Incan Abraham - Adult World EP

The past few days I've been jamming on some Incan Abraham.

Psychedelic swirling///Rotary-style harmonies///Tiiiiight percussion

Good things. Get their EP, Adult Lives for free at their bandcamp.

Incan Abraham - Hors D'oerves
Incan Abraham - Shallow Shrine

NYC UFOS ARE COMING\\\\\

Just got a friendly hello from some of Navajo Bixby's buds, NYC UFOS- playing groovy shoogazy jams like they used to be into the Damned some distant past ago. Rocking it like Weezer would if they had never made it and still played in the garage. Dripping in fuzz, familiar power chords lay down a Fugazi-ish vibe almost.

All hail, the 90's are gonna be back. Without a doubt. And without 3rd Eye Blind (those bros still tour, bro!).

DL a copy of Newer Stations, their latest demo, for free off their bandcamp. And check out these pop nugs.


NYC UFOS - Give It To You
NYC UFOS - Any Other Time airbase#$67

Shot Beyond Spacey

Prepare for blast off, yall.

Self-destructo-vibes from Dave Luxe. Step into the club and explode into a giant, flame shooting fire-monster.

Lil Jon feat Soulja Boy - G Walk (Dave Luxe Crunkstep Remix) by Dave Luxe

Sounds to me like NiT GriT is coming round in full swing. His work is growing in popularity--and rightly so. Clean. Liquid. Filth.



Flux Pavillion is soon to be the reigning king of all the lands of dubstep. Monarchical production on this sword-slicing, heroic, slobber/banger.

Freestylers - Cracks feat. Belle Humble (Flux Pavillion Remix)

Please enjoy these songs in moderation. Be sure to mix it up with music that you can't hear in clubs. Otherwise, your brain might die.

\\\///\\\BLAST\\\///OFF\\\///\\\///

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FuzZ: Interstellar Sparkles

Do you ever have those moments? You know, the moments where you:

• are walking down a dark alley at night,
• have a glock in ya pants,
• are wearing dark sunglasses and a leather jacket
• with hood up
• just left a shady house party in Brooklyn,
•  want to kill the people who murdered your mother

For those of you who ever found yourself in this scene from a movie in your head, I recommend FuzZ. His track 'Marshmallow Bazooka' from his full-length LP entitled 'Sparkle Vision' that was released late this past June.

Marshmallow Bazooka by FuzZ
 
There is undeniably something strangely clean about his 'sound.' He is not afraid of the funk. Nor does he fuck around with breakdowns.

Buy Sparkle Vision on bandcamp. (All proceeds go to FuzZ and none to Steve Jobs) :D
You can find moar FuzZ on his Soundcloud, and you can tell him how much you like 'Sparkle Vision' directly to him via his Twitter or his Myspace.

Navajo Bixby || Down Under

Imagine being stuck in the episode of Gilligan's Island when a band of hippies' tribe washed ashore with nothing but a vial of acid. This is the song that played through the montage that ended with Gilligan waking up naked the next morning in a palm tree, covered in strange tribal body paint.

I'm super stoked for Navajo Bixby's new tracks! They mentioned to us that they'll be playing a few gigs in Philly and New York in the coming months, so keep your eyes peeeeeeeeled.

Navajo Bixby - Down Under

Let It Unfold

Pepepiano- Babes

Today I awoke on some strange couch in Rhode Island (on a Mellows tour!) and to an unexpected surprise- Pepepiano's new EP- Babes. While the prior smells a bit musky and may involve some alleged heroin addicts- they have internet (huzzah for the future!) and I was able to cop the 4 tracks of Babes off of the Pepepiano bandcamp.

The latter is a dreamy wash of analog blips and whirrs/ shimmering keys often a la Cults/ fat synth sounds. Sweetness. I feel like I am summoned; he carries me upwards with a tractor beam of bright sound rather than light- leaving me confused/ intrigued/ elated. All over some catchy glitch-based beats and imprinted into your brain with cooing vocal harmonies. 

