Ólafur Arnalds – Variations of Static

I bought this album direct from the label after listening to a single track off of myspace. I found the site after reading someone’s post on tgq’s music thread. Even the funds were transferred electronically.
Ten plus years after Rushkoff and the rest, it’s still kinda cool.
Variations of Static: short, intense press of strings, piano dotted [...]

M83 – Saturdays=Youth

Pure shine pop.
Every song on this album exists as the soundtrack to a perfect prom that exists only in the imaginations of relatively well-adjusted people. It’s intensely focused on delivering that feeling of what being young and invincible is imagined to have been like.
It’s almost a little too much at points but never quite crosses [...]

Isis – In the Absence of Truth & Mouth of the Architect – Ties That Blind

The indie/hipster post-rock-label- label- label- grind-death-jazz-fusion thing continues to tear along in weird places. So you end up with some really good things, like Genghis Tron, but outside of the more extreme Casio grind bands you also have this post-rock/prog metal fusion that’s pretty popular. Off the top of my head you have Pelican, Cult [...]

Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Lie Down in the Light

For the longest time I’ve described Will Oldham’s music as the sound of a bewildered encounter with the eternal feminine. I don’t know if that fully stands anymore, but it does accurately describe obvious classics like I See a Darkness.
But Lie Down in the Light is far more celebratory than baffled, which is a nice [...]