Marshmallow Coast Hopes Vangelis Rides Again

Despite the exceptionally cheesy cover art for Marshmallow Coast's new album, Vangelis Rides Again is really quite good. This former member (Andy Gonzales) of Of Montreal and Music Tapes has always brought some fantastic stuff to the indie pop table and this album is no different. And while the record looks like some sort of Scooby Doo rejected storyboard art, the music contained inside is pure lo-fi indie pop bliss.

Vangelis Rides Again sits somewhere between an easy-listening record, Fleetwood Mac, Of Montreal and a sad creepy pop record recorded in a basement. It's a fragile record that's loaded with hooks and melodies that while not overly produced or overly jolly does some significant ear worm damage anyway. As if to prove that point, the fact that Andy weaved, “On Broadway,” into an indie pop tune is simply something that has to be heard. It's probably my favorite moment of the record and it shows Marshmallow Coast to be adventurous and fun while sounding like he's broke indie pop down to it's respective elements. Other songs have this ambient and dreamy like texture to them that sound a bit 80's-ish as they wash over you. Just listen to the downtrodden synths of, “Forever,” and you'll hear it for yourself...it's almost depressingly cool.

Vangelis Rides Again is an intriguing little pop record that feels lo-fi, dreams of more, but knows it never will be. Slightly weird with a hint of sadness Vangelis Rides Again may not be the feel good hit of the summer or fall but it is pretty darn good and shows that Marshmallow Coast still knows how to write a decent record.

Adham Shaikh's Basswalla Is Atmospheric Awesomeness

After scoring soundtracks and producing others work, Basswalla is Adham Shaikh's first new original material in five years and it would seem that he's not lost a step in his time away. The album, despite having a really bad EDM-ish like name to it, is far better then it's name and cover would seem to indicate. Taking South Asian influences and adding a bit of dance floor swagger to them Adham Shaikh has created a record that's a sub-woofer throbbing behemoth of global chill out cool. Basswalla while containing new material also contains several updated versions of songs Shaikh's released over the last thirteen years. Not really a greatest hits record with some new stuff thrown on top, Shaikh actually re-interpreted his older material with a bit of improvisational spice so that everything here sounds new and fresh.

Basswalla resides somewhere between a chill out record straight out of India and a trunk rattling bass exploration that just happens to have a Southern Asian vibe. It's a nice mix between the two and Shaikh has been around the block long enough to know how to craft songs that are not only rich in atmospherics but also have the ability to find a groove. As he says himself the record, “sits squared at the intersection of prayer and dance floor.” It's a serene calming experience that just happens to make you want to dance. His layered atmospherics and mixing of traditional instrumentation with wave after wave of bass creates this experience that's hard to forget. Of the ten songs that make up Basswalla only one falls flat on it's face (“Cultivation”) and it's simply because the rap shouldn't be there. As for the rest of the record it's the sound of modern India via the global bass community and it's just about perfect either as an atmospheric experience or a night on the tiles.  

La Luz Construct A Weirdo Shrine

With their latest album, Weirdo Shrine, Seattle's La Luz have cemented Link Wray and Ventures legacy as two of the most important guitar centered bands ever. The simple fact is that without them, La Luz would not exist. Featuring riff upon riff of awesome garagey surf rock the album sounds as if it was recorded using Wray's guitars, in Wray's studio, using leftover Wray riffs squeezed into songs by the Ventures. The album is overflowing with twangy and jangly melodic tunes that sound as if the ghosts of Wray and the Ventures silently lent a hand on each one. It's magnificent stuff that reminds me of La Sera records lost in a sweater box underneath her bed or an old album found in a rotting VW Vanagong used during the filming of Endless Summer.

With organs, those guitars, multi-part harmonies, rawness and purity Weirdo Shrine is an honest to goodness rock and roll record steeped in history and tradition. The whole thing and especially those twangy surf rocking guitars, gorgeous melodies and sparkly riffs, is simply amazing. Weirdo Shrine is a fantastic record that's about love, heartbreak, and simply being different; it's nothing complicated and doesn't need to be for you to fall in love with it. It's all a bit quirky and a bit retrotastic but it's a treat to just sit and lose yourself in.

As summer turns into fall, La Luz reminds us of the joys of the sun and sand, summer romances, and days lost to doing nothing in particular. Weirdo Shrine is an awesome record that's in love with the past but retroactively looking forward to the future. With harmonies that seem like they're from a dream, songs that are uncomplicated and catchy, and a sound that reeks of classicism what's there not to like? La Luz .have crafted a shrine, if you will, to a classic period in rock and roll history and it's just about perfect.

