After the last indie rock-heavy instalment, ITP #28 sees a healthy dose of electronic pop while still finding room for plenty of guitars.

AlunaGeorge ‘Attracting Flies’
These guys can’t seem to do a thing wrong. Their fourth appearance on In The Pharmacy, with another 21^st century pop classic. “Little grey fairytales and little white lies / everything you exhale is attracting flies”.
[AlunaGeorge]

Eleanor Friedberger ‘Stare At The Sun’ I didn’t dislike the Fiery Furnaces’ singer’s first debut album, but I did find it lacking in memorable tunes. Here though, the scratchy indie rock matches her breathless vocal delivery and lyrics in both catchiness and charm.
[Eleanor Friedberger]

Little Boots ‘Motorway’ It seems to have been ages since Victoria Hesketh’s debut as Little Boots, an album that failed to live up to the promise of those early singles and YouTube videos. I vaguely recall an underwhelming house-y stand alone single last year that went in one ear and out the other. What a wonderful surprise then to hear ‘Motorway’, which melds classic pop and electronica to great result. Obviously indebted to St Etienne, which is no bad thing. Taken from forthcoming second album Nocturnes.
[Little Boots]

Smith Westerns ‘Varsity’ Wistful indie rock with a classic feel from the Chicago bands forthcoming third album Soft Will.
[Smith Westerns]

Yeah Yeah Yeahs ‘Sacrilege’
It’s Blitz while not a complete misstep, was disappointing in what is an otherwise faultless catalogue, songs and riffs sounded lacking and derivative especially when the previous Is Is EP had pointed towards the band’s signature sound evolving into something singularly their own. So this is not so much a step backward as a step back from inconsequentiality. Although the gospel choir seems a bit overdone, the experience of Nick Zinner’s 41 Strings project seems to have brought a freshness to the arrangement.
[Yeah Yeah Yeahs]

Yacht ‘Second Summer’
2011’s Shangri-La was easily Yacht’s best album so far. This the first taste of their forthcoming follow up album. Catchy Discotronica with a lyric as memorable as the music “can you stand by your man, as the shit hits the fan”.
[Yacht]

Colleen Green ‘Heavy Shit’
Lo-fi punky indie-pop with a post punk edge.
[Colleen Green]

Empress Of ‘Hat Trick’
Electronic dreampop with a woozy psychedelic edge. The work of one Brooklyn-based Lorely Rodriguez.
[Empress Of]

Iron & Wine ‘Grace For Saints and Ramblers’
Sam Beam continues his journey from stripped down troubadour to lusher forms of indie rock, with harmonies and handclaps, taken from his forthcoming fifth album Ghost on Ghost.
[Iron & Wine]

!!! ‘Slyd’
Slippery funky electronica from Thr!!!ler, the band’s forthcoming follow up to 2010’s excellent Strange Weather, Isn’t it?  Follow the link for a free download.
[!!!]

Big Black Delta ‘Side of The Road’
I was expecting this to be some swampy blues number, on account of the name. Rather. This solo project of lo-fi indie rockers Mellowdrone’s Janathon Bates is electronic pop with a 80s Italo disco feel and heavily treated / robotic vocals.
[Big Black Delta]

Roosevelt ‘Around You’ Irresistible electronic dancefloor pop from Cologne-based electronic producer Marius Lauber.
[Roosevelt]

Milk Music ‘Cruising With God’ Noisey indie with an 80s alt-rock feel.
[Milk Music]

Still Corners ‘Berlin Lovers’ Squelchy analogue electronic pop
[Still Corners]

Fyfe ‘St Tropez’
A little bit Beirut, a little bit psych pop, a little bit The National from 23 year old Londoner Paul Dixon.
[Fyfe]

The 17 best tracks I’ve heard in the last two weeks. Including a couple of tracks displaying a Go-Betweens influence and one honest to goodness Go-Betweens cover version. My favourite track from the new Atoms For Peace album, a lot of 90s slacker indie rock influences, a tune that sounds like Daft Punk, some trip hop, plus the return of CocoRosie, Thalia Zedek, Kurt Vile, Mogwai and The Men.

