HOME NOD IF YOU CAN HEAR ME // GET UP AND LEAVE [FREE DOWNLOAD]

This picture right here, right here, does the job at pretty much accurately describing not just one but in fact both of these songs. I dunno. Do you know? What am I talking about? In any case: I've found some more really nice music and I hope that's ok with everyone. My aim is to find nice music and well most of the time I do achieve that aim. That's not arrogant, it's just what happens ok? Sorry.

This time around I like literally couldn't decide on what song to include here. There are so many lovely songs on this guy's SoundCloud and I recommend - at least, if you like the stuff you hear here - checking out his entire back catalogue. He's prolific and his name is Randy Goffe but we shall refer to him simply as HOME for that is what he has baptised himself in this online world. This Florida-(Punta Gorda)-based producer is making some seriously delicious 80s-flavoured sounds that make me just wanna eat ice creams, drive fast cars, play GTA Vice City, emigrate somewhere tropical, drift on a lilo in a pool in a mansion bought by drug money. Perhaps not that drastic but, you know. It's a College-y, Electric Youth kinda synthpop sound and I love it.

The first of these (yep I'm sharing two: shock HORROR) is called 'Nod If You Can Hear Me' and, well, you'd better get ready to nod cause you're definitely gonna hear him.

This song is alive with synth bass that really helps to drive the song - the perfect vibe for driving along a dramatic coastal road someplace pretty. Rich chords plummet down to your ears from the thumping pace of the song, which is for the most part quite a minimalist experience: a simple beat takes us from start to finish, doubling up on hi-hats for a faster pace towards the end. For me, this is over way too soon. I could listen to this like, all night. Or all day. Wheeling synth with delayed attack time swoop in with an ache, a longing, that feels like squinting on a sunny day. Glorious.

And then there's this other one. It's 3 months old but that has never stopped me from posting a song. No siree. So without further ado, here is 'Get Up And Leave'.

This one has a different atmosphere about it. There's a touch of lingering sadness in gentle electric piano chord progression, in the pattern of the lead synth melody floating above everything. It might just be me, but it sounds as though the bassline doesn't properly kick in until later in the song, after halfway, begetting a heavy atmosphere that isn't completely apparent from the get-go, but which is wonderful to gradually fall into as the track goes on its way. At 1:29 we lose the lead synths, or they just join in with the original chords, to create a less celebratory tone, making for an organic fade-out in terms of passion rather than volume. Like a break-up song, kinda. I can imagine someone driving away from a house having just broken up. I'm welling up just picturing that.

Anyway. It's all lovely. These are just two particular gems in the treasure chest of sounds on HOME's SoundCloud. HOME is a good name; whilst not very googleable, it is a nice statement on the instant familiarity that you feel with his sounds. Given that he's "like 17" as well, it's even more of a nice surprise to hear these great sounds. If he's not like 17 then shame on him for lying. Just kidding, it's fine. It's music, after all, not a registration form.

In other news: you can download a mixtape of "pretty much every song [he's] ever done" called The Atlantic Tapes. All of his songs are free to download, including these two above. MUSIC FOR EVERYONE!

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Like HOME on Facebook
Listen to HOME on Soundcloud

VISITOR RNB

Wow. The epicality of this radical track by Visitor is just too much to bear. It's certainly pretty cool, and definitely something that I will look forward to hearing more of. Before you even listen to the music, the artwork to the right of this silly bit of writing will tell you that: yes, this will be a good track. It will be. Just look at it. Of course it will be. Why would anybody spend time creating a cool little graphic like that for music that is no good?

So this is 'RNB' by Visitor. They got a bit of traction recently when Jacques Lu Cont who included them in a mini-mix for Annie Mac - perfect when their EP, Coming Home // RNB, is due for launch on 10th September. This will come ahead of a full album launch - details of which I'm sure will come our way soon.

Onto the song itself. It seems to be aligned with the style of retro 80s-ness that is permeating a lot of electronic music at the moment - especially any of the songs associated with the wonderful film Drive. All the right elements are there: we have that rigid bass synth fuzzing in the background, a bit of standing-on-a-cliff guitar solo stuff, the couldn't-be-anything-but-80s drums, some hollow flute synth hopping around over the top, and most importantly - glittering, mood-making bells.



Second-half of the song seems to, using the same sounds, become more of a majestically huge, electronic pop-rock ballad. The vocals are powerfully catchy and exude a sense of the dreaded sing-a-long - not dreaded really, but I just liked the way that sounded. All in all a track to enjoy and headbang to whilst playing some games on the Sega Megadrive or reminiscing about The NeverEnding Story. Or just rocking out in your own private dreamworld. Love this. What an atmosphere it makes!

Like it? Then remember: Visitor Coming Home // RNB EP out 10th September.

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• More Visitor sounds on SoundCloud
• Here is their official site
• This is Visitor's Facebook page
• Follow Visitor on Twitter
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KAVINSKY NIGHTCALL

I haven't yet seen Drive, but if some of the music blasting out of the essences of the by-mouth reviews and praise of that film is anything to go by, it's safe to say that it'd be a good idea to go and see it. And of the music, the sound that seems to be in the air at the moment permeating the brain of anybody/everybody who went to see the film is the distinctly brilliant 'Nightcall' by Kavinsky.

Real name Vincent Belorgey, Kavinsky is one of the children of the Parisian electro house family, having toured with the likes of Daft Punk, Justice and The Rapture, delivering high energy tunes based on that 2005-7 fuzzy electronic aesthetic. And that's not everyone. Aside from being mates with one of my favourite French artists, Mr. Oizo, he's also called upon the talents of fellow electro-honeymooner Lovefoxxx (of CSS) to lend her lovely vocal stylings to the creeping cat of a track that is 'Nightcall'.



And what a creeping cat this track is. If Kavinsky here is trying to evoke a kind of night feeling, of the dark air and rushing blank road orange streetlights, the quiet and cold if it all, then he has done it very very well. The slow house beat whisks you away like an urban dreamtime rowboat into a kind of 80s alternate reality where everything resounds with a kind of computerised nostalgia. The altered machine-like voice offset against Lovefoxxx's vocals is the perfect contrast. All I can say is that I love the tempo and I love the feel. It's the kind of thing that suits night much more than morning, like I said. Like a creeping night cat. And this song, by the way, comes from Kavinsky's 7-song 2010 EP, Nightcall.

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• Listen to more Kavinsky on his SoundCloud
• Or Myspace
• And here is Kavinsky on Bandcamp
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