{{{Sunset}}} - The Glowing City

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VBR / 150mb

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Zombies.mp3

Year: 2008

Label: Autobus

myspace.com/lobosunset

Similar artists: Olivia Tremor Control, Indian Jewelry, Lotus Plaza

Forget the pretentious pointy brackets.

Tiny Mix Tapes: 4/5

"Whether it was meticulously planned down to the second or just happened this way, The Glowing City is massive. Sucker comes in about 15 seconds shy of a full load, and we all know that’s rare in the age of the CD. Bill Baird and company seem to feel that, well, if we’ve got 80 minutes to use up, we might as well use them. [..] The damn thing is straight-up focused. [..] Sunset’s recorded sound is difficult to pin down [..] The Olivia Tremor Control’s albums are brought to mind, if only by their length and ‘psychedelic’ connotations, but the sound here is cleaner and rounder and lacking the heavy emphasis on transitions. There’s clearly a huge Beatles influence on Sunset but… they don’t sound like The Beatles. It’s even a bit different from the palette of sounds found on Bright Blue Dream — here it’s tighter and more focused in general; drums are still important (and produced incredibly) but don’t have the same emphasis as they did previously. The drones that slowly seeped to the top over the course of BBD are similarly less important here. The whole album is one mass of ringing, twisting, buzzing noises that are nigh unidentifiable."

Royal Bangs - Let it Beep

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VBR / 61mb

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My Car is Haunted.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: Audio Eagle

myspace.com/royalbangs

Wiki

Similar artists: Bad Veins, The Love Language, Pela, Foreign Born, The May Fire

AMG: 3.5+

Drowned in Sound: 8

"If you manage to stand back from trying to over-analyse and contextualise their sound, you are ultimately left with a record that is catchy, unashamedly self indulgent and in all senses, fun."

Holopaw – Oh Glory, Oh Wildernes

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256kbps / 76mb

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The Art Teacher And The Little Stallion.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: Bakery Outlet

holopawmusic.com

Wiki

Similar artists: Bright Eyes, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, The Mountain Goats, Sparklehorse, Modest Mouse, Wilco

Pitchfork: 8.1

"Four years after their last full-length, Holopaw seem reinvented, sporting a looser, more melodic sound that moves easily between styles."

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Pants Yell! - Alison Statton

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VBR / 43mb

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Reject, Reject.mp3

Year: 2007

Label: Soft Abuse

myspace.com/pantsyellmusic

asaurus.org/pantsyell

Similar artists: Would-Be-Goods, Math and Physics Club, The Lucksmiths, Tullycraft

AMG: 4+

"The first thing you need to do with Pants Yell! is forget about the name. It's probably derived from a story from one of the bandmember's childhoods or a cute literary quote, but one thing's for sure: the band will set the dials on your twee-o-meter jumping like almost nothing else likely could. And while the Boston trio exhibits many of the symptoms associated with twee pop (intimate, wavering vocals, twangly guitars, quiet instrumentation, and a generally gentle and sweet approach to both the music and the lyrical content), they rise above the run-of-the-mill twee-peddlers by dropping some hard-won wisdom onto their lyrics, flesh out the songs with confident horns and lush strings, and generally project a sense that they belong to the real world and not an insulated gumdrop fantasy land."

Beak> - Beak>

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VBR / 107mb

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Backwell.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: Ipecac

myspace.com/beak2009

Similar artists: Broadcast, Cluster, Harmonia, Fuck Buttons

Beak> is the new project of Geoff Barrow (of legendary Portishead) with fellow Bristol musicians Billy Fuller and Matt Williams. Their self-titled debut will be out October 19 in the UK on Barrow’s own Invada, and Ipecac will release it the next day in the U.S. In contrast to Barrows extreme perfectionism when creating Portisheads music, Beak>’s album was written in just 12 days.

Drowned in Sound: 9

"Everything about Beak> is a cohesive, ambitious and thoughtfully-executed murky delight. A godsend of a record in these times of landfill indie."

Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP

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320kbps / 63mb

What Would I Want? Sky..mp3

Year: 2009

Label: Domino

myanimalhome.net

Wiki

Similar artists: The Olivia Tremor Control, Islands, Gang Gang Dance, The Unicorns, Caribou, Passion Pit, Fuck Buttons, High Places, Grizzly Bear, Xiu Xiu, Fridge

Pitchfork: 8.9

"Ten months after the release of Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective return with an EP that finds them still on a creative roll."