Atoms For Peace ‘Dropped’
One of many highlights from Thom Yorke’s slippery groove based supergroup’s debut album (not a dud track on it).
[Atoms For Peace]

Purling Hiss ‘Mercury Retrograde’
Philly band known for their lo-fi rock clean up their sound and deliver a lovely bit of 90s influenced, melodic, slacker  indie rock.
[Purling Hiss]

CocoRosie ‘Gravedigress’
Following on from last year’s superb ‘We Are On Fire’ with the first taste of forthcoming album Tales of A Grass Widdow.
[CocoRosie]

Scott & Charlene’s Wedding ‘Two Weeks’
A bit of that 80s Flying Nun sound  / a bit of The Go-Betweens from Brooklyn based expat Melbournite.
[Scott & Charlene’s Wedding]

Kurt Vile ‘Wakin’ On A Pretty Day’
More slacker indie. Nine-and-a-half languorous minutes from the chief Violator’s forthcoming similarly titled album Wakin’ on a Pretty Daze. “Even my cranky mom likes it” says producer (and legend) John Agnello.
[Kurt Vile]

La Luz ‘Sure As Spring’
Seattle outfit channeling those 60s surf rock / girl group sounds.
[La Luz]

The Men ‘I Saw Her Face’
More melodic, 90s influenced indie rock with that magical Crazy Horse slack vibe from the brilliant Santa Monica band.
[The Men]

Thalia Zedek Band ‘Walk Away’
Ex-Live Skull and Come legend returns five years after her last album, reassuring us that loss is still her muse and if anything, her voice is improving with age. Indie rock blues with the sort of wistful violin from David Michael Curry that wouldn’t have been out of place on latter period Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci.
[Thalia Zedek Band]

London Grammar ‘Metal and Dust’
Quite a few trip-hop influenced tracks surfacing lately. This one from the London based trio is particularly catchy.
[London Grammar]

Waxahatchee ‘Coast To Coast’
[Waxahatchee]

Mogwai ‘Wizard Motor’
I stopped paying attention to Mogwai after the superb Rock Action. Nothing personal, I just lost interest in instrumental post-rock. This (taken from their soundtrack to French TV show Les Revenants) has made me want to pick up where I left off.
[Mogwai]

Classixx ‘Holding On’
Sounds like classic Daft Punk. Therefore = good.
[Classixx]

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper ‘Bird Balloons’
Prolific 23-year-old self-releaser of bluesy indie rock revisits one of her oldest songs for her Ba Da Bing! debut. Intriguing.
[Lady Lamb the Beekeeper]

Shellshag ‘Face to Face’
Veteran Brooklyn du of John ‘Shellhead’ Driver and Jennifer Shagawat (see what they did there?) return with scuzzy, 90s influenced indie rock.
[Shellshag]

Dick Diver ‘Water Damage’
Like Scott and Charlene’s Wedding, Aussie Dick Diver has a taste for 80s-Flying-Nun-meets-The-Go-Betweens jangle pop with added quality songwriting.
[Dick Diver]

Steve Kilbey ‘The Wrong Road’
The Church’s frontman pays tribute to his friend and Jack Frost colleague Grant McLennan with a cover of one of GM’s best Go-Between’s songs. Recorded back in 2006 and only recently posted online by SK to mark what would have been GM’s birthday (Feb 13).
[Steve Kilbey]

The Weather Station w/Baby Eagle ‘Mule In The Flowers’
Canadian singer songwriter Tamara Lindeman records as The Weather Station and has embarked on series of Duets of which this is the second to surface. Recorded with former Constantines guitarist / Baby Eagle Steven Lambke, this is lovely slice of indie folk, with hushed vocals and simple picked guitar.
[The Weather Station]

Takeaway

NB: Atoms for Peace artwork taken from Lockheed Nuclear Products advert in Spet 1958 edition of National Geographic

The 16 best songs I’ve heard in the last two weeks. Definitely the best 14 days of the year so far. What you’ll hear: indie rock, electropop, indie-pop, Afro-pop influences, a Springsteen cover version, r’nb, dreampop, coldwave, trip hop, folk and jazz.

