On Repeat

Noisy world beat? I think Mutwawa is a fitting name. Lamashtu Pazuzu screeches through funky jungles like Black Dice gigging in a rainforest complete with lashes of electronics, contagious grooves, and cacophonous hooks that catch. If you are looking for something weird to get down to, you've found it.

Let yourself get past the past the video and onto noise-hop asphyxiation that is Dog Leash. Dog Leather's Greezy Man and Stinky Man Meets Smutty Ranks On Tarantula Hill came out last year on Ehse Records. 

King Tuff's self-titled sophomore full length will certainly be one of my most played records of the summer. The catchy swing of "Bad Thing" is our first taste of King Tuff and is just a minor hint at the sunny fun that this LP brings to the table. 

I loved Chunk of Change EP, liked Manners, and will likely hate Passion Pit's upcoming sophomore LP Gossamer. "Take a Walk," our first taste Gossamer, thumps through a classic Passion Pit synth line, but something has clearly changed: Michael Angelakos has matured. In most cases this would be beneficial to an artist's trajectory, but in "Take a Walk" lyrics that long for youth rather than bask in it are juxtaposed against the childish cheeryness of Passion Pit's synthesizers, background vocals, and stomping percussion. Rather than singing sticky songs about love, Angelakos sings about his country, his family, the economy, his finances, and hating socialism ("We can rip apart the socialists and all their damn taxes." The hell? I'm coming for you, Michael). With choruses that are cop-outs and vocals void of their past charisma, I am not loving this tack, but here's to hoping you can.

2012 brings another follow-up to one of my favorite debuts of 2010. 56 year old Black Flag co-founder and Circle Jerks front man Keith Morris still embodies the punk angst he channeled when he first entered the music world at age 21. Even his recent live performances display that he has by no means lost the youthful rage of his Black Flag days. OFF! is the continuation of Morris's legendary career. This self-titled "full length" (full length in hardcore terms, this thing is just over 18 minutes long) is the follow up to 2010's First Four EPs, and can be streamed in all its traditionalist hardcore punk glory over at Spin.

Twin Shadow is back with a new track from his forthcoming sophomore effort, Confess. I'm looking forward to this new LP, as the slow jams of 2010's Forget made for one of my favorite releases from that year. "Five Seconds" is certainly more upbeat than anything from his debut, but that doesn't yield any degradation in his vocal zeal.

Hello there! I sincerely apologize for the lack of content here recently. It's the last two weeks of the semester, and thus, I'm overwhelmed, overworked, sleep-deprived, but mostly just insane. I'll try to add some quick content with little descriptive literature in order to give you crazy kids your sonic fix.

I discovered the dub/dancehall greatness of Soom T & disrupt on accident. I was listen to drone-metal gods, Earth, on Spotify, when I clicked a related artist named Disrupt, which should have brought me to the abrasive tunes of the Massachusetts hardcore/crust group, but instead brought me to the tunes of Ode 2 A Carrot. Thank goodness for the minor flaw in this otherwise incredible music player. Relentless flow atop a squirmy, bubbling, and upstroked beat on "Roll It" would serve as a great anthem for those celebrating the upcoming holiday on the 20th. Those who don't can certainly appreciate the 8-bit production and bat-shit spitting here.

HOW DO SUNGLASSES MAKE YOUNG WOMEN OLDER?! HOW DO SUNGLASSES MAKE OLD WOMEN YOUNGER?!

Get ready to have those lines stuck in your head for a little while. This one comes from Indianapolis singer/song writer/visual artist and overall seemingly chill bro, Brandon Schaaf, who records under the name Oh Buffalo. His second EP, Crow!, walks a thin line between adorability and cheesiness, usually leaning towards the cheesy side, but this track is a change of pace from the rest of his relatively straight forward and self conscious folk tunes. That album art is the emotional opposite to its comforting songs. His sincere vocal delivery makes me believe that he has been listening to a lot of the softer releases from Plan-It-X imprint, namely Defiance, Ohio. "Morning Voices" starts off with the apologies and "ohhhhhh"s that are plentiful on these recordings but gives way to a shouting hook that I couldn't help but share.