Blindness Suffers From A Lack Of Vision

So the first thing that caught me about Blindness is that Debbie from Curve and Echobelly is in this band. That has to be a good thing right? I mean Debbie is a hell of a guitarist and has been on some of the best indie singles of the last 25 years, so how could Blindness disappoint? Unfortunately, their album Wrapped In Plastic is like a 90's alt-rock hangover.

Sounding something like a more angsty and mainstream PJ Harvey, Blindness seemingly feel uninspired and unexcited to be playing music. Wrapped In Plastic, unfortunately, is a bit boring. This is a record that seems to plod around with rehashed 90's alternative songs that for a power trio are lacking the power to propel them into the 21^st century. The guitar work is fine for the most part but the songs just aren't strong enough to hold my attention. I wanted to like this record a lot, I tried to like this record a lot but there's just nothing here to get me excited. I've heard most of this record before 20 years ago and for all it's angst it just doesn't have the energy to compete in 2015.

Lost In A Static Daydream

Where Snow In Mexico fully embrace a stark minimalistic approach to writing music (see below), Static Daydream on the other hand tackle pop music with sheets and walls of distorted bliss enveloping the listener. Their latest self-titled album is an effects, pedal loving affair that brings the best elements of Chapterhouse and My Bloody Valentine and smash them together in a super-collider of distortion and post shoegazing euphoria. Static Daydream is a brilliant slab of post-shoegazing that sounds like it was produced in 1992 and left on a shelf at Creation's office once Oasis came along.

Entrenched in everything that made the early gazing scene so great, Static Daydream have studied and mastered the manual and have taken those skills and created eleven songs as proof of their mastery. With cascading sheets of noise, drum machine beats, distortion overpowering everything and of course a detached vocal track Static Daydream is awash with enough noise, beats, and heavenly like hooks to just about reach instant classic status. This is clearly a record for anyone who admires dry ice clouds , guitar pedals and the early 4ad/Creation catalog.

With equal parts of aggression and placidity the record is a roller coaster ride of what you can do with a guitar and some nifty production. It's a perfect record for the most part and for anyone that's ever loved the Scene that Celebrated Itself they'll rejoice in it's rapturous washes, moody ethereality, and otherworldly charm. Static Daydream is a psychedelic record for the angelic set and it truly sounds as if it's from another world. Distortion and noise shouldn't sound this good but Static Daydream proves it's possible that there's beauty in losing your hearing and Static Daydream is proof positive.

Snow In Mexico At Juno Beach

Juno Beach is the third release by the oddly named Snow In Mexico. This four song ep is a sexy detached and ethereal synth pop record that sounds as distant as the sun. With equal parts dreaminess and grooviness Snow In Mexico create a record that would seemingly appeal to both the indie and goth set. The rich, lush textures that wash over this record create this sparse dystopian world where the ghost of pop music roams free singing in whispers to anyone who will listen.

Juno Beach is a stupendously good single that doesn't waste a minute on anything frivolous or extravagant. Instead this record's bleak musicscape is filled with memorable moments and stands as monument to the brilliance that is the Roland Juno (hence the record's name). Juno Beach's ethereal synth washes along with the isolated vocals create a depth to the minimalism that appears throughout this record making the songs depressingly irresistible. I really like that Snow In Mexico so perfectly melds minimalism to synth pop and gets something that's cold and alone but still danceable it makes Snow In Mexico as rare an event as their name implies.

Francesca Blanchard Has Deux Visions

Deux Visions the new album by Francesca Blanchard is truth in advertising as the album presents two views of this wonderful singer songwriter. On one hand you have the traditional singer songwriter with strummy guitars, lilting vocals, and a bit of heartbreak. On the other hand you have a French chanson artist who is intimate, beautiful, and lovelorn. When you take these two elements and mix them into one record you have an album that's filled with fragile beauty with a striking accent.

Francesca so easily writes songs that tug at your heartstrings that you'd swear she was in love with you. Deux Visions succeeds because even at it's most quiet, minimalistic point it still has your emotions in a bear hug and won't let them go. This is an album that's drenched in tears, an album that finds love in a thunderstorm, and leaves its lover at the airport gate. It's international feel makes it feel even more lovelorn and Francesca navigates English and French with such ease that I couldn't tell you where she's from or what her native language is.

Deux Visions is the sort of singer songwriter album I can actually tolerate because it's emotionally gut wrenching while being different from the nine zillion other singer songwriter albums out there. I love her French songs and I enjoy her English ones and her ability to turn a phrase makes her precious. This album doesn't rock or roll but lilt's along a gentle breeze generated by Cupid's wings. It's the sound of all that is good and bad about love and how we all need it for better or worse in our lives.