I'm super excited to hear more Pepepiano. For now be sure to nab Babes right off his bandcamp, you won't want to miss it.

Pepepiano-  Babes

Pepepiano-  NO WAY

We Have A Room With....TEAMS

So Yesterday/Today, the ever so awesome Teams drops his second EP, We Have A Room With Everything, on the ever so awesome 'future reserves label' AMDISCS.

I was a fan of his Catch Pools EP (the first bit of Teams that graced the world's ears) from its conception, and got to hang out with Sean for a bit during his recent trip up to NYC and see him play a woozy/awesome warehouse set by the river in Brooklyn. Yet another really genuine dude in this crazy musical world/community that's been evolving as of late....and AMDISCS seems to constantly be right in the center of all this wildness -- so it's all too appropriate that they be facilitating this next effort from Teams.

Check out two of my favorite gems below-- and stream the EP in full from Teams' bandcamp.  Ambient wild beatsmithh to the maX>!~

mp3zzz:

Teams - Better (In This Way)

Teams - Airworks

don't fuck with jai paul, don't fuck with jai paul

"Don't fuck with me, don't fuck with me" are the opening lyrics to Jai Paul's seemingly only full length original track, BTSTU. Singing in a high pitched falsetto voice, this young British producer sounds a lot like Thom Yorke and a little bit like Nick Pitera. Ok, mostly just Thom. The music forces your head to nod with a simple beat, Prince-like guitars and a somewhat metallic sounding wobble bass that is perfect for the track, though not heavy enough to satisfy dubstep fiends. As the track progresses, the instrumentation gets more and more dense, eventually leading to a sick horn section outro that overtakes the falsetto harmonies.

The icing on the Jai Paul cake is his remix of Emiliana Torrini's "Jungle Drum". I'm such a sucker for tracks with nothing heavy percussion + heavy synths and this one fucking hits the nail on the head. Bravo.

For as much as I love these tracks, there is one trend that should not and could not continue. BTSTU has a 2 measure chord progression that doesn't change once, and the Jungle Drum remix has a 4 measure chord progression that... yea... doesn't change once. Sure, Jai pulls it off with both tracks with his keen sense of (for lack of a better term) orchestration, but continuing this trend would be taboo.

So... what can come of a 21 yr old producer with 1 original track and 1 remix? A record deal with XL Recordings, of course (at least that's the rumor on the always-truthful interweb).

So for now... sit back, relax, right click, save as, and wait for Mr. Paul to crank out some new jams. You can be sure that I'll write them up asap.

Jai Paul- BTSTU
Emiliana Torrini- Jungle Drum (Jai Paul Remix)

Holy Books!

Am I afraid? Am I nostalgic? Do I wish I was a kid again?
(not really)

Stryker Remixes Subvader

I'm realllllyyyyy excited to announce that my new ep entitled 'Riding the Night - EP' will be released this Tuesday!! Super dooper stoked about this 3-track release... it really doesn't sound much like my last EP at all (in a good way, i hope :) You will be able to pick it up for free on soundcloud, and bandcamp (which has unlimited downloads in any file format) on the 17th.

So yeah, I've been asking various producer friends to see if they want to remix the last track on the album entitled 'Now We Leave Ground.' So far, the remixes are looking DOPE--got some really talented producers (Young Tom, anyone?)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Stryker Matthews, prepare to be blown away. This californian adds a Diplo-esque flair to the original, cultivating a really energetic/rowdy vibe.

Subvader - Now We Leave Ground (Stryker Matthews Remix)

Be sure to catch Stryker's 2 part 'Coldest August mix.' Needless to say, it's pretty dope.

