Strange Choices: New Muzik Monday (3/19/12)

Mondays are for new music, so here're 6 new, good releases that I've been sitting back to this past week. Clicking on the subheadings will take you to bandcamp pages, facebook, streams or wherever else is most convenient for the internet.

Thrupence - Voyages EP

I have a large segment of my heart devoted to the kind souls that allow me to download their music for any price I want or, as the majority immediately think, for free. This segment is especially big when they make beautifully saturated, downtempo electronic music that works equally as well as something to lose yourself in and as an album to dip into it. There are loads of little twists and turns to fall in love with, and it's spaced out optimism is nothing if not just a little captivating.


Mark Aubert - Fake Island 

It's incredibly refreshing to come face to face with an album that utterly confuses you the first time you set your ears to it. Aubert's (very) recent release of avant-garde, jazz infused hip-hop beats does just this. On top of being a completely bizarre and entwined EP, it's also very easy on the ears. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to chill out with music that doesn't allow itself to fade into the background.



Elias - Fossils

Now let's all huddle in and be honest with ourselves. If I, of all people, find myself deeply enjoying an alt-rock release, then there's a pretty good chance that the particular alt-rock release is very good indeed. Laying down its ground from anthematic to introspective and everywhere in between, Fossils hits all the right buttons and then some. It would be a bit of a stretch to call this ground-breaking, or even pushing the boundaries at all, but it's almost flawlessly executed and remarkably consistent. A review will be on its way for this very shortly, I can assure you that.

Dakent - Matahari

Without completely falling into the realms of indie/electronic music blog clichés, here's some more upbeat indie/electronic music. Dakent has gone a little further towards the experimental end of the spectrum with this new 2-track single (the bandcamp page describes it as ambient/post-rock, but the bandcamp page is retarded), with a lot of African tribal sampling and guitar work in "Pasir", but the music quickly regresses back to Dakent's chime-infested origins in the second track. Maybe not quite as notable as the other releases on this list, but well worth the 8 minutes of your time it will take to listen to it.

Julia Holter - Ekstasis

There's been a lot of talk about young Miss Holter recently. A lot of talk. Maybe it's because her otherworldly approach to the Beach House style of indie introduces fans of that genre to something they're not used to. The music is very slow paced, bordering on ambience at times, and Julia's soft voice rising above it all makes it very difficult to concentrate while you're listening to it. Ultimately Ekstasis is incredibly charming, and a gateway drug of sorts to the more surreal side of music.

Senpai - They Say Just Wait Till Morning

No one can truly hate this blend of sickly sweet, emotional hip-hop beats. Especially when the man behind it doesn't even let you pay for his music. They Say Just Wait Till Morning draws a lot of inspiration from oriental music, with incredibly soft strings matched with blurred piano. The slick percussion behind and beautiful vocals only confirm my idea that this album is the perfect thing to fall asleep to.