2011 Chillwave // Race of Robots

"Race of Robots is a multi-genre musical project created by Zach Holmes and Coby Nida, from Washington, D.C. The two blend and create a new take on 80’s and 90’s music. The styles spawn from R&b based vocal melodies, Indie rock and Reggae influenced guitars. Along with a new hint of Chillwave and an added dose of Hip Hop based sampling methods"
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Class of 2011 chillwave, very nice, generally overlooked and underappreciated. As new music is stagnating, or in a repetitive cycle, I will focus on mining the past for buried gold, especially from the 2009-2012 era. There is another album also free and great, on their Bandcamp page. 
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Download // anothercountyheard's Summer 2011 Chillwave Mixtape

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Classic chillwave mixtape from your's truly. Download it as a zip file of separate sequenced MP3s.


01 Purity Ring- Ungirthed
02 Slow Magic - Sorry Safari
03 Rimar - Ways
04 Seabright -Sea Samba
05 NazcarNation - Beeswax (StewRat Remix)
06 Regal Safari - Lake
07 Active Child - Hangin On
08 Flourish Fill - Gentle Beast
09  Team Rockit - första hjälpen (chop n screw u)
10 Blood Diamonds - Grins
11 Phoenix - 1901 (Essáy's Heat Edit)
12 Active Child - Playing House feat How to Dress Well
13 Balam Acab - Motion
14 CFCF - Cometrue (Physical Therapy Deep Forest Mix)
15 Seabright - Faye
16 Hard Mix - Memories (Purity Ring Remix)
17 Alicia Keys - Unthinkable (PHYSICAL THERAPY REAL HEAVY VIBE)

2011 CLASSIC // Hot Girls (Single + Remixes) by NazcarNation

A 2011 classic from NazcarNation (now Gangplans).
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DOWNLOAD: Kat Seckz by Imprintafter, 2012 Chillwave Classic

A classic, available for free download, via imprintafter.
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Download: My Vegan Dog by Hearts Bonfire

via Memory No.36 Recordings. Check out their other fine releases. 
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Chillwave 2.0: George Clanton's 100% Electronica

George Clanton is the talent behind the vocally driven chillwave pop Mirror Kisses and  vaporwave artist Esprit 空想 100% Electronica is the first album under his own name, and it integrates the approach of his previous incarnations into what may be his final form. The album sounds like the confident and self-assured work  of an artist coming into his own both as a vocalist and producer, ten fully developed songs--all killer/no filler.  From the opening strains of the first track, I had a strong feeling that I was really going to like this album. Catchy, hook-laden and appealing at first listen,  it draws heavily on Eighties new wave and synthpop for inspiration, which perfectly suits Clanton's voice, reminiscent  of Human League singer Phillip Oakley. My personal favorite is "It Makes the Babies Want to Cry". This album is in a class with 2009 classics like Causers of This and Psychic Chasms--the follow-up those artists failed to make, which proves what I've been saying all along; CHILLWAVE'S BACK. Smash that motherfucker (the download button) .

Download: Covalence by ALPER

Alper, fka Alper Atrek, is a Lumenous alumni and journeyman beatmaker who I've been following since his first posts to Soundcloud. Covalence truly marks his arrival. It's an accomplished set of all-good chillwave that will delight purists and novices alike, and evinces a convincing artistic maturity. Our friends at SVNSET WΛVES have released Covalence  as a free download, so jump up on this shit!
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Download: Sterling Flow's CLEAR EP

a n o t h e r c o u n t y h e a r d was pleased to present the PREMIERE of Sterling Flow's CLEAR EP last Thursday. Known for guitar driven, vocal chillwave & dreampop, CLEAR is a refinement of Gary Ellison's approach, paring down the processing effects and accentuating songwriting and musicianship. It's  authentic, unhyped  chill. The title track is especially well developed and will lodge itself in your head.