Previously:
Animal Collective discography

tUnE-yArDs - BiRd-BrAiNs

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VBR / 57mb

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Sunlight.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: Marriage

tune-yards.com

myspace.com/tuneyards

Similar artists: Nedelle & Thom, Dent May, Thao, Cryptacize, Tickley Feather

Pitchfork: 6.8

"When you talk about lo-fi more or less inspired by folk, the best stuff always carries with it a sense of discovery. Cheap and tinny acoustic music should feel like something you stumbled upon, like maybe you dug it out of an old drawer or rescued it from the freebee bin in the thrift store. And then the force of the music should sparkle through the grit and hiss and distortion and make you think you understand something about the person making it. It's a romantic notion, one not necessarily based in reality. But the best music in this vein manages to convey a sense of intimacy, as if it's a one-to-one conversation between the artist and the listener. That's how BiRd-BrAiNs feels."

Port O'Brien - Threadbare

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VBR / 50mb

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Tree Bones.mp3

My Will is Good.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: TBD

portobrien.com

Wiki

Similar artists: Devendra Banhart, Akron/Family, Grandaddy, M. Ward, Silver Jews, Shearwater, Rogue Wave, Band of Horses

AMG: 3.5

"Threadbare follows in its predecessor's wet footsteps, and the death of a bandmember's sibling casts a long shadow over the project that sadly meshes beautifully with the outfit's sparsely delivered, yet emotionally rich sound. [..] While the more upbeat tracks on Threadbare are competent and downright catchy, they're ultimately engulfed by the fog from which they "

Real Estate - Real Estate

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VBR / 75mb

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Fake Blues.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: Woodsist

myspace.com/letsrockthebeach

Wiki

Similar artists: Yo La Tengo, Feelies, Ducktails, Best Coast, ganglians, Kurt Vile

Pitchfork: 8.5

"With the exception of the limp "Pool Swimmers", every part remains remarkably crisp. But what sets Real Estate apart from the rest of the herd is how evergreen its beauty can be. Despite the summery song titles and the beach balling associations that might follow these guys around, this music transcends the notion of seasons. Inside the overcast tenor of "Black Lake" and the airy upstrokes of "Green River", there's much more at play here than what goes on between the months of June through September. And impressionism aside, this is a band whose chemistry and technical gifts suggest there's more coming down the pipeline: more good times to be soundtracked, and more songs and records and sounds to communicate exactly that."

The Most Serene Republic - ...And the Ever Expanding Universe

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VBR / 61mb

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Vessels Of A Donor Look.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: Arts & Crafts

themostserenerepublic.com

Wiki

Similar artists: Broken Social Scene, Handsome Furs, The Sea and Cake, Rosebuds, Badly Drawn Boy, Built to Spill, John Vanderslice, Death Cab for Cutie

AMG: 4+

"...And the Ever Expanding Universe is tuneful, and the sweetness of the harmonies that dot many of the songs is engaging, but the swing between the breathy voices and cruelly distorted instruments on "Phi" is the work of a group not content to simply sound pretty, and the layers of instruments that interact within a selection like "Catharsis Boo" show that fun and challenging are not concepts that cancel each other out. And there's a graceful balance in the arrangements and performances that keeps this music joyous and full of wonder whether it aims for simplicity or a baroque level of detail. ...And the Ever Expanding Universe is a small wonder that easily confirms the Most Serene Republic's status as one of the most impressive acts on a Toronto pop scene that is already producing a bounty of exciting music."

Previously:

The Most Serene Republic - Underwater Cinematographer

The Most Serene Republic - Population

Years - Years

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VBR / 50mb

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Are You Unloved.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: Arts & Crafts

myspace.com/themusicofyears

yearsmusic.ca

Similar artists: A bedroom version of Do Make Say Think, GY!BE on prozac, Microphones in a funny mood, Four Tet circa Rounds

Years is a project from Ohad Benchetrit of Sphyr, Do Make Say Think and Broken Social Scene. Despite being a mostly one man's effort and lacking the grotesque of a full fledged orchestra, Years is still somehow managing to sound like a simplified version of a good 90's post-rock band.

BOAT - Setting the Paces

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VBR / 56mb

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Tough Talking The Tulips.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: Magic Maker

myspace.com/boatmusic

Wiki

Similar artists: Tullycraft, The Shins, The Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, A.C. Newman, The Little Ones, Spoon

AMG: 3.5+

"BOAT's third album, Setting the Paces, sticks to the formula the band had previously utilized. Short, snappy tunes with rambunctious vocals and humorous lyrical content, with debts owed to Pavement, Television Personalities, and the Banana Splits, and with a bouncy energy that makes the album very easy to like, even when the words stray over the line from clever to silly. This time out, the band has tightened up the sound; the guitars have more bite, the beats are more propulsive, and the overall feel is more rock than pop. [..] If you are inclined to find songs about stalled minivans, muscular friends, and math skills kind of ridiculous, you may have trouble getting into the album. Anyone else will find the lyrics to be refreshingly off-kilter and occasionally moving in an odd sort of way. It's not easy to pull off this kind of humorous indie rock, but on Setting the Paces, BOAT come through like champs."

