Anyone in LA will know the name Fancy Space People, but those of us in other climes are just beginning to get a clue. Their psychedelic immensity is due in part to the fact that they’re made up of some of LA’s Weirdo Cognesceti. Names like Nora Keyes and Don Bolles shouldn’t be new to anyone, but then there’s artist/musician Emily Blong of My Velcroe and graphic artist Brian Bamps too. This is something that screams ‘quality mutation’, and they have the music to back it up too. Check out this beautiful track (about one of my fave subjects, natch!) and preview/purchase two more at their bandcamp page.

MP3:

Pyramids

I love pop, and I love warped weirdness. Tri Angle has captured the spirit of both in a new free mixtape, wherein bands like Oneohtrix Point Never, oOoOO, and Laurel Halo do bizarre reinterpretations of Lindsay Lohan tunes. Together with these NIKE7UP remixes, I’ve been having a Bizzaro Pop day, freefloating through a perfect world where there’s no such thing as normal and The Normal is available as a ringtone.

MP3s:

LET ME SHINE FOR YOU MIX

Justin Bieber - One Time (Nike7UPc3 ph0n3ÅpøçaL¥p$e¡nƒ¡N¡†y420Mix)

Britney Spears - Lucky (Nike7UP ThiefInTheNightMix)

I met Dan Serbanescu, one half of Romanian couple Divine Muzak, when he requested Xiu Xiu’s ‘Chocolate Makes You Happy’ from me during a recent party. I wish I’d had some of of his music to play as well, because it’s lovely stuff. Together with his girlfriend Iulia, he churns out size zero dreams that make my tummy feel happy. Even more than chocolate.

MP3:

La Femme Inegale

Unsure what gods I inadvertently prayed to last night but it must have been good because I came home and noticed that the new collab between Zola Jesus and LA Vampires had been released. Washes of sonic noise swirl between the vocals of two of the deadliest divas in mutant pop. It’s everything I dreamed it would be when I first mentioned it a few months ago. The burning streets of Athens are being mesmerized by the waves pulsing from my speakers; a desert of hypnotic sands and wailing winds. This is what forever sounds like.

MP3:

In The Desert

The self-titled EP is available digitally here and on 12” July 5th from Not Not Fun. Get it.

It’s not hard for me to tell when mutants are at play; we know our own. My attraction to Telepathik Friend was inevitable, really. Pure okkvlt radiation leaking out of Austin, Texas is bound to be noticed sooner or later. One day I just woke up and my skin had turned into a drug rug. My hands are now pan pipes, and my hair is an infinite forest of sticky Purple Haze. It’s made life on a day-to-day basis very difficult; in fact you may be wondering how I’m even typing with my pipe-fingers. The truth is I’ve become so mutated that I’ve evolved the ability to communicate via computer keyboard using only my mind and a short, slightly bendy rod. I can’t promise you the same results, but I guarantee a heady listening experience.

MP3s:

Turn On The Resonator

Turn Off The Resonator

Their CD Turn On The Resonator! is available via their Space. Space is the place. God it? Get it.

Hear Hums are a three-piece from Florida, but their sound is pure Cali grooves. Like the laid-back child of High Places and Ducktails, they create sweet pulsewaves that seep into the part of your brain marked ‘chill the heck ouuuuuttt mannnn’. Get ready for impending summer by downloading their first album Notions Shift at Tryptamine Bay for free on their Space, and enjoy this track from their album Psyche Cycles, due out later this year.

MP3:

Changes

After seemingly ages, Pocahaunted have finally returned with their first album in their latest incarnation as a five-piece. With the addition of members of Robedoor and Sun Araw, and Diva Dompe’s vocals in the mix, the new material is less hauntology and drone and more classic psychedelic, but with the gorgeous NNF touch that we’ve come to expect from Amanda and co. With the shimmying beats of the new material, and the bright, cartoony design of the new LP, it seems Pocahaunted have enough scalps on their belts and have now brought out the peace pipe. Smoke up!