<a href="http://ohbuffalo.bandcamp.com/track/morning-voices" data-mce-href="http://ohbuffalo.bandcamp.com/track/morning-voices">Morning Voices by Oh Buffalo</a>

Grimes's collaboration with Tim Lafontaine

Claire Boucher of Grimes will be releasing a collaborative EP with noise musician, Tim Lafontaine, entitled Sit Back, Rewind. Several tracks from this collab are waiting to be streamed over on soundcloud. My favorite from this batch is certainly "Grime," with Boucher's spacey vocals guiding the way through a deep groove of bell strikes and high pitched hand claps.

Chromatics finally release new album, Kill for Love.

After dropping 5 tracks from their highly anticipated album, Kill for Love, is set to be released sometime today via Italians Do It Better... still waiting. Check out the video for "Lady" below.

Sigur Rós announce the release of their 6th studio album.

Icelandic post rock heroes, Sigur Rós, announced today that they will be releasing a new album entitled Valtarion on May 28th. Our first taste of this forthcoming LP comes in the form of the beautiful string tinged "Ekki Múkk."

Sigur Rós - Ekki múkk from Sigur Rós on Vimeo.

Liars announce new album.

2010's Sisterworld was my first exposure to Liars. After seeing them that summer at Pitchfork Music Festival I've been hooked. According to the press release it will be “simultaneously the most accessible and most challenging release from these iconoclasts, it is both a summation of Liars’ work up to now, and a complete break from anything you’d ever heard the band do previously.” With a description like that it's hard not to be excited. The band's yet to be titled sixth LP will drop in June.

Mission of Burma announce a new album.

On July 9th, post-punk gods, Mission of Burma, will release their fourth album since reforming in 2002 entitled Unsound. Check out the twangy opening track, "Dust Devil," below.

New Titus Andronicus track!

New Japandroids track.

I am loving the blissful call and response energy from this new Japandroids track. "The House that Heaven Built" will be on the forthcoming full length, Celebration Rock. Head over to the band's soundcloud and get your ears on this thing.

Pitchfork Music Festival line up additions.

Say what you will about Pitchfork Media, but they certainly know how to put together a great festival. Among today's additions were Norwegian noise punks Iceage, mathy expiremntal rockers Dirty Projectors, local metal act The Atlas Moth, beat masters Clams Casino and Flying Lotus, as well as indie heroes The Olivia Tremor Control. Check out the full line up. You can look forward to reading some live reviews of those sets here at OnRepeat.

Nicholas Jaar said some cool things.

New Belle and Sebastian video.

Ever since I first head the opening track to 1996'sIf You're Feeling Sinister, I've been in love with Belle and Sebastian. The Scottish group released a video for "Crash" which will be released as an exclusive Record Store Day single.  

Phillip Glass gets remixed.

Minimalist composer, Phillip Glass, is a favorite of mine. His work on the 1982 film, Koyaanisqatsi, is truly some of the most moving stuff I have ever heard. If you haven't seen this Godfrey Reggio masterpiece, you are missing out on something special. Although Oneohtrix Point Never's Replica didn't really strike a chord with me, I am loving this remix. Head over to WFMU to get lost in this spacy haze. 

Last year, the dreamy folk pop tunes of Wye Oak's Civilian earned them some well deserved year end list appearances. Jenn Wasner's vocals on that release soothingly glided through walls of arpeggiated guitars and really made Civilian what it was.

Baltimore's Friends Records just announced the release of a debut 7" from Wasner's solo project, Flock of Dimes. Her emotive vocals on "Prison Bride" shuffle through stuttering guitar and keys, leading to a sea of buzzing disorientation that is immediately dried upon the verse's return. Chalk up another great release from Friends Records.