Category: 30Hz Recommended

Everything recommended at the frequency of 30HZ.

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30Hz Recommended Music

30Hz New Music Radar 3/3/17: Methyl Ethel – Everything Is Forgotten

30hz new music radar

 

Woke up today. To everything gray. And all that I saw just kept going on and on.

-Guster

 

What a weird day. Thwarted attempt to be productive followed by another thwarted attempt. Had a tremendous banter going with the guy at Goodwill that almost fell over when I handed him my old boat anchor receiver. Road closed. Road closed. Errands finally done, I journeyed to the coffee shop and in order to embrace the chaos I ordered a latte. The barista wanted to check my temperature. In all the years I’ve known this guy I’ve never ordered a drink with milk other than a cortado.

Stranger things.

Here’s some music.

 

30Hz Playlist on Spotify: Every New Music Radar Recommendation.

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30Hz New Music Radar: Methyl Ethel – Everything is Forgotten

methyl ethel everything is forgottenA thing I regret from 2016: not fully embracing Methyl Ethel.

This dream-pop substrate filters all manner of music through the smooth as a river pebbles delivery. A glimpse of grunge here. A trickle of shoegaze there. Psych-rock hidden behind salmon. What’s with the river analogy anyway?

At times reminiscent of the MGMT transition record that should have happened between Oracular Spectacular and Congratulations. Sneaky Tame Impala. Less trippy than Floyd. And especially Laser Floyd, which by the way should be viewed sober and maybe not at all. Just a public service announcement.

Dream-pop is not a dirty word. Great dream-pop transcends. It elevates and upflits, shepherds us through the days that we can’t go straight to 2:00am with whiskey and Tom Waits. Methyl Ethel has released two damn fine albums in two years, and it’s time to jump on the bandwagon before your Grouplove-liking work acquaintance starts asking if you’ve heard “Ethel Methyl” cuz they’re “pretty solid.”

 

 

Sample tracks: Ubu, Femme Maison/One Man House, Weeds Through the Rind

Buy Everything Is Forgotten on Amazon

Buy the Limited Edition Purple Vinyl from 4AD

 

 

Also highly recommended this week:

 

Meursault – I Will Kill Again

Strings-loving Scottish indie-folkers with a 16-bit past.


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Chicano Batman – Freedom is Free

Latin psych-funkers prepare to do battle against the forces of single-minded focus.

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30Hz Recommended Music

30Hz New Music Radar 2/17/17: Maggie Rogers – Now That the Light is Fading EP

30hz new music radar

Welcome to February 17th. It’s pretty much President’s Day Eve already. If hearing President’s Day Eve doesn’t feel sobering, I congratulate you on being a stone-cold rock in a hail-storm. But about the music. 

 

I’m scrapped for time, but seeing as how I’m trying to be consistent in recommending top-notch tunes week after week after week I can’t take Week 4 off. Maybe Week 12 but not Week 4. Especially considering that I’ve spent most of the day with headphones in my ears and half-listening to everyone around me. It would be a disservice to everyone I’ve ignored today if I didn’t post my new release findings.

As always, music fans, share good music. It’s one of our few pure joys, a renewable resource of life blood and energy. Music, you guys. #NotSoDeepThoughts

 

30Hz Playlist on Spotify: Every New Music Radar Recommendation.

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30Hz New Music Radar: Maggie Rogers – Now That the Light is Fading EP

Maggie Rogers teased us last year with the song “Alaska.” Just the one song. Something to whet our whistles. And just like that first sip of whiskey, we shuddered. Not the bad kind of shudder. The good kind. The kind that just gets us acquainted with this new, bold flavor. But that’s all we had — that first sip.

Today, Maggie Rogers released an LP. So it’s not a full glass; it’s a larger sample. A fingerfull, perhaps. And it’s as good as we hoped. Her bio suggests a merging of folk, dance, pop, whatever. These bios don’t do anyone justice. Maggie Rogers has soul. No. She has SOUL. Singer/songwriters more often than not could be lumped into categories like “pleasant” or “cloying” or “annoying.” It’s all too easy to dismiss their output as ephemeral twee. Not so with Maggie Rogers. Unless I’m unfairly falling over myself about five tracks, Maggie Rogers is one of the most exciting young artists in music.

