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CHAD VALLEY’S EQUATORIAL ULTRAVOX EP

Today, we’d like to showcase Oxford’s Chad Valley, This intrepid beatmaker cropped up early on when chillwave was just getting going, making a little known name for himself relating childhood memories that we all share as the lead vocalist of Jonquil. Singles from Balearic singer Hugo Manuel’s solo project were featured on the occasional mix in 2010, most notably “Portuguese Solid Summer”, from the Chad Valley EP. His latest EP, Equatorial Ultravox, was released over a year ago to some degree of hipsteriffic acclaim. Creating hi-fi tropicalia similar to acts like Korallreven and Southern Shores, piping in some lush synth tones, and topping it all off with his consummate vocalization is what dignifies Chad Valley and sets him apart from other artists in the same vein. Comparisons to chillwave gods such as Neon Indian and Toro y Moi are unavoidable, the key difference being Valley’s thick, clear washes of synth sound and the sentimental, meditative nature of his Polaroid-esque jams disguised beneath the verse-chorus-verse structure. While the entirety of this whole synthwave scene that we know and love seems to be built around the summer season, the marriage of acoustic and electronic vibes with his luxuriant crooning on the Equatorial Ultravox EP evoke a strong feeling of autumn and of the upcoming holiday season, what with their sentimentality and pleasantry. The above embedded video for unofficial single “Shell Suite”, directed by one Lucy Bridger, showcases the whimsical, pastoral moments of time frozen and encapsulated in any one of the many non-Western indietronic tunes by this artist. Try to ignore the corny dancing that it seems like every bitch that’s lost in her own little world likes to dance, and enjoy the crashing choruses of one of the several slow motion bangers present on Chad Valley’s most recent release, the carefully hidden Equatorial Ultravox EP. Do tha right thing, and grab it on LP or digital download by way of iTunes, Amazon, or Darla Records.

MP3 Download of “Shell Suite”, by Chad Valley

MP3 Download of “Fast Challenges”, by Chad Valley

LETTING UP DESPITE GREAT FAULTS - “VISIONS”

BIRP! put out its September playlist recently, replete with every remotely hipsteriffic jam that came out in the last month at all ever. We love those guys. They are consummate curators of legit new beats, but the problem is that we’re picky, and we usually end up torrenting, like, ten tunes out of the whole batch. This track by Austin, Texas’ Letting Up Despite Great Faults piqued our collective interest right off the bat, and we found ourselves even further taken with the song after the first listen. They’ve always comfortably ridden the fence between shoegaze and indietronic music, and they’ve had that sweet, sentimental wall-of-sound approach cornered ever since the release of 2006’s Movement EP. “Visions”, the above jam, retains the androgynous vocalization, the atypical song structure, and the corner arcade bloops and bleeps that make Letting Up Despite Great Faults quasi-famous. With this new iteration of their sound, however, concentrated effort seems to be made to effect that classic early 90’s 4AD Records sound, achieved by piping in some Swervedriver-esque guitar fuzz and mixing the vocals a little higher. “Visions” honestly sounds like what The Naked and Famous’ next album might resemble if someone gaslit them with The Radio Dept.’s portfolio on an endless loop. Heady and nostalgic, do tha right thing, and give Letting Up Despite Great Faults’ latest indie-chillgaze single a spin, and be on the lookout for their next album, Untogether, due to be self-released on October 9th.

MP3 Download of “Visions”, by Letting Up Despite Great Faults

TEENGIRL FANTASY’S TRACER

Ever since finding out that Teengirl Fantasy had a follow up to 7 AM in the works, we’ve all been constantly checking our iPhone calendar apps and reading every worthless bit of XLR8R news leaked about the duo. Just kidding, guys. Good on you. Of the surprisingly large palette of chillwave and experimental electronic acts and artists, it is a tragedy that Logan Takahashi and Nick Weiss (Teengirl Fantasy) don’t get as much exposure as some of the other names in the field do. Though their vibes can often be handily filed away into that bulky folder of this new wave of retro electronic music that we’re experiencing, Teengirl Fantasy takes it a step further. They command a mastery of hypnotizing hipster dance music that shines throughout everything they’ve created on their self-released CD-R, their singles, and their official debut full-length album 7 AM. The aforementioned album was kind of a BFD to us, by the way.

