HYPE // TWELVE

First Rate People’s It’s Never Not Happening was a fairly decent EP. It sounded way too Folky for my taste at times but the more Pop-orientated tracks were almost perfect. This is a new track from them called Gentleman’s Club, and it’s inspired by Skins and features guest vocals by the dude from Born Ruffians apparently, although I can’t hear them for the life of me. Either way it’s a really solid track.

Gentleman’s Club - First Rate People

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Something I Can Reach is a catchy Chillwave/Lo-Fi number from GhostWaves. I think that Chillwave and Lo-Fi bands need to stop picking their names from the same 5 words everytime, it’s starting to get confusing between Beach Fossils, Beach House, Memory Tapes, Memoryhouse, Wavves, GhostWaves, NightWaves, Wild Nothing, Cloud Nothings etc.

Something I Can Reach - GhostWaves

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Homee is a chilled out jam from Hooray! The dreamlike, indecipherable vocals and birdsong samples only add to the nostalgic, relaxed feel of an already tranquil song. It’s got some great bongo drum work in there as well, which is always tough to pull off.

Homee - Hooray!

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Beach Fossils have a new double A-side headed our way called Face It / Distance. I’m not going to beat around the bush, everyone has already got it. And it’s all quality. Face It features vocals from the band’s bassist, just to mix things up a bit, and Distance sounds like it could have been a track ripped straight from the self titled debut released earlier this year. Here’s Distance. Make sure you buy it cause they are both stellar tracks.

Distance - Beach Fossils

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People are positively losing their shit over Toro y Moi’s side project, Les Sins. He’s moved away from the Chillwave zone and firmly into the French House Revival quadrant. Lina, one of a handful of tracks floating around the internet right now, is mad good. And if it’s reflective of the quality of subsequent releases from Les Sins, then Chaz Bundick is some sort of demi-god.

Lina - Les Sins

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I’m late to the party on this one, but The Count & Sinden recently collaborated with Mystery Jets for their album, Mega Mega Mega. And it’s a funky cowbell driven dance monster. I thought Mystery Jets had exhausted all of their dance potential with Crosswords, but I’m glad to be proven wrong.

After Dark - The Count & Sinden

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Blackbird Blackbird recently utilised an Emily Reo sample for one of their songs off Modern Disbelief. I think that Emily Reo is great for collaborations, but her individual work has never resonated with me. This song is no exception; it’s a perfect combination. Really liking this new stuff from Blackbird Blackbird too.

Fade To White - Blackbird Blackbird

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Egyptian Hip Hop’s Some Reptiles Grew Wings is one of the most balanced EPs released this year. All four tracks are incredible I think. Native, the 6 minute closer, is a particular highlight. Listening to it reminds me so much of The Cure in their mid 80’s stage, more specifically, the work on The Head On The Door. Alex Hewitt’s hushed growl is always incredibly compelling, and especially so on Native. Furthermore, SRGW also has a final mix of Rad Pitt, a track I always thought was some focused refinement away from being an amazing song. And they did it perfectly.

Native - Egyptian Hip Hop

Rad Pitt - Egyptian Hip Hop

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Walsh is the side project of Coolrunnings’ Brandon Biondo. It’s far more electronic than the band’s usual work, and clearly an outlet for his desire to experiment with less organic compositions. My favourite on the Smoke Weed About It EP is Untitled, it features vocals from Matt Cothran. It’s more chillwave than most of the other songs on there, and a stark contrast to Luxury, which is a Lo-Fi Hip-Hop number with Squadda Bambino. Both are awesome.

Untitled - Walsh

Luxury - Walsh

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Keeping the Coolrunnings tracks coming here, so bear with me. This one is a remix of a track from Kisses amazing (yet largely ignored) debut, The Heart Of The Nightlife. The track is People Can Do The Most Amazing Things, and Coolrunnings have messed the whole thing up in a really cool way. It has a slow, lumbering beat, and the vocals, while at first sound almost out of time, quickly grow on you. It’s a worthy and appropriately varied remix to an already great song.

People Can Do The Most Amazing Things (Coolrunnings Mix) - Kisses

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And finally from Coolrunnings, is a new song from them called I Can Be Dreamy. It’s exciting to see the guys listening to their new, but still unreleased tracks on their last.fm profiles, because it means that they are coming very soon. Looks like an EP’s worth of new material. I Can Be Dreamy blends the styling of both their previous two Extended Plays with the more polished sound of I Am You, and it’s basically exactly the direction I hoped they would go in.

I Can Be Dreamy - Coolrunnings

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Atlantic At Pacific has a very Memory Cassette sound to him. Weddings is an instrumental track that starts quite slow and then really picks up about 50 seconds in. He seems like the kind of artist that many might miss out on hearing because of the nature of the music, don’t make that mistake.

Weddings - Atlantic At Pacific

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My Friend Wallis is a Lo-Fi artist whose music reminds me a whole lot of Memoryhouse. Especially in These Moments. Much of her work also has an unmistakable tropical vibe to it. Really cool basically. Check her out.

These Moments - My Friend Wallis

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