Tagged: electronic

[Nice In The Headphones] Wheelhouse EP – Moon Bounce

moon bounce

I thoroughly enjoy Moon Bounce’s electronic approach. Downtempo glitch-hop with heavy layers, plenty of automation, and enough effects and samples to make my head spin. He keeps everything tight and bound together, no fray ends will lead your attention stray.

His latest EP drop, Wheelhouse, is a monster collection of tracks. “Flood Gate” hits you quite hard as an opening track with a lot of future R&B influence. I was particularly fond  of the lushness that was immediately apparent in the third track, “Arcade,” which dropped the beat multiple times over comic space ship sounds. It’s really hard to envision what’s going on in Corey Regensburg’s mind to create this eclectic form of electronic music.

Stream Wheelhouse in its entirety below and be sure to grab the ultra neat cassette here.

Landslide – Cold Fingers

cold fingers

This track is amazing.

A completely new and different take on the classic Fleetwood Mac song, “Landslide,” 
the duo who go by the moniker Cold Fingers, truly turn it into a different track. A chilled heavy beat, modulated vocals, and fluttering keys just does it for me.

Like what you hear? Be sure to pour through their Soundcloud page for more excellent tunes.

[Sunday Listening] Fjall – Jared Smith

fjall jared smith

Fjall, meaning “mountain” in Icelandic, is Jared Smith’s newest album release through Luxembourg’s indie label, Own Records. 

Calming, loosely constructed yet deeply emotive – this ambient album is exactly right up my alley. Formerly known as Smyth, Jared creates beautiful soundscapes that capture the clinking of dishes, distant conversations, and other micro aspects of daily life that sound wonderful under spacious electronic tones.

Released this past week, listen to Fjall in its entirety below and be sure to grab the limited edition white vinyl version here.

Incoming search terms:

  • jared smith fjall

[Tape Label Spotlight] Buddha Tapes

buddha tapes

I don’t think we’ve ever featured a cassette-only indie label here on what’s protocol? before but, there’s always a first for everything right?

Introducing Buddha Tapes, referenced before when we’ve featured artists Psittacines and Hectic Zeniths in the past, this little tape label is based out of Virginia doing some very special things. With a few releases under their belts, they’ve finally got another one to be proud of.

Wax Monsters are a dynamic synth-pop duo coming out of Ohio with a brand new self-titled full length album that recently dropped. Each track has got a different mood and tone keeping you fully aware of all of the tempo shifts. Available on gorgeous (and limited!) blue cassette, stream the release below and grab your tape here.

And be sure to keep Buddha Tapes on your radar and check out the rest of their releases here.

[Nice In The Headphones] Silent Speech EP – Porcelain Raft

silent speech porcelain raft

Atmospheric and incredibly spatial, Porcelain Raft’s instrumentals take our ears and mind far beyond average reach. The textures and layers alone really take hold of your attention but what I’m really impressed with is the sort of orchestrated sound, the ebb and flow of each track from start to finish.

Intro song, “Playground,” starts off momentous then dropping us right into, “Off Track,” which plays well behind headphones with flickering heavy tones and thick synthesizers. I really enjoy the entire mood of the EP and its listenability. Stream the entire thing below and be sure to check out more of his work here.

Surrender – Lockets

surrender lockets

Lockets are back y’all.

Dreamy synths, airy female vocals, compressed percussion – it’s nothing new but when done right, it sounds incredible. After becoming mildly obsessed with last summer’s release, Camera Shy, I’ve been yearning for new music ever since.

Finally back at it again, listen to the group’s newest single since 2012, “Surrender.” Searing chords and a lush rhythm section is just so nice on the ears. Off of their forthcoming limited edition 7”, be sure to keep this duo on your rader.

If you’re in the Philadelphia area mark down May 12th – these guys will be playing live with Twin Sister at Johnny Brenda’s. An obvious winner in my book – see you there!

Incoming search terms:

  • lockets surrender

You – Bibio

bibio you, silver wilkinsonHow could you not love this man?

As we’re all anxiously awaiting Bibio’s upcoming album, Silver Wilkinson (due out May 14th) –  we recently have been greeted with his fabulous new single, “You.” For more about the track and from the man himself, read below on his thoughts.

‘You’ has the longest history on this album because an early version of it was actually made around 5 or 6 years ago. At that time I was making a lot of cut-up sampled hip hop type stuff on my MPC. I always liked the track but it felt unfinished at the time and I didn’t want to just put out short beat type tracks on my albums. Tracks like ‘Fire Ant’ (from the album Ambivalence Avenue) started in a similar way, until I worked more sections into it and fleshed it out. A similar situation happened with ‘You’ but this time it was partly prompted by the positive response I had from early versions of the track. I did quite a few shows between 2009-2011 around the world, mostly Europe, and an early version of ‘You’ got played at most shows. It always seemed to get a good response, people reacting like they already knew it… then people started asking what it was. It brought my attention back to the track when I was in my studio – thankfully I had saved all the original samples on my MPC so I ‘produced’ it again, pretty much from scratch, upping the tempo and making it bounce more and getting the groove to sit right. I still felt that it needed fleshing out, so I revisited the record where I got the original samples from and sampled more parts to create the outro as well as adding more of my own instruments and drums. The intro was made with live instruments, me playing bass, guitar, a sitar-like string instrument and rhodes piano as well as drum machine sounds. I referenced the melodies I had created in the main sampled section of the track by highlighting them in the instrumental intro section. Finally the track felt complete so it was then added to the ‘potential album’ playlists which had been growing over the last two years. Tracks in the playlists got added and taken off on a regular basis, but ‘You’, despite being one of the older tracks, always remained there – it felt right and I never tired of it. It’s also the only track on the album that relies more on samples as opposed to multi-tracked live instruments, so I think for this reason it kind of stands out.

If you can’t wait until next week, grab your pre-order here. Happy Monday y’all.

Italo Riviera – Derby Sunshine

derby sunshine

There’s a light at the end of my tunnel. I’ll soon have a nice little break coming up which almost always has me thinking about what I can do and where I can go to fill up that time. Derby Sunshine’s single, “Italo Riviera,” encapsulates that feeling.

A slow yet frenetic build-up, hushed vocals, and plenty of synths to really make the track stand out from others. Under a quick 3 minutes, my ears are completely satisfied. Listen to the single below and be sure to check out more from this London-based musician.

Blackedout EP

Blackedout EP

I first came across the mysterious Blackedout when late one night, I found myself in the tinychat internet concert venue SPF420. After “sticking around” (or keeping my internet browser open / headphones on) for a couple of the other acts, the host announced Blackedout would be performing next. A quick switch of the webcam to wherever he was performing from, which for the most part, was in complete darkness and he was set to begin.

Almost immediately I was completely enthralled with the sounds I was hearing. As I’ve said before and through a lot of the music I share, I’m a huge fan of late night/R&B type sexy grooves and spacey sounds and beats. After the performance, I was excited to delve into some more tunes and was even more thrilled when I came across this brand new EP just released on April 30th.

This is a solid example of the sounds I love (think kind of the same vein as Supreme Cuts, The-Drum, Holy Other, etc). This is pure sex. Really nice sounding pianos, synths, drums, water sounds, [probably] some found sound samples in there, and nice use of Rihanna vocals and vox from the song  ”Baby I’m For Real” (which was either taken from Michael McDonald or The Originals).

My only real complaint (if you can even call it that) is the brevity of the EP, spanning only about 15 minutes total. Anyway, hop on down below, turn the lights off, and hit play.

BONUS: for some non-EP tracks (that are just as chillin’) head on over to Blackedout’s soundcloud.