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A következő címkéjű bejegyzések mutatása: Pearl Jam. Összes bejegyzés megjelenítése
A következő címkéjű bejegyzések mutatása: Pearl Jam. Összes bejegyzés megjelenítése

2022. január 15., szombat

15-01-2022 FAVTRAX:MiX ~ 33 FAVOURiTE tracks 2005-2011 (2h 16m)

15-01-2022 FAVTRAX:MiX ~ 33 FAVOURiTE tracks 2005-2011 (2h 16m) >>Cowboy Junkies, Adrian Belew, The Black Keys, Radiohead, Marlango, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Medeski Martin and Wood, Pearl Jam, Rival Sons, Wolf People, Polar Bear, Nicolas Jaar <<

M U S I C  (2h 16m)


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2005-2011



One of the most unique and enduring bands in alternative rock, Cowboy Junkies embodied a sound that had its roots in traditional folk, blues, and country music but was performed with a placid, languid pace that belied the slow-burning passion of their performances. The honey-infused, ethereal whisper of lead singer Margo Timmins was matched by the spare but thoughtful accompaniment of guitarist Michael Timmins, bassist Alan Anton, and drummer Peter Timmins, and their most successful recordings played heavily on that dynamic, documented in a naturalistic and unobtrusive manner...
License to Kill (Bob Dylan) 4:47
Two Soldiers (Traditional) 4:02
December Skies (Michael Timmins) 5:18
It's been over 15 years since the Cowboy Junkies dropped their sparse masterpiece The Trinity Session. Recorded with very little gear in the span of one evening, it introduced the group's signature "sepia-drone" delivery to the world, a style that's never really undergone any surgery. Early 21st Century Blues attempts to build a bridge between 1988 and 2005 with a new collection of standards, covers, and originals that employ that same minimalist approach and scant recording time -- five days this time around. Built around the themes of "war, violence, fear, greed, ignorance, and loss," the familial quartet, along with a handful of friends, presents the works of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Richie Havens, and U2 as filtered through the half-time heartbeat that is the Cowboy Junkies' trademark... All of the intimacy, heavy guitar reverb, smoky vocals, and snares kissed by brushes that fans have come to expect are here, rolling in like a harmless summer rain dressed in the dark clouds of a storm...


Although Adrian Belew has played with some of rock's biggest names over the years (Frank Zappa, David Bowie, the Talking Heads, King Crimson, etc.), he remains one of the most underrated and woefully overlooked guitarists of recent times. Like all great guitarists, Belew has his own recognizable style/sound (one that admittedly tends to be quirky and off-the-wall at times), and is an incredibly versatile player, as he's always found a way to make his signature style fit into a wide variety of musical genres: hard rock, funk, new wave, experimental, Beatlesque pop, and more...
Dead Dog on Asphalt (Adrian Belew) 4:05
Face to Face (Adrian Belew / Erick Cole) 3:03
Sex Nerve (Adrian Belew) 3:06
from Side Two 2005
Then came Side One, Belew's triumphant return to the type of experimental rock that first turned heads in his direction more than 20 years ago. Maybe it was the time away from his solo career proper; maybe it was hooking up with relative youngsters like Danny Carey and Les Claypool, but Belew seemed positively reinvigorated. That feeling continues with Side Two. No big guest stars on this one; Belew handles just about everything entirely solo. Longtime fans may be a bit surprised by the prevalence of electronic sounds, loops, and synthesized percussion, but Belew has really done a great job of incorporating them into his sound. The lyrics are deliberately sparse (inspired by Haiku), which allows for much more focus on the music and atmosphere. In fact, Belew has pretty much forsaken any "pop" aspirations here and fully pursued his more experimental muse, which will absolutely delight many of his longtime fans (and perhaps alienate the more pop-oriented ones a bit, though nothing here really qualifies as harsh or difficult listening). The album is filled with great sounds and textures, and there is plenty of ferocious guitar playing, as expected...