In short, the new album, Tracer, which was officially released in the US yesterday, streamlines that signature Teengirl Fantasy technique of post-rock-esque build and release, while still managing to cast off the audio haze and melodrama present in the debut album. Gone are the ghostly wails and cries from the mother land, replaced instead with lucid, but logical lyrics. The passionate soulful vocals of Shannon Funchess in “Dancing in Slow Motion” have been traded in for more straightforward, resolute yearnings by Kelela, Panda Bear, and Romanthony. The instrumentation in Tracer is just as percussion-heavy as the previous album’s, except with  a unique focus on vintage jungle-sounding beats, instead of the maddening four-on-the-floor basslines in 7 AM. Overall, the tone of Teengirl Fantasy’s newest release is uniformly ethereal, but very primitive. Early nineties Warp Records IDM influences shine through quite noticeably, and flute synth samples abound, resulting in a very nostalgic MIDI-esque feel, like what Casa del Mirto and LA Vampires by Octo Octa have been dabbling in lately. While retaining the mood and modus operandi of the debut album, Tracer trades in the heavy atmospherics for a measured concentration on primal beatmaking’s early days. I, for one, personally kind of miss the sassy melodrama of jams like “Floor to Floor” and “Cheaters”, but the heavily layered safari beats present in tunes like “Pyjama” and “End” on Tracer are living proof that this downtempo duo is rapidly evolving, honing its sound with every new breath. Listen closely, and you can hear the two tweaking and fine-tuning every track. Don’t look for singles on the album; just listen to it as a whole. Do tha right thing, and grab a copy of Teengirl Fantasy’s newest submission, Tracer, via iTunes, Amazon, or True Panther Records, if you consider yourself a fan of chillwave, downtempo, IDM, or experimental instrumental music in general.

02.   SMALL BLACK’S MOON KILLER MIXTAPE

On 11/11/11, a day that occurs probably once in a billion years, Small Black released the much anticipated MOON KILLER MIXTAPE. On a night that actually featured a full moon in their native Brooklyn, NY, this foursome of chillwaving trailblazers released for free a veritable onslaught of exciting new experiments with sound for us rabid consumers of current hipster art. In the short span of probably three years or less, the vector of this generation’s alternative music his veered from lo-fi pop to surf rock to retro downtempo and now on to this hip form of funk-and-R&B revival. Happily marching at the frontline, Brooklyn’s Small Black does anything but disappoint with this brilliant new release.

MOON KILLER MIXTAPE is neither an LP nor an EP, and you couldn’t really get away with calling it a mini-album either, hence the label “mixtape”. The short, but sizable outing features Heems of Das Racist as a prominent guest vocalist in its two wicked primary tracks, the above featured “Two Rivers” (released early to much internet buzz) and “Sunday Son”. In addition to that collaboration, one particular track, “Love’s Not Enough”, is a climactic rework of Nicki Minaj’s “Your Love”. It’s hands down my personal favorite tune on the whole release, if you’re into that blurring-of-pop-and-underground subgenre (à la Korallreven’s remix of Britney Spears’ “Till the World Ends”). There are two remixes of older Small Black favorites by Phonetag and Star Slinger tacked onto the end of the mixtape, and the remainder of the album consists of a couple more original works and several dreamy segues composed primarily of funky synths, found sound, and fucked up samples, including one of a Carpenters classic. Born of the romanticized inner city childhood we saw on TV and wished we had for realsies, Small Black’s MOON KILLER MIXTAPE is short, sweet, and very emotional. The instrumentation is equal parts nostalgic and driving, evoking images of late night strolls down ideally well-lit alleys with the gang, the smells of Chinese food and taxi exhaust in the air, under a full moon, of course. It is a mixtape for the melting pot of urban youth, who desperately need to study for that math test tomorrow, but can’t seem to quit sneaking down the fire escape to their basketball courts, their ghettoblasters, and their illicit drugs. Do tha right thing, and visit this link for the runner up in our top ten countdown of the best albums we’ve heard in the past year: Small Black’s free MOON KILLER MIXTAPE, so you can howl and jam with the best of them tonight.