Legend has it that Maggie Rogers wrote her breakout hit “Alaska” about a hiking trip in college with Pharrell Williams… in under 15 minutes. Legend also has it that Pharrell was moved to tears after first hearing the track. Those legends are tricky things.

Let’s boil Maggie Rogers down. She’s a banjo-laced electro-soulstress and you should listen to everything she’s ever released, which will take you all of 17 minutes.

Sample tracks: All of them.

Buy Now That The Light Is Fading on Amazon

 

 

 

Also highly recommended this week:

 

Middle Kids – s/t LP

Orchestral Aussie indie-pop

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Ryan Adams – Prisoner

Prolific singer-songwriter’s best collection since Heartbreaker.

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Molly Burch – Please Be Mine

Jazz-fueled smoky-voiced indie-pop vocalist.

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30Hz Recommended Music

30Hz New Music Radar 2/10/17: Jesca Hoop – Memories Are Now

30hz new music radar

 

Welcome to February 10th of the year we all turned to Tom Waits and whiskey for comfort. 

Our psychological well being has taken a hit, but our attention to new music doesn’t have to. Good music, in fact, is the thing we all desperately need. I sift through the dozens of new releases each week trying to find you a few albums worth your time so you don’t have to sift through all the riff raff for that one record that hits your own personal frequency.

Many of you have asked about my evaluation methods. Okay, nobody has asked. But I’ll tell you anyway.

“Surely you can’t listen to all of these records in one day!”

Indeed. That would be impossible. I sample tracks 2, 4 and 7 on each record. If I like what I hear then I go back for more.

“Why 2, 4 and 7?”

Based on a scientific study — me listening to records all my life — tracks 2, 4 and 7 provide the best cross-section of any album. Go ahead. Try it on your favorites. Track #1 is showy. It’s meant to be ear candy. Or it’s meant to be an introduction. Either way, it’s not helpful. Tracks #2 or #4 are almost always the money track. #7 is the B-side sample. If there’s a hidden gem on the flipside, odds are it’s #7.

“Doesn’t this mean you also miss some good stuff?”

No more questions.

Stay tuned for more riveting 30Hz Q & A in future installment of New Music Radar.

 

30Hz Playlist on Spotify: Every New Music Radar Recommendation.

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30Hz New Music Radar: Jesca Hoop – Memories Are Now

jesca hoop - memories are nowImagine if Alice Liddel of Lewis Carroll’s novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Alice, Through the Looking Glass performed art-pop as an indie singer-songwriter.

I’ve been a big Jesca Hoop fan since her 2010 debut Hunting My Dress. Her sophomore record Kismet became an essential record and goddammit just buy her stuff. I’m ecstatic to announce Memories Are Now as my Radar pick for this week.

At first listen, take in the face-value pop sensibility. Off-kilter and somewhat askew, but still inherently pleasurable. With your second listen, dig deeper — immerse yourself in the layers of orchestration as they rise and fall, teasing minimalism, and how her voice plays in and around the cadence of her songs. Memories Are Now resists easy interpretation. Not as accessible as Hunting My Dress or Kismet, it challenges the listener, at least at first. Stay here awhile, it says. Linger here. Come down the rabbit hole.

Partake of the Eat Me cake and the Drink Me potion. You’ll be glad you did.

Sample tracks: Memories of Now, The Lost Sky, and Songs of Old 

Buy Memories of Now on Amazon

 

 

 

Also highly recommended this week:

 

Noveller – A Pink Sunset for No One

Cinematic instrumentals for the disillusioned.

 

Hidden Spheres – By & Bye

British minimalist syncopators with an ear for the symphony of the tide.

hidden spheres by & bye