DFA’s The Juan MacLean Drops New Album, In A Dream

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DFA’s The Juan Maclean is a dance music chameleon of sounds. Part DJ Harvey, part James Murphy and part…well….The Juan MacLean. The 3rd LP, In A Dream sees John MacLean teaming up with LCD Soundsystem’s Nancy Whang on another triumphant electro-dance release from DFA Records. Nancy’s vocals give rise to a club feel, but the epic nostalgia of the DFA sound is ever prominent throughout. The album opens with the Italo-disco inspired “A Place to Called Space” and takes you through a journey of house & techno incarnations that ends on the EPIC “The Sun Will Never Set On Our Love.” On the real, the 9-minute closing track sounds as familiar as it is new and addictive. Give it a spin and peep the record below. See you on the dance floor.

Thom Yorke Makes Surprise New Album Available for 6 Bucks via BitTorrent Download!

Thom Yorke is at it again. The king of unconventional music distribution has just made his new album, Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes available for download as a Bit Torrent file for the more than reasonable price of $6. I suppose we can expect something this anti-establishment from the guy who originated the “Pay What You Want” structure for Radiohead’s In Rainbows.

Buy the bundle here and you’ll not only get the album, but also a music video for the first track “Brain in a Bottle.” You can also download the “Brain in a Bottle” for free. Once you hear how awesome it is, you’re gonna wanna drop $6 for A FUCKING THOM YORKE ALBUM! YES!

I ponied up the $6 via paypal and downloaded the album in less than a minute via BitTorrent, using internet tethered from my cellphone, while chillin at a park. The revolution is here people.  Happy Friday.

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Below is a transcript of a letter from Thom and producer Nigel Gorich regarding the release. :

 

As an experiment we are using a new version of BitTorrent to distribute a new Thom Yorke record.

The new Torrent files have a pay gate to access a bundle of files..

The files can be anything, but in this case is an ‘album’.

It’s an experiment to see if the mechanics of the system are something that the general public can get its head around …

If it works well it could be an effective way of handing some control of internet commerce back to people who are creating the work.

Enabling those people who make either music, video or any other kind of digital content to sell it themselves.

Bypassing the self elected gate-keepers.

If it works anyone can do this exactly as we have done.

The torrent mechanism does not require any server uploading or hosting costs or ‘cloud’ malarkey.

It’s a self-contained embeddable shop front…

The network not only carries the traffic, it also hosts the file. The file is in the network.

Oh yes and it’s called

Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes.

Thom Yorke & Nigel Godrich

 

 

 

Jams Run Free: Ryan Hemsworth, Kendrick Lamar, SBTRKT (video)

Ok y’all…New feature here. Every Tuesday I’ll be dropping a few tracks, videos, etc…that pique the Everything Ecstatic interest. Here’s what we’ve got lined up this week:

Ryan Hemsworth feat Dawn Golden “Snow In Newark”

Canadian producer Ryan Hemsworth drops the 1st single off his second LP. Last year’s Guilt Trips was flat out awesome and on “Snow In Newark,” Hemsworth brings a chiller jam to the table with vocals from Mad Decent MC Dawn Golden. Listen:

Kendrick Lamar – “i”

Lower case i in the house! Yes, i’m a notorious abuser of lower case i’s (see what i did there?). Kendrick comes at us with a soulful groove sampling The Isley Brothers’ 1973 hit, “That Lady.” It’s definitely new terrain for Kendrick and my first reaction was “Is Kendrick going all Black Eyed Peas/Pharrell with this crazy accessible poppy shit?” I dunno….Whatever it is, i’m irresistibly drawn to it. Listen for yourself:

 SBTRKT video for “New Dorp New York” (feat. Ezra Koenig)

And now for your moment of Zen (ok, it’s my moment of Zen, but it can be yours too!) The sprinkling of material off of SBTRKT’s highly anticipated 2nd LP, Wonder Where We Land  continues (officially releases on October 7th.) We were graced with the creepy interactive video for “Look Away” last week and now we have before us, the video for the album’s tripped out first single, “New Dorp New York” with Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig. It’s an animated look at predatory creatures of the night, including the hybrid SBTRKT-cat from the album’s cover art. Watch it now:

This concludes your Jams Run Free edition #1 program.

 

Run The Jewels Drop New Jam, “Oh My Darling Don’t Cry”

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The 2nd track dropped off of the upcoming Run The Jewels 2 and it has a classic El-P beat with looping effects in the background of a NASTY bass line. Switching flows from Mike to P and it feels like we’ve been here before. Not straying too far from the first RTJ equation is a wise move, cause there is NO WAY i’m tired of this sound and it’s obvious that I’m not alone on this one. Check it here:

 

 

New Playlist: Indian Summer

It is with great sadness, yet much pride, that I’ve retired the addition of songs to the infamous “Random Musings” spotify playlist. 432 songs, 35 hours and 33 minutes of music later, it’s still a go to for any party, chill out sesh, bike ride…You name it.

BUT…When one door closes, another one opens. And that door is “Indian Summer”. It’s currently sits at 15 songs at just under an hour, but will serve as this quarter’s progressive playlist for Everything Ecstatic. Peep it below, press play, subscribe to it and follow along. Also see further down for a quick breakdown of the first slew of songs on the list and discover some new artists!

Young Galaxy – “Hard To Tell” – An absolutely infectious track from the Montreal-based Young Galaxy.

Gold Panda – “Reprise” – Perfect in every way. My favorite cut off of Gold Panda’s 2013 release Half Of Where You Live (on Ghostly)

Tennis – “I’m Callin'” – The Madonna-sounding single off of Tennis’ new LP, Ritual In Repeat. (Peep my review of the album in Paste Magazine).

