Noah and the Whale – Blue Skies Remixes

20 July 2009

Some more great music from Noah and the Whale (MySpace) here from our friends at Young and Lost Club. We’ve got two remixes of the Blue Skies, first single to come from their fantastic new album The First Days of Spring.

The first remix is by TBW favourites YACHT, who have added their characteristic slight jerky electric sound to the song, keeping the hopeful feeling of the original.

The second remix by Death to the Throne transforms the song into the territory of darker skitterish electronica that would have been out of place on the last Darker Side of Synths mixtape I put up a couple of days ago.

Noah and the Whale – Blue Skies (YACHT remix)
Noah and the Whale – Blue Skies (Death to the Throne remix)

The Darker Side of Synths with Pegase, James Rutledge, Future Islands and Ben Sollee

By: Tim

17 July 2009

In: Mixtapes, News & Leaks

6 comments

With the cold spell and the rain coming back to our shores, now seems a perfect time to showcase a few of the artists that showcase the other, slower, deeper and darker side of electronic music.

Pegase starts of the mix with a track that has soundtracked some of my more personal and introspective moments over the last few months after Bec over at Electrorash picked him up. Slow epic and atmospheric electronic movements demonstrating his skill makes Pegase one of the most exciting electronic artists of the moment.

Shark Speed offer a more positive note, but slower and more precise synth piece, with what sound like reversed drum crescendoing throughout to help the song build. Beautiful.

The Deer Tracks have a more chaotic sound to them that in parts remind me of Meursault, but this is all bedtime story electronic rather than moving in the folk direction.

James Rutledge seems to be getting a good amount of well deserved attention at the moment, as he lends his expansive electric atmospheric soundscapes that meander around its theme

Fever Ray offer a very simple song structure with constant reverberating bass and slow rhythm with that builds itself into your consciousness.

Future Islands here display their softer side in this ballad that could almost be Sigur Ross if it wasn’t for a vocal line that could be from a song from the 50s.

The Thrills have been remixed by the wonderful Sebastien Tellier to turn their pure pop ballad from a year or two ago with smooth sweeping synth gestures which brings a new emotional depth to the song.

Alaska in Winter keep a repetitive drum thump throughout this track in which the vocoded vocals blend into the synth melody which is one of my favourite songs for the 6am comedown shift.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone were previously featured on my summer playlist but here they play a ballad love lost with distorted drums to maintain their disjointed sound and keeping the song relatively upbeat.

James Delay picks up the rhythm a bit, with plenty of brass samples but staying with the slower and more relaxed feel that would be called “chill out” if that hadn’t become such a dirty term over the past couple of years.

Ben Sollee‘s abilities of penning lyrics and vocal melodies with depth and yet catchy are demonstrated to fantastic effect in this Computer v Banjo Remix.

You can also download the whole mix as a zip file:
The Darker Side of Synths

Summer days through the folkish haze vol.2

By: Tim

1 July 2009

In: Mixtapes, News & Leaks

10 comments

This has been a long time coming, but today I’ve got 2 CDs worth of amazing summer music. The first disc is more folk based in keeping with last summer’s mix, with the second less folky but just as perfect for the summer afternoons in the sunshine.

We have a few of the bands that were on the last mix popping up again, but most on here have not been featured on TBW before. As I’ve been out of the game for a while, some of these have been around for a few months, and then of course there are a couple of older tracks thrown in for good measure. Also, as some people haven’t noticed – you an download each mp3 individually by the right clicking and choosing “save target as”.

Summer days through the folkish haze vol.2

Coeur de Pirate starts off the mix with a blissful and beautifully simple summer piano based piece. The vocals in french create ideas of a simpler time of love and life in the rural countryside.

Gregory and the Hawk offer a great bit of acoustic summery pop. The vocals and very clean production may lend this to some soundtracks in the future, but don’t let that put you off. Easy and relaxed.

Tom Brosseau has crafted exactly what I love about folk music that evokes green summery bliss. It may just be Tom and his guitar and feels familiar, but it is summer folk perfection. Where’s that cider festival right now?

Run Toto Run are on here for a cover of Passion Pit’s debut single ‘Sleepyhead’, which was fantastic in its own right, but here they take out all the sweet electrics and replace them with what sounds like a fiddle and yet somehow avoids sounding too sickly sweet. Once the chorus breaks in, the sun should break through the clouds.

