PICTUREPLANE POST PHYSICAL VIDEO

On Stereoboard yesterday the video for Pictureplane's single 'Post Physical was premiered. Here it is here - here, take a look:



Directed by MENZ - a joint effort between Mike Giambra & Bill Benz (thank you Anonymous saviour) - Pictureplane's new video is an imaginative effort, perfectly matching the mix of unconventional/conventional in the music with grainy footage of Travis on some theme park rides, flecked with colour and tinged with a certain element of darkness - mainly in the gimp-suited guy and the leopard-print-wearing girl. But that's Pictureplane: dark positivity, polished lo-fi, and mainstream esotericism.

I've already talked about the song, so I won't bore you again.

• Check out MENZ at videomenz.tumblr.com

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WASHED OUT EYES BE CLOSED

Washed Out (aka Ernest Greene) is a fantastic new star in the world of chillwave, lo-fi, bedroom-producing artists who are storming music blogs the world over. In a wonderful culture of give-and-receive, Washed Out has remixed and been remixed a number of times, and the music that comes of it is nothing short of astoundingly beautiful, stark and dreamy.

Greene's own stuff is phenomenal. Taking influence from hip-hop, he creates a strong eye-watering beat and layers delayed and reverbed synths and samples to build for his listeners a world awash with music that takes you away in currents of soaring modulation; 'Eyes Be Closed' - the single from his fresher than fresh new album Within And Without (released 12th July) - is no exception to this unspoken rule.

'Eyes Be Closed'


Beginning with a super slowed Balearic-style synth that reeks of Cafe Mambo at sunset hour, an offbeat hip-hop drumtrack comes in to give it some seriously beefy foundations. It sounds a little like a lo-fi Mylo - it has that same summery hypnosis-induced lying-on-grass-watching-clouds-in-a-trance kind of feel to it. Following a repetitive synth breakdown at about 2:50, the main refrain of the song blasts over again until the end, featuring crash cymbals that sound like I'd imagine they'd sound having been caught on film in super slowmotion. It's a track that's not very hard to fall in love with, addictive as it is in equal parts gentle and brimming with potential energy.


• Check out the sounds on Myspace
• And follow Washed Out on Twitter

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FIXERS SWIMMHAUS JOHANNESBURG

Oxford band Fixers had this great song debuted on Zane Lowe's show last week. Touted by NME as "a cartoon Animal Collective", the sounds of the band scream to be remixed, having been given the once-over by the D/R/U/G/S, Memory Tapes and Chad Valley amongst others so far - they're pretty new to the scene and already making friends, which is nice.

Strangely named 'Swimmhaus Johannesburg' is a crazed mix of synth that sounds straight out of the amazing 1992 game for SNES Top Gear, late 90s piano-led house music, a beat that couldn't be more solid if it tried, and the strange euphoric atmosphere of a dark sweaty hotel nightclub - the kind of place where the music seems to come from another world.



Fixers' latest offering is nothing but otherworldly. It's as if aliens looked at the music of pop culture over the last 20-something years and put this all together in a mixing pot. Starting which a distorted guitar Black Betty against a backdrop of tumbling tropical toms, that classic rave piano chord struck on the offbeat comes in, coupled with a drawn out virtuoso synth sound that reverberates in your skull. Soon we are at the chorus, where the vocals though slightly thin lead the song forward accompanied by a host of 'aaah's in the background, and a boiling kettle schizoid synth sound gathers energy as it rises up towards the next break. All the while a disco bassline crunches deeply behind the madness.

There's a lot going on in the song, all coming to a head when the chorus jumps out of the verse to raise you up out of your seats and off the ground it seems. It's very ADHD, jumping from a Duran Duran-style breakdown one minute to a ravey comedown the next; heavily layered, energetic and progressively electro-rock-disco enough to be more than just a quirk, it's not exactly something that you can listen to without an aural doubletake.

• Listen to Fixers on SoundCloud
• Or their Myspace
• Check their official site
• And follow them on Twitter

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BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB SHUFFLE

Being a fan of Bombay Bicycle Club, I was pretty excited to see them at Glastonbury for a second time (I saw them at the John Peel Stage in 2010). They're a lovely bunch of lads who play indie alternativia fronted by the charismatically humble Jack Steadman, whose heartfelt lyrics about (mainly) girls, love, and romance leave a long note of resonance wherever they are heard. I'm even more excited at the prospect of a new album in the wake of first single 'Shuffle'.

Sounds like someone in the band's been listening to Wild Beasts' first album Limbo, Panto - or perhaps it's just the honky-tonk piano and the occasional falsetto from Steadman that makes me think this. Either way, this song marks a definite move away from the guitar-band indie dancefloor killer anthems of the first album I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose ('Always Like This' and 'Evening/Morning') and the revivalist Brit-folk acoustic softness of second album Flaws, and a transition into perhaps something more experimental.

