even loneliness is full of life

Photo from Alexandre Buisse.


Exhausted, ranting at your inane colleague at work, or maybe the world at large. oil spill, lebron james defecting, germany's loss to spain. fan's not working and neither is the TV. sweet and lush but nothing overwhelming. soothing and lulling rhythms, start pondering maybe. lie down and fall back into your subconscious.




Blank & Jones - Loneliness
The sensuality Bobo exudes when she breathe-sings adds a totally different dimension to this extremely chill out song. It's like you're floating on the clear sparkling blue expanse of the ocean. Slowly without warning, the water absorbs you gently, but not before creating a magical air pocket. You just lay back, still able to float for some reason, close your eyes, and hear the shoals of fishes swim by. Her repeating of "loneliness is full of life" makes it echo in your head as well but strikes you as an oxymoron, but really, you don't give much thought to that.

Blank & Jones - Summer Sun

Tycho - Dictaphone's Lament
Exquisitely shot with such beautiful artistic direction. It just makes the already awesome song even more awesome.

Tycho - The Daydream

you hear the day beckoning

Two Door Cinema Club - Poker Face (Lady GaGa Cover)
These geeky dudes sure know how to work up a cover. Kevin Baird and his kooky "muhm muhm muhm", ginger haired Alex Trimble with awesome vocals and Sam Halliday with his straight-laced rendition of the chorus. These guys are dope.

Two Door Cinema Club - Come Back Home
Irish electropop group TDCC certainly knows how to work the beats and hooks. And they've got a really mind-boggling split reality music video. The insane pop hooks littered all over the song are extremely infectious and really gets you going. I think being signed to Kitsune Music certainly helps, for they've got the cred and ability to spot brilliant potential acts - just look at what they have in their barn and you know TDCC are in good stead.


Playing up the mystery and certainly no less hype surrounding them, enigmatic and still faceless duo that is Monarchy became the first band to perform a live broadcast into space. Fitting for a band who've built their music on space-like synths and hypnotic grooves.

Monarchy - Love Get Out Of My Way
And next up is a super dope video to accompany a Michael Jackson moonwalk-ish song. Slick pop ditty with sleek synths that while may not be as good as their previous singles, is still pretty damn good. That said, it's got the pace that was lacking in the more cool and collected tracks released earlier. These guys are as good at concealing their identities (word has it that they're actually Milke, not too sure though) as they are at fanning the flames of hype surrounding them. With singles such as Phoenix Alive and Gold in the Fire, and numerous remixes of hot tracks, they deserve mad props for making everyone want to know who's behind such fantastic music. And I need to get this off my head, the popping moves and choreography of the video is fucking sick.

Monarchy - Love Get Out Of My Way (Benny Benassi Remix)
This is like a steroid-pumped version of the original. Decidedly more dancey and featuring deeper bass, plus it's own music video to boot. Hot stuff.

they tell their lives through sunken eyes

When I was a young boy, my parents bought me a set of The World Book Encyclopaedia. On any day I would reach for a book and lose myself for hours in its endless pages of maps, photographs and texts. Even when I had a purpose in mind - for instance, a homework assignment on salamanders - I would invariably find myself reading, instead of Salem and its witchhunts or of Salamis, where the Greeks routed the Persians in the fifth century BC. Like all encyclopaedias, it was arranged alphabetically, based on sound and without regard to subject. As a child, I saw it wondrously whimsical and exquisitely inefficient. Perfect for exploration. The "S" volume alone could lead me down 10,000 unconnected highways.

- Ken Robinson in "The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything"


ceo - Prologue
Aptly titled Prologue, this track is shrouded in mystery, takes a pop at the unknown and gives us a little insight into what "White Magic", the debut album of ceo, might be like. A teaser of sorts. Vague and unfathomable. ceo is Eric Berglund, one half of electropop group The Tough Alliance, who founded Sincerely Yours which has the likes of jj, Memory Tapes, Air France and The Honeydrips under it's umbrella.

ceo - Come With Me
A euphoric journey through Eric's vivid imagination, the sweet melody of said song and the not so subtle chanting of "mamma mia" in the background takes you beyond the clouds, but not before putting a smile on your face or your soul. Definitely contrasted with that bad ass mask devoid of expression that Eric puts on in the video. Hurry and get the mp3 from RCRD LBL here.

jj - Things Will Never Be The Same Again
I thought, since I was already at it, I might as well feature stuff from the Sincerely Yours label. Curiously, the bands under them sound similar. Anyhow, going by a multiple thumbs up-ed post on youtube that goes "this song makes me feel like i am on my morning jog, which i loathe, and suddenly without warning a beneficent parrot swoops down and snatches me up by the shoulders. his claws r soft and velvety, however, so i am unharmed. the beauteous parrot takes me up, up, and up into the sky, where the clouds roam. i grab a piece of cloud and taste it, blueberry cotton candy, wonderful. the parrot and i continue our ascent, and we approach the blue ceiling. we gain speed, and pass through the ceiling. love", I guess one could really get high and super duper happy on their songs. I think it's got something to do with that empty yet ethereal sounding voice.

