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Biography
from last.fm
With affirmation of their brilliance in from their homeland, being awarded the critically acclaimed Australian Music Award Cloud Control are set to unleash their stellar collection of quirky layered harmonic psyche-pop on the rest of the world.

Cloud Control signed to bespoke independent label Infectious Music in 2010, and very quickly the tightly packed four-piece from the picturesque and rugged terrains of Australia’s Blue Mountains started to turn heads with the NME claiming “We’ve got a new bunch of favourite fuzzlings, and their name is Cloud Control” and noted BBC Radio 1 D.J Nick Grimshaw hailing Bliss Release the bands debut long-player “perfect for summer time”.

The first part 2011 has seen Cloud Control complete a string of live shows on both sides of the Atlantic, including a grueling nine show campaign at SXSW in Austin Texas and support slots in the UK with Noah & the Whale, Mona and the Naked and Famous. During this first visit to Europe, respected Dutch music title Oor Magazine noted “Cloud Control is setting a foundation for an undoubtedly successful music year for them in Europe. Let The Vaccines, Mona and the rest fight over being newcomer of the year. Here in Paradiso stood one of the festival hits of 2011.”

Returning to Australia in March to play two sold-out headline shows the band were specially requested by Foo Fighters to support them in a one off charity concert for Queensland Flood Relief.

With their amps still steaming Cloud Control jetted back to the UK for their debut headline tour in April, which ended triumphantly in front of a sold-out crowd at venue XOYO in London’s East End. And it seems as the weeks continue to unfold towards the UK & EU release of ‘Bliss Release’ on May 23rd, more and more people are professing their love for the group, including Huw Stephens from BBC Radio 1 who tweeted “Watching Cloud Control filling the breathtaking Koko venue with their stomping harmonious beauty” and Drowned In Sound who declared “Cloud Control have made a tremendously enjoyable album.”

Keep a close eye on Cloud Control this summer who play a slew of festival dates that already include Great Escape, Hop Farm and Field Day Festivals in the UK and the likes of Lowlands, London Calling, Hurricane & Southside and Les Rock Dans Tous Ses Etats in Europe.

Cloud Control are Alister Wright (guitar/lead vocals), Jeremy Kelshaw (bass) and siblings Heidi Lenffer (keyboards/vocals) and Ulrich Lenffer (drums).

As another holiday came and went, we are finishing up this year with one more to go.  This is the time where we come up with resolutions, goals....  It's amazing how the turning of the year, which is just another day, feels like a turning of the mind.  What are you new goals of the year? 
Some say how to you spend your new years eve is setting up kharma for the year to come.  For the first time, I will be spending it meditating.  After a chaotic year of changes this has been, I feel, spending it meditating is rather suiting. 

_from last.fm
L.A. native Henry Laufer, the 21-year-old producer better known as Shlohmo, is a lo-fi beat junkie and field-recording enthusiast, whose crackling, low-BPM compositions update Boards of Canada’s filmstrip-soundtrack wooziness.

An LA native, Laufer grew up listening to “stuff like DJ Shadow, Amon Tobin, M83 stuff with some sort of cinematic vision.” He started making beats when he was 14, but “didn’t really do it with any sort of purpose until I was like 17 or 18. That was also around the time he and his friends, already fans of Flying Lotus, discovered Low End Theory. Shlohmo has rocketed onto our radar screen in recent months with his lo-fi, psychedelic mix of abstract hip-hop, bouncy synth-funk, breezy trip-hop, and what sounds like lost Mo’ Wax gems from an alternate future.

His tracks swarm from dirty textures, strange sounds and obscured samples. It’s not hip-hop what you hear, but the echoes are clearly there.

He also part-runs the WEDIDIT Collective.

His Shlo-fi EP is available for free download at Error Broadcast label website.

Purity Ring is a new project started by Corin Roddick of GOBBLE GOBBLE, along with vocalist Megan James. "Ungirthed" is the first single from their project. -last.fm


Sorry that I failed to put this up on Monday.  The holidays are coming and time is getting busy, well work is busy.  Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.  It's funny how the meaning changes the older you get and family and friends drift off onto there own chosen path.  Christmas can be a very lonely holiday, if you let it.  

I'm excited with Purity Ring's direction off this 7".  It's very dark and dream state.  Just like my state of mind during these holidays.  :)  Enjoy the tunes, I will put up a list of my favorite albums this year soon!

You can fix anything, even a broken heart.-Jewels Foster

Asap Rocky gave me the same vibe as G-funk did back in the early nineties .  His beats are easily captivating and forgiving for his vulgarity.  I feel Asap deserves the credit for hip hop that is more raw, real, and so obviously not over produced.  I think we will be hearing more of ASAP, asap!