Midwest guitar-and-drum duo the Black Keys are known for their raw blues- and garage rock-infused sound. Influenced by performers like Junior Kimbrough, Howlin' Wolf, and Robert Johnson, the band emerged in Akron, Ohio, and gained early buzz with 2002's The Big Come Up before signing with cult blues label Fat Possum Records for 2003's Thickfreakness and 2004's Rubber Factory...
Keep Your Hands off Her (Junior Kimbrough) 3:06
Nobody But You (Junior Kimbrough) 5:21
Chulahoma is a stopgap EP from the Black Keys, a collection of six covers of songs by cult bluesman Junior Kimbrough, whose "Do the Rump" they covered on their 2002 debut, Big Come Up. Considering that this is the first time the blues-rock guitar-n-drums duo has devoted an album to nothing but straight-ahead blues songs, it wound seem logical that Chulahoma would be the bluesiest recording in their catalog, but the Black Keys aren't that simple. The six songs on this 28-minute EP are hardly replications of Kimbrough's gritty originals, nor do they have the dirty, punch-to-the-gut feel of any of the duo's three proper albums. Instead, this is the weirdest set of music the band has done to date, a trippy, murky excursion into territory that floats somewhere between the primal urgency of the duo's best work and the dark, moody psychedelia of late-'60s blues-rock... And while that might mean that Chulahoma doesn't necessarily sound like a kissing cousin to Kimbrough's originals, it does make it a greater, richer tribute than most cover albums, and it certainly proves that Auerbach's testimonial in the liner notes about how Junior Kimbrough changed his life is no lie.

2021. január 12., kedd

2020. március 29., vasárnap

"Kitten With a Whip" > 079 ALTER.NATION.MiX weekly favtraX 29-03-2020

ALTER.NATION #79
The Flytraps, Sorry, Waxahatchee, Kandace Springs, The Wants, Facs, Childish Gambino, Pearl Jam, Activity, Cable Ties, Deeper, Windy & Carl

weekly favtraX 
2 9 - 0 3 - 2 0 2 0



ALTER.NATION #79 on DEEZER

A raw and raucous female-dominated Orange County combo steeped in punk, garage, and hard rock... the Flytraps make hard-driving music with the sneering attitude and fifth-gear pace of old-school punk, the melodic and lyrical sensibilities of garage rock, and the beefy, overdriven attack of hard rock. Fronted by the gritty howl of singer and bassist Kristen Cooper and the crunchy guitar work of Beth Boyd, the Flytraps first emerged on the West Coast garage rock scene...
The Flytraps - Wild Card / Kitten With a Whip
Listen up, Tuff Gurls of the world: you have a new comrade, and she's a real asset to the team. Her name is Kristen Cooper, and she sings lead and plays bass in the Flytraps, a rockin' combo from Orange County, California whose first proper album, 2020's Wild Card, is a soul-satisfying blast of hard-rockin' attitude, howling guitars, and Cooper's flamethrower vocals... Cooper may be center stage on Wild Card, but her bandmates do more than their share to give her the raw power she needs. Beth Boyd and Chloe Z. Young are a heavyweight tag-team guitar combination, setting up a Wall of Sound that brings together the band's punk, garage, and hard rock influences with high style and enough crunch for a year's supply of corn flakes, while drummer Fabian Ruiz manages to not only keep up with these troublemakers, he gives them the fuel to push this music into orbit. You could say that the Flytraps are mining a sound and style that have been around since the Runaways bought their first guitars, and you wouldn't be wrong, but any story can sound fresh if it's told in the right way, and Wild Card tells the tale like a master... (Mark Deming)


