The Indie Electro Breakdown

Featuring tracks from Snowmine, Cloud Nothings, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Mt Warning, Future Islands, Slow Club, Mr Little Jeans, Wye Oak and SOHN.

Stream it in podcast format here:

Stream it in playlist format (with the ability to skip tracks) by clicking here

To download the mp3 file, right click and “save link as” here: The Breakdown with Ben Episode 71

Whatup lovers, welcome to another banger Breakdown playlist. This week finds us indulging in some fantastic new albums and also taking in some sneak previews of what promise to be brilliant upcoming albums.

A bunch of fantastic albums are still on high rotation. Namely Norway’s Mr Little Jeans debut album Pocketknife, which is a ripper. Baltimore, USA is represented a couple times in this episode, with Future Islands having released their fourth album Singles very recently. It holds true to their unique, catchy sound, taking full advantage of their vocalist’s highly unconventional yet addictive voice. UK producer SOHN has blown minds with his debut album Tremors. Bearing in mind there is a lot of quiet in the album, there are also too many magical indie pop hooks floating about to let this one get away. American indie-punk group Cloud Nothings has a new album Here And Nowhere Else, from which a cool track is lifted for this episode, along with another gem from Australian group Mt Warning’s debut album Midnight Set.

There are also a number of exciting albums to be released in coming weeks, from which advance singles have been dropped, with The Breakdown hot on the trail. Most notably, Wye Oak, as with Future Islands, being also from Baltimore, USA. These guys have been on my radar for a few years now, having been defined as an “indie folk” duo since their inception. For their new album, Shriek, to be released in a couple weeks, they admit to having dropped the acoustic guitar altogether, and reinvented themselves as an indie electro duo. This takes balls. Going only off the advance single, Glory, I feel it has been a success and I am very intrigued to see how the rest of the album turns out.

Melbourne, Australia group Northeast Party House have been dropping little bombs for few years now, but never cohesively, in terms of an album. That’s all about to change, with the release of their debut album Any Given Weekend, set to drop in about a months time.

New albums from UK’s Slow Club and USA’s The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart will also be given a workover, with lead singles from both appearing in this episode.

There are also many blogged singles that have found their way into this episode. Highlights include UK solo dude Kidnap Kid, who has penned a very delightful heartbreak tune entitled Like You Used To. A sweet tune from Greek psychedelic rock band Baby Guru is included. This one reminds me a lot of 70’s British psych rock band Jethro Tull, who could be often heard pumping from my teen bedroom back in the 90’s :)

Snowmine and Great Good Fine Ok are both bands that have featured in previous Breakdown episodes and are back with new material.

I have also been perusing a fair bit of Icelandic music of late. Iceland represents a very unique music culture. For such a tiny country population-wise, they punch very much above their weight, indicating that music must be a cornerstone of their culture. Having brought us world heavyweight groups like Sigur Ros and Of Monsters And Men, I am more than happy to give their scene a very open ear. A really nice tune from a little known group called Vök has been included as a taster for what promises to be the first of a few more Icelandic tunes.

Hope the playlist finds you well and provides you with an enjoyable companion on your adventure through life… :)

Tracklist

1. Mr Little Jeans – Runaway (00:00)

2. Future Islands – Back in the Tall Grass (04:20)

3. Kidnap Kid – Like You Used To (08:38)

4. Sohn – Tremors (12:28)

5. Wye Oak – Glory (16:00)

6. Hands – Videolove (20:53)

7. Baby Guru – Behaviour (24:33)

8. Flamingo – Heavy Steps (27:58)

9. Snowmine – Columbus (32:08)

10. Yumi Zouma – It Feels Good To Be Around You (Air France cover) (36:10)

11. Paws – Tongues (39:45)

12. Slow Club – Complete Surrender (42:00)

13. Great Good Fine Ok – Not Going Home (45:23)

14. Com Truise – Stand Still (Flight Facilities rework) (48:55)

15. Future Islands – Light House (54:05)

16. Motez – Promise Me (58:53)

17. Northeast Party House – The Haunted (1:02:35)

18. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – Simple And Sure (1:06:44)

19. Joywave – Somebody New (1:10:12)

20. Postblue – Wallow (1:13:36)

21. Cloud Nothings – Now Hear In (1:16:18)

22. Vök – Before (1:19:50)

23. Mt. Warning – Burn Again (1:23:17)

24. Cousin Marnie – Cain (1:28:00)

25. Pyramid – Wolf (1:31:30)