From: Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star – 1998 – Rawkus Records

posted by: Harold Johns III

Currently adding the final flourishes to their forthcoming 4AD studio album, Los Angeles outfit Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti will release “Round and Round” on April 26 as a limited 7″ and digital single.

Evolved from a solo venture into a fully-fledged band (currently comprised of frontman Ariel Pink, Kenny Gilmore, Aaron Sperske and Tim Koh), “Round and Round” and its flipside “Mistaken Wedding” are collaborative efforts that showcase the band’s unmistakable motif which combines the hazy nostalgia for folk rock from the 70’s with the experimental lo-fi pop music of today.

Fans can hear “Round and Round” on 4AD.com as of today. New subscribers to the band’s mailing list can also download an MP3 of the track with the media player below.

Ariel Pink’s MySpace

posted by: Brent Carter

“In a triumph of art, science and architecture, Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno’s site-specific exhibit 14 Billions scales a Black Widow’s web up to magnificent proportions. Currently on display at Stockholm’s Bonniers Konsthall, 14 Billions is an extension of the work he showed at the 2009 Venice Biennale called ‘Galaxy Forming along Filaments, like Droplets along the Strands of a Spider’s Web.’

“The Frankfurt-based artist worked in collaboration with astrophysicists, architects, engineers and spider researchers to create a stimulating series of installations with 14 Billions as the focal point. A massive undertaking, the project took two years to complete with the black rope spanning 400 cubic meters, consuming much of Bonniers Konsthall main gallery.

“Saraceno’s work looks to scientific study which uses the imagery and structure of spider webs to map the origin and structure of the universe. Referencing these studies, the sculptural pieces explore the delicate balance between ourselves and the earth.” (source: Cool Hunting)

posted by: Harold Johns III

Matthew Cooper, aka Eluvium, has created a blend of ambient shoe gaze drone flirting with piano pop sentiments in his latest release Similes. The incorporation of brevity into his compositions makes the album both expansive and digestible all at once. From minimalist techno drone to looped, sampled laptop layering; Eluvium creates an interesting background blend for his rich piano and vocals.

“The Motion Makes Me Last” starts off with a digitally delayed and repeated drone that bleeds into Cooper’s voice, a previously uncharted area for Eluvium – and a feat, as Cooper’s vocals go exactly where he intends. “Nightmare 5” is lush and carefully woven, with the audible attention oscillating from passionate piano riffs back to great walls of gorgeous ambient drone. And the power of the piano writing takes the forefront on “Making Up Minds.”

Although clocking in at a minimal length unusual for most ambient enthusiasts, the album feels rewardingly deep. With Similes, Eluvium’s subtle craft unfolds slowly, reading like a weathered hardcover classic. As the album comes to a close with “Cease to Know,” electronic wisps carry the listener out, a perfect complement to nighttime drivers lost in both the luminescent blur of a city’s lights and the catalog of their own scattered history.

More info about Similes can be found via Temporary Residence

by: Bene Garcia

Yeasayer has marked the release of their latest single “O.N.E.” with a new video directed by Radical Friend, aka Kirby McClure and Julia Grigorian, the duo behind the mind-melting video for “Ambling Alp.” The setting is a post-apocalyptic future world that may lack societal constraints like traffic laws but still has radio stations, a banging dance club that homeless people can’t get into, choreographed dancers and what appears to be a glass microphone. The trippy game board you see the main characters messing with is supposed to represent the “psychological warfare in which these otherworldly club kids engage.”  So basically it’s what LA would be like if civilization were to crumble in the not so distant future.

Download “O.N.E.” here (right click + save as)

posted by: Harold Johns III