act the Holydrug Couple sees the duo moving into more melodic, though still defiantly cerebral, territory. The project of multi-instrumentalist and mastermind Ives Sepúlveda and drummer Manuel Parra, the Holydrug Couple has been a mainstay of the Sacred Bones label since 2011, veering in style from the swirling lo-fi psych of 2013's Noctuary to the sleek, synth-led tones of 2015's Europop-inspired Moonlust. Moving away from some of the more ambient aspects of 2017's dreamy Soundtrack for Pantanal, Hyper Super Mega is, according to the band, modeled more on the classic pop constructions of masters like the Beatles and Beach Boys, albeit fed through the wonky Holydrug filter...

Engaging blend of indie rock melodies, pop hooks, grungy guitars, and confessional lyrics from Alicia Bognanno. Playing upbeat but noisy indie rock with pop hooks and more than a slight grunge influence, Bully is a band from Nashville, Tennessee founded by vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Alicia Bognanno.
Bully
Feel the Same 1:59
Guess There 3:00
from Losing 2017
On the release of their debut record, Feels Like, '90s alt-rock revivalists Bully appeared to be the band with the most authentic credentials. Their ostensibly unwavering commitment to the sound of that era was supported by the recording of their debut at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio (Bully's founding member Alicia Bognanno interned at the studio under the tutelage of Albini, and returned there to engineer Losing herself) as well as their recent signing to Sub Pop. However, while there was a great deal of praise for her songwriting, that admiration was sometimes footnoted by mild regret at a lack of unique character in their music. Extraneous circumstances aside, Bully have very much stuck to their guns with this latest offering, but not at the expense of development. If Feels Like revealed a very promising young songwriter, Losing cements that early potential...

Composer, arranger, producer, and multi-instrumentalist with an uncanny ability to transform an obsession with late-'60s/early-'70s music into unique, impeccably made projects. 
Adrian Younge
Sittin' by the Radio 2:06
Sandrine 2:58
from Something About April II (Instrumental)  2016
ANOTHER ROUND OF STUNNING INSTRUMENTALS FROM ADRIAN YOUNGE. By now you should be famililar with multi-instrumentalist/producer who's brilliant analog production work has been likened to that of Ennio Morricone and even the Beatles. Similar to the first Something About April, the tracks here are composed of gritty cinematic elements and vintage soul with a hip-hop breakbeat aesthetic in mind. Like we said before, Younge's music is at the same time soulful and heavy, dark and psychedelic, and just plain awesome...

Vancouver four-piece blends sounds of rock & roll's past with 21st century lyrical concerns. Fusing elements of surf, garage rock, punk, and a dash of indie pop, Vancouver's Tough Age describe their music as "culmination rock," with four veterans of the Canadian underground rock scene pooling their ideas, influences, and experience for the project.
Tough Age
Everyday Life 3:15
Unclean 4:46
from Shame 2017
Canadian indie outfit Tough Age alter their formula on record number three, leaning deeper into elements of post-punk and the quirky melodicism of Flying Nun-inspired guitar pop while leaving behind much of the '60s-indebted garage affectations of earlier releases. Slimmed down to a trio and now calling Toronto home, former Vancouverites Jarrett Samson (vocals/guitar) and Penny Clark (vocals/bass) hooked up with drummer Jesse Locke in search of a sound that was more minimalist and dynamic. Having signed with Mint Records just prior to their debut, Shame is Tough Age's third outing with the label and their first working with Montreal-based producer/engineer Peter Woodford (Freelove Fenner), whose all-analog Bottle Garden studio was elemental in facilitating their leaner approach...

Also a sidewoman, arranger, and film composer, French musician Léonie Pernet puts an artful spin on anxious synth pop as a solo artist. 
Léonie Pernet
African Melancholia 3:28
Crave 5:51
from Crave 2018
Crave is the debut of French musician Léonie Pernet, who spent ten years as a touring bandmember, DJ, arranger, film composer, and emerging solo artist before endeavoring to write and produce her first full album. While a prior EP previewed the deadpan vocal delivery and experimental edge to Pernet's atmospheric indie electronica -- then centered around electronic keyboards, piano, and live rock drums -- Crave relies on danceable beats and reveals a more cinematic and cosmopolitan synth pop...

