Give PEACE A Chance part 2

A few weeks ago, we posted the announcement by Buffetlibre DJ's about their latest offering PEACE Aside from the obvious what is PEACE all about?

PEACE is conceived as the first musical atlas online, with more than 150 brand new songs by artists from more than 50 countries/territories. PEACE will be available digitally worldwide on April 12, with buyers needing to make a minimum donation to Amnesty International through a specially-designed website. All donations will go towards Amnesty International's campaigns on human rights.

The list of participating artists spans the globe and covers the continents. From the US to Burundi and everything in between, PEACE, is a massive undertaking. As per usual, the effort that Buffetlibre put behind these things is awesome. As a gesture of good will they've even provided us with more tracks from the upcoming release.

Download: Plushgun - Mixtapes (USA)
Download: Bonde Do Role & DJ Chernobyl - Dolphins (Brazil)
Download: The Toxic Avenger - NU 1553 (France)
Download: Ryuichi Sakamoto feat Christian Fennesz - PEACE (Japan)
Download: Jeremy Fowler - Lost In This Garden (Australia)
Download: Wanlov The Kubolor - Just Like You (Ghana)

Previous Post: Buffetlibre Give PEACE A Chance

Optimistic Relations

Andrew Leary and Oliver Keech aka Relation met as children in Essex. Though they both played in bands throughout school and university, the discovery of dance music heroes Orbital and Jeff Mills plus a shared love for the electronic pop giants of the 80s, was the catalyst for the duo to come together and form Relation.

Now on their fifth release, Relation have pretty much got it down pat. Their latest single, Optimistic is a slice of blue eyed soul run through the 80's. The tune has so much in common with The Style Council and Depeche Mode that Paul Weller and Martin Gore must be jealous. Truth be told, Optimistic is a perfect slice of pop in the purest sense of the world.

Radio friendly and a bit up-beat despite having lyrics like this..."How can we play the rent when the money's spent?" Optimistic is about as realistic and relatable as any artist can be today. They're the real deal even if they're thirty years late to the dance.

Download: Optimistic (The Diogenes Club Remix)
Download: Optimistic (Laserdisco Remix)

Shark Speed, John Glenn.

Shark Speed formed in the winter of 2008 in Provo, Utah. Brothers Jared Christensen (drums), Joe Christensen (lead guitar) joined with longtime friend Thayne Fagg (vocals, trumpet, guitar) to play straightforward, energetic rock and roll. Growing up playing the Vegas scene, their sound evolved into jangly guitar riffs, driving math-rock rhythms, danceable electronic melodies, and anthemic pop-rock hooks. Heating up snow-covered Utah houses, they packed sweaty crowds in basements, living rooms, and whatever spaces they could play.

In April 2009, Shark Speed self-released its debut album Sea Sick Music with help from producer Bob Hoag (The Format, The Ataris, Dear And The Headlights, Scary Kids Scaring Kids). Sea Sick Music quickly became a local favorite and received positive reviews nationally and abroad. Compared to The Long Winters, Ra Ra Riot and Minus the Bear, Shark Speed maintains an earnest musical blend of its own.

Now, Shark Speed is set to self-release a four song EP, Education, on April 6, 2010. Judging by the single, "Killing Kind," they're destined for good things. Shark Speed play good old fashioned "alternative," the way bands used to when I was in school. Filled with guitars that jangle, vocals that are filled with yearning, and songs that you can't forget, Shark Speed take all the fluro trendiness that's around today throw it out the window and come up with something that's completely refreshing. These guys are good in that classic indie pop way.

Download: Killing Kind

Reaganomics 1986 Style...

If you thought the music business was running out of ideas, wake up because 1986 has just proven that there are still creative people out there and whether it's the music or marketing or both ends of the stick some people just get it.

The long-awaited sophomore release from 1986, Everybody Is Whatever I Think They Are, releases tomorrow, March 9, 2010; and they're giving it away for free! Kind of.

Influenced by the seemingly infinite cases of pyramid schemes that riddled the headlines of global news papers in 2009, 1986 thought they would take a page from the play book of the likes of Bernie Maddoff to service the record to the general public. After all, if he was capable of swindling some of the richest and brightest that the world had to offer, beguiling the youth of America seemed highly achievable.

