I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the new Friendly Fires album. I was hot and cold on their debut LP, but I liked the bits and pieces I heard leading up to Pala‘s release, so I gave it a shot. As it turns out, Paul Epworth’s production has helped their sound immensely (you may also know him as Phones, or as that guy that produced Adele’s juggernaut of a sophomore album), and Ed Macfarlane’s voice has somehow gotten even stronger. Doesn’t hurt that the cover art is awesome, either. The excellent summery disco track “Hurting” is below, but the album is solid from front to back and definitely worth a listen.
I’m sure this record is getting/will get all the hype it deserves, but it’s been damn-near on repeat for me so I’m gonna throw it up here anyways. Washed Out’s two EPs were staples for me last summer, and helped inspire a whole mix of hazy songs that was designed for poolside listening. This is taken from his upcoming album Within And Without, and it’s great to hear that he hasn’t lost a step since being crowned the Chill Wave ambassador (kind of kidding about that last part, but mostly not). Sometimes you just want to hear songs that make everything shimmer, you know? I’m really looking forward to the full length, but this single does the trick just fine in the meantime.
So, this one showed up on the internet a few weeks back, alongside the announcement for diskJokke’s next album, Sagara. The story here is that Norway’s Oye festival comissioned diskJokke for a one off project, for which he could travel to any location in the world and study a particular type of music. He chose Indonesia’s Gamelan music and jetted off to Java, and the results of his time there will be released on Sagara on June 14th. In the mean time, check out a little preview below. It’s got a sound that’s a bit like an ambient John Hughes score, which is about as up-my-alley as it gets.
