Crazy Zany Radio Sunday - 'All Waters' by Perfume Genius

Every week our contributors will voice their opinion concerning one song, it’s a simple as that! The more the merrier, so people are always welcome to join in, just leave a note, eh.

Track: ‘All Waters’ by Perfume Genius (click here to listen)

Average grade: 6.5

Ilse: I completely adored Perfume Genius' debut, it was one of those albums that creates the strange affinity that probably defines aesthetics: his fragile voice and music instantly and inexplicably made me feel emotional, up to the point where you feel it pierces your soul, your stomach is filled with rocks and the lumps in your throat won't go away no matter how much you swallow. In this new song, the dreaminess and fragility that marked his sound on 'Learning' remain, yet it is not as poignant as for example 'Lookout Lookout' or 'Mr. Peterson'. Still: can't bloody wait for this album to come out.
 6.8

Anna: This is a beautifully stripped down affair - it may feel subdued but it will envelop you to the point of no return and whisper heartbreak in your ear. Look at me going all soft in the holidays.

Grade: 7.5

Linda: Well, this one's a bit dull. Perfume Genius managed to sweep me off my feet with his last album, but if he's producing this kind of drivel for his next one, I doubt whether I'll hang around long enough to hear the whole thing.

4/10

Craig: The film is over and we've all learned that something terrible lives inside of each of us.  There is no hope any longer for the characters, nor for us.  We feel the wind that blows dust and ash over the bodies on the unwashed floorboards.  They're as still as the droning music; all of them dead.  The fire is burning in slow motion, steadily inches toward them with aim to obliterate.  After an agonizing slow fade, we are left to ourselves in silence and darkness.
7/10

Stef: I have to admit that it took me a while to warm up to this, perhaps because it is over so darn fast. But typing this way past midnight and suddenly it hits home. There is this sense of yearning and aching in this track that manages to ooze out in it’s oh so short running time. It does find that connection to your emotions, though I think that the album as a whole and the entire running time of it will do it more justice.

7/10

New of Montreal album coming

This February of Montreal’s newest album will be hitting the shelves. The album will be called Paralytic Stalks, and on the 7th of February it will be released by Polyvinyl. The album will contain eleven tracks, including ‘Wintered Debts’, which has already been made available to stream. Other songs on the album will be ‘Ye, Renew the Plaintiff’, ‘Exorcismic Breeding Knife’, and ‘We Will Commit Wolf Murder’.

Islands readying Valentine’s day album

Nick Thorburn has dusted off his band Islands, and the band is going to be back with a new album. The album will be released on valentine’s Day and it will be called A Sleep & A Forgetting. It is going to come out via Anti-. The album will consist of eleven tracks, including ones titled ‘Don’t I Love You’, ‘Cold Again’, ‘Lonely Love’, and ‘In A Dream It Seemed So Real’. Can you say Valentine’s day hit?

Our Top 50 Favorite Tracks Countdown - 45 -41

Yessir, it has started, the countdown of the 50 best tracks of 2011! Everyday I’ll post one track in the Daily Clip section, but if you missed one don’t worry, after each batch of five I’ll be sure to post those songs with links on the site (you’ll find it in the main post). So for the next 50 days, nothing but the best, here we go!

Nr. 45 – ‘Out of My Mind’ by Tyson

This year was the first time I ever heard of Tyson, and he has come out of the gates running with some catchy singles. It has some great vocals, and it simply has energy that I feel is lacking from so much of this kind of stuff. Not with Tyson though, and with 3:35 it almost feels like a hit and run. It is packed with emotion and it is a nice mix which finds itself lending a bit from both pop and disco books. A whole album might be a bit tiring if it would be done this way, but as this is a tracks list I only care about the track baby, and this one has the goods.

Nr. 44- ‘Boobsie Collins’ by Andy de Luxe

Oh man, funk this shit up. The title is, I assume, a reference to Bootsie Collins, but this is not quite as extravagant as that man’s clothing is. The best thing about this is, it just keeps on building, keeps on growing, and it makes you want to dance and when the next instrument comes in it makes you want to dance some more. If you are short on time, just listen to a bit before the three minute mark and see how it gets it going at just over 3:00, and you know what I mean. This is exactly what you want in your set, something as hypnotic as this, and so seemingly effortless at that.

