Contact Risk's 40 best records of 2010 so far

1. Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me


2. Beach House – Teen Dream


3. Wu Lyf – Concrete Gold / Heavy Pop 12”


4. Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma


5. How to Dress Well – Can’t See My Own Face EP


6. Wavves – King of the Beach


7. Baths – Cerulean


8. These New Puritans – Hidden


9. Damien Jurado – Saint Barlett


10. Cloud Nothings – Turning On LP


11. The National – High Violet


12. Gayngs – Relayted


13. Twin Sister – Color Your Life


14. Liars – Sisterworld


15. Wildbirds & Peacedrums – Rivers


16. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today


17. Best Coast – Crazy For You


18. Pavement – Quarantine the Past


19. jj – jj n° 3


20. Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul

21. Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
22. Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record
23. Spoon – Transference
24. Women – Public Strain
25. Lonely Galaxy – EP One
26. Johnny Cash – Ain’t No Grave
27. Zola Jesus – Stridulum EP
28. Julian Lynch – Mare
29. Green Gerry – Odd Tymes
30. Herzog - Search

31. Wild Nothing – Gemini
32. Best Coast – Something in the Way 7”
33. Wolf Parade – Expo 86
34. Roky Erickson with Okkervil River – True Love Cast Out All Evil
35. Cults – Go Outside 7”
36. Pocahaunted – Make It Real
37. Small Black – Small Black EP
38. LA Vampires & Zola Jesus – LA Vampires & Zola Jesus
39. The Magic Lantern – Platoon
40. The Besnard Lakes – Are the Roaring Night

Free download: Wise Blood

Got some really great and free music from Bandcamp again last week. First off is Wise Blood, expect more later this week. Dubbed 'future music' by the band itself, they indeed sound remarkably fresh, with a mix of contemporary pop, hip hop and sect-like chanting:

Download: Trillwave Mixtape

The Hood Internet compiled this pretty hip mixtape, including all usual chillwave suspects combined with a lot of rap artists; from the likes of Ice Cube and Jay-Z to Why?. This will surely skyrocket your mood. Check out the pretty impressive tracklist and stream the whole thing below or download right here.

Tracklist:
1. Phoenix x Why? - Shoeing Horses In 1901
2. Young Money x Javelin - DepRock
3. The-Dream x Kevin Drew - Bodhi Shawty Weekend
4. Air x Mike Jones - La Femme D'Monsieur Jones
5. Kanye West feat Lil Wayne x DJ Signify - 1993 Barry Bonds
6. Pharaohe Monch x The Black Lips - Drop I Mayor
7. Birdman x Washed Out - Feel It On The South Side
8. Doom x The Flaming Lips - Air You A Hypnotist?
9. Lloyd Banks feat Juelz Santana x Neon Indian - Beamer, Drips
10. Jay Electronica x Toro Y Moi - Freak Exhibit
11. Jamie Foxx x Röyksopp - Alcohol Forever
12. Mando Diao - Dance With Somebody (Hood Internet Remix feat GZA & Cadence Weapon)
13. Hieroglyphics x Genesis - That's Who
14. Gucci Mane feat Plies x Lindstrøm & Christabelle - Wasted Love
15. Big L x Bibio - Dwrcan 'Em Up
16. Puff Daddy feat The LOX x Volcano Choir - All About The Islands
17. Iyaz x The Big Pink - Velvet Replay
18. Ice Cube x CFCF - It Was A Rainy Day
19. Anti-Pop Consortium x Maps - I Dream Of Capricorn
20. Aesop Rock feat Rob Sonic x Tobacco - Dark Pink Goo
21. Dominique Young Unique x Yacht - I'm In Love With A Hot Girl
22. De La Soul x Jamie Lidell - What's The Stakes
23. Jay-Z x Phoenix - And The Definitive Winner Is...
24. Trey Songz x The Radio Dept. - Trey-dio Departmentz
25. Drake x Beach House - Walk In The Park Is Over

The Hood Internet x Mishka - TRILLWAVE by hoodinternet

Free download: Coma Cinema

I already bumped into Coma Cinema’s great video for Only some time ago (watch below), and love these great words on their site: "The music you'll find below is currently free for you to download and listen to. If you feel the need to compensate us, we only ask that you share the music with others."

You should definitely download their beautiful album Stoned Alone right here. You can also get a cassette version from Arcade Sounds.

Coma Cinema - Only from Tyler T Williams on Vimeo.

Forget You All The Time

This is an almost heartbreaking session by Cloud Nothings. Filmed by The Fader, here you can hear a stripped down version of the band with just two acoustic guitars and vocals. It gives you an idea of how beautiful and rich this band's melodies really are, once you remove all electrics, drums and noise. It's almost hard to say which version of the band is favourite. Maybe an acoustic album would be a serious option for the future?



Also check out the acoustic version of their Turning On album's Hey Cool Kid, and compare versions below:

Cloud Nothings - "Hey Cool Kid" from The Tripwire on Vimeo.

MP3: Cloud Nothings - Hey Cool Kid (acoustic)
MP3: Cloud Nothings - Hey Cool Kid (electric)

(via Transparent)

Nite Jewel: Falling Far

Nite Jewel has a new EP on the way in collaboration with members of Teen Inc, The Samps and Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. Am I Real? will be out on vinyl August 16 via Gloriette, listen to the fantastic track Falling Far right here:

Nite Jewel - Falling Far

Lord Huron: Into the Sun

Here is a nice and fresh discovery: L.A. based Lord Huron, who just have a new EP Out called Into the Sun. This sounds a bit like an exotic Fleet Foxes, which is pretty good actually:



(via Delicious Scopitone)

Listen: Wild Nothing's Evertide EP

Wild Nothing released their splendid album last month through Captured Tracks. Gemini is loaded with light-hearted pop lullabies that can make you feel like there’s not a worry in the world. They’ve also just released a new EP (Evertide, 3 tracks) via Warmest Chord, a new label releasing limited edition special artwork. The physical Wild Nothing release (with beautiful glow in the dark screenprint designed by Franz Vesolt) is already sold out, but you can listen to two of the EP’s tracks on Bandcamp. Or buy all three for just 1 dollar:

Free download: Mount Pleasant

Jonathan Phillips has been releasing music under his lo-fi moniker Mount Pleasant for quite some time now. His music is very expressive and very dark. Like Xiu Xiu for example, the music is sometimes hard to grasp. Listening to his discography gives you an idea on how uncompromising this music really is, and that, in my opinion is really admirable.

From an interview with Salient:
I make most of my music at home, in my bed, I guess. I do record songs in friends’ living rooms, sometimes at like two in the morning. I record all the songs using the free software on my MacBook, GarageBand, and into the little inbuilt microphone. It doesn’t really add up to a “top quality” sound or anything. The guitar never sounds good and there are generally like six vocal layers to cover up how stark the vocals sound. The writing of the songs is generally like intuitive, like stream of consciousness lyrics that I edit out. Mostly the songs work with piano or a harp loop, something like that, it’s just like loops and destroyed samples and lots of delay and reverb. I really believe in delay and reverb, I think they are the two most important things in a song.


You can download a lot of music from Mount Pleasant's site. Some beautiful gems are there to be discovered by your ears. I'd recommend you at least download the Dissolute, Dissolute, The Flood and Rio Joy albums.

Gauntlet Hair: Our Scenery (video featuring Will Oldham!)

Probably the most melodramatic video you've seen in a while, although Gorilla vs. Bear tells us that it does feature a very young Will Oldham. How cool is that:

BABY JESSICA X OUR SCENERY from PAT VAMOS on Vimeo.