L’Equipe du Son - Lesson 1 (by SilhouetteMusicLabel)

Tusen Bita by Burning God Little

Loving this lil EP from Norway’s Burning God Little.  It makes me want to go train jumping with this young lad.  Highly Recommended.

Tromsø is a dark place. Being one of the most northern cities in the world, it is also known as The Arctic City. This is also, famously, the land of the midnight sun, and when it never gets dark it’s easy to forget about sleep. It’s in this close contact with nature, light and sleep that Burning God Little, aka Martin Hartgen, found his interest in the digital textures that dominates ‘Notes On Being Snowblind’.

The lead single ’Tusen Bita’ is placed right inside the contradiction that makes up Tromsø vs. the digital world. It’s artificial drum beat, super low bass booms, and dream-state synthesizer fizz all gathers up into one of the EP’s many sky-sized swoons. The lyrics, in his native dialect, distort images of longing and love, but also physical damage. You never quite know where this fits, as it possesses both the bedsit mournfulness of sad pop music and punchy energy and aggression of happy pop music.

Far From Home by Believers

I can’t get enough of this set of songs from Columbia, MO’s Believers.  Perfect for road trips or to pair up with that Daughn Gibson album that’s been in our rotation.  Together, they are making my week.

From the Believers Soundcloud:

“…we’d like you to look at this as a demo; we did the best we could and we know you could certainly carry our work to an even higher level. Please know that this is just a tiny smattering of the many complete songs we perform live.

Many thanks for your ears! We hope to god/gods/void you enjoy it.”

And here’s a choice track from that mofo D Gibby:

Family by Bullion

We fell in love with Bullion a few years ago after hearing his Pet Sounds - J Dilla mash-up “Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee.” 

His latest EP surprisingly features way more singing than I expected - but it’s still fantastic. 

Give “Love Me Oh Please Love Me” a listen. 

Lost Somewhere by Tanlines

Last night I caught Tanlines last stop on their first national tour.  The Echo (Los Angeles) was packed and the duo treated the sweaty crowd to a brand-new original, a couple old tunes and many tracks off their debut LP, Mixed Emotions.

In typical Tanlines style, between each song there was comical banter from percussionist/keyboardist/samplist Jesse Cohen, while singer/guitarist Eric Emm stood quietly on the side.  One of the best lines was “I love you guys.  I really do.  I don’t lie on stage ever.  It’s part of my onstage ‘act’.”  The intended irony was lost on most the crowd.

I was slightly disappointed that one of my favorite tracks, “Lost Somewhere” (posted above), didn’t make it into the set.  I really want to know if the melodic/lyric similarity to The Beach Boys “I Know There’s An Answer” was an intentional hommage to Brian Wilson or maybe a subconscious backwash-ripple from being intrenched in Pet Sounds.

For yr own investigation I created this tubechop.  If you play “Lost Somewhere” (above) at the 1:00 minute marker, it’s pretty obvious.

Lastly, I couldn’t help to notice the similarity of the Tanlines album art to Tears For Fears’ album art for the epic Songs from the Big Chair.  Musically they have some similarities as well, most notably on “Not the Same”.  At a parking lot SXSW show in 2010, frontman Jesse stated, “we are like Tears for Fears on beers”.

Anyway, I love these guys and hope they come back with a sophomore effort as soon as possible.

Mr. Stellakis by Theo Bass.

Definitely written about this guy.