Music
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A total blast from beginning to end. Mash-ups aren’t for everyone (of course, no genre is for everyone), but Pittsburgh DJ Gregg Gillis has produced a mash up record for the ages, perfectly stitchi...read more
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Three songs: “Boy from School” to “Colours” to “Over and Over” – perhaps the best 1-2-3 punch in all of music this year. It’s the centerpiece of Hot Chip’s...read more
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It will come as no surprise that many songs from the 1980s have not held up well over the years (“China Girl,” anyone?). But great works of art don’t age, and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts sounds r...read more
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A superb record from electronica whiz Matthew Herbert, who here reveals a whole new side to his musical persona. Score is a compilation of Herbert’s soundtrack work over the years, and itR...read more
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Super Furry Animal’s singer Gruff Rhys and hip-hop producer Boom Bip gave us one of the year’s great party records, a deliciously nostalgic 1980s rock opera/concept album recounting the...read more
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Call this the year of the Crystal band: Antlers, Castles, Stilts. The fact that Crystal Castles share their name with an 1983 Atari arcade game and play keyboards using vintage video consoles sound...read more
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Electronic music may not be known for tunes of Ramones-like brevity, but even the most ardent clubhound will be left a bit breathless after the knockout 30-minute opener (no, that’s not a mis...read more
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Matt sings and plays keyboards; Kim plays drums and adds vocals. And in a lot of ways, it really is that simple! But what’s made Matt and Kim one of NYC’s most popular acts is their unr...read more
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King of Convenience Erlend Øye returns with the second offering from his other outfit, Berlin-based quartet The Whitest Boy Alive. (Side note: Though they’ve been absent from these shores for...read more
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Be right with you, I’m having a low-grade psychedelic experience with the cover of Yacht’s new See Mystery Lights. Wow, it’s — I see them, the mystery lights! Once you stop your d...read more
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It's 2010 and more than any other New York artist, LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy is held as the barometer of the city's musical health. If that seems like a high-pressure situation, Murphy sounds ...read more
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The latest rocket-to-stardom act out of Brooklyn in fact has a very good chance to hit it big: Sleigh Bells' debut, Treats, may have its roots in the local party-happy dance-rock scene, but with M....read more
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The galvanizing Canadian noise-dance duo Crystal Castles is developing a saner, less abrasive side on its second album (which technically is self-titled, but since its first album, a collection of ...read more
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It can be hard to do this job when a band that has so thoroughly established a presence returns with an album on which little has changed. (Pity me, yes!) But on LP4 (which is a far better title th...read more
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Hot on the heels of last year's Get Color, the L.A. weird-dance outfit HEALTH repeats its move subsequent to the release of its self-titled debut with a remix album. Disco2 adds one new track, the ...read more
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The 90s dance-music wave that made the Chemical Brothers worldwide stars has receded a bit (at least from its central prominence in indie music), so those not dedicated to the Chems (or their scene...read more
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An '80s-gazing artist out of Brooklyn, how could this be new and special? But Twin Shadow is just that, and Forget is a result of some unironic appreciation for the over-referenced decade by one Ge...read more
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Why so serious? Melbourne synth-pop act Cut Copy are back with their first album in more than two years, and Zonoscope is bound to be the first indie dance-floor hit of 2011 -- a good thing, since ...read more
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Did we misjudge Swedish popstar Lykke Li based on just the videos from her debut, Youth Novels? While we go back to check, give her sophomore effort, Wounded Rhymes, a good listen. Opening track "Y...read more
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To tell the truth, I've never been much of a Gang Gang fan—I've always liked the idea of them, but found the lack of cohesion in their tracks to be a problem, rather than a source of their charm. T...read more
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Strut's spectacular Nigeria 70 series is about as foolproof as compilations get these days. This is the third installment, and while it doesn't reach the highs of the stupendous first volume, it's ...read more
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Canadian duo Junior Boys return strong on their fourth album, It's All True, which sets itself apart and above the pack of like-minded electronicians by splitting the difference between playfully u...read more
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Perhaps a nice complement to James Blake's more inward, somber-seeming record, the full-length debut by SBTRKT -- pronounced "subtract" and there just ain't much more we can tell you, as the South ...read more
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The debut from Hercules & Love Affair drew immediate attention within the dance community for being good, and outside the dance community for having Antony "and the Johnsons" Hegarty on vocals,...read more
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No offense to the first seven songs on Yacht's great new Shangri-La, or the work of Yacht captain Jona Bechtolt, but you may want to skip directly to track 8, "Paradise Engineering." That's where C...read more
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Two things happen on Joker's long-awaited full-length debut: One is simply the album itself, after years of singles and EPs (which got him named "king of bass music" in 2009 by XLR8R). The other is...read more
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New York electronic duo Holy Ghost (exclamation mark) finally dropped their debut full-length this year, after a number of 12-inches, comp tracks, remixes and collaborations, and it rightly thrust ...read more
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It can't be easy, being a fun pop band in times of global tension and fear. Which is why we sit up whenever Imperial Teen gets around to making a new record. Feel the Sound, the SF quartet's first ...read more
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