THE BEST MUSIC: NEW & OLD
I’m growing a moustache to raise money for the Movember Foundation. So this month I will be honouring some of the best moustaches in music. You can donate to my mo here: https://mobro.co/harry-mo
Something rocky for you this Sunday. Not many people do anthemic indie-rock better than Mumford & Sons, and boy is Little Lion Man a classic. If you want more Mumford they have a new album out, Delta, and they are on tour too.
Bonus track: hey, I’m posting Mumford & Sons today. Have a bit of this.
I’m growing a moustache to raise money for the Movember Foundation. So this month I will be honouring some of the best moustaches in music. You can donate to my mo here: https://mobro.co/harry-mo
Toro y Moi (Chaz Bundick) has been at the top of the synth-pop game for a while now. His sound is influenced by R&B and sometimes garage, but more the most part he stays in the indie electronic sweetspot. It’s fun, it’s catchy – you’ll like it, trust me. Jai Paul must be a jealous man.
My highlights is track 3, So Many Details – but it is a solid release taken as a whole. Fans are in luck; he’s prolific, and due a new album.
You know I’ve got your back valued reader:
I’m growing a moustache to raise money for the Movember Foundation. So this month I will be honouring some of the best moustaches in music. You can donate to my mo here: https://mobro.co/harry-mo
Followers of the blog will know I’m a big fan of Sylvan Esso. This is the album that kicked everything off for the lovable North Carolina duo. The smoothness of their production has come on since they released this one, but in terms of raw freedom of sound, I think this release is hard to match.
Dress and Coffee are my highlights, but there aren’t really any weak tracks. Fun fact, the repeated final refrain from Uncatena (“All I want from you’s a letter and to be your distant lover. That is all that I can offer at this time”) is ripped directly from a break-up letter that singer Amelia Meath received in her teen years. Apparently the experience of having a massive crowd sing it along with her at gigs is incredibly cathartic.
Every Sunday I bring you something a little more downtempo to ease you back into the world.
I’m literally in Beirut (the city) right now. In honour of that fact, and the fact that Beirut (the band) have just released the title track from their upcoming album Gallipoli – here it is! Full of their trademark whistful brass sounds.
Tour details can be found here. Tickets are on sale for the London date now. These guys gave me one of my favourite ever gig experiences, so get involved before they sell out. The album will be released in February.
Sitting somewhere between dream-pop, shoegaze and indie-rock, you’ll find Beach House. 7 is the duo’s seventh album (clever). My highlights are the tense and foreboding Lemon Glow, and Black Car. I’m off to see them for the first time at The Troxy tonight. Very excited.
Bonus track: Sparks is my favourite. Guitar comes screeching through some chanting and takes you on a magical ride before you know what’s happening. It’s good, trust me. Try the album Depression Cherry for more of the same.
Trentemøller is a bit of a legend on the European electronic music scene. The Dane has been releasing music for over 20 years now. Here is his latest track from 2017 which is a bit more punk-influenced than his more minimal techno usual. It starts quick and takes you on a rip-roaring toe-tapping journey. There’s nothing clean about this one. Post-punk rawness. Featuring the vocals of jennylee of Warpaint fame. Enjoy.
Bonus track! This is was one of my all-time favourites growing up. One of those that you found on Limewire and put on repeat. It was released in 2004(!) and features the haunting vocals of Ane Trolle. A real beauty.
Moody. Unsettling. Spooky. Bewitching. Enchanting. A Rolling Stone review of this 2012 album, the band’s first, described it as “the sound of heartbreak and celebration happening simultaneously.” I love that. Basically, Poliça are a 5-piece outfit from Minneapolis making synth-pop music fit for a Hallowe’en party. Get to know.
Also, they are on tour. I have 2 tickets for sale at face value at London’s ICA on Saturday 3rd November. Let me know if you want them.
Oh, and one last thing – chill, I’ve got you covered.
Masked duo Jadu Heart are back releasing music with a new EP, The Gloom That Looms. It’s their first release since they entered the scene with their awesome EP Wanderflower on Mura Masa’s Anchor Point records. In The Cure they capture their original catchy screwed-up electro-poppy style – if a little less raw than their previous outing. I’m a bit disappointed by the other track on the release tbh, but hey, can’t win ’em all.
Watching them live last year, the gig had that exciting kind of energy you get when you are watching a band ‘before they’re big’. They are playing another date in London at OMEARA on 21st November. Tickets on sale now. (By they way, they make you feel real old)
Every Sunday I am going to bring you something a little more downtempo to ease you back into the world.
Music for some broody alone-time. Tamaryn specialise in the kind of shoegaze / indie-rock that evokes vast, bleak, windswept landscapes. Real Autumnal vibes [see album cover]. My pick off the album is Love Fade. Anyway, settle in and enjoy.
New music from Bristolian three-piece Elder Island! Their music is tough to describe, so I’ll leave it to them: “raw electronic pop with a soulful house, indie persuasion”. Can’t say fairer than that.
If you are new to the band, check out Elder Island, their first EP release from 2014 for a taster.
These guys sound great in your headphones, and even better live. They embark on a UK tour in early November (including a sold out gig at Village Underground). If you can’t get your hands on tickets for that, they’ll be back in London in February at new Hackney venue EartH (tickets on DICE).
HARRY'S MUSICAL EMPORIUM 