I asked Ellison a couple  questions.
ach: CLEAR seems a conscious approach toward pop-rock, song structure, less reliance on production effects --was this a conscious decision? 

sf:The change in sound was definitely a conscious decision; a lot of the music I’ve made previously was me learning how to produce music and figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Rather than focusing on effects and synthesized sounds, I wanted to create a more realistic, simple style for this EP. 

ach: What instruments do you play? 

sf: I played guitar, bass, and synthesizer on every track and also sang the vocals and programmed the drum sequences. But on a couple songs, my brother Andy helped me out. He’s a really talented musician who played banjo and pedal steel on Devotion and lap steel on Between The Two. There are no samples on this release though, even most of drum sounds came from a cheap kit we have at our house. 

ach: What are your influences, what genre do you consider you're working in? 

sf: Everything that happens in my life influences my music one way or another, but musically I’m all over the place. Lately, I’ve really been digging Lana Del Rey’s newest record and Beach Fossils, but I draw inspiration from most genres; rock, rap, pop, indie, folk, electronic, whatever. If I had to classify this EP into a genre, I would say Indie.

Listen below and grab the free download. 
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Bootleg Compilation: LOST IN REVERIE

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"35 BEST TRACKS OF 2014: FUTURE FUNK - VAPORWAVE - DREAMWAVE - CHILLWAVE - RETROWAVE - ELECTRONIC (In no particular order)"
This unlicensed compilation is one of the best I have ever heard. Absolutely the right stuff.

WALKIE TALKIE - Tigerish
Nzca Lines - New Atmosphere
LLLL - You
HELLO AGAIN - All the time
Duett - At Night
Sloslylove - Da Hauntings
SYLLABUS - Look Out
EASTGHOST - Voyeur
ESPRIT 空想 - esprit.wav
Miyagi Pitcher - Whispers (radiowave mix)
Robert Parker - Eight Hour Drive
Who Ha & STARFORCE - My Fantasy
Silent Gloves - Le Cassette - Radio (Silent Gloves Remix)
Vicenzo Salvia - Tramonto dagosto
S l o w w lyfe - Direct Messages
Phoenix #2772 - Beatiful Situation (Edit)
Cineplexx - No futuro (Cielo cover)
CVLTVRΣ - Blue Horizons 寝室企業 .ltd - 01 ░▒▓ 寝室企業 ▓▒░
Surf Club - Until Then
Colourwaves - You Sold Your Life For Pixels
Teeel - You're Mine
Com Truise - Wasat
Choongum - Waves of Data (mus.hiba remix)
Le Cassette - This is all we know
Yumi Zouma - Alena
East Edwards - Breaking it down
Arcade High - Coastline
MAITRO - Vice City
マクロスMACROSS 82-99 x YUNG BAE - 'Selfish High Heels' (Feat. ✿ Harrison ✿)
Chris††† - The way he makes me squirm
Trust In Love - Hyperreal
East Troy - Softerall
Stripmall Architecture - Blue Moon (Big Star cover)
Tuuwa - Dearest
LAKE R▲DIO - Hide

Here's the trick 

EP: Melancholia by X3SR

Album: INFINITY VOL1 by Navigateur

Album: Foreign Pedestrians by Monster Rally & Jay Stone

EP: kujton by Combo Reseller

Combo Reseller is Ignacio del Gallo of Argentina
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cc

Balearic Baroque // WELCOME BACK SAILORS Bring Back Dream Pop With TOURISMO

 

Danilo and Alessio, Welcome Back Sailors

With  TOURISMO, Italian duo Welcome Back Sailors return with their first album since 2011's YES/SUN. When they first began releasing music in 2010,  WBS and peers like Keep Shelly in Athens  signaled the arrival of chillwave/dream pop on  Mediterranean shores.  YES/SUN  achieved the marriage of '80s inspired vocal synth-pop and contemporary shoegaze/dream pop; one of the seminal albums of the era, easily ranking with Memoryhouse's The Years and Blackbird Blackbird's Summer Heart.   I still listen to it.

TOURISMO finds the pair on familiar Balearic territory, but refining their production and sharpening their song-craft and vocal arrangements.  The songs are well structured and dynamic, and modulating between slow burning yacht rock ballads like "Lonely Boy" and "Love Is A Mirror" and the regal uptempo pop  of "Falling" and "Shining Blue".  The music has rich studio-produced sound,  filled out with horns and female vocals (by Sara Loreni). Old school synths and drum machines accompany real guitar and bass. There's nothing lo-fi or 'bedroom' about their music;  no computers were used.    The instrumentation is stylistically appropriated from mid-'80s Brit-pop. The duo have an unmistakable Pet Shop Boys fetish, with Incerti playing Neil Tennant to Alessio's Chris Lowe. There's also a touch of New Romantic; think Spandau Ballet and George Michael, and the trop-pop of Sade and China Crisis.
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The most distinctive thing about Welcome Back Sailors is Danilo Incerti's  beautiful, plaintive voice, which infuses the songs with  accentuated emotion and intensity.  "Act Like You Are Crazy" and "Something Great" literally explode with emotion. Haunting melodies and  dense, surging synths reach a level of grandeur that few can rival. It  may have been  recorded recently but TOURISMO sounds like three and a half year's work. The collection has the unified production approach and thematic continuity of a classic album, an endangered concept in the age of I-tunes.