Chvrches ‘Recover’
Best track so far from Glaswegian electronic band clearly influenced by The Knife.
[Chvrches]

Veronica Falls ‘If You Still Want Me’
A personal favourite from the London indiepop band’s second album, ‘Waiting For Something To Happen’.
[Veronica Falls]

Divine Fits ‘Hungry Heart’
Indie supergroup, makers of the best album of 2012, take on Bruce Springsteen for Triple-J’s Like A Version.
[Divine Fits]

Young Dreams ‘First Days of Something’
Norwegian indie-pop with some nice West African guitar touches
[Young Dreams]

Laura Stevenson ‘Runner’
Long-Island based indie songstress.
[Laura Stevenson]

Melt Yourself Down ‘Fix My Life’
UK jazz collective follow up last November’s ’We Are Enough’ (ITP #21). Like Pigbag meets Holy Fuck in a souk.
[Melt Yourself Down]

Lust for Youth ‘Chasing The Light’
Coldwave /gothy electropop from Swedish producer Hannes Norrvide.
[Lust For Youth]

Dean Blunt ‘Papi’
Trip hop noir from male half of Hype Williams. Surprisingly Bill Callahan-like delivery.
[Dean Blunt]

Gun Outfit ‘Flyin’ Low, Maria’
Lo-fi Pacific Northwest indie with 80s/90s alt-rock influences. Hints of psychedelia in the guitars, hints of early Courtney Love in the vocals.
[Gun Outfit]

Mikal Cronin ‘Shout It Out’
Power pop with hints of early Ben Kweller meets Beaulah’s Miles Kurosky from the sometime Ty Segall collaborator.
[Mikal Cronin]

Elephant ‘Skyscraper’
Dreamy indie-pop.
[Elephant]

Sun Kil Moon / The Album Leaf ‘Caroline’
Second track to emerge from their eagerly anticipated collaborative album Perils From the Sea.
[Sun Kil Moon] [The Album Leaf]

Anaïs Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer ‘Willie of Winsbury’
Traditional song from the folkies’ collaborative album Child Ballads.
[Anaïs Mitchell]

Autre Ne Veut ‘Play By Play’
R n’b track which builds to a euphoric, killer refrain.
[Autre Ne Veut]

Vondelpark ‘California Analog Dream’
Surrey trio on R&S label re-record old track, strip away clunky UK Garage beat and polish up everything else into something altogether more interesting.
[Vondelpark]

Tourist ‘I Have No Fear’
Tourist’s instrumental head-nodder ‘Placid Acid’ was featured in ITP#1 back in January 2012. On first listen this seems more minimal, but reveals itself as just as much of an earworm.
[Tourist]

Takeaway

13 of the best songs from the last two weeks. The return of Devendra Banhart, a track that sounds like At The Drive-In meets The Hold Steady, a song that sounds like classic Neil Young and Crazy Horse, post-punk, indie-folk and electropop.

Blue Hawaii ‘Try To Be’
Chilled out pop built from BRAIDS’ Raphaelle Standell-Preston and fellow Montreal-based multi-instrumentalist Alexander Gowan. Sounds like a less saccharine, more mature Grimes.
[Blue Hawaii]

Wampire ‘The Hearse’
Portland indie pop with a hint of post-punk, new wave and power pop.
[Wampire]

Mozart’s Sister ‘Mozart’s Sister’

More 80s electropop from Montreal’s Caila Thompson Hannet who records as Mozart’s Sister. The ‘When Doves Cry’ worshipping ‘Don’t Leave It To Me’ was featured back in June last year in ITP #10.
[Mozart’s Sister]

Beach Fossils ‘Generational Synthetic’
After a year focussing on side projects (DIIV, Heavenly Beat) the Brooklyn melodic indie rockers return with a taste of their forthcoming second album Clash The Truth.
[Beach Fossils]

