m b v

You had to know that My Bloody Valentine's first release in 22 years, m b v would end up here. It's like the law of record stores or something. Any record store retailer with any sense of pride is going to recommend this album. As much as this album seems to get the rubber-stamped pass wherever you go, this truly IS a fine album. Is it Loveless Jr? No. Does it pick up where Loveless left off? Perhaps. I find this serves as a past, present, and future of MBV as there are moments reminiscent of Isn't Anything, the guitars we fell in love with on Loveless, and repetitive drum machines, of their future. They definitely don't disappoint with multiple layers of tremeloed guitars, throbbing fuzz and those angelic vocals of Bilinda Butcher. We are reacquainted with the droning chords and persistent squall the we fell in love with. "Only Tomorrow" continues in the Loveless tradition with a gorgeous melody and more of those signature guitar sounds. After another dose of classic MBV ("who sees you"), there's a shift in the programming with the keyboard interlude "is this and yes." After leaving poppier territory with the pulsating strummer "new you," MBV venture into new lands with material heavy on drum machines. Though these three tracks are hardly electronic music, there are similarities with a style that slightly leans towards drum and bass alongside heavy guitar repetitions less reliant on melody. "nothing is" and "wonder 2" end the record in a particularly chaotic fashion which is particularly shocking after a somewhat subdued first half. Regardless, My Bloody Valentine actually achieved the unthinkable and followed up one of the greatest records of all time with something that just may be its equal. Just in case you missed it, or need a fix, here's she found now. Either buy your copy from the band (like I did) or get it from us (much quicker!!!) here.

The Next Day

The anticipation is over! David Bowie is back with The Next Day, his first output of new material in a decade. We all know how these things can go--when there's artist with a lengthy career who has been on hiatus it is usually quite the challenge to come back as relevant or perhaps resist the temptation to return as a caricature of oneself. I can definitely think of a few bands that seem to be coasting on their past laurels and sound like a band doing an impersonation of themselves. Nonetheless, The Next Day is not going to be mindblowing--it's Bowie. We have followed him through many phases and its hard to conceive what he has left to do. What I can say is that this is a solid album throughout, without any weak points or lulls. If you like Berlin-Era Bowie, then you are in for a treat! The first song, which is the title track, sounds the like it could be a B-side from Heroes. Take notice of the tongue-in-cheek, obscured nod to that exact era just in the cover art alone. Yet unlike the Eno treatment of Heroes or Low, this album has been systematically stripped of eeriness, trading discomfort for pleasure at every turn. Perhaps this is the quality I like most about it, as I want to listen to it everyday. It's a suiting "end of winter" pick. And pleasure it does deliver, as nobody knows how to do classic Bowie like Bowie and Visconti, the two life-long collaborators sifting through their past, picking elements that relate to what Bowie is now: an elder statesman who made a conscious decision to leave innovation behind long ago. Overall, The Next Day neither enhances nor diminishes anything that came before, it's merely a sweet coda to a towering career. Check it out: Buy your copy here.

Christopher

The Ruby Suns are back with a souped up, synthed up album called Christopher. In case you need a recap, The Ruby Suns combine psychedelic indie pop with world music influences, drawing inspiration from the travels of the group's only permanent member, Ryan McPhun. Although born and raised in California, McPhun's thirst for adventure eventually drew him halfway across the globe, where he ventured into Africa and Thailand before settling in New Zealand. Auckland's music scene was rich, and the multi-instrumentalist spent time in various pop groups (the Tokey Tones, the Reduction Agents, and the Brunettes) while fronting his own act, Ryan McPhun & the Ruby Suns. After releasing a self-titled debut under that moniker, the band shortened its name to The Ruby Suns and signed with Lil' Chief Records.securing distribution deals in Europe and Australia along the way. I was surprised by this album due to its amping up of production and embrace of pop signifies in McPhun's personal life, but there's a sense of heavy changes afoot throughout the album. The remarkably improved production is handled by Chris Coady (Beach House, Grizzly Bear), who takes McPhun's formerly busy sonic landscapes and manicures them without subtracting much from the always crowded songs. Multiple tracks of electronic drums and swirling synth lines are stacked up in pristine piles, making room for huge choruses and vocodered vocals. The production is impressive, but unfortunately only works when the songwriting rises to the occasion. Album opener "Desert of Pop" is a standout, telling a surprisingly naked account of a starstruck McPhun meeting pop idol/obvious crush Robyn and making an ass of himself while trying to play it cool. The song's multitude of hooks rides over a 80's beat sounds familiar and pleasing. Similar nostalgic greatness is achieved on "In Real Life," evoking all the quirky subtleties of the '80s electro-pop hits that filled John Hughes movie soundtracks. While the rest of the album sort of drops off by the very end, I still think this is worth several listens. Buy your copy of The Ruby Suns Christopher here.