TV on the Radio – “Mercy” – Hoping this track ends up on TVOTR’s upcoming album.

Kelela – “Bank Head” – Part of the revolutionary female-fronted electro r&b wave.

Jungle – “Julia” – Jungle will be  on repeat at my next BBQ.

ODESZA – “Say My Name (feat. Zyra)” – My song of the summer. Get on ODESZA’s new album, In Return NOW!

Ibeyi – “River” – These French/Cuban twins are on XL Recordings. Very awesome.

Avi Buffalo – “Overwhelmed With Pride” – Saw him open for Owen Pallett last week. The new album is smooth.

Slow Magic – “Waited 4 U” – Get your dancy vibes going. Slow Magic is very mysterious….

Bear In Heaven – “If I Were To Lie” – Love their new record. killer Brooklyn band.

SBTRKT – “New Dorp, New York (feat. Ezra Koenig)” – This is a game-changing collaboration. More to come on SBTRKT, but if you’ve already been following along on EE, we’re all over this record. 

ODESZA – “It’s Only (feat. Zyra)” – ODESZA and Zyra again. Yearning to learn more about this wonderful vocalist.

The Juan MacLean – “Charlotte” – An electro throwback track, the way only a DFA artist can do it.

Flying Lotus – “Never Catch Me” – It’s laughable how amazing this collab is. Saw this track premiered live at FYF Fest and it was released to HIGH praise and rightfully so.

and get on this ODEZSA album! Seriously.

 

New SBTRKT ft. A$AP Ferg, “Voices In My Head”

SBTRKT released what will be the closing track to his upcoming LP Wonder Where We Land. On “Voices In My Head”, SBTRKT manages to harness A$SAP Ferg’s deep voice into a melancholy jazz lament. Ferg’s mind is in chaos, but his delivery manages to stay controlled.

While spiraling effects are spread throughout the track, it closes with a swirling piano and we’re left spinning with Ferg. It’s a kick ass track, hear it here:

I Went to La Taqueria The Day It Was Named “America’s Best Burrito”

The winner of Five Thirty Eight’s “Burrito Bracket” was crowned today and it was none other than my neighbor down the hill, La Taqueria in San Francisco. To have an idea of how meticulous this challenge was for correspondent Anna Barry-Jester, 67,391 establishments were evaluated and 64 were chosen for Jester’s cross country road trip. In the end, my local haunt was the winner and after seeing my Twitter feed dominated by burrito shout-outs, I decided to make my way down the hill (it’d be rude not to.)

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While I expected a massive line of techies and scenesters who wanted to instantly get a taste of America’s best burrito, the line was super tempered and it felt like just another lunch hour at La Taqueria.

I think I waited 3 minutes before I paid for my order.
I think I waited 3 minutes before I paid for my order.

I ordered the go-to carnitas burrito Dorado style (rolled on the grill for a bit after it’s complete):

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This is what America’s #1 Burrito looks like.

I made sure to congratulate the staff (I’m kind of a regular) and snapped a photo of two burritos just before they were rolled to capture what 538 called “A technical marvel”:

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I will say that the carne asada burritos that were on the line after these looked far meatier, but I ultimately have no complaints with the amount of carnitas in my burrito. Here’s an inside look:

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Also, the thing that I didn’t see talked about enough on the 538 coverage, was the heavenly green salsa they have. It’s one of the most perfect blends of spicy and flavorful smooth salsas I’ve ever had. I recommend using it liberally:

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If I had one knock on this particular trip, it’s that my burrito fell apart towards the end, but I can probably attribute that to my own user error in unravelling the foil to take the 3rd photo on this post and then wrapping it back up like shit:

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Lastly, La Taqueira’s owner Miguel Jara claims that “The atmosphere at the taqueria makes for a better tasting burrito.” And he’s not entirely wrong. There’s always a different slew of Mexican musicians in there playing and on this particular day,  I don’t think I’ve ever seen the musician get this many tips. EVERY table gave him multiple dollars. He killed it.

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And there you have it folks. America’s best burrito is officially at La Taqueria in San Francisco, even though their tacos are better (but you didn’t hear that from me.)

Odesza’s New Album, In Return, Leaves A Lasting Impression….

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Almost two years to the day following 2012’s debut LP Summer’s Gone, Odesza released In Return.  The electronic production duo from Seattle gained notoriety by opening on tour for Pretty Lights and a had a handsome amount of viral success thereafter.

But their beats are more accessible than Pretty Lights…there’s a certain smooth and uplifting quality to their music. Where Summer’s Gone was largely a chill-out electronica record, In Return  evokes shades of a successful contemporary like Flume, but not as hard.

On one of the album’s early released tracks, “Say My Name” (feat Zyra), they masterfully incorporate the vocalist into a track that’s both danceable and relaxing. It’s the kind of production that seemingly understands precisely the state of electronic music today, it’s prevalent styles and nuances.

It’s a beautiful record. Click the title below to hear it and see them on tour. 

Get An Early Listen to Karen O’s “Crush Songs”

Karen O dropped her new album Crush Songs, which she apparently wrote sometime around 2007 after the Yeah Yeah Yeahs made Show Your Bones. 

The album sounds like a solo ukelele session with a slew of songs that are akin to 2013’s “The Moon Song” off of the Her soundtrack… A song which REALLY should’ve won the Oscar for Best Song over that Idina Menzel track from Frozen. At any rate, if you like (love) Karen O, then Crush Songs is for you. Hear it here via NPR First Listen. 

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Ending awkward silences since 1983.