Nr. 43 – ‘Luvvbazaar’ by Ssion

Lets go gay. From the free (!) album Bent he put out this year, Ssion has this seduction gay thingy going on in his voice for this one which makes it even more sexy. Not too mention those typical background vocals which only add to that cultural heritage feeling. Also, it is just a fun, catchy song that makes me smile. And songs that make people smile and that are a bit cheeky, they are a rare breed indeed. “If you know you’ve got something, go give it, give it away at a luvvbazaar”, I mean, especially sung this way, how can you not love that. And it is also a song that is put together pretty well with the music, the vibe, the variety. And its friggin’ free! Mental.

Nr. 42 – ‘Dreams in Light’ by Sare Havlicek (Ray Mang remix)

Ray Mang certainly has a way of doing some awesome things (some of it which I proudly have on vinyl). It takes a few beats and a few tribal drums for the first real sounds to come in. But when they do at about 15 seconds, it just always completely bowls me over. It has yearning written all over it, and then she isn’t even singing yet. That typical disco vibe. And my goodness, such nice vocals as well. That chorus is divine, the way she sings it, and the way Ray Mang don’t make it all-out disco but don’t lose that vibe either, that’s so very good.

Nr. 41 – ‘I Love You Dancer’ by Voyage (Womack rework)

I wish I could post a stream or link to this, but I can’t because there is none, so you’ll have to do with the original. Too bad, because the rework is a good example of contemporary vintage disco up and down and twice around. T.K. Records has been releasing some reworks and edits of songs they released in their (and disco’s) glory days. Another doozy is ‘Don’t Drop My Love’, originally by Anita Ward. This is just old school and it celebrates those who, you guessed it, dance, and that for a whopping ten minutes. Who wants those masculine heteros standing with their arms crossed staring at some guitar band. No man, we want to see the beauties of this world dance. Preferably on this mid-paced (under 120 BPM) tune from the golden years.

Axel Willner to come with album under new guise

Axel Willner, best known for his work as The Field, is going to release a new album in 2012, but under a new moniker. After this year’s Looping State of Mind as The Field, next year he will release End Never Ending Nights as Loops of Your Heart. The album will be released on the Magazine label and sees Willner move to more “sparse and cosmic sounds”, according to Resident Advisor. The album will be released on the 30th of January and it will contain seven tracks. Among those tracks are ‘Neukolln’, which is up for streaming, and ‘Lost in the Mirror’.

Sophomore album Perfume Genius slated for Februari release

On the 21st of February Perfume Genius will release his sophomore album. His debut, Learning, was well received when it came out in 2010, and now he’s coming back with a release on Matador. The LP will contain twelve tracks, and it will be called Put Your Back N 2 It. That’s for all the street peeps listening to Perfume Genius, y’all.

The Weekly Froth #20 (With Jacques Renault, YACHT, Tensnake, and more!)

The weekly froth! A weekly take on six tracks, most of which have recently popped up somewhere in the blogosphere. Bit of a mixed bag with a slight leaning towards house, disco, and remixes, but generally just anything that for some reason tickled the writer’s fancy.

Track of the week: ‘I Walked Alone’ by YACHT (Jacques Renault remix)

No way. If you had to pick about any song from the YACHT album that seemed least likely to be turned into a disco mix, this would be it. The original is a slower paced affair, and the potential of catchiness is certainly higher in a few of the other songs (which are, themselves, already catchy). But here comes Jacques Renault, the disco wizard of the East, and he puts on that bass at 20 seconds and we’re off to the tracks. Or rather, the dancefloor. From that point on it’s boogie woogie time and nothing can stop it anymore. 1:20 it puts on the keys and you start to hear the original coming through, and after a while the vocals come in as well. But don’t think, Oh vocals, now he has to slow it down, for the original is slower paced. Nuh-uh. You can keep on dancing, no cheap cop-outs to be seen here. Renault is a master in funking every track up and making it dancey and disco, and this is no exception. Fab remix. Those background vocals are also genius by the way, totally fit the remix.

(To listen to this track, and to listen and read write-ups on five others, click here)