Chillo? String hop? String rap? Analog-electro?  Clean Bandit is a new Brit-collective that somewhat defies categorization.  They work with a variety of vocalist cameos (frequently Nicole Marshall) to create a culture clash of strings, bass and beats.  The Cambridge collective – Jack Patterson (bass/sax/deck), Luke Patterson (drums), Grace Chatto and Neil Amin-Smith (both on strings) – fuses classical, electronica and hip-hop beats.  We ran across them performing a cover of Labrinth’s Earthquake for BBC Radio 1 below, and have been mesmerized since.  This little aural earthquake might rock your world a bit.  After, check out their official videos for single A&E, Nightingale and the older Shanty.

The great Anaïs Mitchell has collaborated with Jefferson Hamer on a new album entitled Child Ballads, a collection of traditional songs from the British Isles, named after their collector, Francis James Child.  You can check out below live, solo performances by Mitchell of the first track on the album entitled Willie of Winsbury and also Clyde Waters.  The album cover is by the talented Peter Nevins, who also created the illustrations for Mitchell’s acclaimed album Hadestown.  The new album will be released in the UK & Europe by Wilderland Records on February 11th and in the US & Canada on March 19th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op7IW4E3Edw&feature=em-uploademail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgUEji2jbb0

There’s something about ghost songs.  When done well, they insinuate themselves deeply into our psyche.  The Psychedelic Furs’ Ghost in You, Band of Horses’ Is There A Ghost?, Bob Dylan’s Spirit On the Water, Radiohead’s Bodysnatchers, but especially The Specials’ Ghost Town–have all floated inside at times and taken us over.  The latest entry in this ghost anthology is Helado Negro’s Dance Ghost from the impending new album Invisible Life (on Asthmatic Kitty).

Helado Negro is Robert Carlos Lange, son of Ecuadoran parents who grew up in South Florida with its associated atmospherics (the Three H’s:  heat, humidity, hurricanes; but accompanied by a soundtrack of the musical and cultural coloratura of the surrounding Latin American communities).  Robert Lange has previously worked with Juliana Barwick and Bear in Heaven, and on Invisible Life members of Bear in Heaven return the favor along with Devendra Banhart.

Helado Negro has now released the official video for Dance Ghost, which you can watch/listen/download below.  About the song, Lange says: “They are ghosts to maybe most who are usually trying to create the least amount of resistance when trying to survive in the US due to the many instances of inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the US. The song may be saturated in ambiguous synth tones, but the reality of living somewhere or being somewhere where others want everything about you but you, is what haunts them.” In the video, while the smoothly-hypnotizing, steel-drummy song plays out, a man-ghost floats invisibly past and through dancers, Jai Alai matches, clubs, bars, record stores, a mansion and other stations of the (Miami) community.  In the end, the video leaves us just wanting to engage all the “ghosts” we see.  You do the same, and the world will be better for it.   Let’s just say it’s National Engage a Ghost Day.  Go forth.

You can pre-order the album and learn more HERE. If you like what you hear, you can listen to and download the song below the video.

We caught the supremely-eclectic band Akron/Family the last time they were in town in 2011 at Soho, and they assailed with a scintillating onslaught on the senses.  The Swans Michael Gira has captured A/F well in his descriptive sentence: “A conflation of orchestrated Jazz, Prog Psych, R&B and devotional mantras.”  After a break, Akron/Family is set to release a new album Sub Verses (cover above) on April 30th.  Today the band and its label Dead Oceans have released a cut from the impending album entitled No-Room.  Check out the song which thankfully drones on and on.  Akron/Family plays Muddy Waters on January 29th courtesy of Club Mercy.  You can get your tickets HERE.  Don’t miss what will likely be the show of the year at that venue.  The new album’s tracklist is below the song.

Tracks

1. No Room
2. Way Up
3. Until The Morning
4. Sand Talk
5. Sometimes I
6. Holy Boredom
7. Sand Time
8. Whole World Is Watching
9. When I Was Young
10. Samurai

Allo Darlin’ put out our Favorite Album of 2012, Europe.  They’ve since released a phenomenal covers album (cleverly called Covers), which you can stream below.  Covers features several of the band’s influencers’ songs, not the least of which is The Go-Betweens.  Originally available as a limited bonus CD given away with Europe, it’s now been re-released as a white colored vinyl 10″ (only 300 copies are available so get ’em quick).  Covers features six covers of songs by AC/DC, The Ramones, Bruce Springsteen, Eux Autres, The Go-Betweens and The French (Darren Hayman’s post-Hefner band).  Make sure you check out the crazy-great guitar work on their cover of The French’s Wu Tang Clan.  You can buy Covers HERE.