TOURISMO is record in love with the dusk. There's a melancholic resignation beneath the surface, a desire to experience the  "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," that touches both Romanticism and the Baroque, by which  I mean an indulgence in emotion, rather than the love of ornamentation which characterizes the Baroque music, or  the noisy abundance of details in the paintings labeled Baroque. It's Baroque in the same sense that Pet Sounds is. It's Romantic in the sense of being divorced from the temporal troubles of a rapidly changing world, choosing to focus of the timeless; love, friendship and trust. And that's why this record will sound as good in 2020 as it does in 2015.

RATING: 10. BEST CHILLWAVE/DREAM POP LP OF 2014

TOURISMO is an album worth paying for, $9 USD, from WE WERE NEVER BEING BORING

 Buy the album here 
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Chillwave Classics: Oh Kokomo by LAY BAC

Another 2010 chillwave classic: LAY BAC's Oh Kokomo 
 

Chillwave Classics: "Good Feelings" by Light Pollution + Memoryhouse CSLSX Remixes

Classic 2010 chillwave / dream pop, with two killer remixes.

Download: Seabright // Forest Moon EP

photo Allison's Adventures

While many trends and memes with their short life spans have come and gone, Californian Justin Morales has been writing and performing his own beautiful DIY surf-gaze dream rock, sharpening and refining his sound but never wavering in his focus; sixties pop-rock infused with  trop, chillwave  and shoegaze influences. His latest is a really sweet listen and a free download--check it out!
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DOWNLOAD: The Sound of Exploding Rainbows: MMONA's ツP~A~I~G~E` (Produced by Miles Farewell)

Paige (or ツP~A~I~G~E`) is a triumph. It's the aural equivalent of an exploding rainbow, easily one of the best tracks of 2014. It's  the first song that sent me running to my computer to share in months. A chillwave homage to J Pop, lovingly made for MMONA's little sister, who "loves J pop, anime and makes straight A's," the song positively radiates youthful exuberance and authentic DIY magic. Produced by Miles Farewell, the heavily filtered intro with a stage-setting Kyary sample bursts into a a glowing bass track, and a horn announces MMONA's super catchy hook:

"Sunshine runnin' thru my mind 
All night i feel ur light 
Its got me oh so high 
It's nice on fire 
Light up desire 
Crystallize in the eye of the beholder..." 

The delivery of the vocals is wonderful; her rap and singing both exude confidence. The  layering and effects build MMONA's voice into a Panda Bear-like wall-of-vocals, and the sound is absolutely amazing. Truly, get-on-the-roof, fist-pumping summer  magic; a big "fuck yeah!"  If I could bottle the way this makes me feel and sell it, I'd be a billionaire. Grab the 320 MP3 below, and enjoy the summer while it lasts!

DOWNLOAD HQ-MP3 MMONA // PAIGE (Prod Miles Farewell)

MMONA Summertime Suicide OUT NOW  (review forthcoming)

Check out MMONA's amazing debut HERE
and follow her on
Soundcloud
Bandcamp
Facebook

Chillwave Classic Summer Picks: WELCOME BACK SAILORS

Quite simply two of my all-time-favorite chillwave dreampop releases that no one should be without. The perfect summer soundtrack; from Italian dreampop duo Welcome Back Sailors, YES/SUN (2011) and Love (That's All) (2012). The individual tracks of Love (That's All) are downloadable for free, just hover your cursor over the track title and a link will appear under "download".  Jump to Crash Symbols Bandcamp.
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Download: xX: UNIVERSAL RESONANCE​:​Xx by UNDRGRNDLVXVRY

This is a carefully curated and excellent free comp from up-and-coming Seattle label UNDRGRND// LVXVRY, with a line up of previously unknown (to me) artists, all of whom turn in interesting original tracks. The sound is post-trap, futuristic chilled instrumental trip-hop. The first two tracks should convince you.