Brooklyn-via-Boston group combining no wave, punk, funk, psychedelia, and more in chaotic and ecstatic ways. Equal parts ecstatic and hallucinogenic, the genre-unrestricted group Guerilla Toss draw from no wave and noise as well as funk, punk, and psychedelia.
Guerilla Toss 
Magic Is Easy 3:11
Walls of the Universe 4:04
from Twisted Crystal 2018
Since moving to Brooklyn and signing with DFA, Guerilla Toss have evolved from their beginnings as a cathartic, free jazz-influenced noise-rock band to an acid-splashed party machine. Twisted Crystal is their third album for the iconic dance-punk label, and it's easily their most striking, focused, and fun work to date. As with Eraser Stargazer and GT Ultra, there's an abundance of thick, rubbery basslines and complex polyrhythms, as well as ecstatic vocals from frontwoman Kassie Carlson. However, Twisted Crystal stands out simply by having catchier songs which concentrate on new wave-influenced hooks without abandoning the experimentation or urgency of the group's earlier work...

Experimental, instrumental post-rock quartet with emo influences, hailing from Northern Ireland. The music of And So I Watch You from Afar, an instrumental rock band based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is frequently described as post-rock, but the foursome has more in common with contemporary math rock acts like Adebisi Shank and Maybeshewill.
And So I Watch You from Afar
Three Triangles 4:57
Chrysalism 3:18
from The Endless Shimmering 2017
Belfast's And So I Watch You from Afar play a form of grandiose, tuneful instrumental rock that celebrates life and exuberantly embraces the future. Their songs are aggressive and amped-up, but they aren't angry, and they aren't sad or brooding either. They're emotionally heavy and dramatic, and undoubtedly overwhelmed by all of the pressures of the world, but overall, the band's music is unabashedly hopeful and triumphant. They also value immediacy -- even when the songs stretch out to seven minutes, they're not spending several minutes trying to build up an atmosphere before the heavy part kicks in... The Endless Shimmering displays ASIWYFA's unrelenting optimism, and demonstrates their mastery of their singular brand of math-grunge.

Well-reviewed, long-running Manchester pop band who scored a bevy of hits in the 1990s. As one of the first groups to be dubbed "the next Smiths," James became an institution on the British alternative music scene during the '80s and '90s with their pleasant folk-pop. 
James
Bitch 4:52
Move Down South 5:19
from Girl at the End of the World 2016
Having found a situation they quite like, U.K. pop outsiders James reunite with producer Max Dingel and London's Rak Studios for Girl at the End of the World, their 14th album together. Building on the musical bed they established with 2014's La Petite Mort, the veteran Mancunian outfit up the ante with a big, vibrant affair that is heavy on electronics and pulsating dance rhythms. The fruit of a feverish, three-week full-band writing session in Scotland, James' collaborative approach has yielded a robust record with some mighty peaks and even a few extended jams...

Hard rock quartet fronted by Taylor Momsen, best known for her starring role in the TV series Gossip Girl. She formed the Reckless in 2009, later changing the band’s name to the Pretty Reckless to avoid trademark problems. With Momsen on vocals, John Secolo on guitar, Matt Chiarelli on bass, and Nick Carbone on drums, the group began finding a balance between hard rock and post-grunge, taking cues from female-fronted bands like Hole and the Runaways along the way. 
The Pretty Reckless
Wild City 4:48
The Devil's Back 7:06
Already Dead 4:16
from Who You Selling For 2016
The Pretty Reckless came into their own on 2014's Going to Hell, a sophomore set that found them executing their neo-grunge in a catchier, harder fashion than their debut. Now that they've mastered their vocabulary, it's time for them to expand their horizons on 2016's Who You Selling For... new developments are pretty clear signs that the Pretty Reckless have decided to grow up on Who You Selling For and, thanks to their inherent muscle and the sharp articulation of producer Kato Khandwala, this self-conscious maturation succeeds.