With a dash of irony, a heavy helping of satire, and a brief study of Terry Gilliam’s early work, here’s how the site works:

In order to get the record for free, you must exchange the email addresses of like-minded friends. The record is only delivered (digitally) once at least three of your friends click back through the site through the link the website sends them. Please visit the site for the full animated experience. Welcome to the Rock & Roll Ponzi Scheme!

If a pickle can get more fans that Nickelback then I'm pretty sure we can all find three people that want free music in their lives...better yet they don't even have to buy a bottle of Mona Vie to be part of the club.

Download: Black Spring

Download: Undertow

The Bang Bang Club Prepare To Explode

The Bang Bang Clubwill open for business on 3 May, with the release of their debut single, Chemistry.

The Bang Bang Club, in fact, is not a real club, but if it was, it’d be a bloody good one. It’s not a tribute to the group of apartheid photographers with whom they share their name. In truth, they just liked the word ‘bang’.

The band’s long gestation began when John (vocals) and David (synths) met at auditions for another act. Instantly becoming friends, within months they’d formed the band Protocol, been signed by Polydor at their first gig, and toured with the likes of A-Ha and Hard-Fi. Their ill-advised half-shaved/bleached hair made them resemble “a gay Nazi fashion designer”, but the less said about that the better. After the band split, John and David went it alone, and The Bang Bang Club was born.

By night, the band formed part of The House of Blue Eyes - a Warhol-esque collective of artists, performers, and designers, spearheaded by stylist-to-the-stars Johnny Blue Eyes. Yet by day, the band would still show up quite diligently at work, with David in particular opening his then-branch of Ask Pizza in all sorts of states. The Bang Bang Club, then, is as much a band as it is a philosophy of sorts; fusing fashion, music and art without the pretence often gained when you have forgotten where you’ve come from.

Chemistry is a shiny polished gem of a tune. It takes all the groundwork laid by their previous band and ups the ante by about ten. Produced to the nines and with hooks the size of Texas, the band is clearly onto something that could have only come with the trials and tribulations that they've gone through. While it might feel a bit commercial, the band's unabashed love of pop music is what shines through and as they say, it's all about chemistry. The Bang Bang Club is about to go boom.

Download: Chemistry

Download: Chemistry (Seamus Haji Radio Edit)

Man of Mystery...Rektchordz

Sometimes you don't get a lot of information about an artist. Sometimes you get two sentences, like below, and the music does the talking. Sometimes it doesn't work out and some times it does work out, in Rektchordz case it does, as the guy is an epic talent and knows how to construct a tune and a half (check the link to the Calvin Harris remix below). If that wasn't enough, the guy also knows how to spin as well.

Rektchordz (aka Jamie Smithson) has been a busy boy! Aside from penning a massive new single 'Speaker Bump' for his primary home, U&A Recordings which is due out in the first week of April with remixes from The Loops of Fury, Pete Jordan and dubstep hero Vaski, he's also just launched a brand new Website.

So that's it...that's the pitch and while it's not a lot, the mix below pretty much writes his biography for him.

Download: Filthy Inspiration Sessions 2

Visit HERE for the Calvin Harris Remix (email required)

Damien Jurado Heads to Arkansas

Saint Bartlett opens up with a grandiosity yet unheard on a Damien Jurado album. It strips away the many layers of paint from the house down the street where we know Jurado has occupied for the last decade. The new coat is exhilarating. It makes the whole neighborhood shine. It's a modest grandiosity; still homegrown. The mellotron swells, heavenly handclaps ring in stereo and big drums create a sky for the songs to fly in. And the words. Words spring forth from within the volcano of Jurado, full of hope. There's so much hope, in fact, that album opener "Cloudy Shoes" turns into a call-and-response with himself, as though it were a dialogue between two halves of himself.ado and Swift as the performers.

"I wish that I could float up from the ground / I will never know what that's like"

Heavy stuff. Richard Swift's Spector-esque production is spot-on. He ferries Jurado across the river, where the metamorphosis occurs. He then ferries him back, and it is through Swift's lens that we see Jurado not as a folk singer, but as a mystic — somewhere between Van Morrison, Scott Walker and Wayne Coyne. Saint Bartlett was made entirely at Swift's National Freedom studio in Oregon, in just under a week with only Jurado and Swift as the performers.

Saint Bartlett will be released by Secretly Canadian on May 25th in North America (May 24th in the UK).

Download: Arkansas