We wrote recently of young LA band Cayucas.  Coinciding perfectly with Central and Southern California’s current warm-spell, the band has released (via Spin) their new video for High School Lover, another new pop-gem off their debut album, Bigfoot.  The new, Richard Swift-produced album will be released on April 30th. In the meantime check out High School Lover below.  Cayucas opens for El Ten Eleven this Wednesday at Velvet Jones in Santa Barbara.

Tracklisting for Bigfoot
1. Cayucos
2. High School Lover
3. Will “The Thrill”
4. A Summer Thing
5. East Coast Girl
6. Deep Sea
7. Ayawa ‘kya
8. Bigfoot

Former Pulp guitarist Richard Hawley has been floating solo for over a decade following Pulp’s pulverization (as recording artists anyway).  Hawley, the son of a steel worker, was raised in Sheffield, England, and grew up listening to the likes of Elvis (Presley), (Roy) Orbison, Scott Walker and Lee Hazelwood.  He learned guitar at an early age and became a gunslinger in Pulp, Longpigs, and various studio sessions before breaking out his first solo album in 2001.  Hawley’s sophomore album, Late Night Final, set the mode for his next 4-5 albums with Hawley’s baritone combining with lush life string arrangements.  In 2005 he released one of our favorite albums of all-time, Coles Corner (a hangout in Sheffield), with its cinematic romanticisms delivered in his crooner’s lilt.  This was followed by the similarly fantastic and atmospheric Lady’s Bridge and Truelove’s Gutter.  But last year Hawley moved into more of a late-’60s psychedelia motif with his more aggressive, critically-acclaimed, Mercury Prize-nominated album, Standing at the Sky’s Edge.  Buried within the album, however, was the song Don’t Stare At The Sun which could have compatibly fit within his prior three albums.  Hawley has just released his official video for the beautifully moving song, which you can check out below.  We’ll have more about the prodigiously-talented Hawley another time.  In the meantime, don’t stare at the sun.  And what the heck, after Hawley’s video check out the nostalgia of (Hawley-influencing) Lee Hazelwood’s song, For One Moment.  Cloudy brain indeed.  It’s Monday.

Montreal’s très intelligent bandThe Luyas loudly impressed us in 2012 with their album Animator (Dead Oceans).  To get a better feel for the band, check out this phenomenal-sounding performances of Face, Fifty/Fifty and Channeling for Here Today Sessions at Supersonic Studios in Copenhagen.

Morrissey played the Sovereign Performing Arts Center in Reading, Pennsylvania last night to his usual throng of adoring fans.  When Moz and his crack band came to the night’s encore, The Smith’s How Soon Is Now?, a young fan came up on stage (at :57 in the video below) and jumped on Morrissey’s back (followed later by what might have been his father).  When Moz realized his attacker was but a boy, he hugged him until security pulled the boy away.  Morrissey, noticeably taken aback by the events, then retreated to the back of the stage to gather himself.  When he comes back to sing at 1:37, Moz appears to have been moved by the boy’s affection.  A sweet moment from one of the most adored singers in rock history.  He is human, and he is clearly loved.  Morrissey and the fellas will hit the West Coast in the last week of February and early March (tour dates can be seen below the video).  Between Johnny Marr’s impending new album and Morrissey’s tour, it’s been quite a Smiths winter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-HGTse-KeI&feature=em-uploademail

We have written before of Coeur de Pirate, the nom de chanson of charmant French-Canadian Beatrice Martin.  Martin has now released the official video for Place de la Republique, which tells a love story doomed by long distance.  The video for the song from her much-loved album Blonde was shot entirely in Paris.  The song’s lyrics (loosely translated) follow the video.  You can also check out a live performance of Place de la Republique HERE.

“We met in the time when we would please
the demands we created but we got lost in them
You’re only a few kilometers away
And our hearts, our hearts have stayed in this sea
I ran along the Seine
Hoping to find you, you serene soul
I ran without knowing how
or why we get carried away
We only knew each other for a moment

And I don’t know if you’re worth it anymore
It’s rather hard to be sure
And when you are in Vincennes
That evening, don’t forget me
I will wait for you long enough to say
that I wanted to take the greatest risk
An evening that made me so sad
An evening at Republique Square

And as you can see it’s the end
I must cross the ocean tomorrow morning
From your arms I will slide out ever so gently
And it’s reality that awaits me
I know your heart is already inhabited
by one or more girls that have marked you
I’m less strong than the other
But I hope strongly that you miss me
That I stand out so much

And I don’t know if you’re worth it anymore
It’s rather hard to be sure
And when you are in Vincennes
That evening, don’t forget me
I will wait for you long enough to say
that I wanted to take the greatest risk
An evening that made me so sad
An evening at Republique Square”