STRFKR BEACH MONSTER

This lovely ditty comes from STRFKR or Starfucker, if you like, and it's called 'Beach Monster'. Now that we have the obvious out of the way: what is Starfucker? can we ever know the true nature of Starfucker?

It's a band. From Oregon (USA, duh). And no, we cannot know the true nature of STRFKR. But why not? Well, like all good 'electronica' bands, they instantly have a varied and suits-all kind of sound. Like, your sister will love to sing along to them but you will rave to them. As interchangeable as their own shock-factor name and the capitalised, vowelless version of it (and their brief moniker of PYRAMID). And it's a distinct luxury only at the disposal of indie/pop/electro bands who surfaced in the later days of the 2000s - take MGMT for instance and compare Oracular Spectacular and Congratulations: WELL different.

Anyway that's all theory and conjecture and whatever. Better than me just writing omg heres strfkr with a new song copypastepressrelease. Well, maybe it isn't. Who knows? Let's just listen to the song, shall we?

It's from their 3rd album, out now, called Miracle Mile. I like it, in all its psychedelia-tinged pop loveliness. The whole Buddy Holly thing that's going on the video never gets old for me (I adore Weezer's 'Buddy Holly', what a great video) but as for the song itself, it's fab. The yearning faraway lo-fi vocals and that sitting-on-a-beach acoustic guitar lend themselves to a summery aesthetic that I'm either imagining (due to lack of sun in England) or that is inherent in this song. Probably the latter because it is called 'Beach Monster' after all.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Like STRFKR on Facebook
Listen to STRFKR on Soundcloud
Hear more STRFKR on Myspace
Visit STRFKR official site
Follow STRFKR on Twitter
Learn about STRFKR on Wikipedia

REAL YOU + ME

Soz not done for today yet.

Not yet anyway. Just came across this. A song called 'You + Me' by a guy who goes by the name of Real. Sometimes I really hate doing these introduction type things because there are only so many ways you can introduce a person and after a while it all gets strange - I think "...goes by the name of..." is a great example. It's a new one, but it's stupid, isn't it? Some salty dog pirate saying, or dusty old cowboy expression - one or t'other. How can I introduce thee? Let me count the ways. Actually let's not. Let's move on.

Sometimes it's easy to think that music is only propagated by people who are already well established in the music scene. It's even easier to fall into thinking that good music is only made by artists whose names you know already. But what needs to be remembered by those who forget is that all famous artists start off not famous at all. And that a famous artist doesn't necessarily make good music all the time. Unknowns can make good music. They can also make bad music. And well-known artists can be good but they can certainly fall on the wrong side of awful, too.

Basically, you can find good music anywhere.

And here is one such example:

It's a very London sound - garage through and through. Makes sense cause Real is from London. But aside from the geography, it's an extremely sexy tune. The ebb and flow of the fluffy synth is pure butter for the ears (is that nice?) and the vocal sample does exactly what you'd want it to do, get chopped up, looped, layered and brought up an octave - these are the most notable parts for a while. Even before the beat helter-skelters in, it's garagey, but when the rattles of the beat do surface it's a joy to bop along to, I must say.

The synth grows more abrasive and stretchy throughout until an amazing solo comes in, an upbeat, carefree kind of high-pitched noise that buzzes along like a jaunty bee on its way to a party. This has 'SUMMER' written all over it, and it's a humid, urban, restless summer, that's for sure.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Like Real on Facebook
Listen to Real on Soundcloud
Follow Real on Twitter

SEAMS NACHTMUSIK

This is by no means new, but if you only go by what is 'new' in this world then you're going to have a pretty limited scope of what's gone on before you. Besides, something can still be new even if by definition it is 3 months or a year or more old - if it's your first time hearing it, it's new for you. And for much of the music in the world, I can imagine that to many ears it would sound very new indeed.

So before we leave past artists in the dust and stride disparagingly over them, casting cankerous silhouettes, let's take a closer look at those which are deserving of remembrance, despite their inability or failure to pierce the mainstream or to even be heard by more than a few thousand people. This isn't a manifesto, however, so don't start thinking I'm going all philosophical on yo azzes (even then, it's just a state of mind, not something we must shout to the world) and don't get uppity. Just a thought, yo.

A thought, cause this song 'Nachtmusik' by Seams (real name James Welch - British by birth, from Hampshire, now living in Berlin) is pretty old. But, like I said, anything you've never heard is new till you hear it. This comes from a EP of his called Tourist, released in 2011, and it is hypnotising, just like the person who recommended it to me said it was. Without further ado:

One of my favourite things, strangely, is unintelligible vocal samples, and this song has one on loop all the way through. The glockenspiel/xylophone vibes are a really nice touch, and the repetition on these is what gives the song its addictive, near trance-inducing quality. It's a bit glitchy, sounds a bit like Four Tet, just the kind of thing that's nice to hear in the morning, as it is now - but I'm sure it's very nice to hear at night, which is what I'm assuming the song is about.

