HotSpotMusic.

OK, so here’s another one out of the archives that just seemingly made it onto Spotify.  Real Estate are a three-piece from New Jersey whose self-titled debut album is full of uplifting jangly pop with a slight lo-fi aesthetic that pre-empted much of 2010’s hipster buzz theme. It is somewhat reminiscent of Surfer Blood with a sharper sense of pop, being both trendy and nostalgic at the same time. 

With it’s deeply melodic chamber pop, Princeton’s Cocoon Of Love is a simple but wonderful record.  The most obvious references are Jens Lekman, due to the swooning orchestration and baritone vocals, and The Essex Green, a psychadelic indie-pop Elephant6 band from the early 2000s whose interlaced boy-girl vocals are replicated almost tone for tone here. Put simply, it’s just a charming record.

(I’m not sure how long this has been on Spotify but it looks like they’re going adding a few old ones to the catalogue at the moment).

To tide you over until next month’s release of his latest solo (albeit with the backup of the venerable Secondary Modern) album, Essex Arms, here’s a four-track EP released last year around the same time as Pram Town.  Pram Town was the first in a proposed conceptual trilogy of records about Essex, his (and my) home county and featured his ever present eagle-eyes and acerbic wit.  This EP is a quite downbeat and restrained affair that nicely reflects the overall tone of Pram Town, that of the desperation of living in small-town Britain.  Enough stalling, bring on Essex Arms!

In honour of Seams (aka none other than Mr James Welch) who will triumphantly return to Great British shores this week after a few months holding the fort at SoundCloud, I present to you A Juvenile Rush.  If you like your beats glitchy and hypnotic with an extra sprinkling of real, ethereal sampling then this might very well be the walk to work album for you.  Also, very much worth checking out are his remixes and demos on the ‘Cloud.  Tschüss Jami.

Despite being released in 2009, this album has been sitting on my Hotspotmusic to-do playlist for a while, all sad and (not very lonely).  Having finally got round to it today, I was pleasantly surprised - for some reason I had this pegged as another folky, singer-songwriter affair but it’s variety and spaced out loopyness was a great blast to the headphones.  You can hear the steaming mix of influences all over this record so, unlike me, don’t leave it too long before giving this a spin…

Take one part 50s rock and roll, one part lo-fidelity bedroom recording and one-part glorious summertime.  Mix it all together, shake vigorously and there you have it: the charmingly named Sonny & The Sunsets and their FML-esque titled debut record, Tomorrow Is Alright.  Maybe the half-singing, half-talking thing isn’t for you (in which case you should probably avoid this) but if you’ve a heart and can set aside cynicism for 40 minutes then give this a spin at sunset.

I first blogged this last year as my third favourite album of 2009 but at the time that was a cheat since it hadn’t received an official release.  Now that EMI have seen the light (or perhaps just seen an opportunity to make a quick buck now they really need it) this brilliant record from Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse gets a release.  Sadly, since then Mark Linkous committed suicide so let’s hope that finally this record at least gets the acclaim it so richly deserves.

Quite a product of the times, one could say, but in any way that’s true, they are a product of what we all love about these times - one might enjoy listening to this whilst baking or hammering together a birdhouse made of recycled materials.   Some tracks have a close Regina Spektor sound, but with a distinctly different attitude.  Pleasant instrumentals, Kat Burns’ smooth, clear voice, and some very satisfying melodies make this an album to enjoy on your stereo and live.

Sunday Sermons

Devendra Banhart’s What Will We Be is not particularly old, but already in danger of being swept under by the perpetual flood of awesome new music.  There are so many fantastic tracks on this album.  “Baby”, “Angelika”, “Rats”, “Brindo” to name a few.  Devendra’s mix of serious rock, folk and operatic vocals just plain seriously rocks.  Seeing him live in Barcelona a few months ago was like joining in some kind of cult ritual.  I just wanted to get swept away in the momentum, dancing and jangling around, picturing myself on the beaches of his Venezuelan homeland, and ending up wearing eyeliner or worse. It’s just that all encompassingly good.  Give it a re-listen while doing something original and awesome. This is not laundry music unless you’re washing your bejeweled belly dancing outfit and feather headdress.

Smith Westerns are a band from Chicago whose bedroom-recorded debut came out last year.  Happily riding the chillwave scene, the album is full of fuzzed out and instantly catchy songs that are somewhat reminscient of The Ramones (the long haircuts help) but updated for a new generation of slackers.  T-Rex influence also comes across strongly, particularly on the track Girl In Love.  Spotted live at Primavera Sound yesterday they were enjoyably shambolic.

This is a crazy and awesome record.  The first half reminds me a lot of Gorkys Zygotic Mynci - it’s full of smooth and ethereal indie pop songs.  Nice but nothing earth-shattering.  And then suddenly, half way through, it turns into an epic voyage through Eastern Europe with tracks allegedly inspired by long-forgotten Azerbaijani and Albanian folk music.  I don’t know much about the band (their Last.fm artist page paints an amusingly mystical depiction) but thoroughly recommend checking this album out.

Folky indie-pop that bears an uncanny resemblance to Thao (without her Get Down Stay Down) playing with Iron & Wine.  That’s pretty high praise from this writer (although when the lead singer used to play with Le Loup you know you’re onto a good thing).  The music’s got a soul, it’s got a beat and it’s got that little something curious and worldly about it.  It’s only a 5-track EP - give it a try…. go on.

I know this isn’t that new but I’ve been listening to it a lot recently and it’s growing on me like mutant ivy.  Not sure how this didn’t make it into my top 25 of last year but it’s a stunning album that deserves a belated mention (particularly the moving tracks Sylvia and Bear).