Time for me to take a little break from posting house tracks.  It’s astounding how much good music one can discover simply by looking deeper into the musicians they come across and maybe enjoy a track or two: today’s post is an example of how easy it can be to take a musical safari through new sounds and scenes, and come home with a bunch of awesome new tunes discovered.

Washed Out – Feel It All Around

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The launch point for our safari is Georgia native , a bedroom synth pop producer now living in South Carolina who has burst onto the blogosphere with a handful of solid gold tunes that defy genre classification.  Between his EP, entitled Life of Leisure and a few tracks scattered around the internets, it’s the most intoxicatingly exciting music I’ve heard since ‘s Young Heartache EP.  I wanted to post up one of his other tracks to maybe share something a little different, but this track, Feel It All Around, is just to good not to post.  How does one categorize this kind of a blend of music?  Disco-hop-bedroom-pop?

Washed Out – Belong

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Here’s another track of his, a newer one (I think), how do you classify this?  It’s got this afrobeat or reggae beat going on under these poppy lo-fi croons…it’s unbeleivable.  Like being in some Miami-based action movie in 1982.  This young producer will undoubtedly be taking some big steps in the future, I can’t wait to see what’s in store!

Memory Tapes – Plain Material

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Well, that track got me digging for more, and before long I came across Memory Tapes, on a blog called Fake Tattoos, plugged into this SC-style chilled lo-fi pop, it’s being called chillwave and, jokingly I assume, bro-fi.  Memory Tapes is a combination of the monikurs and (all apparently just one guy in NJ who loves alter-egos), and this fun poppy track is off the LP Seek Magic, with a physical out on Rough Trade.  Love the way the vocals and guitar work together in this track, and some may find it a little annoying, but I actually love the super-distorted choir going on later in the song.

Toro Y Moi – Blessa

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My safari then led me to , a solo-project of Chaz Bundick, lead singer of The Heist and The Accomplice.  This track is similarly hazy, a dubbed-out echo of an abstraction of a hip hop beat, the indie pop lyrics come through like lights in fog, all beneath the muted lo-fi mixing that smudges and blurs the sheen of the otherwise prevalent modern production techniques.  It’s getting funny how all these acts are just one guy, but bedroom pop/folk always sounds like a full or at least partial band…just sort of reminds me of O’ Brother Where Art Thou when they fool the blind radio station manager into thinking there were 10 of band members (warranting more pay) than just the 3 of them.

Dungen – Sätt Att Se

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Well, somehow I got to checking out Mexican Summer, the label re-issuing the previously free Life of Leisure EP when what did I find, but some new material from Dungen!  I’ve wondering what the heck Gustav Ejstes has been up to.  Well it looks like he’s still making music with his signature style with this single, Sätt Att Se.  I can’t decide whether he’s being stylistically stubborn by sounding so much like he did back in 2004, or if his sound was just on such next-shit as to finally be able to identify with similar sounds.

So in conclusion, this little music discovery journey, which took place in about 5 minutes of listening to different tracks, revealed not only a new musical scene and 2 newly discovered musicians to watch, but newly discovered material from a musician I already love.  It’s worth the effort to take a break from your usual music regimen and do some exploring!  There’s so much good music out there!  …too bad we sometimes have to listen to 10 crappy tracks before we hear 1 good one, but would you not say that one new favorite song is worth it?

Posted in Music Posted by Alex on Sep 05 2009 09:00 am

Tags: Dungen, Mexican Summer, Toro Y Moi, Washed Out