Sholi - Sholi

Sholi is a band that really flies under the radar despite being signed to the relatively high profile and soon to be defunct Touch and Go / Quarterstick Records. Their style is a combination of a lot of different bands. To distill it to something concise, they sound like a lot of late 90s indie artists like Karate or Cursive but with more willingness to experiment with being more abstract in the instrumental performances as well as more conventional in their harmonic progressions. The singer / guitarist Payam sounds quite a bit like the singer from Minus the Bear, and there is definitely something shared between the two bands. This album has really impressed for with its diversity and instrumental performances. Definitely worth checking out.

Sholi [2009] - Download - Review

Dan Deacon - Bromst

Sorry for being so MIA, but I've been working hard. Dan Deacon's 2007 album Spiderman of the Rings aligned him with artists like Girl Talk for being dance / pop music favored by indie kids that didn't come from Western Europe. There was something demographically appealing in Deacon's nonstop beats and Nintendo sounds. Do yourself a favor and google "spiderman of the rings site:blogspot.com" and read some of the descriptions, "batshit bubblegum pop" being one of my favorites. It seemed like people approached that album for the sake of novelty or irony or whatever. Deacon's newest album, Bromst, does a lot to sustain that legacy and you will read countless blog posts that fixate on that. However, there's something very different about Bromst's ability to absorb and assimilate folk / world influences that makes his propulsive rhythms feel downright tribal as opposed to "bubblegum" and his melodic and textural choices eclectic rather than just layers of epileptic computer noises. Bromst uses technology as a kind of musical encyclopedia, quantizing and crunching together folk traditions that otherwise wouldn't go together, much less with contemporary indie dance music. Bromst really transcends any corners Deacon may have worked himself into with Spiderman and is my favorite album of the year so far.

Bromst [2009] - Download - Review