Watch: Bon Homme (feat. Lydmor) - "The Optimist" (Acoustic Version)

Bon Homme is the electronic powered alter-ego of Tomas Høffding, a Danish musician who also plays in the band WhoMadeWho. His recently released April EP Nighttripper is a lush, plush bit of twinkling electro-pop but it wasn't until we got our eyes and ears on the "acoustic" (ie., minus the heavy club beats) version of the EP's best track "The Optimist" that we really appreciated what was under all those blips and bleeps. The secret weapon here is Lydmor (aka Jenny Rossander), a fellow Dane and art/pop fancier whose vocals add an extra layer of sweet, dreamy goodness. We'll be looking for Bon Homme's next full length this fall as well as whatever the eye-opening Lydmor may create. Check out the video for her own "Lampost Light" as well as her sultry vocal work behind the video for "The Fire" from drum 'n' bass duo Bottled In England below...

Click to read more ...

DC Weekly New Release Recap

In case you missed it, this is pretty much a Daft Punk week -- a time when hipsters around the world adjust their horn rims, stroke the chin scruff and meditate on what it would be like to get up and move their booties and throw their arms in the air like they just don't, like, care. But may we bend your ear with a few more worthy albums out this week? Like Trouble Will Find Me by those cerebral Brooklyn rockers The National. Or honey-sweet meditative folk/pop Apis Mellifera (that's Latin for honeybee) from L.A. songstress (and DC fave) Frally. Or the dark and lovely vs Head vs Heart sophomore album form Down Under alt-pop songwriter Emma Louise. Or the long-awaited U.S. release of A Is For Alpine by another Aussie export -- Alpine -- and one of the most interesting and accomplished albums of the past few years. Check out our full DC listing (with site links) along with the aforementioned artists' selected features below...

Click to read more ...

RADAR: Half Moon Run

With a signing to the über-hip, red hot U.S. indie label Glassnote (Mumfords, Phoenix), Montreal-based Half Moon Run are primed for stateside success with a full-fledged re-rollout of their 2012 album Dark Eyes later this summer. Called "one of the most important bands debuting an album this year" by Mumford Son and Communion Records co-founder Ben Lovett (who signed them to his U.K. label), Half Moon Run juggle an intricate combination of folk and (sm)art/pop with a complex underbelly of jagged rhythmic turns and spot-on three part harmonies. A trio for most of their recent rise to success, the band became a quartet when Isaac Symonds recently rejoined Devon Portielje, Conner Molander and Dyan Phillips, all multi-instrumentalists and vocalists though Portielje takes lead on most songs. Their sound has been described as "Radiohead-meets-Fleet-Foxes", and the band's labyrinthine arrangements and turn-on-a-dime melodies make Dark Eyes an eclectic adventure in modern indie styles. But tracks like the twisty folk-rocking lead single "Full Circle" and DC fave "No More Losing The War" (stream after the jump) reveal a unique band that defies namedropped expectations. Watch HMR videos below...

Half Moon Run - 'Full Circle' (from Dark Eyes)

Click to read more ...

Listen: Jenny O. - "Opposite Island"

The exquisite "Opposite Island" is one of those songs that keeps beckoning back for another listen just to prove, again and again, that, yes indeed, it's as great as we think it is. Written and performed by pixie-ish L.A. songstress Jenny O., the track is part bedroom piano/pop simple (for anyone with a piano in their bedroom) and part stunning theatrical showstopper, a pin-drop quiet ballad that's transformed into what we've described earlier as "something beautiful beyond words." While Jenny's girlish vocal charms play up the song's tender lyrical confessions of "a long day" and "a bad night" leading to something hopeful, "Opposite Island" is a song that resonates as a deeply affecting modern pop standard. Check out the lyrics after the jump. More on Jenny O. and her fine Automechanic LP on DC here.

Jenny O. - 'Opposite Island' from Automechanic)

Click to read more ...

Frally - Apis Mellifera

A mix of both confessional reflection and spiritual observation -- all rendered with one of the most achingly lovely voices --  Frally Hynes' exquisite 2010 album The Light prevailed as one of our favorite albums of the year, one that we described as an "inspired masterwork of sensitive, sensual songcraft." Long-awaited new album, Apis Mellifera (Latin for "honey bee"), is yet another rare gem. Working again with multi-instrumentalist/producer Jeff Hill (Rufus Wainwright), Frally again taps into themes of redemption, relationships and renewal, Hill and a superb band adding subtle backing -- and an occasional buzz of electricity -- to songs that span chamber pop grace ("Peace"), melancholic mood pieces ("Devil") and tender folk ballads ("Take Your Time"). Tracked live in the studio, "California" (listen below) is a glorious country-tinged campfire classic, Teddy Thompson adding vocals and sweet harmony to a slow dance of pedal steel and acoustic jangle. "By Chance" carves out new space in her impressive repertoire, a slow-paced alt-pop minor-chord dirge that quietly builds it's own shadowy twists and turns, the tension of frayed electric guitar riffs sustaining an interesting counterbalance to Frally's vulnerable vocals and the chiming piano notes in the bridge.

Frally - 'By Chance' (from Apis Mellifera)

Click to read more ...

RADAR: Ef

Maybe it's the chilly Scandinavian climate and legendary cool  demeanor but Sweden's Ef sure know how to warm things up without getting too, well, sentimental in their quest for arty chamber/pop and post/rock grandeur. Everything sounds as big and crisply detailed as the starry winter night sky, a curiously compelling musical mix that echoes Sigur Ros, Explosions in the Skyand a touch of Denmark's orchestral wonders Efterklang. The band has been quietly been creating their lengthy, mostly instrumental compositions for a decade and new album Ceremonies (September 6) promises an even greater cinematic-sounding refinement with regal guitar lines, horns, strings, synths and thundering rhythms -- along with a stately vocal or two adding a little accessible icing to the cake. For a gloriously rich preview check out lead track "Bells Bleed and Bloom". More music on their Soundcloud.

Ef - 'Bells Bleed & Bloom' (from Ceremonies)

Click to read more ...