A North London band with a mercurial style, Sorry was started by two best friends and first surfaced with a few mixtape-styled collections of home demos. They brought a wildly experimental sound influenced by everything from trip-hop, '90s alt rock, and early trap to their 2020 debut album 925.
Sorry - 925 / More
London indie shape-shifters Sorry first began getting attention with their self-released home demos that jumped from slinky trip-hop to nervous post-punk to dreamy shoegaze and more with each new song. An experimental pop group led by childhood friends Asha Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen, Sorry's willingness to try anything and everything with their songs was one of their most exciting attributes. In the hands of lesser songwriters, this anything-goes approach could have resulted in messy, disjointed ugliness, but Sorry threaded all their wildly disparate directions together with a vivid personality. Much like their early demos and singles, the wandering ideas on Sorry's debut album, 925, work because of how strong the songwriting is in whatever shape it takes... (Fred Thomas)


Following the breakup of a band and a relationship, songwriter Katie Crutchfield emerged with this confessional solo project.
Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud / Oxbow
Following the defiant alt-rock of her John Agnello-produced fourth album, Out in the Storm, Katie Crutchfield makes another adjustment to the course of her one-time bedroom project Waxahatchee with the warmer, more contemplative Saint Cloud. Shedding distortion in favor of a more easygoing, country-rock sensibility, the album's backing band is perhaps the best indicator of its sound; joining her throughout are Bonny Doon's Bill Lennox and Bobby Colombo, Bonny Light Horseman's Josh Kaufman, and Elvis Perkins in Dearland's Nick Kinsey. Saint Cloud's cover art underscores the approach with a photo of Crutchfield striking a pose on a pickup truck...


Refined singer/songwriter and keyboardist who wowed Prince, performed at Paisley Park, signed to Blue Note, and debuted in 2014.
Kandace Springs feat. David Sanborn- The Women Who Raised MeI Put a Spell on You
...Honoring the women who raised her has always been one of Springs' facets -- she has also evoked other inspirations less obviously with vocal nuances -- but the singer and pianist does it in concentrated form with her third Blue Note album. Like Soul Eyes, The Women Who Raised Me was produced by Larry Klein, who tracked it live with bassist Scott Colley, drummer Clarence Penn, and guitarist Steve Cardenas providing economical and softly luminous core support... (Andy Kellman)


At once confrontational and melodic, Brooklyn's the Wants make music informed by Anglophilic post-punk, the nonstop rhythms of industrial and techno, and Rust Belt grit. Featuring members of Bodega, the band shares a similar sense of political outrage, but channels it in more experimental and inward-looking ways on releases such as 2020's debut album Container.
The Wants - Container / Clearly a Crisis
The Wants – ‘Container’ review: punk-funkers’ debut is the soundtrack to a lockdown party
Fans of Interpol, Depeche Mode, LCD Soundsystem and Gang of Four – meet your favourite new band 
The album artwork for ‘Container’ displays cans of tinned food – stockpiling chic, if you will – while portentous song titles such as ‘Fear My Society’ and ‘Clearly A Crisis’ could hardly chime more with the doomy current climate if they arrived with vouchers for contraband hand sanitiser. Comprised of two members of New York art-punks Bodega – Madison Velding-VanDam and bassist Heather Elle – and completed by drummer Jason Gates, the confident self-produced debut from The Wants is riven with taut anxiety and a sense of looming dread. Yet it’s also a collection of razor-sharp pop songs that gleam through the gloom. They mine the sinuous basslines and euphoric bleakness of post-punk outfits such as Gang Of Four (with Velding-Van-Dam’s lyrics seemingly similarly preoccupied with stripping away the lies of capitalist and consumerist culture) and the dancefloor nous of bands from their home city (think LCD Soundsystem). So while ‘Clearly A Crisis’ apes Andy Gill’s distinctive, serrated slashes of guitar... (Gary Ryan)


