If you are reading this after December 12, 2012, then congratulations on surviving yet another overrated doomsday prediction. In fact, you deserve a purple heart for getting through 2012 alone. But now get ready for that festivus time of year where the spirit of family and friends sets upon us all while we hope that Santa or someone brings us a copy of Trash Talk's 400+ pictures strong Book 2 from Dovecote that will make a great addition to grandma's coffee table art book collection. So here is our gift wish list for you to dream on in no particular order.
Phoenix, Arizona pop duo Bogan Via dropped their Remix EP this week off their Bandcamp and brought a taste of the big swell high life with their new single, “Gatsby.” The F. Scott Fitzgerald character of the song's namesake brings to mind what the soundtrack of an era displaced film reboot of The Great Gatsby would feature if left in the hands of Sofia Coppola. The bold gold plated keys blink in unbreakable formations, imagining 1922 rich moguls living like fancy first class flying one percenters from 2022. We think that Bret Bender and Madeleine Miller have an icon fixation, as they titled their previous single, “Kanye“. Bogan Via's Remix EP offers up remixes from Geographer, Glass Theory, Miniature Tigers, and more reworking Bogan Via's debut Wait Up EP from Common Wall Media.
Giant Giant Sand gives a little hope in, “Not The End Of The World (Alternative Version)” that begins like a piano encore commenced long after the last call bell has sounded. Howe Gelb laments, “Time now for an ending, the way all things just must,” that holds on to every unsung memory unheard but told in the pregnant pauses between notes. “They say the world is ending shortly, it's already gone for some,” the eve of destruction is accepted with little resistance, while Gelb ponders the new opportunities and betterment of things post-kingdom come. “Time beyond time without measure, alone and lost in dark, you appear as hidden treasure and the world begins again in that spark.” The duet presents a hope for estranged lovers and the regeneration of their shared world while a muted horn gets a solo before the strings “bring on the end” in the uncertain surrender of, “should we meet again…in that bittersweet hereafter.” Giant Giant Sand's new album Tucson (Deluxe Edition) is available now from Fire Records.
Open Mike Eagle and Ras G traveled to Kampala, Uganda to engage in discussions on the hip-hop industry at home and worldwide while stirring up pan-geo collaborations with the Amagezi Gemaanyi Youth Association (AGYA), a Ugandan nonprofit. After recording every day from 2 weeks worth of hip-hop community building workshops, the result is the Kampala Blackouts EP that features Mike Eagle rapping over inner monologue expositions on keeping the content posi and suitable for all involved while local aspiring emcees give some prosodic spit despite any language barrier. Over the course of 6 tracks, Ras G gathers smoky samples from classic roots and newer grooves that give a heavy weight in terms of the production and mixed tongue immediacy that creates a mandated state of urgency heard on stand out track “Constantinople”. While Ras and Eagle keep the mics open, they do it for the people where we are reminded that hip-hop is life and global.
Download the Kampala Blackouts EP here.
Learn more about Los Angeles hip hop artists with JUICE (Justice United in Creative Energy) and their mission statements that stretch from LA to Uganda.
Friends since their days at Savannah College of Art and Design Samuel Cooper and Brady Keehn combine future classic and past tense powers as the duo, Sunglasses. Their new video for “Swim” is a Smallest Violin Production directed by Harrison Jaffee and Brian Urman that presents a mini-movie whodunnit about a private eye building a case against a fictitious villains of Dick Tracy kitsch named, Double Dick Rick, Greed Fatz, and Maroni, all involving duplicitous double crossing and wild goose chases galore. “Swim” is taken from Sunglasses' Wildlife on Mush Records.
Keep your cool shades on as Sunglasses bring you the pure pop bliss the duo call “Blessing”. Samuel and Brady have expressed a passion for the big production pop of Brian Wilson / Spector and that Hollywood Gold Star Studio sound. While never one to rely on comparative language by itself; the genius of “Blessing” lies in the fast paced energy that runs through the angular guitar strikes like the lapping reeds that slap and strike while running free through fields of overgrown weeds. Their album Wildlife is available now from Mush Records.