Autre Ne Veut

French for "I think of none other," New York's enigmatic Arthur Ashin, also known as Autre Ne Veut, makes music that falls somewhere between '80s R&B hooks and melodies and the blurry sounds of Ariel Pink. His self-titled debut album arrived in August 2010 on Olde English Spelling Bee and Upstairs, the label owned by Oneohtrix Point Never's Daniel Lopatin. Autre Ne Veut supported Hooray for Earth during their residency at Piano's that fall, and played some shows with Zambri and Mirror Mirror in early 2011. That year, Ashin also released the Body EP via Hippos in Tanks and appeared on Ford & Lopatin's Channel Pressure. When interviewed by Altered Zones blogger Richard MacFarlane about his sound, Ashin has this to say: "The earliest ANV sound that I was really happy with-- perhaps best exemplified by “Tell Me”, “Loveline”, and “Emotional” [from Autre Ne Veut]-- was, aesthetically, the culmination of attempting to merge an intellectual respect for sound-craft with an affinity for traditional, popular song-craft. The results are a failure, but in my estimation a happy one. Since then, the sound has been a function of attempting (and again failing) to reappropriate those initial fortunate accidents. In my mind, hypnogogia aside, this is just failure-pop." Failure pop? Weird descriptions aside, Anxiety is full of lush synths, stark beats, and rich vocals, all of which are on display on tracks like the glitchy but hopeful "Promises." This gloss nods more clearly to classic and contemporary pop and R&B than any of Autre Ne Veut's previous music, but unlike some indie artists who try to incorporate these elements into their work, it never feels superficial or ironic on Anxiety. Ashin's genuine love for these genres' roots and where they're at in the 2010s comes through at every turn, but most importantly, in his hands these sounds seem natural, and above all, personal. Anxiety is a satisfying study in paradoxes: moving toward more mainstream sounds while sounding nothing like the pop maelstrom. If anything, some of the vocal stylings are reminiscent of Hercules and the Love Affair and How to Dress Well if the vocals weren't buried in echo. This was surprisingly enjoyable. You can get to know a little more about Arthur Ashin here. Listen up: Buy here.

A Long Way to Fall

Ulrich Schnauss has never been afraid to embrace the new age side of his sound. Even on the albums like 2007's Goodbye, where he went almost full-on shoegaze with plenty of guitars, there was always a softness to the synth textures, and a gentle touch to the melodies, which were soothing, to say the least. On his 2013 album, A Long Way to Fall, Schnauss has fully embraced the new age aesthetic of creating background music perfect to have on while relaxing. Though there are some guitars on the album, they are muted to the point of invisibility, and the beats that creep in now and then are polite and almost loping. While it makes for pleasant music to have on while you are sleeping away the afternoon in a cubicle or fighting insomnia late at night, the album is something of a letdown for anyone who, not unreasonably, came to it expecting something a little more interesting from Schnauss. Regardless, since there's not that much coming out right now, I still recommend this type of background music. We all can use something to relax to. Buy your copy of Ulrich Schnauss' A Long Way to Fall here.

Luxury Problems

Andy Stott is a Manchester-based producer of dub and techno music who has released three albums with the Modern Love label. Despite being significantly more ambient and less knotty than Andy Stott's 2011 releases, which were combined and expanded that December for Passed Me By/We Stay Together, Luxury Problems is nearly as spine-chilling. Its rhythms are fluid more often than coagulated, and there's an additional human element granted by the voice of opera-trained singer Alison Skidmore. The sense of intimacy is present from the opening "Numb," beginning with a looped intonation of "touch," a fragment of which takes the role of hi-hat before an industrial-sounding thrum -- something like a mechanical malfunction -- enters as a four-four beat. It's dark ambient, industrial techno, and trip-hop all at once. Preview the entire album here: buy your copy of Luxury Problems here. Check him out spinning in Berlin's Boiler Room

Prince Rama

Get ready for this, kids! Brooklyn-based psychedelic rock trio Prince Rama formed in 2007 around the talents of Michael Collins and sisters Taraka and Nimai Larson. The trio members, who were raised in a Hare Krishna-centric Florida community, met in high school and began their musical journey as a straight-up punk-pop outfit, but a year in a Boston art school, as well as a steady diet of Amon Düül, Animal Collective, and Gang Gang Dance records, helped them make the transition from wannabe skatepunks to cosmic purveyors of tribal, mantra-heavy, lo-fi psychedelic pop. The group’s debut collection, Threshold Dances, appeared in 2008 on the British-based Cosmos label. Zetland arrived in 2009, followed in 2010 by Shadow Temple, which was co-produced by Animal Collective’s Deakin and Avey Tare. The Larson sisters, Taraka and Nimai, pared Prince Rama down to a duo for the group's fifth album, Trust Now. Behold, we are up to Top Ten Hits at the End of the World, from late 2012. It's a concept album: the apocalypse happened and it is up to Prince Rama to replicate the best music in the world and they treat each track as a different band, complete with make up and hair-dos. It's very fun with quite the snake-charmer influence. Their vocals are a little off-key and muffled which adds to the medium-fi charm. Take a listen and viewing to "Those Who Live for Love will Live Forever", track 2 here. Buy your copy of Top Ten Hits at the End of the World here.