Memory Tapes - Easy Pert Mom
Memory Tapes has been oft cited as chill wave (there's that thing about genre classification) along with Washed Out, Neon Indian. Whatever the case, the new wavey synths, blips and bloops, vague and spacey rhythm never fails to blow my mind. It's spectacular and imperious, and you get the idea Dayve Hawk actually knows what magick he's conjuring. I like.

it's the start of the end

Cullen - Easily Impressed
Mr Cullen here, who hails from Melbourne, cites Phoenix, Daft Punk, The Beatles and Weezer amongst others as his influences. Debut single Easily Impressed has an intro with Daft Punk-ish synths for a solid backing rhythm. His sweet boppy voice fits the confession of a song to a T, especially in the repeated chorus. A sweet package all in all, his off kilter pop sensibilities in the vein of Phoenix would definitely appeal to the masses.

Grizzly Bear - Foreground (Phoenix Remix)
This has got to be either the smartest or the laziest idea Phoenix has come up with. I think I'd go with the former. Just follow the instructions as said. Personally, I liked what I tried on my first try. I started Foreground when Canon in D Major reached 1:00. Canon in D Major is a slow and classical piece which totally melds into the piano backed masterpiece, where Daniel Rossen holds fort. Brilliant idea, really.

Crystal Castles - Baptism
Permission to go ape over this song please. Been quite a while since we've heard from CC. It's mind blowingly catchy with 8bit synths, warpy vocals that can't be deciphered, deep bass beat that goes thump thump in your head. Delish.

Kinema - My Girls (Animal Collective Cover)
I'm loving this cover by Kinema, and according to themselves, they sound like "really good". I've got to agree with them, though it seems to have polarised opinion on youtube. Uber dancey rendition of AC favourite, My Girls.

Kinema - Let's Get To It
Groovy downtempo electronica (of sorts), this trio quote Giorgio Moroder, Aeroplane, Erlend Oye as influences. Also imbued are certain poppy hooks that are so damn infectious, they seem to be destined for bigger things.

all the time, we get by, trying to figure our lives

Allez Allez - Weird Science
Apocalyptic sounds that signal the end of time kick this rah-rah song off. It melds woozy synths that undulate like nobody's business. Quirky and fun, this song is one to slow bop to.

Broken Social Scene - Texico Bitches
The lyrics are ridiculously funny, what with "i wanna be fair like a wannabe fag" and "texico bitches the air you breathe is real". So catchy and so awesome, that's the least one can expect from BSS.

Broken Social Scene - Sweetest Kill
Beautiful elegant slow song with vocals that soar beyond all heights. Emotive with a wonder of an arrangement, underneath it all, is an earnestness that makes it a tender song that moves hearts and souls.

that was us for the last five years

My friend Marc creates ambient and instrumental music, amongst others, under the moniker Carrion. Absolutely wonderful stuff - thoughtful arrangements, glacial synths, melancholic with traces of moodiness and expansive soundscapes.

Click on the links below and you'll be redirected to the download pages.

Carrion - For You (mp3)

Carrion - Passing Time (mp3)


Toro Y Moi - Low Shoulder
Mr Chazwick Bundick seems to be rolling along just fine with his brand of chillwave. Incorporating a little of those hip-hop rhythms, he glides along with a simple blend of washy synths and quirky doo-wops. It just lifts your spirits when you listen to the song, and makes you feel all warm and good inside. At times, you can hear a little of Passion Pit and their pop-ish ditties, but deep down, it's still Chazwick.

Toro Y Moi - Talamak
Talamak is more mashy, like everything being thrown into a centrifuge and various sounds coming out together as one. Maybe the layering of sounds and vocals was blurred on purpose, giving a slinky feel to the song.

memory tells me that these times are worth working for

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

- Oscar Wilde


Violens - Already Over
Psychedelic pop running riot.

Super Desserts - Ibiza
Kooky mid-western charm.

Stars - Fixed
The bliss of synth.

Local Natives - Camera Talk
Pure infectious hooks.