From the BRKF$T CLUB / 2008ighties, Julian Malone dropped his video for “7Milli” he directed with @MikeSupercold. While the hip-hop beat sample heads dissect and go listening for the production's lost groove origins, Malones dispels the false utopias propagated by the glamorous, facades from today's unstable trend bubbles of necessary illusions. “…This shit is work, trust that all of the perks you're seeing on instragram ain't shit when it's time to swerve.” With Julian's signing, here's hoping we can hear larger distributed releases from his 2008ighties crew. Look for this cut off Julian's forthcoming mixtape Diff.Rnt. in early 2013 with an album debut arriving later next year from Stones Throw.
Berlin's D E N A, alias Denitza Todorova has signed to Kitsuné and drops the minimix revolving around, “Cash, Diamond Rings, Swimming Pools” with the single dropping January 28. Here the materialism of money, jewelery and poolside social preferences that get fed through a dance feed wood chipper that splinters it through the underground dance floors to the familiar ball room bonanzas and to the techno nouveau interludes.
Jon Convex remixes Lusine's “Another Tomorrow” with plenty of jagged concave dance patterns. Luisine's Another Tomorrow single with Convex's remix can be found January 22 and the full length A Waiting Room coming February 19 with pre-order available from Ghostly International.
Get warm with Campfires' “Fortune Teller” from their forthcoming Tomorrow, Tomorrow LP coming out February 19 from Fire Talk. Chicago by Portland center man Jeff Wallls has been tagged with a sound that recalls 60s two cycle pop to Dan Treacy's indie uprise of the 70s, but we here at the Impose offices are finding it in line with the osmotic channeling of era vagaries either on purpose, by accident, or acting on irony with mutually beneficial results.
Bright Little Field's tribute to the Replacements with “We're Comin' Out” with a tip of the hat and nod of the head to the “Bastards of Young” video. Bright Little Field's Treatment Bound: A Ukulele Tribute to The Replacements is available now on Bar/None Records.
Sarah Kelleher's Misfit Mod crafts music in the celebratory manner of self-made art and music. So it is no surprise that the video for “Queen Love Zero” directed by Sharna Osborne embodies the DIY aesthetic of DIY everything to go with Sarah's solo melancholia synth electro-melodix. Osborne makes an alt craft day of it, drawing skeleton hands, drawn lyrics in block letters, makes a regal crown, elaborate stitch works, and drawings of diamonds and skulls that leaves you with the quandary of starting your own craft nights at your flat or starting your own synth solo project. Or maybe why not both? Misfit Mod's Islands & Islands comes out February 19 from Stars & Letters.
Observe “The Dirty Utopians” shot by Kid Flicks' Nickos Dervisis between November 2011 and November 2012 from this year's By Typing “I Talk”, You Don't Talk from Inner Ear Records. Here the dirty and scattered utopians recall You Don't Talk's collage like cover and the way Dervisis culls his style of artifice and sound through mountains of one man's folderol that is another's goldmine.
We have been stirring over The Soft's recent man machine meditations from the “Mori” video and today bring you the 7-minute plus b-side “Emblems” that crafts up new robots from the dust of the earth to occupy the new uncanny valleys unveiled. The upcoming EP is due in early 2013 from Ceremony Recordings.
The electro emblematic realms go well with a recommended dosing of the sample from Karl F. MacDorman elaborating on the 'Uncanny Valley' theory that The Soft has inextricably wrapped the single's concept around.
The Hiero crew drops more insights, in-depths and merch plugs just in time for the holidays.
Cyclopean is the combined minds of Can legends Jaki Liebezeit and Irmin Schmidt with Jono Podmore (Kumo / Metamono), joined by Burnt Friedman to elaborate on some collaborative talents. The Cyclopean EP will be available on 12″ wax and digital February 4, 2013 from Mute.
Dent May drops the track “2099” to help us all have a good laugh at the doomsday buzz with help from some special zappy keys selected by Mr. May from his Cats Purring Dude Ranch in Oxford, MS.
“Everybody's talking about the end of the world, a lot of people are pessimistic about the future of mankind. My take is that this is just the beginning for us, and there's a lot of love left to spread throughout the universe. '2099' goes out to my fellow dreamers who plan to stick around into the next millennium.”