Bassline WIN

Wanna get that 'rock ur sox' off feeling like back when u still listened to punk/metal but now u only really listen to electro/house/dubstep? well i have a solution--->comic strips' bassline

Congorock-Babylon (Comic Strips Remix) by Comic Strips
Download link (mediafire)

what makes it so amazing is that the original had a killer bassline that i thought couldn't be 'beat.' Young Tom put on his gloves (named "heavy" and "distortion") and whipped the living daylights outta the original mix (no offense, congorock, ur fucking amazing). Check the original song's video (directed by pomp&clout<<--they make amazing video art.)

More later on STRYKER MATTHEWS' SUBVADER REMIX and dj labam's whammalammer

ANNOUNCING///Mellows-It's In The Stones/Ghostriding 7"

Here at Tweaking Trays, we're quite supremely pleased to officially announce our next release===>==>=> Mellows- It's In The Stones/Ghostriding 7"

(front)

The debut from the second coming of Mellows is being co-released by our pals at Royal Rhino Flying Records (who also do stuff w/ da fabulous GOBBLE GOBBLE) and ourselves-Tweaking Trays.  We're doing a limited 500 copy run of the 7" on August 21st and can be pre-ordered from Royal Rhino Flying here! 

(back)

Mellows is the 8-bit/folk punk/psychedelic pop golden child of the Tweaking Trays family, shamelessly including several of our contributors (coughMyselfcough), Kohwi (of Kohwi) playing the drums/doing the production, and Peter (Subvader) playing the Gameboy Classic/synths. It's 3 originals with artwork by James Green (our own Padre Zippo) and mastered by Zeljko McMullen (Wish). After a mild amount of deliberation, I'm quite pleased to say-

===DOWNLOAD IT HERE FO FREE===

===    PRE-ORDER THE 7" HERE    ===

...or on our releases page...

Also, Mellows has a string of east coast dates allllmost ready to announce, so keep your eyes peeled on our facetwitspaceblr lest we repost them on our blog like some self-indulgent pigs who like to masturbate in front of the mirror. Before brushing their teeth. Every night. Likewise, we've got a tumblr to show us what we eat for lunch every day on the road and perhaps something even more arbitrary. 

Sunlight Burns

I'd love to be spending all my time in front of an LED screen with dancing letters, shapes, and colors, but it's just too fucking nice outside.

As I evaporate (you'll see the pun in about a minute) away from between the steadfast fingers of my addiction to the internet, there are but a few things that I'd like to take with me. In fact, I'd suggest that you do the same and take them, too.

They're tracks from Swimsuit (incl. Fred Thomas of City Center, Dina of Secret Twins, Shelley ex-Tyvek) off their first demo tape, which you can scoop for free here. I can't believe that I hadn't already taken this little slice of Ann Arbor/Ypsi, in form of reverberated/lo-fi/indie/pop punk sweetness, with me to Chicago this summer. Super stoked to hear such catchy jams from Ann Arbor/Ypsi locals, I can't wait to catch them playing around town this fall!

Swimsuit---- Evaporation
Swimsuit---- Sunlight

Nightlands- Forget the Mantra

Yeah. It actually DOES sound like the cover looks. Forget the Mantra  is the debut record from Nightlands (Dave Hartley from The War on Drugs) and I've been spinning it on my metaphorical record player for weeks. And it's kept me completely ecstatic. Beautiful textures are created with a myriad of instruments that harken to a particular time and place---memories held suspended to a particular emotion. Enormous soundscapes and lush instrumentation carry you across great plains and across the endless sky to the gentle coo of bright harmonies.  Forget the Mantra feels more akin entering a new universe than it does putting on a set of headphones.

Dave recently wrapped up a tour with none other than Philly's Constant Hitmaker---- Kurt Vile (also once in The War On Drugs) but hopefully we'll see some more Nightlands action soon! For now, pick up Forget the Mantra from the Nightlands' bandcamp!

As hard as it was to narrow, check some of the tracks below----

Nightlands---300 Clouds
Nightlands---God What Have I