Prolific psych-poppers and spearheads of the brooklynization of modern contemporary indie, MGMT, are about to release the followup to their very widely acclaimed debut, 2007's Oracular Spectacular. The new album is called Congratulations, and is now available to stream full length off the band's website!I must admit that Oracular... has really lost pace with me, and although Congratulations starts really well, the two first tracks being awesomely energetic, it seems that the band now and then dwindles into the dragging ballads topped by horrid vocals that we know all too well. There are some other cool tracks, such as 'Brian Eno', so all in all, Congratulations to me seems to be a 50/50 album (like its predecessor was).
English IDM-giants Autechre released their tenth album, Oversteps, today, and the reviews I've seen so far have been very positive. I haven't listened to the whole album, but I think it may well be in my next batch of records!
But, but... The big news today, in Denmark anyhow, can't of course be anything but the fact that Roskilde announced Gorillaz for this summers festival. I know it's easy to say, but I have seen this one coming. It's the major headliner that Roskilde has been missing - it spans music lovers across almost every genre, and it's a very exclusive name, as Gorillaz are only playing a few festival gigs this summer. Definitely a scoop! Coincidentally, I got a hold of their album yesterday, alongside Beach House's Teen Dream. I'll try and give them both a few spins as the week rolls on.
Now for a few track hypes. I stumbled across Grafton Primary's name on quite a number of festival line-ups back when I was in Australia, and I got reminded of them today. 'Hold Her' sounds a bit like Soulwax, a bit like Danish outfit Turboweekend, a bit like Goose, and a wee bit like a lot of other stuff. It's quite cool! I do think they use the same midi-bellsynth as my band Kinetics do in our track 'Dark Walls'.
I've been listening a lot to Phoenix lately, especially 'Armistice', which is a jewel of a track. I really love the final part of it. A perfect way to finish off a wonderful album. Hot Chip are out with a new single, 'I Feel Better', off their latest album. The video is hilarious.
Finally, I had a really confirming experience of how much it takes to make electronic music work live. Band Ane, who played here in Aalborg two days ago, couldn't. It was such a boring press-play-on-laptop show, that was completely devoid of intensity. Too bad.
