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“a nice dose of '70s-style folk-pop” - Brooklyn Vegan
“lush folk-rock...a distinctly engaging sound” - Flood
"If you've ever wanted to breeze up the coast highway from Los Angeles to Malibu in a convertible as the sun sets out across the glittering Pacific Ocean, Swinging Stars will take you there" - MOJO
"Mapache couldn’t escape who they are at heart: acolytes of the ’60s Haight-Ashbury scene as filtered through the more recent desert psych sound” - Paste
”worn-in and relaxed with a classic air” - Raven Sings the Blues
Mapache release a new video for album single "Encinal Canyon,"a song about singing to yourself on long windy drives through the canyons. It’s about finding a quiet place where you can gain some insight even when you feel like you’re always on the run.
Mapache's dynamic and ambitious fifth album Swinging Stars arrives August 18 on Innovative Leisure / Calico Discos - an LP of calm, second-nature swagger, cosmic folk filled with distinct styles and their most cohesive album yet.
Los Angeles’ Allah-Las have dropped a new single, the sparkling and stutter--stepped “Right On Time.” The song is another tease of the band’s forthcoming new album Zuma 85 which will be released on October 13 via the band’s own label, Calico Discos, in partnership with Innovative Leisure, which released earlier defining statements from the band including the eponymously named Allah-Las (2012) and Worship The Sun (2014).
Like the album as a whole, “Right On Time '' represents a new chapter for the band as they embrace the influences of late-era Lou Reed and John Cale, the ‘70s mutant pop of Peter Ivers and early Eno and Roxy Music. Allah-Las self-produced video for the single pays homage to the classic plug-and-play video shoots of the early MTV era, shot in a few hours on a white backdrop with minimal planning and a few rolls of 8mm film, the second video release from the forthcoming album "Zuma 85" captures spontaneous moments of absurdity, along with a few properly synched video clips.
Allah-Las confirmed Summer and Fall Tour dates including headline shows and festival dates across the US and Europe. The Zuma 85 Tour kicks off August 8 in Boston, MA and runs through November 18 with the last show in San Francisco, CA with more dates to be announced. Along the way they will play at New York City’s Rockaway Beach on August 4 at the Rockaway Beach Hotel and at Lodge Room in Los Angeles on November 15 (with Mirror Tree and Kolumbo as support) and November 16 (with Tim Hall and Sam Burton as support). All announced shows are listed below and tickets are available here.
LA-based artist, Mirror Tree, shares new single + video "Echoes Competing"
Mirror Tree explains about the track, "With melodies inspired by Elliot Smith and a string part intended as a modern nod to "Eleanor Rigby," this song is packed with lyric angst about a woman struggling with her anxiety."
An animated video by Case Jernigan accompanies the track release. The director/animator states: "Under a home built multiplane animation setup, I shot photographs through panes of glass covered in dyed paper, ink, and acrylic paint. For 'Echoes Repeating,' I wanted to find symbols and movements that mimicked the dips and swells of the music. The instrumental passages made space for shapes and colors to blend into a loose narrative of isolation. I used a macro lens to give the illusion of microscopic and cosmic scale coming together as one."
"Echoes Repeating" is included on the self-titled upcoming album due out September 8th, 2023.
Toronto-based DJ and producer BAMBII shares a new single from her highly-anticipated EP Infinity Club, out August 4th. Hailed as one of the central voices elevating jungle in Toronto by Rolling Stone, BAMBII continues to bridge the gap between diaspora Caribbean communities with new single "Slip Slide," calling on North London producer and artist Ragz Originale (Skepta's "Shutdown," FKA Twigs, SOPHIE) and Amsterdam-based producer Lamsi, along with a self-directed video.
"Slip Slide" invokes the essence of the classic femme fatale archetype layered over reinterpreted dancehall, garage and jungle sounds. The new track follows her previous releases, "Wicked Gyal" featuring Lady Lykez, and "One Touch," which was deemed Best New Track by Pitchfork and featured in Apple's new MacBook Air commercial, all of which contribute to the atmosphere of Infinity Club.
Infinity Club finds BAMBII building on her already-impressive sonic repertoire, encapsulating the sound of a generation of Caribbean youth living between two worlds. On the heels of bringing her kinetic production style to Kelela's recent album Raven, this new EP establishes BAMBII as a trailblazing voice in the intersecting worlds of electronic and Caribbean music. The project opens the door to a limitless space that blurs the lines between memories and dreams, anchored by ecstatic production by BAMBII that centers on the solace one can find in the middle of a crowded dance floor. In BAMBII's telling, Infinity Club soundtracks an anonymous space holding a community of bodies all flowing to the same rhythm: "Infinity Club knows no age, or social construct. It's for everyone, everywhere. In all ways, always."
São Paulo based artist João Rocha shares the second single, "Ô Lulu" from his upcoming debut album as dadá Joãozinho. Unfolding like a genre-agnostic mixtape, tds bem Global (out Sept 1st) is front-loaded with irresistible and effortless rhythms, careening across musical universes like a psychedelic fever-dream.
The (upcoming) album title translates to “all too Global,” and chronicles Rocha’s move to the biggest city in South America during a time of intense isolation and toxic politics. Where his previous projects were steeped in Música Popular Brasileira, his new sound “needed to feel more intense,” shoplifting from dub, hip hop, punk, and samba, and inventing a few future styles in the process. While a solo effort, the record features contributions from collaborators new and old, spotlighting the singular artist community Rocha is embedded in.
"Ô Lulu" rides a dubby acoustic groove peppered by organ stabs, hand drums and glancing guitar ballistics, like if Arthur Russell and Lee Perry co-owned a recording studio. It’s a euphoric comedown compared to the bombast of lead single “Cuidado!” which Remezcla described as “a dazzling collage of baile funk, hip-hop, and jazz that runs on an adrenaline rush fit for a cinematic heist scene.” Watch the videos for both singles below, which feature stunning scenes of dadá across São Paulo.
"With its assemblage of slouched vocals sparkly electronic flourishes, and breezy guitar, “Ô Lulu” is as laid back as it is endlessly replayable."