Posted in Electronic/Ambient

Stream: Unknown Mortal Orchestra- II

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On February 5th, Unknown Mortal Orchestra will be releasing their sophomore record II. Unknown Mortal Orchestra is a three piece American/New Zealand indie rock band formed by Ruban Nielson in 2010.  With the release of their first track “Ffunny Ffriends” they created mass amounts of buzz throughout the indie scene, everyone wanted to know who was behind this lo-fi/psychedelic single.  II is a wonderfully breezy, psychedelic record. It’s full of poppy guitar riffs that blend well with the soft and mysterious falsetto vocals. Tracks like “The Opposite Afternoon” and “From the Sun” are some of my favorites and relate to some of R. Stevie  Moore’s work, but with a more well rounded sound. The record flows very nicely and is full of tracks that don’t disappoint.

Their new record II, is available for streaming exclusively through NPR and can be preordered from their website. They begin touring February 2nd, all of their February dates are available below, the dates to the rest of their tour are also available on their website.

Tour Dates:
Feb  02 – Zepp Divercity (Tokyo, Japan)

Feb 06 – Trix Club (Antwerp, Belgium)

Feb 07 – Paradiso (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Feb 08 – Prince Charles (Berlin, Germany)

Feb 13 – Great American Music Hall (San Francisco, CA)

Feb 14 – Constellation Room (Santa Ana, CA)

Feb 15 – Echoplex (Los Angeles, CA)

Feb 16 – Beauty Bar (Las Vegas, NV)

Feb 18 – Lowbrow Palace (El Paso, TX)

Feb 19 – The Korova (San Antonio, TX)

Feb 20 – The Mohawk (Austin, TX)

Feb 21 – Fitzgerald’s (Houston, TX)

Feb 22 – One Eyed Jacks (New Orleans, LA)

Feb 23 – 529 (Atlanta, GA)

Feb 27 – Rock & Roll Hotel (Washington, DC)

Feb 28 – Bowery Ballroom (New York, NY)

Mar 01 – First Unitarian Church (Phildelphia, PA)

 

 

Listen: Pill Friends – “Forgetting You”

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Next week Pill Friends will release their EP Murder Me For My Sins. Pill Friends is a three piece lo-fi band out of Philadelphia, incorporating cello, drums and guitar. While their number of releases are limited, their style varies greatly from song to song. They recently released Forgetting You, one of the featured tracks on the new EP. The track has a very ambient feel to it, which is a completely different direction compared to songs like Bummertime and Pillspillspills. Despite lack of a completeness factor to each release, Pill Friends are admirably something different to add to your music library. The punk/lo-fi feeling is energizing and catchy. Stream or download Forgetting You below and be sure to check out the full EP sometime next week and download their previous EP for free on their Bandcamp.

Listen: The Arab Springs – “Radost Moya”

The Arab Springs, Ross Devlin’s ambient experimental pop project recently unveiled their debut album Radost Moya. Devlin known for his work under the Wolf Fluorescence moniker, crafts drone-filled numbers with the vocal stylings of Ellery Roberts formerly from the now deceased WU LYF. Similarly Devlin uses his voice as an instrument to compliment the tracks’ layers swapping between airy and impassioned vocals. Combining drum loops, a variety of synthesiser melodies, and surreal lyrics Radost Moya floats seamlessly from track to track in a dreamlike sonic journey.

In Devlin’s own words about the release, “I recorded everything myself – some digital and some analog – mostly over this past summer. I was inspired to not really care if there’s a little bit of ugliness in my music which is always something that I’ve been conscious of. If you read any of the lyrics, the songs are mostly pretty gloomy, but there’s hope in them, and that’s where the name The Arab Springs came from.” You can download the album on a ‘Name Your Price’ basis from The Arab Springs’ Bandcamp and stream it above. For more information follow their Facebook page.

Watch: A Year With Armin van Buuren


Armin van Buuren, the number one DJ for a consecutive 4 years from 2007 – 2011, gives his fans a 1 hour documentary about his life right now as a superstar producer/DJ. The documentary humanizes Armin van Buuren, even though we think of him as a huge idol. It shows his personal life with his wife and daughter, while juggling the dates and months that he will be on tour for his massive fanbase. This could easily be one of my favorite documentaries about a DJ right now as it captures the personality of a great DJ. Another great documentary to watch is Take One, which is a documentary about the Swedish House Mafia.

Listen: Sultan & Ned Shepard feat. Sia, Usher, Martin Solveig – Walls (3LAU Vocal Edit)

3LAU, a producer/DJ and one of the best mashup artists in the EDM scene right now, gives a free track for his fans. Adding vocals to Sultan & Ned Shepard hit progressive house song, Walls. 3LAU adds a perfect blend of vocals for the song, 3LAU always delivers good music and gives us a single track after releasing his mixtape, Dance Floor Filth 2 that came out a couple months ago. 3LAU also produces his own music, he has released his own remix to James Egbert‘s Back to New, and he has a new track coming out soon with the duo Paris and Simo.