Clear Crystal Vision

Katie Wicks & Bryan Peace of Crystal Vision have spent a lot of time over the past year doing remixes for other people so now they are finally gearing up for the release of their first EP on Robot Dance Records which comes out November 24th!

Because it’s Halloween weekend, their favorite holiday, they have decided to share one of the remixes that will appear on the EP! And what a better way to get away from remixing than having someone remix you! Australian, ShearGen1us rips Crystal Vision's, "Mouser," a new one and is sure to do some damage to the dance floor with this bleepy robotic roller coast ride that's certain to cause spasms and endless thrills.

Download: Mouser (ShearGen1us Remix)

S.I.M.O. and Native Intelligence Tear It Out

The latest drop on the hot label Rock It Science Laboratories, created and run by
Eric Sharp and DJ Fame, is a masterpiece from S.I.M.O. & Native Intelligence that goes by the name, Tear Out. Complete with genre-busting remixes including veteran of the UK tech scene Evil Eddie Richards, Dubnoir’s Chris James, NYC’s Bit Crushers and Dubstep phenoms The Flying Skulls the record's got it all.

As always these tracks launch your listening experience into the 4th dimension. Wobbling in the dark recesses of the galaxy, the record glitches and bleeps its way across hyperspace with deep warped out vocals, and a wobbly groove that will have your feet contorting in ways unimaginable. Mixing deeeep house vibes, techno, the kitchen sink and lord only knows what else the tune is a killer.

Download: Tear Out
Download: Tear Out (Bit Crushers Remix)

Dntel Makes Music For After Parties

Dntel is the operational alias for Los Angeles resident Jimmy Tamborello. Jimmy also sometimes records and releases music under the name James Figurine. He is also the host of the Dublab radio show “Dying Songs.” And, he is also, it's true, one half of The Postal Service (whose 2003 album Give Up is Sub Pop's second best-selling album of all time). In 2007, we at Sub Pop released the most recent Dntel album, entitled Dumb Luck which included contributions from a whole raft of talented people too numerous to list here (a short version of that list would include members of Grizzly Bear, Rilo Kiley, Bright Eyes, and Arthur & Yu).

On Dec. 7th, 2010 we are releasing new music from Dntel in the form of a pair of companion EPs, entitled After Parties 1 and (very sensibly, given their complementary relationship) After Parties 2. These two EPs collect 8 new Dntel tracks (3 on After Parties 1 and 5 on After Parties 2) which are a bit more minimalist and experimental in nature, all of them instrumental, and feature (to the best of our "knowledge") a list of guest contributors numbering exactly zero.

These 8 new tracks are also, we are able to discern even through the mist of biases both personal and professional, really something special. Both After Parties 1 and After Parties 2 will be available on 12" vinyl and as weightless, odorless digital audio files; neither will be available on CD.

Download: The Distance
Download: Dumb Luck

Nitzer Ebb Returns!

Industrial-electro pioneers Nitzer Ebb are returning from a 15-year hiatus with a new album that renews their unique take on industrial. Nitzer Ebb has a way of meshing a variety of different genres into a musical melting pot of powerful rhythms, minimal sequencer bass and hooklines and fierce, chanted vocals.

After originally reforming in 2006, the band’s increasingly active profile included 2010 European tour activities with Depeche Mode and at major festival shows, as well as embracing the challenge of returning to the studio. The result is a piece of work that sounds fresh and modern but without denying their past: the new album, Industrial Complex, is slated for release in North America on November 9th, 2010 thru Artists’ Addiction Records.

Industrial Complex is a musically and vocally diverse work that illustrates the band’s skill at getting to the essence of each track, making it as perfect on the dance floor as it is at home on headphones. Judging by the single, "Promises," it's as if the band never went on hiatus to begin with. In fact it's as if it were 1989 all over again, and Nitzer Ebb had stormed the studio(Yeah I know that a Meat Beat record) and taken it over. "Promises," sounds like the Chemical Brothers before the Chemical Brothers and is pretty much guaranteed to slaughter the dance floor at every goth night between here and Timbuktu.

Welcome back guys.

Download: Promises

Electric Owls Are Quite A Hoot

Here's how Andy Herod describes his band Electric Owls, "Electric Owls is what I call it these days when I write some songs, and with the help of some great friends, record and package them to be sent out into the world for complete strangers to enjoy. Or I suppose under less desirable circumstances, not enjoy. Regardless, I cannot stop, will not stop. I have done this before and for some time under different names with different friends, but for now I'll concentrate pretty much on the present."

What Electric Owls are in actuality is a really, really good neat indie rock/pop combo that unashamedly takes elements of Americana, douses them with synthesized goodness, and then takes it all and smothers it in melodically blissed out vocals. Andy's songs end up sounding lo-fi, shuffly, and ridiculously good. He some how manages to get a whole bunch quirky sounds to work together in ways they shouldn't and that's really the Electric Owls strength...great songs out of weird things.

Download: When I Was A Flood

Apex Manor Peaks At The Right Time

On January 25, Merge Records will release The Year of Magical Drinking, the debut album from Apex Manor.

Ross Flournoy founded Apex Manor after the 2009 demise of The Broken West. Named after his Los Angeles “zen place,” Apex Manor was the idyllic apartment of his close friend and long-time collaborator Adam Vine.

Having relocated from the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles to Pasadena, Flournoy was enjoying suburban tranquility, but his car wouldn’t start and he found himself isolated. He whiled away the days cleaning the house, sitting on the porch, and splitting tallboys with the gardeners who worked nearby. And battling a case of writer’s block.

Enter an unlikely source of inspiration: an online songwriting contest. NPR’s Monitor Mix was soliciting original songs from readers, giving the prospective songwriter one weekend to write, record, and submit. Flournoy decided to give it a go and set about writing and recording at home. At least he would be doing something with his time. The song, “Under the Gun,” turned out to be about the process itself.

Now feeling inspired for the first time in months, Flournoy began writing at a feverish clip, penning more than 25 songs, nearly a third of which were co-written by Adam Vine. Flournoy then teamed up with former Broken West bandmate Brian Whelan to record some proper demos, and Apex Manor was born.

The Year of Magical Drinking was recorded at three different studios around LA and was produced by Dan Long (Film School, Local Natives) and Brian Whelan. The full-band Apex Manor plans to tour extensively in 2011 including SXSW.

Apex Manor is Ross Flournoy, Adam Vine (if he learns how to play the bass), Brian Whelan, and Andy Creighton.

Download: Under The Gun

Jumpel Loves Edinburgh

Hidden Shoal Recordings today announced the release of ‘Edinburgh’ by German ambient pop maestro Jumpel, the first single to be taken from his forthcoming third album Europa.

With ‘Edinburgh’, Jo Dürbeck introduces a bewitching new ingredient to the Jumpel sound – the luscious vocals of Chloë March. Beautifully evoking the rain-soaked streets of the Scottish capital, refracted through a personal lens, ‘Edinburgh’ is an exercise in elegance and restraint, filling out the shadows and backstreets with ennui. Melancholic piano chords carry the track forward while electronic texture’s weave amid March’s luminous lyrical play. A departure – yet also an arrival.

‘Edinburgh’ is taken from the forthcoming Jumpel album Europa (out November 25th). Inspired by Jo Dürbeck’s travels around Europe, the album transforms Dürbeck’s personal memories of 11 different European locations into minimal ambient electronica. The album acts as a kind of abstracted sonic diary, painting the intangibles and romanticism of memory and travel using sparse yet resonant sound. A simple idea – and one that has produced Jumpel’s most restrained and unified effort to date.

Download: Edinburgh