USS Approved!

So coinciding with their tour, Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker have released a 7-track EP titled USS Approved containing new material and some old, re-recorded acoustic songs done up in USS style. I’m listening to it now, and be prepared: this is much more laid back than you are going to expect, if you are a long-time USS fan. It may just slap you in the face. As this is only my first listen and I haven’t made it all the way through yet, I don’t have an opinion yet.

Just to put it into perspective, remember the last few songs of Questamation? I’m talking Man Makes The Zoo, Stranger To Myself, and such. Well, so far it’s calmer than that, and by leaps and bounds. I am quite enjoying the tracks, however. I couldn’t get into Yo Hello Hurray because I’m so used to Ash ripping it solo on the acoustic (I’ll probably have the same issue with KIT) nope. Epic. The next few tracks are cool. Particularly Prefontaine.

<3 KEEPING IT TOGETHER.

PS: If ANYBODY IN THE WORLD has the USS Demo…

There is A Glitch in the System

Get ready kids, I’m about to drop some knowledge. There is new Brian Eno coming. It’s coming in the form of a super cool deluxe edition Hardback CD and 2xLP, with 24-bit digital download. Called Drums Between The Bells, it’s dropping on Independence Day (por los Americanos y Americanas). Check it out over at BLEEP, and grab it if you’ve got the cashflow (in which case I’m super jealous). In the meantime, if you follow that link there, you can listen to A Glitch in the System, a track (presumably) to be included in the album.

Whoa.

I’m listening to Battles right now, and holy shit. How have I never discovered this awesomeness before? I don’t know what you’d call it but it’s mostly instrumental rock-ish but heavy on the electronics. It’s also very bass and drum driven, which I am all about (see: Holy Fuck). They just put out (are putting out?) a new album as well, called Gloss Drop. Right now I am listening to their debut Battles, but I have Gloss Drop queued up for the near future, because this album is the shit.

YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Man, the new Foo Fighters album Wasting Light is unreal. Now, you may be all “Foo Fighters? AAH MY INDIE CRED!” however, you should really cut the bullshit and give this album a listen anyway. White Limo is on infinite loop in my brain right now. I just listened to it twice in a row. I don’t think that I’ve done such a thing since I was 12. It’s not just White Limo, either. The album is good in its entirety, and the first half of it in particular is exemplary. If you were expecting some sort of wordy review full of bullshit befitting an english thesis, you came to the wrong place. I am just spreading the word; The Foo Fighters are back like never before.

Untitled, Apparently

Yeah, I changed the layout, what of it? Why did I do it? Helvetica is boss, as is that image from APOD. Plus the old one was ugly (If you created it, I am sorry for the preceding comment).

A recent discovery of mine is Telefuzz. It’s a group of very modest following from Vancouver, headed by Don Verbrilli. They mostly do downtempo electronica, and they are very good. Check it.

Y’all should also be listening to:
- James Blake (James Blake)
- Acress (Splazsh)
- Teen Daze (Four More Years)
- Dntel (After Parties 1 and 2)
- The Flashbulb (Love As A Dark Hallway)
among others. Those are just the (more) recent releases that I’ve recently been digging. I just like talking about music I love way too much, and can’t do it that well without going off and listing things like that.

HOUSE!

I’ve been listening to a lot of house lately. Mostly newer styles of the genre, which tend to be more laid back and chill than your typical french touch artist. A few that I am really enjoying:

Actress – A nice tech-house type thing, their album Splazsh is a great listen.
Tom Flynn – This guy has no actual albums, but if you go single-digging you can’t fail; everything this guy does is pretty damn good. I’d check out Tom Flynn EP and Magia.

On a semi-related note, it has been pointed out to me that Burial and Four Tet are collaborating again. This time, however, they have included a vocalist. Who is that vocalist? Why, none other than Thom Yorke. They are all putting out a single, called Ego, backed with Mirror.

June 9th; Seeya Later

If you ever have happened across the Boards of Canada website, you are quite aware that it has not been updated in recent years. Had not, rather. In the discography section, there is a new entry as of this afternoon which is completely blank. You can see for yourself. Their most recent release was 2006′s Trans Canada Highway, and to the right of this is a box that leads to a blank image and no information.

Now, this is not unprecendented. The last time this happened, about a month later, Trans Canada Highway was announced, and shortly thereafter released. I don’t feel I need to say much more. The Hexagon Sun may indeed be rising.

Trying Some New Genres

Today I decided to look up recommendations for a few genres that I have heard a little of (or have heard of) and wanted more of. These would be post-rock, psytrance, and atmospheric black metal. Seems pretty scatterbrained, I guess, but recently I’ve been really enjoying post-rock, have felt that I could handle psytrance, and really wanted to try atmospheric metal. I think I may be getting slightly bored with IDM and whatever the hell else I listen to these days, so it’s time to try something new. Time for some Shpongle.

1001-Year-Old Oak Trees

So I’m sure you’ve all heard about The King of Limbs. For those of you who somehow lost the internet for a few days, it’s the name of a tree in some forest in Wiltshire. It’s also the name of Radiohead’s 8th studio album, being released digitally this Saturday. Yes, Saturday the 19th of February. Now, the digital version certainly is exciting, but pales in comparison to the physical copy. Dubbed “the world’s first (perhaps) newspaper album,” it will contain ridiculous amounts of artwork, a physical CD, and two 10″ clear vinyl 45′s. I totally ordered the shit out of it. You should too, if you have 48 dollars kicking around. HST kickbacks for the win.

Nick Rogers Goes to a Metal Show (Mostly for the Lulz)

It is widely known that I barely listen to any metal at all. It is also for that reason that I was totally down with going to a metal show the other day. The band playing was called Blackguard. They are classified as “folk metal.” If I’m going to do this, I’m clearly going to do it right. I actually quite enjoyed myself, however. Would I listen to Blackguard casually? No. But there is something about live music, and especially energetic live music, that just makes it the greatest thing in the world. This was not exception.

One thing I noticed, however, is that metal kids take themselves really seriously. Looking around I saw a sea of long-haired, beard-sporting guys in black, metal band t-shirts. They all do this weird sort of headbanging thing instead of dancing. There was also one over-the-top hipster-looking guy. I think he was lost. There weren’t many people in the club, and whenever a mosh pit started there would only be a few people in there, and it would be pretty tame as mosh pits go, which kind of sucked. But anyway, It was a fun time.