Gentle Friendly – Ride Slow (2009)

I’ve been meaning to post this for quite a while but only just got a half decent rip of it. Gentle Friendly is a duo originally from Birmingham, who now reside in the big smoke of London. Their sound blends glitchy electronics with stripped back percussion and (as odd as it may seem) an organ. The record hums and chugs along with machine-like insistency with pounding rhythm and echoing, dream-like vocals, fluctuating between rawkus fuzz and more gentle reflections, such as in should-be hit anthem “Lovers Rock”.

In the vein of  // Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Clinic

Download//

Dead Gaze – End Of Days, Why Not You?

& yet more lo-fi psyche pop. Dead Gaze is the conception of Ransome Cole Furlow. Surroundings play an important part in the development of a band’s sound and this is no more apparent than with Dead Gaze. Brought up in rural Mississippi, Furlow drawls lackadaisically over reverb-heavy instrumentation reminiscent of vast rambling countryside and hot summer days. Simple songs with glorious textures.

Buy the tape.
Link

deep sht – weird you (2009)

Deep sht a.k.a Tom Watson is a beacon of British lo-fi pop. Weird you erupts in a flurry of anodyne scuzz, its 5 songs whirling by with rambunctious vigor. It sweeps you off your feet for 13minutes and then ends as abruptly as it began. A masterclass in effervescent noise pop.

Get on this.

Pearl Harbor – Something About The Chaparrals

Piper and Sky are two sisters from Los Angeles, California. They, along with bassist Cody, play dreamy psych pop in a similar vein to their good friends and fellow Los Angelenos Best Coast. Their melodies wash over me like rays of warm sunshine…i just wish this had come out in mid July.

Link
Buy from Mexican Summer

VIDEO: Gentle Friendly – Lover’s Rock

If i could find a decent rip of their debut album Ride Slow i would be posting that, but i’m afraid this disconcerting music video for Gentle Friendly’s Lover’s Rock will have to suffice for now. One day i will get some decent equipment for ripping vinyl to my computer but i steadfastly refuse to buy a shitty usb turntable.

You can purchase the LP Ride Slow from UPSET THE RHYTHM RECORDS here.

Banjo Or Freakout – Left It Alone 7″ (2009)

So it’s now, beyond all reasonable doubt, winter time. Unless you are reading this from the other side of the world, it’s getting mighty chilly outside, the nights are drawing in and you just want to curl up by an open fire and listen to the warming tones of some good psychedelic fuzz, enter Banjo Or Freakout. BOF is the brainchild of London based musician Alessio Natalizia. With just a few guitar loops, effects pedals and a laptop, Alessio creates dreamy psych melodies, over which he ghoulishly croons. Basically if you like Animal Collective’s new EP Fall Be Kind you will enjoy this.

Sparky Deathcap

No Age said recently that when people say ‘lo-fi’ they mean you’re not trying. I agree with this to some extent but Sparky Deathcap, otherwise known as Rob Taylor, somewhat neatly fits under this rather vague blanket term. Accompanied by some strings and broken percussion and an overhead projector showing his own drawings at live shows – he’s an illustrator in his own right (Tear Jerky) – Mr Taylor lackadaisically strums a ukelele, creating jangly lo-fi folk which ranges from the anthemic Send It To Oslo to the prose-like Berlin Syndrome. Definitely worthy of a listen if you like music by Jeffrey Lewis, The Microphones and Smog (which you rightly should).

Unfortunately i only have one demo as i missed him when he last came to Manchester. I will rectify this shortly, as his demo is available at gigs now and soon will be stocking shelves in some independent record shops, but for now here is the beautiful B-Roads. (Please excuse the abrupt ending, i don’t know why it does this).

In the mean time, head over to his myspace here to listen to 5 other great demos and see a one-off rock opera he performed at a recent show.