21-12-2021 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX (2h 15m) [2019-2021] # Son Lux, TOY, Eerie Wanda, Rose City Band, Goat Girl, Benjamin Lazar Davis, Urlaub in Polen, Bradford Cox / Cate Le Bon, Lost Under Heaven, The Growlers, Pom Poko, Deap Vally, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Night Flowers, Desert Sessions
if you want excitement PRESS SHUFFLE!
Originally the post-rock project of composer/keyboardist/vocalist Ryan Lott, Son Lux grew over the course of the 2010s to include guitarist/composer Rafiq Bhatia and experimental drummer Ian Chang. Combining live instruments with computer-manipulated acoustic performances, samples, and Lott's strained vocal delivery, Son Lux's bold, dystopic sound often correlates with anxious lyrics about a fearful future.
Bodies 2:41
Warning 3:02
from Tomorrows II 2020
Son Lux released the first installment of their Tomorrows trilogy in August of a turbulent 2020. Fourth months later, and loosely reminiscent of the second movement of a classical symphony, Tomorrows II proves to be a relatively more hushed, introspective volume. Like Tomorrows I, it was recorded with group members and contributors separated in such far-flung locales as New York, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and Budapest...
London's TOY borrow from shoegaze, Krautrock, and classic psychedelia to make pulsating, absorbing music.
Down on the Street 4:43
A Doll's House 3:35
from Songs of Consumption 2019
TOY started 2019 with one of their lushest releases and ended it with a study in minimalism. On the full-length Happy in the Hollow, they indulged in as many styles and sounds as they could pack into its songs, but on Songs of Consumption, they don't pile on layer after layer to keep things interesting. Both rawer and more electronic than any of their previous music, this covers EP finds TOY drawing on the evocative simplicity of vintage synth pop, minimal wave, and electro-punk as they reimagine songs by artists ranging from the Troggs to John Barry. Not only does the band have an enviable record collection, they know how to pick songs that challenge them. They begin the EP with one of their biggest departures: Their taut version of "Down on the Street" trades the Stooges' raw power for sullen synth rock with a cruise-controlled Motorik beat... The band gives Nico's "Sixty Forty" a makeover that's nearly as radical, miniaturizing its dark, rolling majesty into something more intimate but just as poignant... Their dedication to stripping these songs down to their bones yields especially fascinating results on "A Doll's House," where they translate the complexity of John Barry's composition with just a handful of instruments. Even when TOY returns to a more familiar sound, they do it creatively...
The Dutch band Eerie Wanda are led by vocalist/songwriter/guitarist Marina Tadic, whose warmly intimate vocals are paired with melancholy pop songs influenced by psychedelia (as on their debut album, 2016's Hum) or, as on their second record, 2019's Pet Town, sweet early-'60s ballads and rockabilly.
Pet Town 3:27
Rockabiller 3:32
Hands of the Devil 2:35
from Pet Town 2019
...There are traces of girl group sweetness, soda shop, rockabilly, and lots of Ricky Nelson's "Lonesome Town" in the sound Tadic and her mates create. It's quiet and peaceful, but never boring thanks to the richness of Tadic's voice and the power of her lyrics. There's a disarming directness to both the melodies and the words, and though one might miss Verhulst's pulsing basslines or the electric guitars, the unbroken mood Tadic creates is entrancing. .. Pet Town makes for the perfect record to calm down at the end of a typically bonkers day or as a brief respite from the storm during the middle of it. Tadic's vocals are endlessly soothing, the arrangements are comforting, and the warmth of the songs emanates from the speakers like gentle heat waves from a crackling fire. Stripping back from the already gentle sound of Hum could have been a step in the wrong direction' instead, it's a perfect evolution and a wonderful album.
After initially appearing as a semi-anonymous psychedelic country jam band, Rose City Band was revealed to be the project of Wooden Shjips/Moon Duo guitarist/vocalist Ripley Johnson. He worked with indie giant Thrill Jockey to reissue the band's 2019 self-titled debut after a self-released pressing quickly sold out. ..
Rip City 3:49
Rivers of Mind 6:34
Fog of Love 4:22
from Rose City Band 2020
Mysterious and calm, the debut album from Rose City Band rolls in slowly like the morning fog. Produced by Moon Duo/Wooden Shjips member Ripley Johnson, the project filters the softer side of the Grateful Dead's jammy explorations through a gentle, spaced-out haze. Where other late-2010s disciples of Garcia and Weir sometimes reworked the Dead's amped-up boogie rock tendencies, Rose City Band's self-titled debut leans more into the moments of soft, cosmic elegance that sometimes arrived deep into lengthy space jams... Rose City Band is ultimately less about the songs, or even the jamming, and more about the muted, textural palette it stretches out on.
