GOLDEN BEAR 'TO THE FARTHEST STAR'

"Following its inception in 2003, Golden Bear determinedly and steadily worked their way into the bulging Austin music scene and built a loyal and devoted fan base before releasing its debut LP in August 2006. The self-titled album won praise from national publications such as Magnet, Entertainment Weekly, Spin, and The Onion, as well as from DIY bloggers and prominent internet sites such as Pitchfork and Tiny Mix Tapes. Additionally, the record spent three weeks on the CMJ top 200 college radio chart.

Mere months later, the group began work on To the Farthest Star, a collection of eleven songs that deal with the themes of good, evil, hope, and dread, all set within the vast emptiness of a cold, dark outer-space. This album pushes their “Galactic-Forest Rock” sound to places even Golden Bear didn’t expect. To the Farthest Star is the sound of a band poised and ready to move out of its much-beloved but limiting hometown scene, and assert itself on a national level."

Visit C-Side Records.

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STUDIO 'WEST COAST' AND 'YEARBOOK 1'

You could throw Studio in with the current crop of Europeans making dance waves, such as Justice, Simian Mobile Disco, or Digitalism, but you’d be doing the Swedes a disservice; post-punks in the club are far more interesting both sonically and formally than your typical punks in the club.

Much of the time they work in long form, winding melodic guitar lines around a core of clean, hypnotic rhythm. During these tracks they explore the trance-inducing repetition of Manuel Göttsching and gossamer lyricism of Durutti Column, and underpin the development with rhythms that allude to Can or the exotic tinge of Bill Laswell's Sacred System.

Some tracks are common to both releases, but I have posted both for completeness.

YEARBOOK 1

Read full review at Stylus Magazine.

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WEST COAST

Read full review at Stylus Magazine.

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M.I.A. 'KALA'

1. Bamboo Banga
2. Bird Flu
3. Boyz
4. Jimmy
5. Hussel (Feat. Afrikan Boy)
6. Mango Pickle Down River (With The Wilcannia Mob)
7. 20 Dollar
8. World Town
9. The Turn
10. XR2
11. Paper Planes
12. Come Around (Feat. Timbaland)

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YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS 'COLOSSAL YOUTH'

"The band would have put it more succinctly, but here's my take: Colossal Youth was Zen disco, new wave haiku, monk-punk that used sweetly perverted Ramones/Pistols minimalism to gently sketch out an exploded drawing of pop music. Though the album's spare, perfectly placed strokes of guitar, bass, organ, and voice would have more of an effect on mopey slowcore types and basement four-trackers, the ineffable thing about the Giants' music was how simultaneously haunting and cheery they could be. "Eating Noddemix" is music for brushing your teeth to the morning after an apocalypse, and the inimitable "Wurlitzer Jukebox" is a dance track for the last man on earth, with a geiger counter relentlessly ticking out the beat. Om, baby, yeah."
Pitchforkmedia's Top 100 Albums of the 1980's

Again, just posted because it's fantastic - hope you'll give it a spin if it's new to you.

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KLANG 'NO SOUND IS HEARD'

I'm posting this because.....it's fantastic.

"No Sound is Heard features Matthews working in the same spectral bareness first evident in Elastica’s 4-track demos – such as “Blue” and “Car Wash” – that appeared on the back of the band’s early singles and eschewed the punched-up, sped-out spazzery of their respective A-sides. Rather than fizzy zips and power-chord chops, Matthews carefully picks mellifluent electricity while drummer Keisuke Hiratsuka and bassist Isabel Waidmer lock on throb.

Though their name may allude to Kraftwerk’s electro bunker, Klang’s effortlessly shuck Krautrock’s space jams of all cosmic registers down to crisp, mantric outlines. Another point of reference may be PJ Harvey’s stark death blues, though Matthews wastes no time chewing the scenery for furious theatrics. Taut, but not tense, No Sound is Heard’s breezy 27 minutes is a mellow drift in minimal space." Dusted Magazine

1.	No Sound Is Heard
2.	Waiting
3.	As It Is
4.	As These Things Happen
5.	Help Is On Its Way
6.	We Step Softly
7.	Teach Me
8.	Good And Evil
9.	In Division

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SHOCKING PINKS 'SELF-TITLED (DFA, 2007)'

"On September 25, DFA/Astralwerks will release a 17-track compilation of songs taken from two 2005 Shocking Pink releases, both of which followed Nick Harte’s Dance the Dance Electric debut. Harte isn’t a typical DFA artist, as he makes music more comparable to My Bloody Valentine or Echo and the Bunnymen than LCD Soundsystem. But with the label's other recent rock signing, Prinzhorn Dance School, shaking things up on the guitar front, SP makes nothing but sense."

1. Wake Up
2. This Aching Deal
3. How Am I Not Myself?
4. Second Hand Girl
5. End of the World
6. The Narrator
7. Yes! No!
8. Emily
9. Blond Haired Girl
10. Victims
11. Girl on the Northern Line
12. I Want U Back
13. SmokeScreen
14. Jealousy
15. Cutout
16. Twenty Three
17. You Can Make Me Feel Bad

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THE CORAL 'ROOTS AND ECHOES 128k'

1. Who's Gonna Find Me

2. Remember Me

3. Put The Sun Back

4. Jacqueline

5. Fireflies

6. In The Rain

7. Not So Lonely

8. Cobwebs

9. Rebecca You

10. She's Got A Reason

11. Music At Night

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