Dominique Leone Dominique Leone

San Francisco-based singer/multi-instrumentalist/producer Dominique Leone bows with a leftfield-pop classic. This self-titled debut sounds as if it were labored over for years, after immersion in the zenith of prog-rock, avant-garde composition, and art-pop mavericks. The 11 songs here abound with unexpected transitions, unusual electronic embellishments, and melodies of unearthly beauty and intrigue. Leone’s expressive voice by turns recalls Greg Lake, Adrian Belew, and Brian Wilson, craftily augmenting his shape-shifting, spine-tingling compositions. What Battles has done for math rock, Leone is doing for prog-pop: giving it a kitsch-free futuristic thrust that sets the standard for 21st-century practitioners of the genre.

Robyn Robyn

Three years after its initial release in Sweden and nearly two years after blowing up in the U.K., Robyn’s self-titled album finally arrives Stateside, on a Perez Hilton-led wave of hype that shouldn’t distract anyone from how astonishingly good it is. Much of the attention has focused on the hilarious, Peaches-lite rapping of “Konichiwa Bitches,” but the best moments on Robyn combine sleek, 21st-century beats (courtesy of Teddybears’ Klas Åhlund and The Knife) with terrific, bubbly pop songs. “Bum Like You” and “Who’s That Girl?” prove that Robyn, who started out as a teen diva apprenticed to future Britney hit-maker Max Martin, can craft hooks as sharp as anything Madonna or Justin Timberlake ever put forth.

Free Kitten Inherit?

Rock reunions have a well-earned reputation for being a source of income for old, burned-out guys looking to pay off their mortgages with imitations of their youth. Rock music as usual, though, has never had anything to do with the women in Free Kitten, a side-project for Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth), Julie Cafritz (Pussy Galore), and Yoshimi P-We (Boredoms/OOIOO). After an 11-year hiatus, Free Kitten’s Inherit sounds like a band at its peak, rather than one reliving it. Fuzzed-out riffs and baked solos emanate from both Cafritz and Gordon, who share guitar and microphone duties, while Yoshimi contributes some subdued but killer beats. Gordon’s abstract-feminist vocals steal the spotlight like usual, putting all those washed-up rock dudes her age to shame.

Scaffolding “Rebuild (Cacheflowe Remix)”

Like a suburban grow-house quietly preparing a halogen-lit crop of sweet herb, Denver, CO has been nurturing a sub-rosa experimental electronic scene into a budding success. Plastic Sound Supply is a collaborative label run by a number of those Denver-based groups, Scaffolding and Cacheflowe among them. These two artists are in the process cutting up one another’s tunes, running their sounds through a blend of genres, and releasing the results as The Reprogramming Project. “Rebuild” glitches its way through a solid beat and around some nice vocals from Sarah Marcoliese. Sounds like harvest time. Wyatt Williams

Scaffolding – Rebuild (CacheFlowe Remix)

Podcast 39: LuckyMe

If Scotland’s LuckyMe collective is a little hard to define, that’s only because they want to be. The group counts about twelve or so members, mostly beatmakers along with a few emcees and guest vocalists, who throw THE BALLER$ 5OCIAL CLUB monthly party at Glasgow School of Art. They broadcast a monthly radio show on Samurai.fm, have their hands on a couple streetwear and design projects, and are now becoming a label to release “slabs of the crew’s most leftfield and obscure works.” That doesn’t mean they don’t work with other labels – Hudson Mohawke is signed with Warp Records and the young rising star Rustie works with Ramp and Hyperdub – but anything LuckyMe wants to do, it does. So, if it’s hard to put your finger on what exactly Lucky Me is, that’s only because they’ve made it that way.

This mix, put together by The Blessings (a.k.a. Dom Sum & FineArt), is every bit as hard to describe as the group themselves. The 22 tracks flow from Scotland-repping mid-tempo verses to ass-shaking instrumental bangers followed by glitched out abstractions and some hot diva wailing. We’re expecting a whole lot more from this crew soon, but listening to these tracks it’s easy to hear the future right now. Wyatt Williams

Tracklisting
1. Tiago “INTERSTELLARjourneys” (LuckyMe)
2. Surface Emp “Moonbeam Jars” (LuckyMe)
3. American Men “Claude Speed (The Blessings Edit)” (LuckyMe)
4. Rustie “Shadow Enter” (LuckyMe)
5. 7VWWVW (aka Mammal) “Singer/Songwriter” (Crystal Wish)
6. Mike Slott & Distant Star “Boxed In” (All City)
7. Respite “Off Track (The Blessings Edit)” (LuckyMe)
8. The Blessings “Scared of Heights” (LuckyMe)
9. Hudson Mohawke “Work (Jimi Tenor Retwirk)” (LuckyMe)
10. Beyonders “Barely Eagle Intro” (Firecracker)
11. Nadsroic “Chemical” (LuckyMe)
12. The Blessings “Where Is Anna?” (LuckyMe)
13. Michio Okamiya “The Story Of The Heroes Birth” (Unknown)
14. Hudson Mohawke “Still On It” (LuckyMe)
15. Dema “Stoned Top The Bone” (LuckyMe)
16. Eric Coleman “What Is Love intro” (CD-R)
17. Samiyam “Petra’s Birthday” (CD-R)
18. Jay Prada “Standing By” (LuckyMe)
19. Mike Slott & Muhsinah “Deux Three” (LuckyMe)
20. Rustie “Let You Go (Keisha Cole Resmacked)” (LuckyMe)
21. Babe In The Woods “Wandering Piper” (Unknown)
22. The Blessings “Fructose” (LuckyMe)

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Quiet Village Preps Tour Dates

An homage to their love of vintage movie soundtracks, Quiet Village‘s new full-length is an assault of complex string arrangements, funked-out rhythms, programmed beats, and dreamy, downtempo melodies, all of which make for 12 tracks of some not-so-quiet music.

