2010 - Sounds of the teenies

So, the first five months of the year (and the new decade) have passed, but what's been buzzin'??

Here are, in my opinion, the most original, groundbreaking songs released already this year:

1.Crystal Castles - Baptism

2. Hot Chip - I Feel Better
3. Gayngs - The Gaudy Side of Town
4. Here We Go Magic - Collector
5. Baloji feat Konono no. 1 - Karibou ya bintou
6. Light Year - The Pop Shot
7. The National - Terrible Love
8. HEALTH - USA Boys
9. Sarah Jaffe - Clementine
10. The Magic Kids - Hey Boy
11. Lali Paluna - Remember
12. Class Actress - Careful What You Say
13. Delorean - Stay Close
14. Dum Dum Girls - Jail La La
15. Pink Moth - The Long Grass
16. LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean
17. Summer Camp - Ghost Train
18. Cults - Go Outside
19. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Round and Round
20. Washed Out - New Theory
21. Joy Orbison - BRKLN CLLN
22. Suckers - Black Sheep
23. Big Boi - Shutterbug
24. Happy Birthday - Girls FM
25. Beach House - Zebra

Phoenix - Fences (25 HRS A DAY REMIX)

INTERPOL - Lights

*FREE DOWNLOAD* from their website.

Team Ghost

There's just something about Paris, and France actually, when it comes down to music. It's not that French ears are tuned exquisitely or that they have better equipment or more complex ideas, it's just everything is so goddamn cool. And slick. You walk around the Paris quartiers and always seem to bump into their same, stylish, guitar-carrying, leather jacket-wearing dude material: everyone always equipped with their own trendy walk. It's this attitude-drenched ambience that is reflected in their music. The new kids on the arrondissement (well I say new, but one of them was in M83 6 years ago) that are doing this are TEAM GHOST. These guys are producing brilliant Chilled-out fuzz pop in a familiar, but better, vein to our The Big Pink. The soporific vocals of former-M83-member Nicolas Fromageau relax the listener yet strangely give them a feeling of strong emotion. The group used a mix of Guitars and Synths on their recent EP, sounding like a New Order-tinged Dinosaur Jr. A complex fusion, but a fantastic one that'll hopefully see them one day get as much recognition as fellow Frenchmen Phoenix and Air.

 Check them out on Myspace here.

Blast from the past.

What with every other band/artist existing nowadays making pretentious folk songs and being tipped as the next Arcade Fire, Joan Baez or even Mumford and Sons?!, I thought I'd choose this:



From Joni's '74 album Court and Spark. Fabulous.

jj - Let Go

The National _ High Violet - Stream

Possibly the most anticipated album of the year, The National's High Violet, released 11th May, is available to stream here on the NY times website. So far it Sounds to me 100 times better than Boxer - incredible!

The XX - Islands (New Video)

I swear they've already released this is a single, but here's a new video they've made for it. It's probably the most pop-orientated song on the album X, and will see them get loadsa airplay. It's a pretty cool video too - although I do think I've had enough of the large Xs.