My Pal Foot Foot: The Outsiders' Chronicle #1

URSULA BOGNER

Ursula Bogner was a German housewife with an eccentric electronics habit. She spent her life as a pharmacist, a mother and a curious explorer of the synthesizers' universe. She died in 1994 and her underwater glitch experiments has been collected, thanks to her son Sebastian and to Jan Jelinek, on a highly recommended posthumous album "Recordings 1969-1988", on Jalinek's own label Faitiche. A minimalist, analog chemical reaction wrapped up in a reel to reel tape that sounds like the gurgles, giggles and droning hums of an amphibian extraterrestrial wandering voyager. What sounded more like an hobby than a profession to her, it turned up a very avantgarde and prompting document for the new DIY electronic generation.

http://www.boomkat.com/jukebox/jbFramed02.cfm?tracks=182738:149082&type=music

http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=149081

Ode to the Captain #2

TWI THE HUMBLE FEATHER "Music for Spaceships and Forests" (Friendly Ghost Recordings, 2008)

Listening to this acoustic guitar trio from NYC, I discover myself plunge into the surreal background of a fantasy tale, that might take place both in the stratosphere and in a spellbound wood connected by a rainbow of chords. They are actually great musicians, creating percussion sounds just by hitting the strings and wood of guitar or using stratified chorus and strings scraping effects as an electronic device. A minimal universe made of suggestive adventures.

http://www.myspace.com/twiandhumblefeather

Who Could Win a Rabbit #4

DENT MAY & HIS MAGNIFICENT UKULELE "The Good Feeling Music of Dent May" (Paw Tracks, 2009)

I love this dude, he is a young Elton John's caricature with Damon Albarn's voice, he twangs pop songs with his ukulele as if he's drinking pina colada on a Pacific Island; he's honest, authentic and self ironical, he has a 50's Doo-Wop appeal with a 20th century swing, he's a music genius posing like a nerd with the showman soul. Animal Collective first heard Dent May when they were recording "Merriweather Post Pavilion" in Oxford Mississippi in early 2008, and they quickly signed him to their label, Paw Tracks. "With excitement reaching a fever pitch, a new term has been coined: Dent Maynia". Catch it.

http://www.myspace.com/dentmay

Who Could Win a Rabbit #3

TONSTARTSSBANDHT "Dick Nights" / "An When" (Dœs Are Records, 2009)

"Tawn Starts Bandit" is the "scatterbrainchild" of brothers Andy and Edwin White from Florida, who represent the southern/eastern product of the "Beach Boys on acid" generation, waterlogging pop songs through the lo-fi wave and sprinkling fun with tropical colored synths, tribal drum grooves and psych tones. The final response is damn awesome, these records will stick on you like sand on the shore. I don't hesitate to define them the new Animal Collective, finally a gust of fresh air for my hipster ears.

HI ANDIE AND EDIE from jason harvey on Vimeo.

Tonstartssbandht - maihama from Edwin White on Vimeo.

http://www.myspace.com/tonstartssbandht

Who Could Win a Rabbit #2

GANGLIANS "Monster Head Room" (Woodsist, 2009)

Beach Boys are back!!! The way marked out by Animal Collective is taking here better defined outlines and shapes. Surf's up, waves calling, blond chicks parade, Cali's sun blazing. The band from Sacramento did a really good job, blending 60's chorus, acid pop, flowers' folk, garage roughness and psych nuance into the Woodsist's branded frame. Happiness breeze.

http://www.myspace.com/ganglian

Ode to the Captain #1

GROUPSHOW "The Martyrdom of Groupshow" (Scape Records, 2009)

Germany rules the electronic music scene, and that's probably a fact. But Groupshow is more than just a glitch collective. Known to play incredible improvisational live gigs, they have the skill to pierce your skin and flow through your veins like a liquid alien parasite, a short circuit of minimal, blips, loops, hums and beats, synthesizer tones bound into an extra terrestrial pop spiderweb. Jan Jelinek, supported by Hanno Leichtmann and Andrew Parker as a backing band on tour, is the captain of this invaders' spaceship, armed to conquer the "disco monkeys' floors". Another victorious bet by Scape Rec.

http://www.myspace.com/thegroupshow

Who Could Win a Rabbit #1

CASSOWARIES "Blessed Be is the New Godspeed" (Fuck your Records, 2009)

"Sung Tongs" multiplied multiple awesomeness. This little EP sized cassette is one of those creatures that reminds me how much I love pop jingles infected by the genuine freshness of home recording's creative prompting, but uncontaminated by the mainstream needs, so free to travel on experimental rails. Godspeed you, weird blue head birds, towards the new-weird zoo.

http://www.myspace.com/cassowaries

The Power of Pop-Corn and Pop-Weed #1

SKHIZEIN by Jérémy Clapin (Dark Prince, 2008)

When a "150-ton meteorite", "not an Asteroid", crashes into a lonely man's life it might shift reality at the distance of "91 cm" from himself. The greek word "Skhizein" means "split" and is the root of the word "schizophrenia".
Every man lives on the verge of two parallel perspectives, into ourselves and in the society, through our own eyes and by the outside lens. But when a meteorite, "for God sake", breaks this balance...well, we don't know anymore who we are, either where we are. Who is the center of gravity of our happiness? Are insanity or reality measurable?
After "Une Histoire Vertebrale" - A Backbone Tale - (2004), another little gem on a 35mm format by the genius of the young french director Jérémy Clapin, with the amazing musics of Nicolas Martin, produced and distributed by Dark Prince. Winner of over 30 awards from all around the world, it's already considered a cult in the short animation genre.

You Snooze You Lose #1

SORE EROS "Second Chants" (Shdwply Records)

Sore Eros is the musical vision of Robert Robinson, whose debut album "Second Chants" cradled me sweetly over the summer and still does. This is not a flat dream pop hash, rather a new light's splash. The lo-fi haze gives to it the print of old polaroids, as a crayon fragment of an awake sleep in the wind whisper. The psychedelic shading, added to melody strokes, season it into a multilayered dish of tastes and colors, as a conscious dream that offers us a glimpse into another world.

http://www.myspace.com/soreeros

Tropical Rain Washed my Brain #2

BABE, TERROR "Weekend" (Perizes Dream) + s/t EP

Babe, Terror a.k.a. Claudio Szynkier, hailing from São Paulo, is an exciting document of the Brazilian neo-tropicadelia. After the awesome self-titled debut EP, "Weekend" is the premiere release on his own label Perizes Dream. (Perizes is a neighbourhood of São Paulo). The Record evoke a disturbing dream, created almost solely through manipulated vocal loops and phased mouth drumming. Its soundscapes drew lysergic visions of a terrific run through the Amazon Forest as an adventure into the tapping echoes of subconscious.

http://www.myspace.com/babeterror

Tropical Rain Washed my Brain #1

AFRICA GERMANY GERMANY MEXICO TURKEY AUSTRALIA - s/t (Olde English Spelling Bee Records, 2009)

This is a psychedelic excursion into the exotic wildness of tropical landscapes, this is the pulsating beat of the earth, this is the animal instinct fighting for the survival, this is the fear of the morning awakening, this is the joy of the sun rising, this is the micro cosmos of an unknown world. (limited to 215 copies)