2

Meet Mac Demarco. He hails from Vancouver, British Columbia but has transplanted to Montreal. It's hard to describe what he does as other than laid-back fun, with simplified guitar lines and non-pretentious singing. I almost didn't want to give it a chance because it seemed so good-natured and sweet and reminiscent of Jimmy Buffett. If anything, 2 borders on sounding so cohesive the songs become indistinguishable from one another. The album's gentle acoustic closer, "Still Together," does much to even out the rest of the album, wrapping up the eccentric smoky guitar jams and tongue-in-cheek moments of 2 with an unexpectedly sweet slice of spare, devotional balladry. DeMarco is still a befuddling character, but the compressed landscape of 2 takes steps away from his cartoonish beginnings toward something equally strange, but possibly more grown up. Buy your copy of 2 here.

Instrumental Tourist

Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never) and Tim Hecker go together like chocolate and peanut butter. This collaboration between the drone-based musicians is improvisational in nature, with the two meeting up in Brooklyn to book some studio time together. Most of the album doesn't feel like a meeting of the minds so much as a melding of them. Says Daniel Lopatin on Pitchfork.com, "The idea was not to overthink. I didn't want a commercially fabricated studio environment; I just wanted long stretches of time where we're more or less just going at it. There was one point seven hours into it where we were fucking famished and exhausted, and we were like, 'Jesus, we have to stop now and eat.' We work until we're dead, then we have a huge meal." To me this sounds like the working method of any artist deeply ensconced in their project. It's difficult, in the best possible way, to tell which artist contributed which elements to any given track; one could make a guess about the glitches and torqued string melody on a piece like "Uptown Psychedelia," but the way Hecker and Lopatin combine their styles into a versatile mix of melody, drone, and distortion on "Ritual for Consumption" and the title track is too seamless to dissect. They also explore the possibilities of seemingly hokey/patronizing "ethnic" instrument presets, including the koto, sitar, and lap steel, to transcend their intended uses,"it was a way to sidestep the world music debate while using the palate of world music in some weird way-- almost like a fantasy interpretation of what world music is", says Tim Hecker. The title "Intrusions" hints at the album's questioning of "exoticism" and cultural appropriation, but its mix of glitched electronics and penetrating drones that get pinched into shrill spikes stands on its own. Overall, Lopatin and Hecker take the sounds in their intentionally limited palette to places they may never have been expected to go, and the journey is intriguing and frequently lovely. That Instrumental Tourist's music was recorded in three days makes it all the more impressive, and bodes well for the rest of the SSTUDIOS albums. This makes for a great album to listen to while practicing meditation or as background music whilst working on something creative or as a wintry soundtrack. Recommended if you like: Seefeel, Mountains, either member's solo work, Diskjokke, or Dntel. Watch and Listen to Intrusions here: Buy Instrumental Tourist here.

Crystal Castles III

The Heavily anticipated Crystal Castles (III) has arrived!! I sincerely hope they keep up the untitled albums, thus forever confusing people and boggling computer databases. By keeping their albums untitled, they force us to take in the whole album, not looking for a "title track" to be the pinnacle of their message, rather the sum is greater than the parts. This is Crystal Castles' most serious set of songs yet, with a darker tone and streamlined sound that dovetails with its motifs of outsiders, injustices, and revolution. Ethan Kath and Alice Glass' second album showed the duo was expanding their 8-bit vocabulary, and that comes to fruition here, particularly on the album-opener "Plague" and "Wrath of God," where Glass' distant rage and Kath's shadowy, claustrophobic synths invert their previously fiery electro-punk into something colder and more lingering. II standouts "Baptism" and "Not in Love" provide the template for some of III's best moments. Melody plays a bigger role on III than it did in Crystal Castles' earlier music; gone are the noisy moments from II that made me wanna jump around and pump my fist into the air. Instead, from Glass we get a more refined and nuanced singing to the beautifully ominous feel of "Mercenary" and especially "Child I Will Hurt You," which closes the album with a sparkling sadness. Artistic progress is as much about subtraction as it is about addition, and on III, Crystal Castles have made room to be sad, angry, pretty, and danceable at the same time. That's an unusual mix of emotions, and while it might be condescending to say that they've grown up, they've certainly outgrown many of the preconceptions about what their music can be. Watch and listen Plague (and other songs) live from the Reading Festival this summer. Cue the fog machine and seizure lights. Buy your copy of Crystal Castles (III) here FYI: the vinyl is not out yet and the release date is yet to be determined. Stay Tuned!!

Feels Like We Only Go Backwards

For a band to get better on their sophomore effort is a rarity, yet I declare that Tame Impala has successfully accomplished just that on Lonerism. Less guitar focused and more of a dive into the realm of pop music, this album sounds like what John Lennon would song like if he was a young man of today. Blending the familiar with the far out, Tame Impala channel a Revolver-esque psych-pop experience. This shift from the guitar-heavy sound of the debut to a more synthed-out approach gives the album a more expansive feeling, allowing for new textures through layer after layer of melody. As with Innerspeaker, sonic architect Dave Fridmann handles the mixing, and though he wasn't involved in the recording process, Lonerism definitely shares the producer's knack for using the space as an instrument in and of itself. This layering of not just sounds, but environments, creates a serene and lonely patchwork of sound, texture, and atmosphere that's a pleasure to explore, offering something different with every journey into its swirling haze of classic pop melody and modern, more experimental, construction. Please take a lovely listen to "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" (and no, this isn't a jab at the election, just a title coinkidink) here: Email marta@alternativemusic.com to inquire about purchasing Lonerism on CD or LP.