Previously:

BOAT - Let's Drag our Feet

Magnolia Electric Co. - Josephine

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VBR / 64mb

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O! Grace.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: Secretly Canadian

magnoliaelectricco.com

myspace.com/magnoliaelectricco

Similar artists: Anomoanon, The Watson Twins, White Whale, Joy, My Morning Jacket, Damien Jurado, Will Oldham

AMG: 4

"In sum, Josephine is radically different from Magnolia Electric Co.'s preceding records, but it doesn't need to be. Molina has a consistent -- if downcast -- view of the world in his songs, and the canvas he uses to express it does so perfectly."

Tom Waits - Bone Machine

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192kbps / 74mb

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Dirt in the Ground.mp3

Year: 1992

Label: Island

tomwaits.com

Wiki

Similar artists: Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Richard Thompson, John Cale, Nick Cave, Rod Stewart

Very hard to pick a favorite. Which's yours?

AMG: 4.5

"Perhaps Tom Waits' most cohesive album, Bone Machine is a morbid, sinister nightmare, one that applied the quirks of his experimental '80s classics to stunningly evocative — and often harrowing — effect. In keeping with the title's grotesque image of the human body, Bone Machine is obsessed with decay and mortality, the ease with which earthly existence can be destroyed. The arrangements are accordingly stripped of all excess flesh; the very few, often non-traditional instruments float in distinct separation over the clanking junkyard percussion that dominates the record. It's a chilling, primal sound made all the more otherworldly (or, perhaps, underworldly) by Waits' raspy falsetto and often-distorted roars and growls."

Bear in Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth

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256kbps / 73mb

Preview:

You Do You.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: Hometapes

bearinheaven.com

Wiki

Similar artists: The Dodos, Suckers, The Ruby Suns, Yeasayer, Megafaun

Pitchfork: 8.4

"Bear in Heaven's greatest trick is creating music that evokes the sort of physicality and scope that could soundtrack a Hollywood film, but also works equally well at stirring up intimate bodily passion. Lush synth beds, warm electronics accenting polyrhythms, and Jon Philpot's yearning, boyish howl coalesce into a vibe that's muscular without being macho, and which strikes a rare balance between nuanced emotion and overwhelming sensation. Even when delving into more disconcerting subject matter-- dabbling in self-loathing on "Wholehearted Mess" or confronting paranoia on the slinky "You Do You"-- Philpot still manages to imbue the songs with an atmosphere of seduction and intrigue."

Los Campesinos! - There Are Listed Buildings CDS

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Julian Casablancas - Phrazes of the Young

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VBR / 81.3mb

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11th Dimension.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: RCA

Wiki

Similar artists: The Strokes

AMG: 4

"It may not have the sugar rush immediacy of the Strokes, and at times it's downright indulgent, but Phrazes for the Young shows that Casablancas has more than enough ideas for several albums on his own and with his band -- and perhaps most importantly, he sounds more enthused about making music on it than he has since Is This It."

Sleeping States - In The Gardens Of The North

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VBR / 50mb

Preview:

Showers in Summer.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: Bella Union

myspace.com/sleepingstates

Similar artists: Shearwater, Elvis Perkins, Final Fantasy, Little Wings, Bon Iver, Handsome Furs, Sparklehorse

Pitchfork: 8

"If there's anything negative to say about Gardens, it's that it doesn't lend itself to casual listening. These restless and nearly immaculate tales of love and longing, when taken in as a whole, might blend together to form a tastefully indistinct blur."

A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Ashes Grammar

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VBR / 94.5mb

Preview:

Failure.mp3

Year: 2009

Label: Mis Ojos Discos

asunnydayinglasgow.com

Wiki

Similar artists: Autodrone, Pia Fraus, The Radio Dept., Soundpool, The Jealous Girlfriends

AMG: 4+

"Ashes Grammar is a far more confident and cohesive album than its predecessor. Scribble Mural's ambitious multi-layered approach tended to weigh the album down; Ashes Grammar's artsy audio explorations, on the other hand, are generally fashioned around solid skeletons of pop-oriented hooks, lightening the listening experience considerably. This album features some of ASDIG's most pop-oriented work to date; tissuey, ghostly tracks like "Shy" and "Ashes Maths" and the comparatively angular, My Bloody Valentine-esque "The White Witch" stand up well next to Scribble Mural's very best moments. Really, the only complaint to be had with Ashes Grammar is its size."

Pitchfork: 8.3

"Ashes Grammar draws you in by offering outstanding moments in strange contexts; you'll re-listen to hear specific pieces even though you're unable to remember exactly when and how they occur. Ashes Grammar often feels like the result of a band who took Martha Reeves & the Vandellas' "Come and Get These Memories" in the most abstract, art-damaged way possible: nostalgic, jigsaw pop music from a group of writers strong enough to keep you humming and courageous enough to make you guess."