In collaboration with fellow compatriots Ruralfaune, French record label Hands In The Dark has prepped its first vinyl release, a compilation named Travel Expop Series #1: France, that (as the title suggests) marks the first installment in a series of records that “will bring a handful of experimental pop artists together with a label that we admire of the same nationality”. France showcases a delicious gathering of some of our favorite psychedelic artists from across the Rhine: long-standing NFOP darlings Holy Strays and Cankun, along with the wonderful Felicia Atkinson aka Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier and Voodoo Mount Sister, the latter being a collaboration between NNF artist High Wolf and “French psych diva” Chicaloyoh. All real quality drone experimentalism, highly recommended.

Stream the whole piece below, and make sure you grab your copy of the shiny white vinyl over here. The release date is November 26 in an edition of 300.

Travel Expop #1 : France by Hands In The Dark

So yeah, it’s been a while, and this is getting ever more mysterious. Enigmatic Manchester project Money aka Meke Menete aka whoever has uploaded a new video, another disturbing collage to a song that’s (again) most beautiful and (again) incredibly dark and hopeless. As far as I know, till now there only have been these videos and nothing else. What’s worse, the folks have even deleted the Youtube version of one of this year’s most breathtaking, mournful, gorgeous pop songs, “Lonely Sexy Death” (you still finde the video on Meke Menete’s otherwise dead Myspace, who knows for how long), so I really have no clue where this is gonna end. In any case, these songs make it painfully clear that all things are going to end eventually.

Thanks to S&S for the heads-up.

(Photo)

Cats Purring fellows Bass Drum Of Death are about to head across the Atlantic to grace the Old World with a couple of shows, finishing the tour here in Berlin on December 1. Surely something you wouldn’t wanna miss, as the upbeat fuzziness of the brand new jam “I Dunno” perfectly emphasizes.

Bass Drum Of Death – I Dunno

Tropical pop meets stripped-down dubstep rhythms in this gorgeous track by the young duo Jake and Zan from Cape Verde, with the track “Slow Dance” being their first single under the moniker Hunt In Pairs. We’re excited to see what they’re up to next.

Hunt In Pairs – Slow Dance

Our Australian friend East To West Blog was early out on posting about しsd (pronounced Shisd) aka Felix Idle from Darlinghurst, Australia, and his rather splendid electronic trip ‘Bay Wash’ that was uploaded on his Soundcloud around seven months ago. The seven-track EP ホめ (Home) is planned to see its light of day in “a roughly two months or so”, but in the meantime we have a special little treat for you — however probably not ending up on any official release, as far as I understood. We thought was a pretty good tune anyway, and when also happening to be a cover of NFOP favourite Guerre and his gorgeous ‘River Hymnal’, we couldn’t help but showing it some love. Also, don’t forget to listen to ‘Bay Wash’ below.

Shisd – River Hymnal (Guerre Cover)

Shisd – Bay Wash

Coolrunnings‘ most excellent album Dracula Is Only The Beginning, the first proper full-length by the four-piece led by Knoxville, Tennessee-based creative multitalent Brandon Ian Biondo, has already been out for a while, first as a (still) free digital-only, formally dropped via Biondo’s own Dracula Horse label, and a little later as an extremely limited cassette version put out by our beloved Wonder Beard Tapes. But, as we said, it really is a brilliant effort, so it’s only natural that someone had to step in eventually to give it the appropriate vinyl treatment – Enter Portugal’s bustling LebensStrasse Records, who will reissue the album on both LP and CD. Below, take a listen to “BTC” (formerly known as “Behold The Cunt”).

Dracula Is Only The Beginning will drop on CD November 22, the LP is scheduled to follow in December. Both formats can be ordered over here.

Coolrunnings – BTC

Northampton, Massachusetts’ Elaine Kahn sent over a very charming mail to tell me about her “group” named Horsebladder, “consisting of myself, my keyboard, and sometimes a drum”. What at first faintly appeared like just another nice yet dilettante bedroom project instantly took my breath away after hearing the very first few bars of “Pioneer”, the gloomy, menacing opener of Kahn’s forthcoming 12 inch Not I’ll Not. Three tracks into the EP, the unsettling intimacy of “Fountains” ultimately spellbound me, with its slow-burning rhythm and tenuous synth progression, calmly meandering over the course of nearly six minutes.

The sound of Elaine Kahn’s work – who’s already released a cassette, called Nicole, last year on Night-People – is mostly eerie and dark, as is the general atmosphere, yet in a less palpable way compared to, say, (early) Zola Jesus or Chelsea Wolfe, to take rather obvious examples of contemporary female artists that slightly follow the same path as Kahn. The means to achieve the enchanting, deeply absorbing mood are stunningly simple and distinctly lo-fi, sparse patterns of analog synth, a restrained drum part and layered vocalization, all blurred and hidden behind a constant hiss of distortion and clipping, all of which adds up to a wonderfully unique, occasionally disturbing trip to the unacknowledged melancholy of your soul.

Not I’ll Not will soon be is out on Ecstatic Peace.

Update: The LP is indeed already out and can be ordered, inter alia, via Insound.

Horsebladder – Fountains

When we first featured Columbus native Rimar on our humble pages, I wondered why this amazingly talented dude doesn’t seem to receive the amount of love he deserves, blog- and more generally music biz-wise. Well, to my delight it turns out that this has changed since, as Bella Union has wisely decided to put Rimar’s stellar debut EP Higher Ground, up to now only available digitally, on shiny black vinyl, due November 7. To celebrate the occasion, the artist has just dropped an appropriately laid-back and stylish video for the EP’s title track, directed by Dylan Knight.

Previously:

Rimar – Higher Ground

Our Canadian friend Thomas Michael, the glitch-pop craftsman that goes under the moniker Ghibli these days (previously known as Jaded Hipster Choir), recently sent us this funky, new cut off his upcoming 7 inch which will be officially released next week. We’re keeping it short today — listen to his new baby “Kristina” below.

Ghibli – Kristina