Featuring tracks from 
Gardens & Villa, The Lumineers, Metronomy, Poliça, Cloud Control, On An On, Jai Paul, Surfer Blood and Geographer.
Stream it here:
To download the mp3 file, right click and “save link as” here: The Breakdown with Ben Episode 64
Happy Holidays music lovers! And well do I have a festive and exciting little soundtrack for your relaxing times, hopefully spent eating, drinking and laughing with your family!
Headlining this episode is new releases from three of our very favourite artists, those being Gardens & Villa (owners of the Breakdown’s number 2 album from last year!), Metronomy and The Lumineers (about to feature quite prominently in The Breakdown’s Top Albums of 2013). What a treat! And the best thing of all, they have all stayed true to their original sound that made us love them in the first place, while developing and updating it. Don’t you just love it when good bands do that? In my eyes this is the hallmark of a truly good artist. I think I can leave these three respective songs to do the talking from here :)
Exceptional albums that we have been enjoying of late are featured heavily in this episode also. Poliça’s Shulamith is still on high rotation, and is getting better with every listen. It is a heady mix of synth, searing female vocals and songwriting straight from a confusing and disorientating dream that you just remembered from a couple weeks ago. I love it.
Give In, the debut from American 3 piece On An On is another album that is going to be one for the ages. Apparently Scattered Trees, an obviously now defunct 5 piece band, showed up at a recording studio to lay down some tracks, but two members decided to walk out at the last minute. With the studio already booked and paid for, the remaining 3 members threw down what I consider to be one of the albums of the last 5 years. You can’t teach that hey! Give In is beautiful on so many levels and deserves a listen (or 25 so far in my case!).
Other fantastic albums that deserve attention are Swedish indie group The Mary Onettes, who’s album Hit The Waves has really grabbed me; Oakland Glitch producer The Polish Ambassador’s Ecozoic; Surfer Blood’s latest release Pythons; and of course the stunning second album, Dream Cave, from Australian group Cloud Control. If you have the time, their rendition of Promises (featured in this episode) on influential Seattle based radio station KEXP, is very well worth a watch.
Some other highlights in the form of blogged single tracks include releases from Ayer, Elderbrook, The Aves, Jai Paul and Klingande, which I find to be a joyous celebration of something epic, complete with over-the-top sax!
Hope everyone has a fantastic holiday period and a wicked start to the new year. May you always be surrounded with fantastic music!
Tracklist
1. Ayer – Circle Down (00:00)
2. Cloud Control – Promises (04:26)
3. Poliça – Torre (07:52)
4. Klingande – Jubel (12:17)
5. The Aves – Remote (17:00)
6. On An On – Bad Mythology (20:09)
7. Jai Paul – Str8 Outta Mumbai (23:16)
8. Surfer Blood – Prom Song (26:05)
9. Gardens & Villa – Bullet Train (30:00)
10. The Mary Onettes – Unblessed (33:57)
11. The Lumineers – Gale Song (38:30)
12. Everything After – Heart & Mind (41:30)
13. Geographer – This Is How We Walk On The Moon (45:06)
14. Metronomy – I’m Aquarius (49:04)
15. The Polish Ambassador – My Time Machine (53:05)
16. Elderbrook – Rewinding (59:53)
17. On An On – All The Horses (1:02:56)
18. Cloud Control – Happy Birthday (1:07:30)
19. Elroy 4.0 – Trinkets (Feat. The Kite String Tangle) (1:10:38)
20. Davis Fetter – I Won’t Let This World Break My Heart (1:14:30)
21. MGMT – Electric Feel (Gespleu Downcast Edit) (1:18:30)
22. Lemonade – Perfect Blue (1:22:02)
23. Surfer Blood – I was wrong (1:26:07)
24. Bipolar Sunshine – Love More Worry Less (1:29:45)
25. The Polish Ambassador – Invisible Frontiers (1:33:05)
26. Peer Kusiv – Dust (1:38:55)
The Indie Electro Breakdown 