Playing dark, propulsive music that stands at the intersection of post-punk and post-rock, Facs formed from the ashes of the like-minded Chicago outfit Disappears.
Facs - Void Moments  / Void Walker
For Facs, redefining themselves and their music is a way of life. Fortunately, they're consistently great at it. Void Moments is the band's second album with bassist Alianna Kalaba, and it feels like the stability of their lineup allowed them to be even more daring with their music. Even when they pared their sound down to its bones on Negative Houses, Facs have never been a simple proposition. However, on their third full-length they give the melodies, harmonies, and textures they introduced on Lifelike even more depth... on the standout "Void Walker," each member of Facs traces different trajectories that complement each other perfectly... (Heather Phares)


Childish Gambino - 3.15.2020Algorhythm
...The end result is a challenging, hooky, mysterious and odd record that feels like it was built out of pieces left over from a collision between Outkast, David Bowie, Sly and the Family Stone, and Prince. Add in bits borrowed from Flaming Lips, Tyler the Creator and Lee Perry, and it's a mad scientist's take on modern pop with Glover at the middle alternately crooning with honey-dipped sweetness, rapping menacingly, crying out in pain, and telling tales. The sounds may be somewhat familiar, but there's always a twist or left turn to keep things shocking. And they never stick to one idea when two or three would make things more interesting. Why not mix a totally hooky chorus with a frightening, growled robo-rap ("Algorithm")...

The prototypical Seattle grunge band, with a driving sound and a long run as one of the most principled and hard-working groups in rock.
Pearl Jam - Gigaton / Quick Escape
...Maybe it's the times, maybe it's the choice to switch producers -- the group swapped their longtime collaborator Brendan O'Brien for Josh Evans, who co-produced the album with the band -- but Gigaton hits with the strength of a full-force gale. Weather is a galvanizing concern on Gigaton, with Pearl Jam structuring their tenth album around the looming climate change crisis. There's little subtlety in this regard: the title refers to the amount of ice lost at the arctic poles, the album's cover depicts a melting glacier, and the lyrics are lousy with apocalyptic imagery, not all of it derived from the climate. Eddie Vedder repeatedly and explicitly wrangles with Donald J. Trump, his righteous anger spilling outside the confines of "Quick Escape"...


Meditative post-punk act comprised of former Grooms, Russian Baths, and Field Mouse members. Building on the legacy of its members' former groups Grooms, Russian Baths, and Field Mouse, Activity combines post-punk and electronics as fluently as they blur the boundaries between ominous and comforting moods on their 2020 debut, Unmask Whoever.
Activity - Unmask WhoeverThe Heartbeats
Mixing electronica and dream-pop, Activity is a new four-piece formed of Grooms duo Travis Johnson and Steve Levine, bassist Zoë Browne (Field Mouse) and guitarist Jess Rees (Russian Baths). Unmask Whoever, produced with the help of Psychic TV’s Jeff Berner, speaks to the quartet’s resolve to undermine and subvert the norms of modern indie-rock.


Fiercely D.I.Y. Melbourne-based three-piece delivering a blast of garage-infused punk rock. Led by the abrasive guitars and powerful vocals of Jenny McKenchie, Australian punks Cable Ties blur the lines of punk and rock, with angsty dissonance that has just a hint of AC/DC influence hiding beneath the noise. After forming in 2015, the band played often in Melbourne's D.I.Y. circles and captured their growling sound on albums like 2020's Far Enough.
Cable Ties - Far EnoughSandcastles
The second album from Melbourne, Australia’s Cable Ties brings a towering wall of ’70s hard rock and proto-punk to songs that explore hope, despair, and anger but offer no easy answers. Cable Ties’ fundamental elements—a driving rhythm section, anxious and emotive guitar playing, defiant, passionate songwriting, and Jenny McKechnie’s earthshaking voice—are complicated on Far Enough by nuance and ambivalence.


