Tracks of the Week – 1 October 2011

Matthew Britton is our human blog-music aggregator, kind of like Hype Machine but with feelings and shit. Every week he goes, puts on his rubber gloves and trawls the darkest sewers of Soundcloud, reporting back to TLOBF with his findings. Sometimes he strikes gold, sometimes just faeces, but one day, maybe, just maybe, a band covered here will play an actual gig in front of human people. We continue to live in hope.

Unbelievably, it’s October already. You probably know already, like, given that the changing of month seems to be the only thing that can get people on twitter genuinely riled in unison. The seasons change, but new music never does, as the relentless march towards whatever songs you haven’t heard before continues, almost as harrowing as being able to count on one hand the amount of worthwhile things you did in the last four weeks.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Douçe Françe – Indian Flavours pt. 1

When you first listen to this, a reasonable emotional response might be one of hatred – ‘Indian Flavours pt. 1′ buzzes like an annoyed wasp, the repetition somewhat stinging, the potential to bother limitless. But there’s a lot more to it than that, a depth and ability to hook in the listener that a metaphor about a pest isn’t really up to the task of describing in flowery terms.

Douçe Françe – Indian Flavours pt. 1

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

YRRS – Stain

Whilst their earlier demos hinted at a ramshackle two piece who just wanted to make really loud, really good music as fast as they could, ‘Stain’ – standout track from new EP #1 – reveals a side of the band that shows they might have a bit more longevity than one would initially assume, whilst losing none of the power, nor the energy. Kind of makes you want to be 15 again, sneaking in to an overage concert and going absolutely fucking mad, jumping in to people and shouting along every word like your life depends on it, before having to leave early to catch the last bus home.

YRRS – Stain

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

The Bell Peppers – Tourettes

It’s been absolutely everywhere of late and it seems that some people actually genuinely care that it’s been twenty years since Nirvana released an album. Whilst HMV was cashing in on the nostalgia of people who are now definitely in the middle of their lives and either have or are about to have some kind of deep rooted crisis, Manchester’s The Bell Peppers took three songs written by Kurt and the crew and completely fucked them up, comprising of the BEACH EP, with this being the pick of the bunch. The purists might wince, but the purists are the kind of people that would take perverse pleasure in seeing Novana – another bandcamp find this week – go through their repertoire of imitations if you dare.

The Bell Peppers – Tourettes

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

SCRT SNDS – s o f t /\ surfing

If not a genre, then blogcore should certainly be recognised as a condition, a state of mind that allows you to take great amounts of pleasure in music that would otherwise be worthless to the wider world. SCRT SNDS could’ve been tailor made to cater for this market, making tracks that go nowhere, have no real focus, are needlessly distorted, would sound horrible live, show no sign of proper structure and that your mum would hate, but still manage to get a couple of the people on the internet genuinely, unashamedly excited.

SCRT SNDS – s o f t /\ surfing

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

NEON CLOUD – △

What did people call their tracks before they learnt how to do that little triangle thing? Did they actually have to think of real names? Just like life before everyone spent half their conversation with you anxiously checking their smartphone and having a 3 second delay before they meet your gaze and answer your question, it is one of those bits of culture that will forever be lost in the ether. Neon Cloud, going for the double cliché of sounding like they used the chillwave name generator to find their moniker, thankfully transcend all of this with a track that has about a hundred things going on, all of them rad.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

LOAFERS – You Know I Do

Like every trend in the history of the world, the whole lo-fi beach bum schtick was quickly reduced to a formula and duplicated by every hipster with shitty equipment and no talent whatsoever. LOAFERS could be accused of the same if ‘You Know I Do’ wasn’t laced with the kind of innocent yearning that is simply impossible to replicate. The internet in 2005 would’ve been going absolutely mad about this.

LOAFERS – You Know I Do

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Pyrenees – Always
Teeel – 88mph
Bewilderbeast – Dreamz

It’s a given that pretty much every blogger would rather be running their own record label and raking in money. The fact that the only people who would be into the millions of witchhouse mixes released would be the same people who would nick it from the internet makes that dream unrealistic means that people set up net labels and give away compilations. Each year generates a tonne of them, but not many have the quality and breadth of Hearing Gold’s newest effort, Midnight Cassette. Made up of 11 new tracks from 11 awesome artists, these are the three that really stick out – Pyrenees swooping synths, Teeel’s tricky bombast and Bewilderbeast’s shiny, early Washed Out vibe bordering on the irresistible.

http://soundcloud.com/hearinggold/pyrenees-always

NEON CLOUD – △

http://soundcloud.com/hearinggold/teeel-88mph

Teeel – 88mph

http://soundcloud.com/hearinggold/bewilderbeast-dreamz

Bewilderbeast – Dreamz