Co La - Rest in Paradise

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Matt Papich sure loves his samples. On “Rest in Paradise” he takes the catchiest, most vapid snippets of “easy listening” music and 50’s and 60’s pop music and turns them into constantly looping relaxing pieces treated with a ghostly echo and dubby basslines. It’s almost like listening to some early Amon Tobin without any looped drum breaks or IDM experimentation ever coming. Kinda like vaporwave, but it doesn’t take New Age or corporate muzak to fuck with. Instead, it uses the oldie vacation hits to create Technicolor vintage chopped&screwed time capsules that surround and devour the listener. Not sure if it’s briliant or horrible. Decide for yourself.

Co La - “Rest in Paradise”

Ontopsych - Wait For Brain

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Debut single from the New Haven, CT based day-glo visionary Ontopsych. Two short, yet delicious tracks of lo-fi, fluorescent goodness filled with interesting stereo effects, lazy shoegazey vocals and overwhelming digital compression that bobs up and down like a lost jewel  thrown in somewhere between very early Animal Collective and Black Dice. Can you say: “psychedelic glitch pop”?

Warmly - EP

It seems like the last few posts all contain the addition “EP” to the names of releases, but this time it’s just an “EP” and nothing else. A very minimalist move for the soft oneiric psych pop Montreal project Warmly. More pop than psych, Warmly still retains a certian does of trippiness that make the smooth glide through 3 soft-as-silk tracks on the EP this much more otherworldly, making it sound like a softer, more radio-friendly rendition of Blues Control channeling the general spirit of indie pop and chillwave, yet without the constant, sickening feel of nostalgia.

Poppy Red - Keep Your Heart EP

The hazy psychedelic bedroom pop from the duo of Molly Long and Jimmy Spice - it’s lo-fi and fittingly strange. The vocals remind me of Joanna Newsom a bit, except now the elf queen is wielding the good ol’ electric guitar rather than a harp. And the strange, droning and echoed electronic arrangements give a bit of an Animal Collective feel, except without their messed up, chaotic feel - the songs here are coherent and catchy, even if they’re otherworldly as fuck. Apparently they have a good for meloies in other dimensions, too.

Grininning - Ruble Darby Downtown

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Well, ain’t that a weird record. Basically it tries to be some sort of IDM-ish pop record, but it all goes terribly askew and awkward as the gentle guitar strums get stuck in cold industrial beats and modified, echoing vocals. This album is a result of  a busy, intense living in the urban environment - quickly changing, kaleidoscopic, often sounding “crumpled” or glitchy, the songs here are also intensely psychedelic, like a condensed compilation of psych pop trends of the coming years. Thoroughly electronic, somewhat haunting, occassionally catchy.

Time Hitler and the Assholes From Space - Time Hitler and the Assholes From Space Proudly Present: In A Dream

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With a name like Time Hitler and the Assholes From Space it was no wonder that their e-mail to me wound up in the Spam folder, almost surely cutting me off from the possibility of discovering this forever. However, today, by sheer luck, I stumbled somehow into the Spam folder and into this link. This psychedelic collective presents here the slow-blues, stoned inside out shoegazey explorations and an air of heavy, incense-filled ambience. Otherworldly loner cowboys up in mysterious purple desert smoke. Thankfully, the music on the album is neither Hitler-ish, nor asshole-like. Looks like these Philadelphians went the Bardo Pond way, not the RAC one.

DSTVV - Molly Soda EP

To celebrate the Blame Aspartame blog starting following Weed Temple (I feel honored!), here’s an EP by the San Francisco weirdo pop deconstructionist project DSTVV, led by former child model and an otusider Tumblr celebrity Joel Cusumano (the prioprietor of the aforementioned blog, which is, according to one of the visitors, “like going to a laugh museum”). The sounds of Molly Soda, the second release by DSTVV, are described by the author himself as “industrial grungegaze”, which is not as preposterous as it might seem at first after listening to the EP. Harsh, electronic beats make a frame for the smeared, distorted guitar phrases and pushed back vocals which reveal w well-hidden pop sensibility injected with a sense of humor and a knack for experimentation. Well done, DSTVV!

DSTVV - Molly Soda (Free download!)

Limes - Dress the Same Every Day

If I were to choose various unknown Bandcamp albums by the covers alone, then the chances of “Dress the Same Every Day” would be very, very small. Which is a shame, really - because what’s packing inside is some finely crafted, jangly & catchy sunshine psychedelic pop hailing straight outta New York and founded in 2012. The band is new, yet its music is compelling and competent, all three members are skilled, open-minded musicians. What we get here is a softened, almost more angelic like take on psychedelic rock with a knack for pastoral soundscapes and easy, accessible song structures. Really good stuff, despite the disappointing cover.

Korea in the Space - Mt. Pleasure

Like Flying Lotus covering/remixing the nuggets of far-out 60’s psychedelic pop, this duo of just “Alec & Justen” from Pittsburgh, filters the slowed-down, cut & sampled pieces of older pieces with stoned, cosmic beats added. The sound is dank as fuck, otherworldly and keeps a nice balance between being gangsta and whimsical. Lots of pleasure on this mountain indeed.

Various Artists - The Lemon Tape

Wonderul flower-power blast from the modern past in this tribute to 60’s psychedelic pop and garage rock by a group of experimental Montreal-based musicians centered around the Kinnta Records label (responsible for the wonderful Soft Mirage tape). Usually (as in: while making their “usual” music) hidden deep in murky drones or futuristic cosmic prog structures, the music-makers here bathe in sunny, lysergic hooks that reek of early Pink Floyd and assorted heads from over 40 years ago. A reminder from the times when every single rock band was called a “pop group” and a tribute to the Ancestors.