A Chicago quartet whose merging of jagged post-punk and spare, sophisticated indie rock earned regional acclaim in the mid-2010s, Deeper is the work of singer/guitarist Nic Gohl, guitarist Mike Clawson, bassist Drew McBride, and drummer Shiraz Bhatti. 
Deeper - Auto-PainThis Heat
Following two years after their eponymous debut, Auto-Pain marks a tonal shift into darker and sparser territory for Chicago post-punks Deeper. The jagged, anxious, but still organic feel that marked their first effort has given way to a harsher, almost mechanical approach that utilizes open space and repetition as a means to work through rather than stave off suffering. Initially conceived as an interconnected concept album, singer/guitarist Nic Gohl claims that he took inspiration from Aldous Huxley's dystopian classic Brave New World, in which a fictional government-issued drug called soma was used to numb all unwanted emotions...


Beloved Michigan space rock duo whose expansive, ethereal drones have influenced numerous ambient and post-rock artists.
Windy & Carl - Allegiance and Conviction / Crossing Over
Dearborn, Michigan's Windy & Carl have been crafting their singular form of free-flowing ambient space rock since the early 1990s, influencing legions of post-rock and drone musicians throughout the decades.
The duo have mostly remained active, often issuing limited cassettes, LPs, and digital releases through their own Blue Flea imprint or other small labels, but all of their main full-lengths from 1998's Depths onwards have appeared on Chicago's venerable Kranky. Arriving eight years after the dazzling We Will Always Be, 2020's Allegiance and Conviction is one of their most concise albums, with no songs reaching ten minutes, and in some ways it feels like one of their rawest works since the early days... Expressing a wide range of emotions in a short timespan, Allegiance and Conviction is a vivid, engrossing experience, and just as vital as every other entry in Windy & Carl's unbeatable catalog.


The Flytraps, Sorry, Waxahatchee, Kandace Springs, The Wants, Facs, Childish Gambino, Pearl Jam, Activity, Cable Ties, Deeper, Windy & Carl

2020. január 22., szerda

069 ALTER.NATION.MiX weekly favtraX 22-01-2020

ALTER.NATION #69
The Growlers, Rose City Band, Facs, Aoife Nessa Frances, Holy Fuck, Marcus King, Courteeners, Pearl Jam, Cursive, Mr. Elevator. Deserta, Laume

weekly favtraX 
2 2 - 0 1 - 2 0 2 0
"Die and Live Forever"





Self-described "Beach Goth" outfit specializes in surfy, California indie rock. Based out of Los Angeles, California, indie rockers the Growlers emerged in the early part of the 2010s, employing an atmospheric blend of reverb-laden surf rock, country-folk, and classic rock. 
The Growlers - Natural Affair / Die and Live Forever
...On Natural Affair, The Growlers (led by singer Brooks Nielsen and music director/guitarist Matt Taylor) advance their swampy DIY aesthetic into a sturdier, synthier, dancier sound, bolstered by Nielsen’s finest lyrics to date: social commentary, rhymes, and ruminations on the pleasures (and perils) of modern love. Self-producing the album, they worked with Topanga Canyon friend Kyle Mullarky (Allah-Las, Little Wings) to craft early versions of the songs, then with engineer Ivan Wayman (Father John Misty, The War on Drugs) and mixer Dave Cerminara (HEALTH, Weyes Blood) to bring a new level of polish and continuity...


Mellow and textural cosmic country jam band led by Moon Duo member Ripley Johnson.
Rose City Band - Rose City Band / Fog of Love
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...
Ripley Johnson


Dark, propulsive post-punk trio formed from the ashes of Chicago's Disappears.
FACS - Teenage Hive
Chicago noise-rock experimentalists FACS continue to churn out stunning new albums at a prolific clip. Last year, they one-upped their 2018 debut Negative Houses with the tense, pulverizing Lifelike. In 2020 they’ll be back again with LP3. Titled Void Moments... FACS are especially skilled at creating a sense of building pressure within their songs via dynamic, pummeling rhythms and layers of droning noise. It allows them to sound ominously loud in a unique way, violent but without the release that comes from cathartic riffs or breakdowns. They just get you swept up in the claustrophobia until you can hardly breathe... According to the band’s Brian Case, the song “is about not defining yourself so that other people can understand you. The evolved consciousness I’ve seen with my son and his generation/peer group regarding gender, identity, and human rights is the only hope for the future and informs all of Void Moments, which is ultimately an album about facing who we are.”