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!  Those who are following my blog (thank you :)) every Monday I'm trying to post a new band that I really enjoy.  I also add  a short bio on them because for how much music is out there these days, how much do we really know about these bands?  Hope you enjoy.  Phantogram's Nightlife ep has a nice taste of trip-hop, which I so miss, along with a healthy electrobeat pulse.  It's like drinking a mocha with an orange twist.  Smooth with just right amount of zest.  

__By Zach Kelly; November 1, 2011 pitchfork.com
Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter, the New York-based electronic pop duo better known as Phantogram, make music refreshingly disinterested in pulling punches. With Eyelid Movies, their debut full-length from last year, the rhythm-heavy foundations and a twilight-lit mix of melody felt streamlined, yet still demonstrated vision and character. Taking cues from trip-hop and dream pop (Portishead seem to be an important reference point), they never seemed shy about being upfront with their influences. Despite cryptically nicknaming their sound "street beat," the tag made some sense-- the hard-edged urgency of said beats undercutting such lush romanticism felt perfectly suited for those long, late staggers home. So it's with the appropriately titled Nightlife EP that we find the twosome refining and tweaking some of the ideas put forth on its debut without entirely resting on its laurels, and offering a few of the band's best songs to date.

In a press release, Carter explained that Nightlife "couldn't have been written anywhere other than in clubs and hotel rooms during this experience we've been having for the last year or two," describing the time Phantogram has spent promoting Eyelid Movies. The nocturnal states that often accompany life on the road have proved beneficial in the case of Nightlife, convincing the duo to push their music outside of their collective headspace and into a more social setting. Bands trying to provide an honest snapshot of a night out on the town often fall short by focusing solely on the highs of the party (those are included here too, of course), but Phantogram seem to find just as much clarity in the comedown ("It's a new day, and I got new ways of turning into stone," goes the chorus on "Turning Into Stone"). As much as you can move to Nightlife, moments of austerity and romance are still guiding lights here-- when measured correctly, Barthel and Carter are often able to craft appealing, ambidextrous tracks that feel suited for dancefloors as well as the backs of cabs.

Part of this notably animated reupholstering likely has something to do with that fact that Phantogram have been performing live as a trio, with Tim Oakley handling drum duties. And while Carter is in charge of all things drum-oriented on Nightlife, the temporary change-up clearly made its mark, as Phantogram sounds more like a bonafide rock band and less like the flimsy pop act they could've dissolved into. Take single "Don't Move", a dance track that feels perfectly proportioned for starry eyes in close quarters. But look closer, and you'll find a proper heir to Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me-styled bombast, complete with horn clippings, Middle Eastern vocal samples, and marching band drum rolls. And while the Mazzy Star-esque coda that reduces the appealing bass knocks on "Turning Into Stone" into something plush and more intimate might not be necessary, it all suggests that this is a more realized pop voice willing to expand, experiment with and reinvigorate their sound.

Not everything here is as compelling, but the true takeaways (the first three cuts, including the outsized, life-affirming "16 Years") are well worth the misguided ambition and watered down moments that inhabit the EP's second half. Closer "A Dark Tunnel" means to shade the buzzing urgency of Return to Cookie Mountain-era TV on the Radio but misses the mark; squint hard enough and you'll see that "Nightlife" probably isn't going to succeed in any context outside of a CW show. Unfortunately, this means that, at only six songs, Nightlife's batting average takes a considerable dip. But what remains is good enough to encourage you to root for Phantogram, and to really hold onto those few great tracks that you'll be taking home with you at the end of the night.

Recently signed to Sub Pop, Still Corners new self title album brings upon one of the finest shoe gazer tunes to end this year with.  But be warned it will drift yourself to a whole new world that you might want to pay attention where you are walking.

Biography from lastfm.com
Gold Panda is an electronic musician from Chelmsford in the United Kingdom living and working in London. 

Gold Panda’s journey has been a long and intermittently strange one. Initially, the Essex, UK artist spent his day-job time behind the counters of various houses of ill repute—adult bookstores, record shops—finding that the two were equally seedy. He spent the rest of his waking hours building up a library of original, dizzyingly eclectic electronic music incorporating a disparate mix of influences and source material. The results were gleaming instrumental hip-hop tracks saturated with bright colours and sublimely chopped-up vocal samples. Thus, Gold Panda was born. 

Having built up a sufficient volume of music, Gold Panda began leaking remixes to various labels, blogs, and taste-makers, all of whom instantly took notice. More remixes—for the likes of Little Boots, Telepathe, Bloc Party, Simian Mobile Disco, HEALTH, and The Field—followed. Soon, he began releasing own tracks, including the “Miyamae” 12” on Various, the acclaimed “Quitters Raga” 7” on Make Mine, and the “Before” digital single on Puregroove. In 2010, Gold Panda has released the You EP—featuring remixes from Osborne, Seams, Dam Mantle, and Minotaur Shock—on Ghostly International.

web: http://iamgoldpanda.com
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contact: iamgoldpandaatgmaildotcom