Tag Archives: Lo-Fi

mp3: YOOFS – FRIGHTMARE

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For one reason or another, there has been no shortage of awesomely catchy and sunny lo-fi music coming out of the UK over the past year or so, and I am in no way complaining.  I’m still not completely sure how I ended up following YOOFS on Soundcloud, but this song makes me extremely glad that I did.  ”FRIGHTMARE”, clocking in at just over 2-minutes, is the perfect short light-hearted and upbeat track that I needed to convince me that summer is actually beginning.  Although I don’t know much at all about the Bournemouth-based band, I will definitely be looking out for them in the future.  Stream “FRIGHTMARE” below and link to their Soundcloud for a few more really good songs after that.

-TC

YOOFS’ SOUNDCLOUD

mp3: HAPPY TRENDY – wobbling around

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The first song I ever heard by HAPPY TRENDY was his awesome cover of Coma Cinema’s “Tour All Winter”.  With this song, he’s once again putting an awesome analog spin on a song, this time by Frankie Cosmos.  Put together with three different synthesizers, and as HAPPY TRENDY puts it a “cardiac muscle” with a warm lo-fi fuzz laid over the top of it, this cover is headphone music at its best.  I would highly suggest you just go to HAPPY TRENDY’s Soundcloud page and just press play because its all really good, but you can also go to his bandcamp and stream some EP’s there.

-TC

mp3: Bare Pale – new start old end

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I was going to post Bare Pale a while ago, and then fucked up big time and forgot to.  Fortunately I was reminded of their awesomeness when they recently released this new song.  ”new start old end” perfectly demonstrates the London band’s talent for crafting grunge songs with everything that made the genre rise up years ago.  Bare Pale takes their already great songwriting and builds upon it with wonderfully subtle production that accentuates the heavy emotion of their songs.  If you like this song at all, I would strongly suggest you also check out their just as awesome if it is EP which you can stream after the jump.

-TC

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Enjoy it While it’s Fresh: RΔCHEL

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Despite having a name more befitting of a witch house act circa 2010 than a lo-fi pop act, RΔCHEL are the newest in a growing scene of bands making 90s influenced, emotive, indie rock.  Drawing equally from Connor Oberst’s lyricisms and Built to Spill’s sense for dynamics and guitar hooks, RΔCHEL demonstrate some serious songwriting chops on their newest aptly-titled Sorry EP.  While not every song is incredibly effective in demonstrating their tasteful emo influence, Sorry is a 20 minutes of lo-fi warmth and sweetly troubled yelling and singing that fills the void left by the retirement of Teen Suicide (who’s spiritual successor is the still awesome but much more indie-pop Julia Brown).  The version of “Dissapointed” that’s featured on the album sounds like a live take that demonstrates the full potential of the group when they really begin to rock out in the final third of the track.  Unlike some of the other groups that are leading this 90s-minded revival, RΔCHEL have songs that stretch well past 3 minutes with one of my favorites being the over 5 minute demo “Time so much time”.  Stream my favorite tracks below and the entire Sorry EP after the jump.

-PK

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mp3: Cough Cool – Blue Eyes

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By the end of every summer I am usually ready to take a break from scuzzy, tape-hiss filled bedroom recordings that dominate during warm weather season.  It’s April now so that season is just starting and “Blue Eyes” from veteran bedroom rocker Cough Cool isn’t a bad way to tee things off.  Guitar is the real driving force behind this track as the vocals take turns humming into the soaring guitar lines.  If you’re not experiencing the warm weather yet you should listen to this song, decide it’s time to move and then listen to the song properly again.  Do it for real though.

-PK

EP: Elvis Depressedly – holo pleasures

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Its spring time bb, and you know Elvis Depressedly couldn’t let you get too happy about it.  After his amazing last EP, hotter sadness, as Elvis Depressedly, Mat Cothran has been probably been devoting most of his time to the upcoming Coma Cinema album, but still found a way to get the sadness out to us.  Elvis Depressedly’s music is always sad, simply living up to its name, but holo pleasures is darker than ever.  The stark and open instrumentation of hotter sadness, mostly consisting of acoustic guitar strumming and simple percussion tracks is replaced on tracks like “pepsi/coke suicide” with suffocating atmospheres that make Cothran’s already devastating lyrics even more hopeless sounding.  The EP clocks in at just over 10 minutes with 6 tracks, but has a pretty heavy impact within that time, and has me equally excited for the new Coma Cinema album.  Stream one of my favorite tracks below and the whole EP after the jump.

-TC

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mp3: Gabriel Berrios – detail

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After putting out some truly stellar demos and tracks over the past few months, Gabriel Berrios has landed at the top of artists I’m really excited about hearing progress.  It may have taken him a few projects to really establish his footing with singing and songwriting, however, Gabriel Berrios has demonstrated on tracks like “the courage” and “detail” his ability to masterfully combine influences of tropical and highlife music with his lo-fi, solo recordings.  Released alongside the equally charming “Hole”, “detail” is a warm and colorful track that brings some much needed bass-fuzz to Berrios’ typically treble heavy compositions.  The vocals are mostly there to act as an extra instrument giving “detail” a distinctively lush and full sounding listen accented with Berrios’ expected stabs of bright guitar licks.  I’m not sure whether or not Berrios is looking to round out his songs with a full band in the future, but wherever he’s going we will be listening.

-PK