Dublin-based singer/songwriter who blends elegantly rendered folk with light psych flourishes. Aoife Nessa Frances is an Irish singer/songwriter based in North Dublin whose haunting and sometimes experimental blend of indie folk and lightly psychedelic pop is dramatically conveyed by her lush, dark-toned vocals and elegant arrangements
Aoife Nessa Frances - Land of No Junction / Heartbreak
A pastoral, dark-hued collection of gently psychedelic folk-based songs, Land of No Junction is the debut album from Irish singer/songwriter, Aoife Nessa Frances. Based in North Dublin, Frances cut her teeth in the mid-2010s as one-half of the shoegaze duo Princess before setting off on a more organic solo path a few years later. Beginning with an almost freeform approach, she slowly began honing a group of songs that intertwined abstract imagery, personal introspections, and subtle evocations of the natural world. Teaming up with collaborator and co-producer Cian Nugent, she formed a nimble and musically sympathetic ensemble which began refining and recording the material at Dublin's Oxford Lane Music Society studio over a period of a year-and-a-half...


Toronto-based electro-rock ensemble who perform using vintage synthesizers and unconventional instruments.
Holy Fuck - Deleter / Luxe
Toronto electro-rock group Holy Fuck have managed to hone their junk shop aesthetic into a surprisingly coherent form of warped pop music. Following the excellent 2016 full-length Congrats and the more dance-oriented companion EP Bird Brains, the band sharpen their focus even further on 2020's Deleter. Like their previous albums, this one was born from impromptu jams and sketches at rehearsals and soundchecks. At this point in their career, the group's chemistry is so strong that the music seems to naturally flow from them, and they've never sounded this tight before...


Ace guitarist who won a following with blues and jam band fans before honing his talents as a vocalist on his first solo album.
Marcus King - El Dorado / The Well
... Because together Auerbach and King make an impressive team. Auerbach is a prolific producer (I’m officially worried he’s not getting enough sleep), with a distinct perspective. While some producers melt into the background of their artists’ work, Auerbach takes a more collaborative approach, sharing some of himself in the tracks. That works well for King, giving him strong songs on which to focus his considerable vocal energies. The end-product is tunes that often sound like Turn Blue-era Black Keys with a better vocalist...


Manchester indie rockers with an alternately jangly and bombastic sound. Hailing from Manchester, indie rock quartet Courteeners received regular comparisons in the U.K. press to the leading lights of three previous waves of Mancunian Brit-pop: the Smiths, the Stone Roses, and Oasis. 
Courteeners - More. Again. Forever. / Heart Attack
Emerging from a dark and uncertain period following their 2016 effort, Mapping the Rendezvous, Manchester favorites Courteeners returned triumphant with their sleek, boundary-pushing sixth set, More. Again. Forever... At a tight ten songs, More. Again. Forever. is near perfect and not a song is wasted. Yet, rising above the pack, a pair of highlights demand special note... For a band that is beloved on home soil but often gets lost in the crop of late-2000s U.K. exports, this catalog highlight is ample evidence of artistic greatness and proves that, even after the darkest of days, beauty and light are on the horizon.


The prototypical Seattle grunge band, with a driving sound and a long run as one of the most principled and hard-working groups in rock.
Pearl Jam - Dance Of The Clairvoyants
Pearl Jam took their sweet time making Gigaton, their first album in almost seven years, and they’re taking their sweet time rolling it out too...
Now they’ve finally delivered the lead single, “Dance Of The Clairvoyants.” On Twitter, Jeff Ament writes, “‘Dance’ was a perfect storm of experimentation and real collaboration… We’ve opened some new doors creatively and that’s exciting.”