With the album safely under their belts, Joel Martin and Matt Edwards will hit the road for a handful of dates that kick off tomorrow. Performances include a spot on the bill at this year’s MUTEK festival and an S.F. show where Matt Edwards will appear under his Radio Slave guise.

Silent Movie Tracklisting
01 Victoria’s Secret
02 Circus of Horror
03 Free Rider
04 Too High to Move
05 Pacific Rhythm
06 Broken Promises
07 Pillow Talk
08 Can’t Be Beat
09 Gold Rush
10 Singing Sand
11 Utopia
12 Keep On Rolling

Tour Dates
05/30 Washington, DC: Eighteenth Street Lounge
05/31 Montreal, QC: MUTEK
06/02 New York, NY: Cielo
06/04 Seattle, WA: Nectar
06/05 San Diego, CA: Universal Hilcrest
06/07 San Francisco, CA: The Endup*
06/08 Los Angeles, CA: Elevate

* = Matt Edwards as Radio Slave

Evidence Mistakenly Arrested

Michael “Evidence” Perretta is best known for his work as rapper/producer for indie hip-hop outfit Dilated Peoples, but the street art world–not to mention, all of mainstream media–should see plenty of his face in the next few days, thanks to a bunch of photos that led police to believe Perretta was notorious graffiti artist Cyrus “Buket” Yazdani.

From a recent press release:

“Police arrest notorious graffiti tag artist Cyrus “Buket” Yazdani on felony vandalism charges this week in Los Angeles, but inaccurate photos of the man in custody continue to circulate, appearing at the top of the hour newscasts on CBS 9, ABC 7, KTLA 5, NBC 4, and Los Angeles Times cover story due to newspaper mistakenly identifying Yazdani with an image of respected MC and Producer Evidence of Dilated Peoples.”

It seems Perretta himself wasn’t too flustered by the case of mistaken identity, saying “I’m obviously not [Yazdani] and find it humorous how the media didn’t take the time to figure this out before running such an extensive story.”

He went on to say he wants the issue cleared up and retractions made by the media.

If nothing else, this should ensure a few more tickets sold for Dilated People’s upcoming Fresh Rhymes & Videotape Tour, which will also feature The Alechemist, Aceyalone, and 88 Keys. Perretta is meanwhile said to be working on his second solo album.

Fresh Rhymes & Videotape Dates
06/02 Seattle, WA: Neumos
06/03 Portland, OR: Berbatis Pan
06/05 Anaheim, CA: House of Blues
06/06 Tempe, AZ: Marquee
06/08 Dallas, TX: Emo’s
06/11 Atlanta, GA: Centerstage Loft
06/13 New York, NY: Fillmore @ Irving Plaza
06/14 Washington, DC: Club 5
06/15 Philadelphia, PA: Fillmore @ TLA
06/17 Burlington, VT: Higher Ground
06/18 Baltimore, MD: Rams Head Live
06/20 Chicago, IL: Double Door
06/21 Detroit, MI: St. Andrews Hall
06/23 Boulder, CO: Fox Theatre
06/24 Aspen, CO: Belly Up
06/26 San Francisco, CA: Mezzanine
06/27 Hollywood, CA: House of Blues
06/29 San Diego, CA: Belly Up

Lulu Rouge Announces Debut Album

If you’re outside of Denmark, chances are, you haven’t yet heard of Lulu Rouge. Bless You should ensure you will by the end of June. The duo’s debut album has already jumped to number one in their homeland, won the approval of Trentemøller, and will be released June 9 via the Copenhagen-based Music for Dreams imprint.

Bouncy, happy dance music this is not. Rather, DJ T.O.M. and DJ Buda have crafted an album of rumbling synths and basslines deep as a bottomless pit, and if the eerie vocals–provided by Danish Music Awards nominee Mikael Simpson–on the title track are anything to go by, this will definitely be an album fit for the darkest hours of the morning.

Tracklisting
01 Malankoli feat. Alice Carreri
02 Lulu’s Theme feat. Trentemøller
03 Bless You feat. Mikael Simpson
04 Ninna Nanna feat. Anders Trentemøller & Alice Carreri
05 Thinking of You feat. Tuco
06 Runaway Boy feat. Alice Carreri
07 Sweeter Than Sweet feat. Mikael Simpson & Alice Carreri
08 Pitch Black
09 End of the Century feat. MC Jabber
10 Slow Pigeon

Photo by Mike Sheridan.

Lulu Rouge “Bless You”

Lulu Rouge is longtime Trentemøller collaborator DJ T.O.M. and Copenhagen DJ Buda, and after releasing an album that went straight to number one in their homeland of Denmark, the duo now turns its attention to the rest of the world. Comprised of slowly building synth arpeggios, haunting vocals, and echoing electronics, their debut album, Bless You, sees contributions from Danish Music Awards nominee Mikael Simpson, MC Jabber, and Trentemøller himself. Photo by Mike Sheridan.

Lulu Rouge – Bless You

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