MP3 Download of “Two Rivers”, by Small Black

MP3 Download of “Love’s Not Enough”, by Small Black

04.   RIMAR’S HIGHER GROUND

Beginning with the opening strains of this refreshing record, it’s clear that Rimar (or RIM4R, as I guess he prefers to be called) knows how to jam. Higher Ground is modern-day funk at its apex, dripping with romance and shining with inner light. Standout opener and title track “Higher Ground” was all abuzz among the hipster blogosphere a couple of months ago when the 12” was released, and it kicked so much cracker ass that I’m a little ashamed that it took me this long to hop on the hip bandwagon. Rimar is an electronic jack of all trades, it seems. He uses all of the tools of the trade to effect a super-slick, energizing product. Several of the first few songs on the 12” showcase much loved lo-fi editing techniques (à la 18 Carat Affair, Teams) along with the twangy Balearic guitar that you might recognize from bass-heavy artists like Toro y Moi and Star Slinger. The artist then rounds out the picture with the conservative application of samples of chill androgynous vocals (think Southern Shores with Chad Bundick as the vocalist). Rimar is synth-funk with some serious tropicalia influences, and Higher Ground is seriously not to be missed.

This Guardian UK article says it quite well, I think:

“On Higher Ground Rimar has created a monument to ancient R&B (though not quite as ancient as the 60s variety), the slick, smooth, sumptuous electro-funk that preceded New Jack Swing. He takes the beats and the basslines from original, long-forgotten hits from that era, then coats them in memory goo. You’ve perhaps read about chillrave (and we believe we used the term first here); this is chillfunk.

The above embedded video for the eponymous opener features our leading man in his adventures in Hipsterlandia, breathing out the sultriest of styles, among with liberal swathes of soft focus and tilt-shift techniques. Fantastically edited and bursting with color and style, the official video for “Higher Ground” couldn’t better communicate the degree of heart and soul that this young new artist pours into his retro reinterpretations. Do tha right thing, kids, and get your copy of the full-length for only $5 via Rimar’s Bandcamp. You get a free digital download, so you can jam it at stressful intersections, and a vinyl copy, so you can make love to ya bitch wit style!

MP3 Download of “Higher Ground”, by Rimar

MP3 Download of “We Play Games”, by Rimar

PURO INSTINCT - “STILYAGI”

I’m really grooving on this hipsteriffic track from last March by Puro Instinct. Featuring chillwave godfather Ariel Pink, the overtly minor-sounding guitar picking, vocals, and piano plinking of “Stilyagi” is matched only by the synth bubbling, the subtle shoegaze influence, and the vintage percussion claps during the triumphant chorus. Check out the video for plenty of shots of those dreamy Kaplan sisters (Piper and Skylar), some androgynous Miami Vice fashion victims, and some “2001: A Space Odyssey“-esque graphics. While “Stilyagi”, by Puro Instinct (formerly Pearl Harbor) may not exactly define your life, it’s a more than suitable addition to the growing collection of woozy chillwave jams. Do tha right thing, and grab a free MP3 of this unofficial single from side A of full-length Headbangers in Ecstasy here, along with a legit Datahowler rework of Ariel Pink’s “Round and Round” below the bump.

MP3 Download of “Stilyagi”, by Puro Instinct (from Headbangers in Ecstasy)

MP3 Download of “Round and Round (Datahowler edit), by Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti (from Melt!)