Here’s the list of independent music albums that are being released this week:
The Colors EP by Project Jenny Project Jan
Project Jenny, Project Jan is a two-man electro-rock band that are out to have a good time and want you to do the same. Their debut LP, Xoxoxoxoxo, is a blast of danceable pop music that’s goofy and fun, but also good enough that the duo are clearly asking to be taken seriously. Now, with The Colors EP, programmer/keyboardist Sammy Rubin and vocalist Jeremy Haines have teamed up with Fujiya & Miyagi, Mixel Pixel, So Percussion, Adam Matta, Clack Singles Club and vocalists Katie Hasty of Numbers and Letters and Kellie Rae Powell for a collaborative set of five catchy tracks that rival the band’s best work on their debut.
Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle by Bill Callahan
Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle is about as beautiful an album as you can expect to hear sung circa 2009. Unfolding like a first view of paradise, then a slightly less ecstatic second view of paradise and then finally a glance back over your shoulder at that stupid paradise bulls***, Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle surveys a landscape that grows organically, like the time two people spend together; or the time one person spends alone (with another). One way or another, it’s awfully pretty.
Das Bierbeben by Das Bierbeben
Nervy new wave electroclash punk-pop Neue Deutsche Welle never sounded quite so good, at least for the first decade of the 21st century. On their third, self-titled album, Das Bierbeben hit the ground running with "Dunkle Tage," part playground chant and part gentle command to action, while the nervous as hell guitars are to die for. The tension between songs of more relative accessibility and of sternly pulsing dance command with odd touches: the wheezing turns on "Wie Und Vogel," or the ye-ye pop spark of "Wehr Dich Doch" slamming up against the very skinny tie guitar frenetics. "Delirium," with its cool opening, sweetly mournful post-punk guitar against increasingly sweeping electronics and lovely singing, is the "Maps" of the album and to nice effect, while "Abschied" is one of the smoother Stereolab rips out there, especially on the chorus. There’s almost too much going on to fully say Das Bierbeben have fully settled on a sound that’s truly and totally theirs, but there’s no question that this is a top quality confection for a world more engaged in genre mixing and matching than ever before.
~Ned Raggett, All Music Guide
Hard for Justice by Bronnt Industries Kapital
Bristol based band including NICK TALBOT from WARP’s GRAVENHURST pay open homage to the spirit of 80s Hollywood vigilante cinema, low-rent sci-fi, Italian fright flicks and the music of GOBLIN, NEU! and GIORGIO MORODER.
Popularity: 3% [?]