It definitely does have a solitary feel about it (like Four Tet): maybe it's in the slow, hip-hop beat, or in the measured synth that fizzes by later in the song, or the scattered percussion, or the bleep-ridden frenetic loud parts of the song. But it just comes and goes, fading into ambient chatter much as it started, leaving just echoes of its synth like ripples on the background sample. L to the O to the V-E-L-Y.

And if you must know, he's signed to Full Time Hobby records.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Like Seams on Facebook
Listen to Seams on Soundcloud
Visit Seams' official site
Follow Seams on Twitter

JOEY BADA$$ FT. CHANCE THE RAPPER WENDY N BECKY

When there are rappers born in 1995 making music... and good music at that... you KNOW you old. Or older than you were. Or perhaps it's the feeling of "why-did-I-not-make-more-of-an-effort-on-the-things-that-I-loved-back-when-I-was-his-age?-damn-this-passage-of-time-called-life" - you know what I mean? In any case, I dunno if I've written about this guy before, but whatever: it's Joey Badass.

Yeah I know it's 'Bada$$' but for the purpose of convenience on my part, I'm eschewing those dollar signs. It's deliberate, yo.

Joey Badass is part of hip-hop collective Pro Era (short for Progressive Era), formed with a group of friends when still at high school. I'm still feeling like almost sick that someone could have so much drive at such young an age. It starts, I guess, as a desire to get out of high school and continues as a true calling. Call it cliché but it certainly seems this way.

I was sure that I wrote about a song of his a while ago. Well, apparently not. Here's the latest nudge I've had to start writing about music again, 'Wendy N Becky' by Mr Badass himself along with another young (19) rapper named Chance The Rapper (accidentally googled 'Chance The Raper' first - ick). Get listening.

Suuch a tune, right? Right? It reminds me of the kind of song you'd find on the first or second Tony Hawk's. Not to say that that's a bad thing. It's actually a really good thing. A kind of borrowed nostalgia that you get for America and American things when you've just been exposed to so much America in your childhood, suburbs and skateboarding that you can TRY to replicate in the UK but it's... not the same.

Funny/clever lyrics, scratching (you don't hear much of that unless you actually look for it, as in, it ain't popular) and a beat that is a sweltering sidewalk winding its way aimlessly along - it's lovely. The overall sound that pervades everything is a sultry kinda sound, distorted by heat and sunlight. And there's a bit of a joke in the title, ho ho, yes there is (at least I think there is). Check the Urban Dictionary entries for Becky and Wendy, lols.

As for Pro Era: a kinda more normal and, dare I say: better, Odd Future? Perhaps. We'll just have to wait and see what comes next.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Like Joey Badass on Facebook
Listen to Joey Badass on Soundcloud
Learn about Joey Badass on Wikipedia
Check Joey Badass on Tumblr
Follow Joey Badass on Twitter

Learn about Chance The Rapper on Wikipedia
Follow Chance The Rapper on Twitter
Like Chance The Rapper on Facebook
Visit Chance The Rapper's official site

Visit Pro Era's official site

HOT NATURED & ALI LOVE BENEDICTION

This song is just gorgeous. IF U AINT HERD IT HERE IT NOW LOL!

There's nothing I like better than a song that ushers in its own Summer just in the sounds that mash together in the however many minutes it takes it to grow from its unassuming start to its sweaty chilled ending. That's my favourite kind of song, you know? The kind that summons its own Summer. Yeah! Where's that sun!?

So this song, as I said, is just gorgeous. It's by Hot Natured and Ali Love (the latter of which being a part of the former) and is called 'Benediction' but it sounds a lot more like, well, not a benediction, but something a lot better, much better than church (sooo much better).

It's totally beautiful, there's like this wonderful soft-focus marshmallow-like chord bop that is its hook, sounding a lot like 'Sexy Love' by Ne-Yo. Then there's this popping melody, strain your ear and you're hear it hopping along beside it all, like a little ditty from 'Return of the Mack'? Is that where it's from? Not from, but... reminiscent of. It came out in October 2012, a long way away from Summer, but I predict that it will be THE song for the Summer. Yeah, THE song.

God it's fabulous. Those string stabs. The undeniable groove of it all. Aiya!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Like Hot Natured on Facebook
Learn about Ali Love on Wikipedia
Visit Ali Love's official site
Like Ali Love on Facebook
Follow Ali Love on Twitter