Marina & The Diamonds have been making a name for themselves over the last twelve months, with neon Gold putting out a few records. Here they offer some perfectly formed harmonious pop with a beat that you can’t help tapping your foot to.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone have the rough production sound that gives their music a certain innocence, and ending this track with an organ line from when the saints go marching just adds to that view.

Jeffrey Lewis is one of those artists that has been established for a while but as I don’t have a history of folk was only recently introduced to him from a Song by Toad podcast. This is cute, funny and reflective, and a track I can’t get out of, even if it is a good few years old.

Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground are on here again with another pop song that sounds like it could have been produced by the Beatles back in the days of Revolver. I may be a Stones man, but pop and folk music came together in the 60s and this owes a lot to that time. Who can’t resist playing a little Beatles at a BBQ?

Drew Helsinki (McConnell) is another from the last mix. Compared to the last one we featured this track is less haphazard, but again shows off his skills for producing simple pop songs that fit on any playlist.

Laura Barrett is on here for a cover of a Harry Nilsson track which brings a xylophone, violins and whistling into the mix, how could I resist such American folk perfection? It demonstrates how we have always looked back to simpler times with rose tinted spectacles even since the industrial revolution.

Small Crew have written a effortless pop song of hope and chasing dreams. Something that is part of that gentle summer emotional reflection that forms plenty of my summer days.

Jay Jay Pistolet are another cropping up from last year and again have produced some folk mastery with Oh Caroline. A just wondrous guitar based folk love song with harmonies and an harmonica that demonstrates why folk music is summer music.

Mumford & Sons have been making a name for themselves over the past 6 months or so with their 3 EPs, following in the footsteps of Noah and the Whale and Johnny Flynn. More great new English folk.

Aidan Moffat & The Best Ofs may be one of the best band names I’ve heard in a while and here give us some more folky summery perfection, with some simple brush drumming and harmonicas tripping us through Aiden’s wonderful deep vocal drawl that almosts makes me think of a happy folk version of Johnny Cash.

The Crookes finish off the first disc pop folk track of stories of youthful and blissful love. Simple structure and catchy rhythms and a few hand claps makes this a fitting end for the first section of the mix.

You can also download all 15 tracks as a zip file:
Summer Days through the Folkish Haze Vol.2 CD1

Ex Lovers starts of the second disc with an easy and almost tweepop track that reminds me of the good parts of Voxtrot from a few years ago. Now seems to be the perfect time for listening to such tracks if ever there was a time.

Heartless Bastards offer an effortless and timeless garage rock ballad with singer Erika Wennerstrom’s voice easily falling between that rock growl and pop harmony. Wonderful.

The Paper Cranes demonstrate their talents for crafting great pop songs here. They fold a number of clever riffs into one song that should sound over complicated, but somehow finds its way it being simple, cheery pop pop pop as they say on their MySpace

Doctors & Dealers are another to be able to make a very simple and familiar song feel somehow new and interesting with a few well placed harmonies and a foot-tapping beat throughout.

Elizabeth & The Catapult‘s Taller Children begins with just the vocals and drums making an easy pop song, before the rest of the band jumping in and making the whole thing a lot more interesting and showing off their rock and roll side which is always going to go down well with me.

Buke and Gass start off with a couple of pretty angular and disjointed riffs which slowly fall into place with the vocals. They are like a more pop YYYs, but with songs that blow the YYYs last album out the water.

Leopold And His Fiction have a track that reminds me of the Datsuns debut a good few years ago now. They might not have that bass driven growl, but write better 70s themed rock/pop than most actually did back in the decade.

The Fine Arts Showcase have written in ‘London, My Town’ one of my favourite tracks of the last six months. It is a wonderous rock/pop that sound familiar but new, rough round the edges and yet clean. I don’t how to pigeon-hole it right now and I don’t really want to, but you just need to listen.

Magic Wands are one of my bands to watch of the moment as they are regularly putting out catchy, danceable pop/rock and Black Magic shows off those quite impressive skills pretty well.

Goldhawks‘ ‘Where in the world’ may have been posted about within the last couple of months, but it is such an expansive and engrossing song that it fitted so well into this mix that I couldn’t leave it out.

Wolf Gang has a single out on the constantly amazing Neon Gold and have been on my radar for a little while now (thanks Angus). I have just been waiting for the mp3 and a good reason to share it. That is now, and here is a beautifully layered piece of unrepressed pop that should be on everyone’s summer soundtrack no-matter what genres you’re into.