Dent May's Do Things is available now from Paw Tracks.
From Leeds UK comes China Rats with “To Be Like I” with plenty of emphasis on the 'I's who are planning to release their forthcoming single in March 2013 along with their US live debut at SXSW. Listen further.
Sources indicate that Hooray For Earth plans to begin 2013 with a Northeast by Midwest tour beginning January 13 in Washington, January 16 with Bear in Heaven, The-Drum and Dovecote labelmates Supreme Cuts at the TNK Festival in Chicago, and wrapping with a hometown show at Knitting Factory on January 31. With their follow up to their Dovecote Records release True Loves in the hands of Chris Coady, we have their Milton Ladd directed video for “Never/Figure” to enjoy in the interim.
Scandinavian trio OOFJ released the night noir cinema video for their single “Death Teeth”, directed by Padraic O'Meara. Hessismore's Jenno Bjørnkjær and Katherine Mills Rymer cinematic work from Lars Von Triers Melancholia to their own international and personal adventures stir the musical and visual senses. Recorded with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, OOFJ's debut album Disco To Die To comes out in February 2013 from Fake Diamond.
The Black Opera dropped their album Libretto: Of King Legend not too far back from the Mello Music Group and put a serious addition to A$AP Rocky's “Fuckin' Problem” that addresses a list of the most serious, current matters facing us, our neighbors and the world today.
From Future Classic, get down to Mitzi's single “All I Heard” ahead of their album Truly Alive coming February 19.
Railbird's “Mirrors” gets remixed by School of Seven Bells and stretched out into new great new heights. While the dance floor folks will marvel at SVIIB's bleeping fuzz bass that dominates the remix body, the real creative gems are the opening 2 minutes and final minute of the reconnection that hold the most sublime of powers. Railbird's Lucky EP is available now via their Bandcamp.
Digits, otherwise known as Alt Altman, dropped the Seth Mendelson video for the sultry minimalist synth affair, “Love is Only Affection” which presents human carnal desire as observed from hungry alien eyes. Altman's Only Affection EP is out on February 26.
After touring with Macklmore and Ryan Lewis, Dee-1 drops off “Never Clockin Out (Remix)” featuring Killer Mike from the Mannie Fresh hosted #TheFocusTape. Directed by Ben Simmons, the visual presents Dee in NOLA at the intersection of Valence and Magnolia in the 13th Ward, spreading some ghetto gospel, speaking what he feels, while surrounded by G's like Curren$y, VL Leo and a king verse from Killer Mike. #TheFocusTape is available now for free download here.
Rone's beat cut “Bye Bye Macadam” gets set to morphing and transforming tripped out animations in black and white from Dimitri Stankowicz. Rone's deep dish synths can be found on the Tohu Bohu album from InFine music
Thank David Byrne for this one as he has fought to release the work of Brazil's 70s cult powerhouse of soul figure, Tim Maia as part of Luaka Bop's World Psychedelic Classics. Watch “The Existential Adventures of of Tim Maia Narrated by (superfan) Devendra Banhart” where Maia's life and times are wrapped up in under 3 minutes time courtesy of Rogier Vijverberg and Bert Dijkstra. Nobody Can Live Forever: The Existential Soul of Tim Maia is available now from Luaka Bop. Drop a tab or two, drop out, and bust out the white robes.
Checking in with rising rude MC akaFrank, we get a listen to “The Real Doug-E”, while waiting on The Boycott mixtape coming soon in early 2013. The Cali Swag District's immortal “Teach Me How to Dougie” gets referenced in explicit, lurid details, explaining why all the freaks love Frank.
Seen in Jónsi’s touring band, known from Swords of Chaos, and White Mountain is Úlfur Hansson operating under just Úlfur with a self-titled solo debut slated for March 5 from Western Vinyl. The new single “Black Shore” uses that moving restraint, vocals sampled and diced with chimes and organic percussive elements moving throughout the track's blooming horizon.
Also catch Úlfur's dark clad video for Black Shore directed By Máni M. Sigf
