Field Music's angular indie-pop single "Them That Do Nothing" gets the royal music video treatment above. Camera tricks, fisheye lenses, and dapper costumes all factor in the memorable little clip from the Sunderland trio. The song will be featured on Measure; David and Peter Brewis', and Andrew Moore's forthcoming double LP. That will be out February 16th on Memphis Industries/Revolver. Hear title track from (Measure)here. (Via Pitchfork.tv.)
Oslo, Norway's shoegaze/noise-pop atomizers Serena-Maneesh will be back to wreak havoc on your cochleas in 2010. Here's the first destructive preview of their sophomore release, S-M 2: Abyss In B Minor, due out March 23rd via 4AD. The still epic six-minute edit of "Ayisha Abyss" will blow your mind in that Can-meets-black metal type way.
It definitely makes sense that SM's long-awaited follow-up to 2005's Serena-Maneesh was recorded in a cave on the outskirts of Oslo. This perfectionist rock rips. "Studio environments often get on my nerves," Emile Nikolaisen explains, "and I love the underworld, you can silently head down there and do as you please, leave the world behind. So we found this huge cave with stone walls, it looked like a refugee hideout from World War II, with a huge, undiscovered treasure of sound."
Make sure to stick around after the dust settles on "Ayisha Abyss." The band's noisy dark cloud opens up into a beautiful and ghostly melody. Also, check out this live performance of the My Bloody Valentine-like "Reprobate!" on Norwegian TV. Both songs will be featured on S-M 2. (Via MBV.)
S-M 2: Abyss In B Minor:
01 Ayisha Abyss 02 I Just Want To See Your Face 03 Reprobate! 04 Melody For Jaana 05 Blow Yr Brains In the Mourning Rain 06 Honeyjinx 07 D.I.W.S.W.T.T.D. 08 Magdalena (Symphony #8)
The best hip-hop LP of the year (sorry Jay-Z and Mos Def) is hands-down Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II. Well, the Chef keeps the stew going with two new videos this week. The first is for the interstitial Cuban Linx track, "Pyrex Vision." There's plenty of frosty times shown in the clip but not of the holiday variety. The NSFW video (lots of those floating around in '09) consists entirely of naked and semi-naked ladies cooking crack. Rae doesn't appear, but I'm sure he was on set the day the crew was filming. Watch it above, via Onsmash.
The second clip is the Rae's live performance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last night. They busted out a slightly altered version of "Catalina" with the always amazing house band The Roots backing them up. The Roots' Black Thought isn't the best vocalist, but he ably fills in for Lyfe Jennings' segment of the chorus, and even inserts his own new verse at the end. 'Tis the season for cocaine rap. Peep it above, via Sound of the City.
Listen to this lithe remix of the El Perro Del Mar's track "Change of Heart," from latest full-length, Love Is Not Pop. Sarah Assbring's melancholic single was recently given a house re-rub by fellow Swedish poptress Robyn. This is Robyn's first remix ever for another artist. In releated news, El Perro Del Mar is touring with Taken By Trees, aka former Concretes singer Victoria Bergsman. See the February and March North American dates here. The Swedish Grammis-nominated Love Is Not Pop is out now on Licking Fingers. (Via P4k.)
Seattle bands A Frames and Climax Golden Twins grafted themselves together into the hillbilly drone-metal outfit AFCGT about two years ago. Since then they've put out some underground vinyl: a 10-inch EP, a full-length debut, an appearance on a 7-inch comp, and some ultra-rare CDRs came tumbling down the assembly line. Their recording setup is simple: three electric guitars, a bass guitar, and a drum kit. The results are anything but rudimentary. Hear the aural desctruction of "Two-Legged Dog" above.
The new band’s second self-titled LP, is out January 26th from Sub Pop. Pretty heavy for the Seattle indie juggernaut these days but I can dig it.
The Go Find
“Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight” MP3
Berlin-based electronic band, The Go Find, are set to release their third LP, Everybody Knows It's Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight, out February 14th, via Morr Music. This is the third full-length effort of lead songwriter/indie-pop dreamer, Dieter Sermeus. His previous records include 2004 debut Miami, and sophomore album, Stars On the Wall (2007).
This new long-player was recorded in Antwerp and Brussels, with largely acoustic guitars and drums. You can hear a preview of GF's slow evolution from sample-based music on the warm and inviting title track. Download/stream it above. It's a sweet paen to lonely teenage nights under neon lights. Everybody Knows It's Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight's tracklisting and more information can be found here.
Sam Amidon's fourth long-player is primarily new arrangements of traditional, public domain songs. One notable divergence from the theme is a cover of R. Kelly's unreleased track "Relief." The release, entitled I See the Sign, features guest spots from Nico Muhly, Beth Orton, ShahzadIsmaily, and ValgeirSigurðsson. Listen to the skittering, Arthur Russell-like "How Comes That Blood" above. The LP is out March 1st, via Bedroom Community.
BLK JKS' prog/psych single “Molalatladi" has been floating around for quite awhile, but the earworm-y track finally gets an official video this week. (Sidenote: "Molalatladi," translates to rainbow in Zulu.) The Jamie James-Medina-directed clip splices together scenes of the group hanging out at Coney Island with James-Medina and Matthew Salacuse’s South African train surfing documentary from last year. There's plenty of train ghostriding in this one. We interviewed BLK JKS for our Fall '09 issue. After Robots is out now on Secretly Canadian. (Via Street Carnage.)
Oslo, Norway's shoegaze/noise-pop atomizers 
Listen to this lithe remix of the 
Seattle bands 
Berlin-based electronic band, 
Sam Amidon