When I first caught a glimpse of the new Bat For Lashes cover, featuring Natasha Khan in the buff, holding an also naked man over her shoulders, I was fleetingly concerned. What is this art school tomfoolery? Considering her art school pedigree I gave it the pass and was intrigued--what happened to this lady to inspire man straddling? This was one of the first hints that she was taking a slightly different tack with this set of songs. More proof came with "Laura," the soft, spare ballad she picked to be the album's lead single. While Khan explored her flair with character studies on Two Suns, this song's intimacy and the keenly observed details in lyrics like "your tears feel hot on my bedsheets" felt more like a natural progression from songs like "Sad Eyes," off of Fur and Gold. As that album (and Two Suns' more restrained moments) showed, Khan's singing and writing are more than strong enough to be more or less naked, and she finds freedom in this throughout most of The Haunted Man. It seems that this album is a reaction to a break up post Two Suns, where classically the chanteuse is in love and her lover is her equal and muse, which leads to the inevitable fraying of the spirit due to heartache. Yet the lyrics go beyond one man, she digs into issues with her father as well. Feeling alive is a refrain on many of these songs, most vividly on the proudly sexual "Oh Yeah," where Khan is "waiting like a flower to open wide" and the unearthliness of her upper register adds a fairytale sparkle to her desire. This mix of rawness and delicacy makes her among the best of all the Kate Bush disciples dotting the early 21st century pop landscape at emulating the will-o-the-wisp willfulness of La Bush's work, particularly on the silvery, shivery opening track "Lilies" and "Winter Fields," which soars above the English countryside with just a little bit of fear shading its wonder. When The Haunted Man strays from these sparer sounds, the results are mixed: the tribal/primal rhythms and vocals on "Horses of the Sun" add to its rough-hewn beauty, but the electronic squiggles and processed vocals on "Marilyn" are distracting and indulgent. Still, much of The Haunted Man caters to Khan's strengths, and songs such as "All Your Gold," "A Wall," and "Rest Your Head" are among the catchiest she's written in some time. Focus and restraint might not sound exciting in and of themselves, but The Haunted Man is more direct than any of Bat for Lashes' previous work, and manages to keep the air of mystique around Khan that has made her one to watch and listen to since her early days. Fans of electronic music may have more to latch on to with this one, also fans of Florence & The Machine and Lykke Li. buy your copy of The Haunted Man here.

Hail Bop

If there's a hole in your heart left by the absence of the Beta Band, well, look no further, because Django Django is here! "Our name has absolutely nothing to do with Django Reinhardt", says the band. By the time of the release of the July 2009 debut 7" "Storm," critics had already latched onto their vocal and experimental similarity to cult folktronica pioneers the Beta Band. In fact, drummer Maclean was the younger brother of Beta Band and Aliens keyboard player John Maclean -- a link that both raised their profile and justified the comparisons. Django Django similarly betrayed a knowledge and love of electronic music and Joe Meek's production techniques, alongside an ability to throw together seemingly disparate styles. Filled with sirens, bells, and surf guitar, their second single -- April 2010's "Wor" -- sounded like the Ventures jamming with Hot Chip. While friend and Glaswegian video artist Cara Tolmie provided vocals and cello on the equally playful flip, "Skies Over Cairo," Grace designed the minimalist artwork that housed this inventive material. The group's self-titled debut arrived in 2012 and was a Mercury Prize nominee. Take a poppy listen here: If you want a copy of the self-titled Django Django release, email marta@alternativemusic.com

Modeselektor is an electronic music band formed in Berlin, featuring Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary. The group draws heavily from IDM, glitch, electro and hip hop. In an interview the group said regarding their sound: "Happy metal, hard rap, country-ambient, Russian crunk. We don’t like it if people tag us as being a certain style or school or scene or whatever. We don’t really care about all that." With the second volume of what seems set to become an ongoing series from the duo's flagship label, the Modeselektor boys have compiled 18 exclusive tracks that go from bass music to techno to glitch to juke to what are essentially experimental electronic works, and they've managed to do so without the typically schizo, jarring qualities that often plague label compilations. Yet the main building block is techno, albeit not a straightforward approach. Techno and bass excursions may be obvious inclusions here, but electronic music's experimental side has also become prominent part of the Monkeytown sound, particularly since the label signed Mouse on Mars last year. The veteran producers recontextualize Chicago footwork as a sort of jazzy, 8-bit juke workout with their contribution, "Humoslab." Not every track is a winner, but the depth and breadth of artists, scenes, locales, and musical movements showcased here is not only impressive, but also serves as an indication of what a credible tastemaking unit Modeselektor is. Take a listen to Sudaka Invasor here, with guests, Frikstailers. Buy your copy of Modeselektor's Modeselektor Proudly Presents Modeselektions Vol 2 here.