Waxahtachee ‘Peace and Quiet’
Brooklyn-based Katie Crutchfield, specialist in lo-fi sadness.
[Waxahtachee]

Doldrums featuring Austra ‘Anomaly’
More 80s-influenced electropop from the great white north. Austra’s Katie Stelmanis provides vocals.
[Doldrums]

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down w/ Joanna Newsom ‘Kindness Be Conceived’
Thao and Joanna start a hoedown. From Thao’s forthcoming album We The Common.
[Thao and The Get Down Stay Down]

Devendra Banhart
Freak folkster returns with a laid back tune that sounds like the beach at sunset. Effortlessly segues into a funk soul outro.
[Devendra Banhart]

Disclosure featuring AlunaGeorge ‘White Noise’
Two London based duos team up for dancefloor pop perfection.
[AlunaGeorge] [Disclosure]

Girls Names ‘Pittura Infamante’
Fourth track we’ve featured from Belfast post punk indie rockers. From their forthcoming album The New Life.
[Girls Names]

Single Mothers ‘Christian Girls’
At the Drive-In meets The Hold Steady.
[Single Mothers]

Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards ‘Sheets’
Like a seriously depressed The National (in a good way).
[Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards]

Retribution Gospel Choir ‘Seven’
RGC channel their inner Crazy Horse on this 21 minute monster.
[Retribution Gospel Choir]

The 23 best tracks I’ve heard so far this year. Nearly 100 minutes of new music and not an inch of fat. The first hour features indie rock, folk, dreampop, garage rock, art rock, psych pop and new wave, while those of you who love all things electronica, from euphoric techno to industrial dance should check out the last 40 minutes.

Torres ‘Honey’
22-year-old Nashville singer songwriter uses distorted guitar and vocals to great effect, building to a point where it feels like it’s about to go over the edge, reigning it in and then taking it to over the edge, before pulling back again. Taking it to the brink rather than bridge.
[Torres]

Bloods ‘Farmer John’
Sydney three-piece take on The Premier’s classic as part of the Nuggets: Antipodean Interpolations of the First Psychedelic Era tribute album Antipodean Interpolations of the First Psychedelic Era
[Bloods]

Ex Cops ‘James’

Bright indiepop in the Pains of Being Pure At Heart mould. Right up my street, although I cringed a little at them rhyming ‘tea’ with ‘quality’.
[Ex Cops]

The Men ‘Electric’

Brooklyn punks The Men remind me of one of those pre-grunge alt rock bands like Green River – all punk energy but with a pop sensibility and a dose of the acceptable end of hard rock. This is from their forthcoming third album.
[The Men]

Merchandise ‘Anxiety’s Door
’
Although they are from Tampa, Florida this sounds very Australian 80s new wave to these ears. Someone should put them in the studio with Nick Launay.
[Merchandise]

Local Natives ‘Heavy Feet’
Back in October Local Natives put out ‘Breakers’, the first taste of their Aaron Dessner-produced forthcoming second album Hummingbird. Although it blended the sound of their excellent debut Gorilla Manor with elements of Dessner’s band The National (mainly in the way the drums and guitars were treated) it felt a little underwhelming; merely good when before they’d been vital.

Like ‘Breakers’, ‘Heavy Feet’ is underpinned by handclaps and moves even more towards the sound of The National, but does this more successfully, maintaining the energy of the best tracks from their debut. This is a song driven along by the rhythm section and Kelcey Ayer’s yearning vocals, with guitars and keyboards mainly adding texture. It might not reach the heights of ‘Camera Talk’, ‘Wide Eyes’ and ‘Shapeshifter’, but it’s made my anticipation for Hummingbird greater.
[Local Natives]

Thao and The Get Down Stay Down ‘We the Common’

Best know her in Australia for providing the theme tune to post-modern rom-com family drama series Offspring, this finds San Franciscan based Thao Nguyen merging her more experimental side with her pop sensibilities. Features a great wordless refrain.
[Thao and The Get Down Stay Down]