Challenging indie rock outfit with literate lyrics and an angular post-rock sound. Growing from emo beginnings into a far more refined and intricate beast, Cursive's oeuvre expanded over more than 20 years of constant development. Formed in Omaha, Nebraska in the mid-'90s as an unambitious project between friends,
Cursive - Get Fixed / Horror is a Human Being
In fact, some of the songs on Get Fixed were born out of the Vitriola sessions. Since forming in 1995, the Nebraska rock outfit has found frontman Tim Kasher performing with a rotating cast of bandmates. When he reunited with the project’s founding drummer, Clint Schnase, it sparked a bout of creativity that led to last year’s effort and a number of unused songs... “Also, sure, the absolutely fucking bonkers fist fuck this world has been getting with its pathetic, greedy rise of nationalism; yeah, that’s been driving me to put pen to paper as well. You feel like you’re getting pushed around, you want to push back. Not that we’re driven solely by political frustrations, not in the least. But as to the excess of songs as of late? Current events have certainly left their grimy fingerprints on some of the music we’ve written these last few years.”


Organ-led psych-pop outfit from Los Angeles with a trippy, lo-fi sound. From their beginnings as Mr. Elevator and the Brain Hotel (a Donovan reference,) the guitar-less California band later known by just Mr. Elevator delved deeply into the sounds of psychedelia from the strutting punk of the Doors to the dreamy haze of Pink Floyd to the sunny trippiness of a thousand paisley clad unknowns.
Mr. Elevator - Goodbye Blue Sky / Love Again
After two albums of keyboard-driven psych rock that shone like the flash of a paisley scarf on an overcast day, Mr. Elevator's third album Goodbye, Blue Sky is a much gloomier listening experience dominated by washes of synths, Tomas Dolas' downcast vocals, and melodies that don't just pluck at the heartstrings, but give them a big twang instead. It's a big change from the group's previous work, but Dolas guides things with the same questing, inspired (and guitar-free) approach as before and the results are as thrilling as a record that sounds too sad to get out of bed can be...


The project of singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Matthew Doty finds the sweet spot between synth pop and shoegaze.
Deserta - Black Aura My Sun / Be So Blue
With Black Aura My Sun, Deserta's Matthew Doty shows off his knowledge of several decades' worth of shoegaze and synth pop as well as his skill at reinterpreting those styles in ways that are familiar, but never boring. Much like Lust for Youth, Deserta excels at creating almost uncannily perfect recombinations of iconic sounds... As epic as the album gets, it's never heavy handed or obvious, and its breeziness makes it easier for Doty's listeners to get swept away with him. Black Aura My Sun is a promising debut, and anyone with a fondness for this kind of dreamy sound should find a lot to enjoy here.


The stage name of New Zealand electro-pop singer/songwriter Kim Pflaum. New Zealand's Kim Pflaum, aka Laumė, makes evocative, '80s-influenced electronic pop that combines lyrical hooks with arty atmosphere.
Laume - Waterbirth / Spells (Oedipusi)
The full-length debut album from Kim Pflaum, aka Laumė, 2020's Waterbirth, finds the New Zealand-born songwriter embracing a thoughtfully blissed-out mix of early-'80s-influenced soul, house music, and synth-based pop. It's a sound she first explored under the name Madeira on her 2016 EP Bad Humors, and to some degree before that as a founding member of the indie pop outfit Yumi Zouma. She has also collaborated on similar electronic-oriented projects with artists like Boycrush, Swimgood, Zimmer, and others, all of which worked to inform and broaden the scope of her own music...

The Growlers, Rose City Band, Facs, Aoife Nessa Frances, Holy Fuck, Marcus King, Courteeners, Pearl Jam, Cursive, Mr. Elevator. Deserta, Laume