New Music Monday!

To all of you out there reading this, working stiffs and students alike: Every Day You Make Me Proud. But Today, You Get... New Music! Sorry, I'm all out of greeting cards. Musically, it has been a week of lower-profile but very interesting material. Check it:

Pretty Lights, the work of Colorado-based producer Derek Vincent Smith, has just vaulted HIGH on my new favorites list. He walks the line flawlessly between instrumental hip-hop and electronica (no, I don't know why there has to be a line either) and creates legitimately fascinating music out of texture, rhythm and sampled vocals. "I Can See It In Your Face" brings the dance beat on par with Handsome Boy Modeling School or LCD Soundsystem, while "Fly Away Another Day" is a tad slower, more textural and reminiscent of RJD2, DJ Shadow and Prefuse 73. Both are essential listening.

Pretty Lights - I Can See It In Your Face
Pretty Lights - Fly Away Another Day

Tunng bear the incredibly fun label of "Folktronica", and they wear the badge with pride. These three tracks, from their upcoming release And Then We Saw Land, make it eminently clear they haven't missed a beat during their layoff. "Hustle" has twee-cute boy-girl vocals and banjo twang, "It Breaks" sports an electronic breakdown amid skittering percussion and vocal 'hmmms' and "Don't Look Down Or Back" hints at a newfound desire to crescendo with Polyphonic Spree-sized choruses.

Tunng - Hustle
Tunng - It Breaks
Tunng - Don't Look Down Or Back

James Blake is one of the more interesting names floating around the London music scene, refusing to fall into dubstep or grime but staying equally innovative while making sheared-apart soul music. "Air and Lack Thereof" is representative of his avant-garde minimalist sample-soul, while on "Measurements" the backdrop gets even more sparse but he lets his enjoyable voice roam almost uninterrupted (and often layered).

James Blake - Air and Lack Thereof

James Blake - Measurements

Gorillaz first new single from Plastic Beach, "Stylo" (previously posted here), really hasn't lived up to the bar set by "Clint Eastwood" and "Feel Good, Inc." Check out the radio version of second single "Superfast Jellyfish" to see if it strikes your fancy (it's zany, at least) and turn to Alex Metric's remix of "Stylo" if you're curious what it would sound like as a six-minute techno piece.

Gorillaz - Superfast Jellyfish (f/De La Soul and Gruff Rhys) (Radio Rip)
Gorillaz - Stylo (Alex Metric Remix)

Thought I'd toss you a Spoon bonus track - "Mean Red Spider" is the B-side from the "Written In Reverse" single, and is rightfully interesting mostly as a curiosity (no objections here that it didn't make the album).

Spoon - Mean Red Spider




Throwaway Synth-Pop Band of the Week
This will be a new sub-feature of New Music Mondays. You may have noticed that among the artists listed each Monday, there tends to be a synth-pop group that I rarely call original, but often point to a fun single (see from previous weeks: Two Door Cinema Club, The Golden Filter, Yes Giantess, Monarchy, Staygold, Empire of the Sun). Consider this segment to be fodder for a fun playlist full of 80's revivalists and Phoenix/MGMT wanna-be's.

Tesla Boy are cranking out very 80's influenced synth-pop and dance music. On "Electric Lady" they fill the guilty pleasure void left by Cut Copy, with a song that could have slid right in between "Lights and Music" and "Hearts On Fire". Take it for what it is and don't be too embarrassed if you kind of like it.

Tesla Boy - Electric Lady