“Yeah we were born free // can’t you see? // it’s our destiny” - bursts the chorus of a hip and new NYC band, The Rassle. Not sure if this means the end of The Young Lords and/or The Virgins, since it’s composed of their members, but if it does, it is a cool, phoenix-like rise from the ashes. They’ve just launched their new EP which is a free download and was recorded in an appartment with a cheap mic and an old computer. This is the lo-fi part. Their music is super-catchy, good-natured garage stuff. Obvious comparison is BRMC’s Howl . The differ in the innocent attitude, the naive romanticism and untainted leaning on 60s garage pop. Spice it with original US ‘hallelujahs’ and even southern country charisma and it’s a great recepie for awesomeness. My favourite song from the EP is “Born Free” (see the quote), such an uplifting spring-comming-of-summer anthem. Makes you wanna do cheesy stuff like go out to the fictional open fields of the teenage myths and lie in the fictional grass with fictional girl from youthful dreams. However, the music is so good that it makes you believe it. Give The Rassle love on myspace/facebook/twitter.

The Rassle - Born Free [mediafire] // [ysi]

I was never a huge fan of either The Shins or Danger Mouse, but Mercer’s and Burton’s collaborative side-project, under the name of Broken Bells grew on me. As far as I can remember, I didn’t like it at the first time. It was totally by accident that I listened to it again, like a month later. So now I see it as an awesome debut album full of experimental indie pop and songwriting brilliance. Actually what first came to my mind as a possible influence was The Beach Boys. It is really an interesting combination of dreamy stuff and the soulfulness of Burton that was so characteristically cacthed in Gnarls Barkley. The rhythm section seems pretty creative as well as the synths and keys throughout the album. Sometimes the acoustic guitar goes into spaced-out psych-pop, sometimes marching pop substitutes atmospheric experiment with strings. My favourite track is “The Ghost Inside”, grab it below. LP out in March, pre-oder it on Insound.

Broken Bells - The Ghost Inside [mediafire] // [ysi]

Removed per label request.

Check the fun homepage for stuff: http://www.brokenbells.com/

I know it’s nothing new, but I wanted to pay respects to the blog-scene so decided to hype Bigstereo’s first release a bit: Baby Monster. Of course, this is not the act’s only hypeable aspect. The Oregonian band dives into the super-fashionable mix of electronica and indie, creating a nice dreamy soundscape that I could describe as inbetween Cut Copy and The Big Pink. They have a pretty great sound that taps right into the vein of the era. Melancholy and half-smiling happiness, MGMT-esque innocence and experience of many frustrations characterise their sound. “She Comes Alive” is gonna be a huge summer hit and their remix of Ellie Goulding’s “Under the Sheets” is gonna make it to my top remixes which is a huge thing since she’s super-remixed (just rewind a couple posts). I’m really curious to hear an EP or an LP, my prognosis is that it’s gonna be great. Support them!

Baby Monster - She Comes Alive [mediafire] // [ysi]

Baby Monster - Ultra Violence and Beethoven [mediafire] // [ysi]

Ellie Goulding - Under the Sheets (Baby Monster remix) [mediafire] // [ysi]

I have to admit, I’m a sucker for garage rock either with single male/female vocals or combined. The Kills’s latest album were my favourite of the last year. Now, I know that a lot of criticism might hit them cause of some lack of novelty or whatever, but The Raveonettes just caught my heart again with In and Out of Control. Lot of time passed since their first shoegaze-noise influenced release and they went in a more cute direction, still drawing on the My Bloody Valentine, etc tradition. Of course, their cut pop is still dressed in screaming guitars and Kim Gordon-esque vocals and for me, it has an interesting atmosphere of thick fog that surrounds the sound and the vocals emerge from it. This is pop music for the fall, for rainy days, for cloudy sky. Guitar whirlwinds and erratic rhythms alternate with shadowy singing and claps. The fusion of grotesque humor, sexuality and ‘not giving a shit’ is dominant in the teen-hymn lyrics and the contrast between innocence and heavy themes is nicely played. Not saying that it’s teen stuff but it’s stuff that teens could adore, I guess. The Raveonettes managed to make a record that is in between their noise-drive and the innocence of Chain Gang of Love.

The Raveonettes - Gone Forever [mediafire] // [ysi]

ps. anyone else had the disturbing feeling of Boys Who Rape… that the girl vocals are a bit like Enya’s Only Time?

Well, umm…not exactly. New underground-diva sensation, Florence + The Machine just recently had her album out. Stranglely entitled Lungs is destined to be the newest addition to the endless wave of records by pop’s alternative actresses. London is home for many indie princesses from Little Boots to Polly Scattergood and co. Not saying they have the same style of music but their is something strangely common in their images. I don’t know, maybe post-capitalist society just got to a point where it has some high demand for alt-sis art pop. This is not anything bad about Florence Welch or her musical capabilities. The girl has a great voice, many influences from PJ Harvey to Björk, Neko Case and Kate Bush and recent more mainstream singerettes like Lily Allen and Kate Nash. Romantic theatricalities, beautiful synths, Florence’s nice and nicely used vocal and even some country influences make up this record of strange pop songs. It’s totally likeable although it’s sometimes too much and too much make-up. And this gets us back to this swarm of girls who decided to make music now. After a while it gets decadent and boring. I mean the wave. For example I’m sure that the La Roux album is quite ok but I haven’t bothered yet to listen to it. Actually, I have to admit, this is my bad. I’m tired of it, so the music seems more tiring and fake. Even if poor Florence sings her soul out and even if the album is polished by producer heavyweights like Paul Epworth and SMD. But hell, these are the effects of the economy and super-industrial society we live in. Or not. Anyway, the reason for my sharing this song is that I’m sure many will appreciate it more than I do (and sometimes I appreciate it, really). Buy Lungs here.

Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love [mediafire] // [ysi]

Pony Pony Run Run! Last time we announced their new video for the brilliant summer hit single, Hey You. Now, their album entitled You Need Pony Pony Run Run is out in digital, hits the stores on the 15th. The album is really great, full of pop-sensitivity, dancey synths, catchy choruses… Is this gonna be the season of French indie-electropop? Maybe. As far as hopes go, PPRR should be accepted as one of the French bands who could step-in and follow the Australian wave of bands like Cut Copy or Empire of the Sun. They are similar in a sense that this subtle, elegant dance-pop music is filtered through some underground, indie attitude, giving a deep but easy-to-listen-to alternative to the always nearly-boring mainstream pop scene. Here you go, the next hit, Walking on a Line will serve as a great illustration to what is said above. Buy the rest on Amazon or Itunes.

Pony Pony Run Run - Walking on a Line [mediafire] // [ysi]

Thanks to Bigstereo, I got to know Zebra and Snake from Finland. Two guys making a really cool effort at…it’s interesting, they remind me of She Wants Revenge. Not sure why. Maybe the reason is the Joy Division-esque sound. Although Zebra and Snake seem more playful. They have hypnotizing gloomy synths, overstylized glam stuff and post-punkish bass and rhythm. So it’s not like Editors or something rubbish that’s usually seen as this kind of revival. Zebra and Snake is indie-pop at it’s best: experimenting, dancey and it grabs your soul to twist and turn and push it around their ghastly soundscape. Imagine an old-school circus with a dance performance by ghosts of people who died trying to wrestle lions, ropewalk and entertain girls in a clown costume and you’ll get the idea. Can’t wait to hear more from the Finnish guys! Watch the video of The Colours (by Miikka Lommi) and listen to the demo of Erika Kohut that has these the super-energizing ‘ooohs’.

Zebra and Snake - Erika Kohut (demo) [mediafire] // [ysi]

Sweden’s Loney, Dear is the project of multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter [ctrl-c+ctrl-v for the name now] Emil Svanängen. Debut was out in 2003 and I got to know the music with Lonely, Noir 2007 and I was lucky to saw a gig at Pukkelpop. The new record, Dear John is awesome. Released the album at the end of January, Loney, Dear now tours with Andrew Bird (who plays violin on I Got Lost btw). The sound is like if Thom York was born in the brutal cold of Sweden and was destined to write and record indie pop songs in the solitude of his apartment. We know that Sweden is a great place for extraordinary pop music and Loney, Dear is proof. Haunting vocals, ghastly synths, depressive-melancholic lyrics and hell of a lot of instruments combined give birth to the music which seems to avoid labels. Even atmospheric labels. Everything’s on the move here, we shift from sadness to half-smiles, from symphonic grandeour to pop playfulness. The most attractive route to the core of the album lies somewhere here: you could picture each song as a slideshow of photos (polaroids if that’s your hipster taste) and the photos capture some small emotional essence from relationships with yourself, with others, personal redemptions and tragedies and the like. The album is very vivid and full of life. Not like you know soccer worldcup themes but more like full of analogies for example between winter outside and summer in your heart or the other way around.

Loney, Dear - Summers [zshare] // [ysi]

Empire of the Sun is a relatively new project of PNAU guy Nick Littlemore. Yes, Australia, again. The other guy in EOTS is from The Sleepy Jackson. I known this latter for quite a while now: 2006, Personality was an awesome indie-pop record back then. I think the glam-esque aesthetics come from this side. For EOTS, this means like future-glam or sci-fi glam like…umm…certain parts from The Fifth Element can come to mind, you know, when guys with weird make-up travel on spaceships. Even better, Velvet Goldmine, it’s the story before the movie takes place how Brian Slade was born on a star!

The music is just great. Australian MGMT? Oh, yeah. Everyone loved Walking on a Dream (video). Van She and Sam La More remixed it. I suppose the album’s going to come out this month, titled the same as the single. It’s a bit more psychedelic pop and less electro and stuff. It’s elegant, has an awesome concept, has unity… Actually, it’s a dream-pop/indie-pop record. Seems like this is the other-than-disco line of Australian music that really is on the cutting edge now. I’m thinking of the Van She album. So, to conclude, I really love this record. I don’t like the MGMT, if I have to compare, but I like this. More soulful, better concept and diverse music with unity, very nice stuff. Definetly a must-buy!

Empire of the Sun - Standing on the Shore [zshare] // [ysi]

I suppose post should get shorter around the fifth one/day. The subject this time is the official Delorean remix of Mystery Jets‘ Half in Love with Elizabeth. The single was out on the 25th of August. They say in their email that “it feels more like a version than a remix somehow…We kept the vocals and then just throwed in there many of the things we like in music and probably define our sound as a band: House pianos, epic synths, Bmore breaks, etc. Hope you like it!” and we certainly do. The Mystery Jets album was a really good one this year. They are one of the few London indie-kids who managed to keep it fresh and exciting. Combined with Spanish band, Delorean who made a blog-fire with remixing Love No by The Teenagers (what, is this a fixation with song titles including love?) this new version of the song is just a perfect blend of light electro and indie - they lifeliked it! Haha, no, really it reminds me of Lifelike’s edits. Spain is awesome.

Mystery Jets - Half in Love with Elizabeth (Delorean remix) [zshare] // Mystery Jets - Half in Love with Elizabeth(Delorean remix) [ysi]