Distant vocals served over cool techno and coupled with solid funk basslines and snappy guitars bring an old-school (circa 1994?) vibe to today’s dancefloor.
RF
If you had to pigeonhole RF, you might label it Intelligent Acoustic Music. His whispering guitars and gentle programming make me want to snuggle up with my iPod and a good Haruki Murakami novel.
Intuit
German duo enlist flamboyant Brazilian vocalists to add their smooth touch to this shimmering, summery jazz track.
Anna Oxygen
Bouncy, new wave stream-of-consciousness — as catchy as it is fleeting.
Kennedy
Space-folk-gospel-disco pop, with a hint of The Who. It’s all here, kitchen-sink rock. Gotta hear it to believe.
Broken Spindles
Joel Peterson, aka Broken Spindles, runs the gamut of electronic music; from chilled-out synth symphonies to dark, bass-heavy grooves, he serves up a fitting soundtrack to our post-everything lives.
Thavius Beck
Collages of stuttering breaks and swirling samples, along with extended doses of “spoken word” culled from the underbelly of American pop culture. A potentially played-out formula turned downright entrancing.
Weevil
Lonely, loping folktronica with a healthy shoegazer sheen.
TRS-80
I keep thinking CLOADM “donkey”…sorry. I actually played a Donkey Kong clone on my TRS-80, loaded from cassette. These tracks are much better than Donkey Kong; reminiscent of DJ Shadow’s work with UNKLE.
On!Air!Library!
The chin-stroking ambience of O!A!L!’s 2003 material (see “Ex’s and Ho’s Oh’s”) makes way for a more diverse palette of bristling pop and sprawling sonic gems in ’04.