MP3s:

Make It Real

Save Yrself (It’s Nice)

Pocahaunted’s new album Make It Real will be out in spring. Get it.

I can always rely on Not Not Fun to supply me with pure gold. Their latest release is a slow-burning split between Psychic Reality (aka Leyna Noel, whose beautiful vocals you may have already heard in The Finer Things) and LA Vampires, a new project from Pocahaunted’s Amanda Brown that was previously featured on the godly My Estrogeneration compilation. Side A is handled by Psychic Reality, four tracks of throbbing, wailing mystical murk. Sometimes life-affirming, sometimes sorrowful, and always transcendental, Leyna sends the listener on the kind of trip that you return from with your brain leaking out of your nose. Side B goes vampiric on us with woodwinds and jazzy, sub-hiphop beats as heard through a water-submerged boombox, while Amanda’s haunting vocals echo from a dark tunnel, bearing you through a sea of LSD. Damn, got you drooling, well scan this through your brain waves: she’s also planning collabs with Zola J. and Sun Araw. That’s right: reality is perfection.

MP3s:

Psychic Reality - Meta/Meta Prayer

LA Vampires - Acid We

This excellent 12” split is available now from Not Not Fun. Get it.

Few musicians are able to send me on a spirit journey as quickly as Fursaxa. Evoking the sounds of solar rays filtering through fog, winds rustling chimes, and realms of pure consciousness, Tara Burke’s talent for otherworldly soundtracks is second to none. Her latest album Mycorrhizae Realm combines the simplicity of acoustic guitar, cello, harp, and her fairytale vocals with a cleaner sound than previous works, as this is her first solo album recorded in a studio. While it loses some of the dark, lo-fi mystery of her earlier work, it more than makes up for it with a beauty that leaves you swooning.

MP3s:

Poplar Moon

Sunhead Bowed

Mycorrhizae Realm is available now from Boomkat. Get it.

I know this may sometimes seem like the Brittany Gould Fan Blog, but darn it, she just makes amazing music. And fuck you for telling me how to run my blog. You’re not my real dad. Anyway, my favorite Colorado hauntologist has just released a collaboration track with Cory Brown under her Married In Berdichev! persona. It’s a beautiful song, showcasing Brittany’s lovely vocals, for once not hidden behind walls of static and noise. There’s a promise of more collab songs to come as well, so get happy and check this out.

MP3:

It Was Where We Laid (feat. Cory Brown)

God knows I can never get enough psych-drone. Combine the acid-soaked expertise of Evan Caminiti from Barn Owl with the haunting vocals of Lisa McGee, you get the pure magic of Higuma. They’ve returned with their new LP Den Of The Spirits, a windy, dark piece of mystic smoke that will leave you swooning, turning your senses into sensimilla. Lean back and feel the sky pour into you.

MP3s:

Sun Crown

Hathor’s Dance

Den Of The Spirits is out now on Aquarius. Get it.

Heard recently that Haunted Fucking are totally split, never to make music again. I consider that information to be garbage, as in total shit news. I mean okay, maybe they’re busy; being the two people behind Upset The Rhythm has gotta be pretty time-consuming, but take like twenty minutes, put a tape recorder on the kitchen table and ghost the fuck out. Damn. Pretty sure everything they put out is gone forever, but if you manage to find some forgotten remainders (might try contacting them directly, sweet-talkin’ never killed a man) then snatch them up; each cassette is a throbbing hunk of clattering space-age Red Indian fuckery with enough audio hallucinogens to knock down a Tyrannosaurus.

MP3s:

Saturday

We Were Lying Down

All Its Teeth Fell Out and This Had Nothing to Do with Telling the Truth Whatsoever

I’m Feelin’ Outta Control

One of my favorite bands is no more. The amazing Gowns just announced their split. You can download their very last track on Ericka’s blog here. It’s gorgeously epic, and a great final note, but this is really a sad day for music. I only got to see Gowns twice, but both times were some of the best live shows I’ve ever seen. They will be missed.