Two People Playing Music is a duo from Whittier, North Carolina whom formed in Northwest Florida. I caught their set at Total Bummer 2011. It's interesting that each of them sit down, one behind a drum set and one with surrounded by a semi-circle of keyboards. Their technical progressions touch on math rock feels and slight jazz. The sight is engaging, as the keyboardist twists and turns shifting hands from keyboard to keyboard.
Sea Things is the project of Michael Floering from Sarasota, Florida. Sea Things is characterized by glitchy beats, bedroom tinkerings, and underwater synths. In some places I feel his music crosses over aspects that Sumsun explores. Interesting enough, Sumsun has recently remixed Michael's song "Sad Girl".
Below is the music video to "Ferns" edited by Steph Davidson who has also made a video for Zach Hill of Hella's solo project. Colorful, breathing, dancing 3D polygons. It's one of the most remarkable videos I've seen in quite some time. It reminds me of Viernes' "Swimmer's Ear" video by Nathan Schroeder.
Sumsun has released a new demo titled "Lulla Drone" that will be included on an upcoming tape. With Sumsun's earlier works being heavily beat based, it's interesting to see a well crafted glittery ballad absent of any percussion.
Sumsun has been busy remixing dozens of tracks, including Sleigh Bells, ANR, Sea Things, and Hard Mix; keep checking back on SoundCloud for the latest demos and remixes by Sumsun.
Orchal & Vir is an experimental band headed by Tristan Whitehill and Kane Pour from Gainesville, Florida. Recently performing live at Total Bummer 2011 in Tallahassee and last Friday at the Laboratory in Gainesville, they performed as a four piece, including David Levesque of Levek and Jason Gottfried on vibraphone and drums on their set. Orchal & Vir make slighlty jazzy, synth-beat heavy technical jams that are set in an underwater environment. Be on the look out for an EP coming this May on Elestial Sound and check out "Ospreys and Mollasses" below.
Oh Fortuna have released two new songs from their upcoming EP Frosted Tips due by summertime on Wonder Beard Tapes. "Tetherball" is a quick pop song under two minutes in length. I really like JT's vocals on this track. "Iota" begins with a more tribal-like feel and quickly becomes the most addictive J-Pop feeling track. Both songs retain the great synth, beat, and subtle acoustic guitar sounds a joyful folk-like qualities from of Fireworks of Electric Love, yet they're definitely taking it to a new direction. It's hard to tell from these two tracks alone; I'm excited to hear Frosted Tips as a whole.
Oh Fortuna will be embarking on an east coast tour with Sumsun from late April to mid-May. Keep yours eyes pealed for Oh Fortuna and Sumsun coming to a city near you very soon.
Clair of Grimes released a new video she directed herself for her song "Vanessa" coming out on a split 12" entitled Darkbloom with d'Eon (who also just released a video for "Transparency" directed by Clair) due out next week on Arbutus Records. The song has a smooth almost R&B pop 90s vibe to it. The video is very fun with a lot of dancing, yet slighlty dark touching upon ideas of mental instability, reverse footage, and mirrored images/kaleidoscope effects as the video progresses on.
Blithe Field is the project of Spencer Radcliffe currently based in Athens, Ohio. On his release beautiful wave '74, he makes choppy beats covered in dust and vinyl pops, sometimes with samples of people talking, or characterized by a very cut and paste feel of physical instrument textures. On his split with Easily Suede, he strips down his sound a bit, with either guitar or synth leading the song.
Purchase beautiful wave '74 (and other releases) on bandcamp, or download it for free for free. Order Blithe Field physical releases and t-shirts from Messy Life Records.
A few weeks ago Tyler T. Williams put out a new video to Coma Cinema's "Blue Suicide", and Spencer Hopkins put out a video to To All My Dear Friends' "Japan To Kenya & Back". Both well actualized, the first is cinematic and creates an image for the song. The second video showcases how the music is being created by the musicians. Both Coma Cinema and To All My Dear Friends are great in different ways, and the contrast when pairing these up flowed nicely.
(MC)² is the solo project of Michael Collins from the band Prince Rama originally based in Gainesville, Florida. Michael has been back in Gainesville these past few months and has been playing shows non-stop. A lot of his jams are synth ambience and electro beats, with a harmonium that slips almost unnoticeably inbetween the reverb. Last Thursday (MC)² opened up his set playing a song soley on harmonium with vocals. It sounds like an experimental, somewhat modernized Hare Krishna chant. Not exactly by meaing with the repetitive Krishnas and Ramas they chant, but definitely alludes to the sound, landing somewhere in the realm of a new agey, spiritual, primitive vibe.
(MC)² is busy recording and working on a release. I'm sure he'll have something to share in 2011.
Edwin Jantunen makes electronic music and remixes under the name The Get. Last year he made a remix to our song Asipop. He assisted in starting Lush Haus (a free door experimental dance night at Propaganda in Lake Worth, Florida) with best bud Judson Rodgers who you may know as Sumsun. Edwin now performs live with Sumsun as well. Make sure to catch one of Sumsun and Oh Fortuna shows on their tour together this May. With Panda Bear's new album Tomboystreaming on NPR, and a new interview with Pitchfork, the timing for this remix couldn't be better; The Get's remix of "You Can Count On Me" was uploaded only several hours ago to SoundCloud. The keyboard texture and melody reminds me a lot of Sumsun's collaboration with Spirit Tramp "Tarantula" with some of The Get's signature beats on top. Panda Bear - You Can Count On Me (The Get Remix) For more remixes and jams, check out The Get's Soundcloud, and check out an interview with The Get from the series Glimpses of the South Florida Scene done by Monica Uszerowicz for New Times. soundcloud/getfacebook/getinterview/get
Wingsuit is an indie band headed by Josh Saul based out of Tallahassee, Florida. The band captures that blissfully melodic guitar and vocal aspect of the Dirty Projectors' most recent works, but with a digestable tameness that keeps one at peace. The songs actively progress with multiple sections per song composed of interchangable elements of electric and acoustic guitar, male and female vocals, bass and percussive instruments. Juice #6 is the only instrumental from the debut EP A Few Thousand Days, where the band explores a more tropical setting. The six-song release comes to resolution with the last half of Green, a very mellow lull like a scattered mind made dormant by the state of eternal sleep.
Below is an early performance of the song "Mother Love" filmed at a house show where Wingsuit performed as a smaller band. Their latest perfomance at Total Bummer 2011 in Tallahassee featured upwards of five members.
Wingsuit shares members of Werepossum, Moonlasso, and Aircraft which all approach melodic indie music in different ways. It's awesome to see these guys in different configurations, producing a lot of quality music. This is a talented group of Tallahassee artists to be paying attention to in 2011. Download Wingsuit's A Few Thousand Days EP for free on bandcamp.
From Austin, currently based in Boston, Mutual Benefit is a projected headed by Jordan Lee.
On bandcamp, I Saw The Sea is described as:
"A lot of songs have been written about the ocean and now my landlocked brain finally understands why. In those waves I saw beauty, chaos, nothing, infinity. It was overwhelming. We set off to make a nautical funeral of sorts or perhaps a celebration of all things eventually turning to sand. A wabi-sabi beach album for the infinite ocean."
Some of the best textured sounds I've heard. I love the magical world these sounds put you in. At times there is an instant familiarity of structure with a main melody to follow and vocals on top, and at other times there are is a blanket of cosmic glitter in a sonic collage of euphoria.
Jordan also runs Kasette Klub, a digital/cassette label. Stream some of Kassette Klub's releases on bandcamp. Also from Kassette Klub, check out Holy Spirits.
