Twin Rains "Automatic Hands"
Everyone, please welcome Twin Rains to the Rough Trade Publishing fold. This Toronto dream pop duo have been making music together in some capacity since 2009, and were the founding members of the Toronto indie band Make Me Young. As Twin Rains, the pair are crafting a beguiling mix of delicate, poetic vocals and modern, mid-tempo electronic music. A bit like the sound from our pals from Galaxie 500, some keyboard sounds not unlike Au Revoir Simone, a smattering of Portishead vibes, all the while very modern sounding, skipping over the complete ‘80s fetishization that many other modern dream pop bands rely on, and instead mixing those flavors with something very new and modern. Probably with some turmeric. Everything seems to have turmeric in it these days. So drink some turmeric tea and check out the sexy groove of “Flash Burn.”
Title Tracks "Long Dream"
If you’re looking for some power-pop perfection, then you are looking for the latest from Title Tracks, Long Dream (EJRC). It does everything power-pop should do: remind you of how much you love rock and roll, remind you a little of The Beatles, and then remind you a little of Cheap Trick (who also remind you of, of course, The Beatles). The choruses are big, the verses are sing-a-long-able, guitars are jangled, the drums never end, and the bass player is likely exhausted. Check out the Matthew Sweet covering The Cure sounds of “Don’t Start.”
Radian "On Dark Silent Off"
The members of Radian have been experimenting with dance, electronic music, post-rock, and other genres for 20 years now, and their latest release On Dark Silent Off (Thrill Jockey) might be their most cohesive, addicting album to date. Is it noisy? Is it strange? It sure is. It’s also beautiful, as the dudes dwell on sounds most other musicians strive to eliminate from their recordings. ‘90s-era cool jazz DJ beats mixed with static solos, acoustic guitars, and all other manner of bewildering instrumentation. They have done the impossible here, made a sci-fi sounding album that sounds nothing like John Carpenter (neat trick, eh?). It’s more like Aphex Twin remixes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor songs (who do we call to make THAT happen?). In the meantime, give the under construction opium den sounds of “Scary Objects” a listen.
Jay Som "Turn Into"
Turn Into is a reissue of Jay Som’s pre-debut odds and sods collection. In 2015, after too much Thanksgiving wine, Melina (the woman behind Jay Som) decided to upload a year and a half’s worth of finished and unfinished songs onto Bandcamp. Proving once again that being drunk on tryptophan is always a good idea, this is a gorgeous collection. It’s impossible to figure out what is “unfinished” about these songs, as they are as fully realized as any you’ve likely heard in a while. An obvious music fanatic, her influences come fast and furious: The Kinks, ‘90s indie and dream-pop, psychedelic music. Really, if these amazing tunes are unfinished, I can’t imagine what surprises her debut next year will hold. Imagine along with me while you check out the REM meets Apples In Stereo swirl of the super-hook-y “Ghost.”