Swedish pop duo Club 8 (Karolina Komstedt and Johan Angergård) have released their first single since The People’s Record entitled ‘Closer Now.’ They keep alive the fast-paced West African drums and rhythms as well as the multilayered instrumentals apparent in the May release while, of course, retaining their own colorful pop hooks. ‘Closer Now’ is available for free download via Labrador Records. The track will be released as a 7” on November 23rd.

Club 8 ~ Closer Now

Japanese singer-songwriter Shugo Tokumaru is set to release his fourth album Port Entropy, in the US on October 18th via Souterrain Transmissions. ‘Rum Hee’ is definitely my favorite track off the album. The song is full of clean acoustic guitars, scattered bells, xylophone twinkles, soft drums and Shugo’s whisper-like vocals. Download the track for free from the label’s website.

Shugo Tokumaru - Rum Hee

Shugo Tokumaru - Malerina

London-based indie-pop duo Summer Camp (Jeremy Warmsley and Elizabeth Sankey) have released their six-track Young EP  via Moshi Moshi. The scratchy vocals and 80’s snyths-beats make this fluttering reminiscence. Sprung from their bedroom, this little lovely’s been playing all night.

Summer Camp - Round The Moon

Boston duo Magic Man (Sam Lee & Alex Caplow) debuted in January with Real Life Color on the brilliant Arcade Sound Ltd. (Blackbird Blackbird, Millionyoung, Teen Daze). Written on the organic farms of the French countryside, at “a chateau, a farm, a circus festival, and a beach cottage and brought back home to the states for further recording and editing (most of which was done in small dorm rooms and transmitted between band members with the aid of the world wide web),” the album is a beautiful mix of electronic tinkering, scattered synths, accentuated beats and wonderfully crafted vocals. Snap up the ten-track Real Life Color free here.

Magic Man // Bandcamp // Myspace

Pauline En La Playa are sisters Mar y Alicia Álvarez from Xixón (Gijón) in northern Spain. Since debuting in 1999 with Nada Como el Hogar, the duo has continued crafting a special blend of calm beats, acoustic guitars, smooth horns, scattered accordions, and harmonized vocals. At the beginning of 2010, the Álvarez sisters turned out their fifth album, the ten-track Física del Equipaje on Spanish label Siesta. Catch ‘Como Un Ciempiés’, ‘La Siesta’, y ‘Un Muelle’ below.

Pauline En La Playa - Como Un Ciempiés

Pauline En La Playa - La Siesta

Pauline En La Playa - Un Muelle

Just when summer seems to be nearing its end, as it slips beyond the mountains into the unseen crispness of autunm, Barcelona’s El Guincho (Pablo Díaz-Reixa) holds the warm sunlight overhead by spicing things up with the release of the second single off his upcoming album Pop Negro— FM Tan Sexy. Last month El Guincho released Bombay, the first of nine tracks off his second LP. You can download both songs at his website. Pablo Díaz-Reixa has worked hard over the last few years to move his sound forward from Alegranza and Folías; “I did some research on radio hits/big selling singles in North America, South America, England and Spain in the late 70′s, 80′s and early 90′s. I found out that a massive percentage of these hits were engineered (sometimes also produced) by just around 40/50 different guys.”

• El Guincho - FM Tan Sexy

“I started studying what makes them different but also what they had in common and I found out some really interesting coincidences. The reverbs they used (except for more ‘so-eighties’ kind of tracks, all the rest were more keen on using different tap tempo delays as verbs rather tan proper springs/halls); the backing vocals production (there are super interesting coincidences between Michael Jackson/Quincy, U2, Bryan Ferry/Rhett Davies era productions, Mariah Carey/Walter Afanasyev, Nile Rodgers, Teddy Riley, Paco Trinidad in Spain, etc.); the way most of these guys used line + reamping style instead of mic’ing everything when tracking; the way they used stereo image and how they distributed sounds on space (this is where I found less coincidences and was therefore more inspired).

Read More

At the beginning of July Seattle indie pop duo Beat Connection released their Surf Noir EP, which you can pick up on group’s bandcamp for free. The eight-track EP is full of great songs like In The Water, Sunburn, and Same Damn Time. The two guys behind Beat Connection, Jordan Koplowitz and Reed Juenger, describe their flowing mix of electronic beats, pop vocals and tropical flair as “waking up to a sunset,” and I couldn’t have said it better myself. Check out their catchy tune Silver Screen below.

[mp3]

San Fransisco’s favorite pop/electronic/chillwave artist Blackbird Blackbird released his brilliant 18-track Summer Heart over a month ago, but the dreamy vocals and flickering xylophones of the track “Pure” still linger in my ears. If you haven’t already, you should definitely head on over to Blackbird Blackbird’s bandcamp and grab Summer Heart for ten big ones. Also check out the free download of his latest EP, Rarities, which is a collection of tunes that didn’t quite make it onto the LP. Blackbird Blackbird is constantly working on new remixes and songs so I’d expect to see his name (and his tunes) spring up more and more around these interwebs in the coming months. Immerse yourself below.

Blackbird Blackbird - Pure

Wait a tick, I featured Liberia feat. Prizes by Blackbird Blackbird and Pao Pao on a Mondaymix a few weeks ago— here it is once again. So good.

Blackbird Blackbird & Pao Pao - Liberia feat. Prizes