One lovely Nikko Gray passed this on to me:
New (free) project from Ken Barrientos (aka KenBts.) – producer/engineer/sound-designer for Blu's 'NoYork!', Bilal's 'Levels', Shafiq Husayn's 'En' A-Free-Ka', SA-RA, & J*DaVeY.
Vocals by Nikko Gray & Iman Omari.
*features vocal appearances by Bilal and TY$ (of Ty & Kory)
*features bonus remix of "Levels" by Bilal.
Cool chilldown material, only thing missing is the kaleidoscope.
Nice ethereal blend of beat/soul/electronic.
Dead Elephant are a doom/post-hardcore/noise trio from Italy.
Drawing influences from artists like Unsane, Cherubs, Jesus Lizard, Ash Ra Tempel and Neurosis, the trio established themselves with their 2005 debut 'Sing the Separation' -- landing them gigs with bands like Lair of the Minotaur and Zu (whose saxophonist contributed to their 2007 album 'Lowest Shared Descent').
Their latest 2011 release is entitled 'Thanatology', and in their words:
'In this order of things life sometimes is cruel. Sometimes we feel caught in a strange trap. The events appear to us as a dark spiral and our destiny is get lost in it. There, it’s very difficult to understand what is right and what is wrong. There, something must burn and you must accept to lose it. From the consciousness that some things must die in order to change is born Thanatology...
Musically the core of the album is represented by the meeting between the Dead Elephant music approach and the funeral march of South Italy.'
Riddlore? is an underground producer/MC/DJ active since 1983. I checked him out after some affiliation with Aceyalone, leading me to his latest 2011 output, 'The West Wing'. The album is Riddlore's? fourth solo full-length, his first release since his self-titled in 2003.
Hoping 'The West Wing' gets some love -- tight production and really unorthodox styles throughout.
Has definitely made me try to track down his previous material.
Latest release from Alabama-Man(s) 13ghosts. Features a reworked version of "I Have Brought Fire" from their initial EP 'We Are The Sun' (the song that got me hooked in the first place). All in all some great storytelling and consistency in twang-tinge rock; a handful of my favorites stretching past the five minute mark like "Dr. Bill".
Underhill Records
yodaka were a Japanese post-rock band consisting of Kashiwa Daisuke (Guitar/Programming), Nema Takeshi (Guitar/Synth), Takimoto Nozomu (Bass) and Yamamoto Hironobu (Drums).
This collection of five songs is the only material around (couldn't find a tracklisting or release info), and what it lacks in audio quality it makes up for in...audio quality.
Pretty cool stuff -- Daisuke's programming edge helps give it a unique feel for post-rock.
Def recommend looking into his latest piano-only release too.
Not return--punishment
Freshest full length from Nine, and he keeps getting better. The production on this is stellar pavement-pounding work, and lyrically the spit keeps it shining. He released another mixtape 'Shot Fired' previous (to 'Quinine') that I can't track down to buy/listen but the singles/stabs for that are nice too.
From Fiction was a tight four-piece of mathy rock/post-punk from Toronto. They released one album, under the production of Steve Albini, 'Bloodwork', before disbanding later in the same year (2005).
Fans of These Arms Are Snakes, Faraquet, etc., will probably dig.
Seven That Spells are a foundation three-piece of experimental/psych-rock from Croatia.
'Black Om Rising' is their 2008 full-length -- a frenzied and cryptic collision akin to The Psychic Paramount and The Mars Volta; lots of extended grooves, beasty bass, tasteful sax, adjective noun+verb...an energetic and often bombastic rock-warp lined in dark trimming.
They have a pretty robust discography under the radar, (hopefully) calling attention with affiliation/shows with Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mothers Temple.
Their new full-length, 'Death And Resurrection Of Krautrock' is scheduled to come out this month (of the three? releases from them so far this year), releasing the song/video for "AUM" as a little early somN-smthN.
Latest album from Buffalo Daughter.
This was definitely in my favorites of 2010 -- and probably my favorite release so far from BD.
The vocals on this are just so smooth -- Sugar & Yumiko Ohno bounce back and forth/together so well, and even with the absence of MoOoG (vocally), they gained ex-Cibo Matto vocalist Miho Hatori, who compliments "The Battle Field In My Head"...probably my favorite BD track to date (re: hawt).
Per their person, the album mixes it up fresh track to track -- some angular instrumentals, some skewed beats; just generally the same lovable stylized weirdness that won me over in the first place -- just blown up to bigger proportions.
Raining Bloop
Rival Tribes are a (studio) three-piece from New York.
They released their six-track EP 'Tiger Print' in February, an energetic surf-sounding/math-mash of experimental rock. Vocals are rare and welcome, sometimes spruced to effects and interjected off the keys. Overall fifteen minutes of cool warping in the sun.
The Psychic Paramount - "II" CD/LP
Been replaying the electronic/genre-mash work of Naohiro Fujikawa's Bisk, specifically the only album I'd had/heard, 'Time'.
I decided to dig a little deeper and purchase his other stuff (sans compilations)-- his four full-lengths spanning from 1996 to 2000 whereafter Bisk was inactive.
All of these have something to offer; his 1997 work 'Strange or Funny-HaHa?' is probably his most ambitious for how many flavors he tries to pack in the blender, so I can't blame him for a slightly jagged chunk of material in the mix...
Only given preliminary listens, but really dug all with 1998's 'Ticklish Matters' the potential favorite. No two albums really sound alike though (or two songs), so something for everyone looking for a unique cut-up of abstract/IDM/electronic goodness.
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