Javelin – Jamz n Jemz (2009)

“Brooklyn-via-Providence duo Javelin, who mention being influenced by junk shops, flea markets, endless loop tapes, regional dance music, local partying, and New Edition.” -stereogum

“[Jamz n Jemz]…a CD-R they’ve been distributing at gigs, is flecked with brilliant little vignettes– almost every one a gem, many of them certifiable jams– that argue for the notion of a million little pieces coming together to make something much larger / …never letting their listener get too close to an idea or a groove for very long.” p4k

JAVELIN: A new addition to David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label. “Sounds range from broken dance jams to relaxed instrumental cut-ups, created with love on their MPCs. Long forgotten samples are chopped and re-assembled with drums, wooden recorders, old keyboards, handmade thumb pianos or whatever instruments are readily at hand. The result is a kind of mix tape fantasy (residing in the mythical “dollar bins of the future”), where R & B impresarios, amateur booty bass producers and Andean flautists hold equal sway.” OUR STAGE

Memory Tapes – Seek Magic (2009)

Philadelphia’s Dayve Hawk : Memory Cassette, Weird Tapes, or Memory Tapes

“… a record of achingly gorgeous dance-pop that captures both the joy of nostalgia and the melancholic sense that we’re grasping for good times increasingly out of reach…
Seek Magic is something of an inhabitable universe that proves there’s far more to Hawk’s sound than a way with reverb and passing familiarity with dance loops.” – p4k review

CFCF – Continent (2009)

hazy, nostalgic, otherworldly, unsettling

…an album that shifts effortlessly between several styles and sounds while fitting together as a diverse but cohesive package. There is common theme running through Continent’s songs even if it is not easy to pinpoint or describe.
The Montreal native has been creating tracks since his pre-teens and has only begun to present his music publicly in the last couple of years. CFCF’s career began to take off with his contest winning remix of Crystal Castles “Air War” and has followed up with a chain reaction of official remixes for talents such as Sally Shapiro, The Presets, HEALTH, The Teenagers and Hearts Revolution among many others.

“The songs range from mid-tempo nu-disco to balearic, house to ambient. Often the basis of the atmosphere was culled from films by Werner Herzog, Michael Mann, David Lynch, and David Cronenberg as well as countless musical influences including Arthur Russell, Saint Etienne, and Tangerine Dream.” -pressrelease

The Fader Magazine said in a recent interview with CFCF, “Like many people his age, Silver obsesses over childhood ephemera. But rather than sate his yearnings with late night eBay binges on Ghostbusters memorabilia, he resurrects ’80s keys and synths, modifying them into a hybrid of sturdy structure mixed with vintage minor chord melody. “There’s definitely a feeling I try to capture,’ [Silver] says. ‘This feeling of the last day of school, or it could be a decade I didn’t even live in. It doesn’t have to be specific to me.’

Royal Bangs – Let It Beep (2009)

“Let It Beep fuses two concepts: the electronic (thick synths and dance-y drum programming) and the pop/rock of the 1970s. Of the recording process, Schaefer says, “We were consulting a lot of 70s pop recordings for production ideas—Off The Wall-era Michael Jackson, the Bee Gees and Fleetwood Mac.” Schaefer also cites Bruce Springsteen, Thin Lizzy and the Blade Runner soundtrack as primary influences.” – their myspace

“The clattering synth chaos of We Breed Champions is still represented, especially on “1993” and “Gorilla King,” but the band’s sound has been refined and streamlined into shimmering, dance-oriented power pop. The group’s songwriting has developed into its most potent tool—“Poison Control,” “My Car Is Haunted,” and “Shit Xmas” all stand out as minor classics of bittersweet pop. It’s not wholly original, following in the footsteps of countless New Wave- and post-punk-inspired groups of the last seven or eight years, and incorporating some of the indie funk of TV on the Radio.” -thefirenote.blogspot.com

Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport (2009)

brain-melting, spaceship-powering tribal tr(d)ance jams from the future / adrenaline pumping, ear purging slab of towering, pristine noise / swirling atmospherics and percussive gunfire / ‘rarely have two men sounded so much like the end of the world’ / new wave of intelligent, literate British pop music / iridescent synths, psychedelic drone, distorted vocals and tribal rhythms

Zombi – Spirit Animal (2009)

“thematic instrumental rock
…epic builds and extra layers of instrumentation
any progressive rock band with synths” -theneedledrop, context-less quote snippets/adjective plunder

Zombi is a space rock duo from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, consisting of Steve Moore on bass and synthesizers and Anthony Paterra on drums. The group makes use of looping to create multi-layered compositions. They have toured with Don Caballero, Isis, Orthrelm, The Psychic Paramount, Daughters, Red Sparowes, These Arms Are Snakes and Trans Am.

Maserati – Passages (2009)

“Maserati’s reputation varies depending on who you ask: They are either one of dance music’s most viscerally addictive live performers, or underground rock’s most ingenious hybrid of U2’s guitar heroics, Pink Floyd’s arena-ready psych rock, and Daft Punk’s head-slamming, club-burning rhythms.”

What’s Up – Content Imagination (2009)

Styles: instrumental rock, video game-ish prog rock

“Content Imagination remains charming because most comparable instrumental music is presented either through a compressed, metallic sheen or the prism of video game music. And while What’s Up? are undeniably indebted to 8-bit compositions that came before them, it’s nice to hear an aesthetically-minded band grab the torch. With rock drums and distorted keyboards, they cast off the trappings of chiptune bands — namely nostalgia — and let each song sink or swim based on its own internal logic. Removed from the culture surrounding their music, What’s Up? simply know their way around a melody and how to present it in a relevant way, which counts for a lot these days.” -tinymixtapes.com

riyl: Adventure, Hella, Anamanaguchi, Truckasaurus, The Advantage, gdfx

CFCF – You Hear Colours 7″ (2009)

DOUBLE A SIDE DEBUT RELEASE FOR ACEPHALE RECORDS
PRESSED ON WHITE VINYL
STRICTLY LIMITED EDITION OF 500 COPIES WITH NO REPRESS

Fakebeat – Jellyfish EP

Progressive House / trance-flavored techno / 90’s German Rave / 8-bit