Released on 23rd June, 'Shuffle' sounds like neither of the above. Although the piano adds an almost timeless quality to the song, as pianos do, it might turn off some fans who were there for the twiddly guitar bits and chunky bass riffs that defined them as a band before 2010 - but that's inevitable. The most recognisable quality in 'Shuffle' is actually the beat, those skiffly yet precise and distinctively "indie" drums provided by drummer Suren de Saram are second cousins of those found in the hit 'Always Like This'; first cousins of the drums that accompany the lovely 'Ivy & Gold'.



Overall it's a song with enough going on to warrant it being a single, but understated enough to allow it to wash over your ears instead of infect them with repetitive strains and refrains. There's a wonderfully gentle breakdown that comes after the halfway point, demonstrating BBC's skill with and execution of effortless changes in pace and dynamic. I'm hoping it's a taster of what will be come next - a new album and another change in sound for the band whose loyal following will be happy with the result.

• New album A Different Kind Of Fix out 29th August
• Check out their official site
• Their Myspace for more music
• And their SoundCloud
• Also, follow them on Twitter

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GHOSTING SEASON FAR END OF THE GRAVEYARD

Morphing organically from previous electronica project, Worredaboutsatan, the Leeds duo who now steer the fate of current undead-themed Ghosting Season. But is their first EP under this new moniker, 'Far End Of The Graveyard', halfway between this world and the next, one foot in heaven and one on the earth - is it in limbo?

Super dance make-a-stand here-I-am darkly anti-anthemic dirge title-track 'Far End Of The Graveyard' busts on the scene first and is a fantastic opener. This really brings to the forefront Gavin Miller's and Tom Ragsdale's talents in creating an atmosphere by slowly introducing you to different sounds and themes, both geniuses in patience and certainly not exposing you to everything all at once. The intricate weave of perfect jigsaw sounds comes to a head around two-thirds of the way through this one when a simple brutally modulated two-note synth bridge disturbs the drums so much that they disappear for half a bar each time it repeats itself. Wonderful stuff, something I've written about before here (also the post-post-modern video is on the past post too).

Second track 'Exercise Us' opens with a hugely desertificated slow symphony of strings and horns, like a dark Lawrence of Arabia on ketamine. It's chilled pseudo-dubstep with an auxilliary beat that sounds like the beat played to the music inside the pyramid of Mario 64's Shifting Sand Land, and for this the soundscape is automatically tied to sand, pyramids, and spirits guiding you through it all (that's Zelda - sorry).

However this is far from soundtrack music, and would do just as well in a misty club at 3:00 in the morning with 12,000 units down you, dancing as if your legs don't exist - i.e. swaying. There's a wonderful breakdown in this song, displaying some attitudinal wobble and providing some bassy breathing space as the strings come back to take centre stage before we are back into the groove.

So when 'Washed Ashore' surfaces it's a welcome break. What you notice about Ghosting Season is their subtle intensity; after the first two tracks you are kind of reeling from their sound. Totally not in a bad way, but it's in their progressive build-ups that you suddenly find yourself miles away from the start of the song - the elements are still there, but so much more has risen out of the speakers that you almost find yourself looking down on the idea of a song whilst you float above it all watching its original concepts swirl around.

Thus 'Washed Ashore' - with its ambience, swooping synths, and gentle wave-crashing imitations - comes perfectly positioned; after the brooding storm of 'Far End Of The Graveyard', the lost-at-sea hallucinations of 'Excercise Us', it's nice to be washed ashore with 'Washed Ashore'.

Then we travel inland for 'Dead Man's Switch' - to some dark place, who knows where. It's a hearty chunk of progressive trance house, once again showing the skill and effort put into their songs. Sounding much more like electronica than its counterpart 'Far End Of The Graveyard', the distorted sounds bubble up after a moment of silence - this is the dead man's switch being activated (yeah I just learned what this was too). Though strangely more than any other song there's some kind of hope in there, a totally major theme running throughout the duration of the track, meaning you end on a high. Albeit a strange high, as the claps that erupt in the second half of the track add a witch house quality to it, though we all know this is far more progressive electro house with a dark twist than anything inherently dark. For me, anything that takes the focus from clinical dance music with a conceited euphoria is on the light side, ironically.

So are we in limbo? No. We've been taken on a wonderful journey filled with highs and lows, astonishing attention to detail in creating atmospheric soundscapes that you can positively get lost in, and a wholly deep, organic sound that is a joy to listen to. We're in heaven.

Listen below. I recommend it:



• Check out their SoundCloud for extra remixes
• Their official website
• Their Vimeo for the supercool 'Far End Of The Graveyard' video
• Their Bandcamp to download the EP (minimum payment £1.50)
• And follow them on Twitter

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