Generationals ‘Spinoza’
Scratchy indiepop from New Orleans duo whose ‘Lucky Numbers’ was one of last year’s highlights.
[Generationals]

Spectral Park ‘L’appel du Vide’
Southampton multi-instrumentalist Luke Donovan created the basics of the forthcoming Spectral Park debut album from samples of records he found dumped in the street, manipulating them and adding his own original instrunmnation and vocals to come up with furious 60s flavoured psych-pop concoctions like this.
[Spectral Park]

Foxygen ‘No Destruction’
Last year (back on ITP #12) they were channelling Bowie and Jagger on ‘Waitin’ 4 U’, this time around it’s more Lou Reed circa-Loaded
.
[Foxygen]

Rachel Zeffira ‘Here On In’
Canadian opera singer Rachel Zeffira is half of Cat’s Eye with The Horrors’ Farris Badawan. Here she sounds not unlike the late Trish Keenan on an intriguing slice of noir-ish dreampop.
[Rachel Zeffira]

Low ‘Plastic Cup’
Two songs have surfaced from Low’s Jeff Tweedy produced tenth album The Invisible Way. ‘Plastic Cup’ is the more familiar sounding of them, Alan Sparhawk takes lead vocal and provides what suspiciously sounds like acoustic guitar, while Mimi Parker’s harmonies and wordless backing vocals are essential to the magic.
[Low]

Jim James ‘New Life’
‘Know ‘til Now’ was featured back in November on ITP #22, this is the second track to surface from Regions of Light and Sound the forthcoming solo album from the My Morning Jacket frontman. This one is all about the vocals.
[Jim James]

Ólöf Arnalds ‘Treat Her Kindly’
A rare English language outing for the Icelandic solo artist (and erstwhile member of múm). A lovely folky number with strings and accordion (or possibly harmonium). She’s also currently running a campaign over on Pledge Music for her forthcoming album Sudden Elevation.
[Ólöf Arnalds]

Angel Olsen ‘Sweet Dreams’
Half noir-pop / half rock n’ roll croon like a female Roy Orbison, this will leave you haunted. [Angel Olsen] https://www.facebook.com/angelolsenmusic Carmen Villain ‘Lifeisin’
Carmen Hillestad, half Norwegian-half Mexican, US born, London based former model sounds like a heavily-reverbed, lo-fi Cat Power.
[Carmen Villain]

Low ‘Just Make It Stop’
This finds Mimi Parker on lead vocals over brushed snare and some rhythmic piano chords, bass and guitar. Probably as close as Low will ever get to ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’. [Low]

Mitzi ‘All I Heard’

Self proclaimed “garage-disco” from Brisbane four-piece, warm analog sounds and elastic basslines. Catchy as all hell.
[Mitzi]

Darwin Deez ‘Free (Unicorn Kid Remix)’
Air-punching euphoric techno remix of Brooklynite’s forthcoming album track.
[Darwin Deez] [Unicorn Kid]

Javelin ‘Nnormal’
The return of Brooklyn blog rockers now signed to David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label. Robotized vocals and squelchy stuttering electronica, this is less funky than previous releases, but no less engrossing.
[Javelin]

Factory Floor ‘Fall Back’
Eight-and-a-half minutes of Industrial dance from London-based, DFA signed outfit fronted by Nik Colk Void (previously Nikki Colk of Kaito. What ‘I Feel Love’ might have sounded like if Giorgio Moroder had used Front 242 as Donna Summer’s backing band.
[Factory Floor]

Blanck Mass ‘Hellion Earth’
Benjamin Power of Fuck Buttons drops the noise of that outfit in favour of a more straightforward piece of dancefloor electronica.
[Blanck Mass]

Ryan Hemsworth ‘BasedWorld’
Producer du jour from Halifax, Nova Scotia delivers electronica instrumental. Check out some of his mixes on the link below
[Ryan Hemsworth]