Deerhunter

As we wait for February's icy blast, this five-piece from Atlanta can warm your heart. Formed in 2001, it appears to be Deerhunter's ambition to revisit two previously diametrically opposed genres and send them crashing together: the hypnotic wash of ambient and minimalist music with the sturm und drang of garage rock. At any moment recalling some of Spacemen 3 or My Bloody Valentine's finest moments, this is a post millenial neurotic fog of delayed guitars, lo-fi drums and distant vocals.

Almost inevitably they have been picked up by that bastion of edgy and out there, Kranky, and clearly show the company's desire to break free from any cliches that might remain caught up in their back list. So Krank104, Crypotograms, has exploded into existance and is a schizophrenic collection of tracks. At times forming long drawn-out washes of sound revisiting Eno and Budd, at others angular psych-rock recalling Sonic Youth or bursting with dream-pop colour.

Two tracks really can't adequately cover the range of Deerhunter's ambition, but they are typical of the quality of the album as a whole.

Deerhunter - Spring Hall Convert on Kranky
Deerhunter - Heatherwood on Kranky

Slipper

Slipper is the solo project of Sam Dodson, of Loop Gurus fame. This is an experiment in kitsch electronica-exotica, not unlike the work of Tipsy. The inspiration comes from all manner of weird and outrageous records from the 50s and 60s.

Last Train is the first track of Slipper's release "Attack Of The Killer Lobsters" released by the Stealing Orchestra netlabel. Pull on an angora sweater, pour yourself a martini, relax in the neon glow of exotic beats and swing!

Download the entire album.

Player One

Yes it's Player One (aka MePaul from The DIY Chart Show) - he's been performing live for years and years from two stints back in the day on Blue Peter then on to a support slot with Shed 7 and the quintessential near-miss almost getting signed to Chrysalis records. He now DJs on the DIY Chart Show and plays others people's music during his residency at Brno's legendary Fleda night-club. His new direction sees him taking on some classic 60's and 70's tracks and giving them a little shine of breakbeat pop magic.

Well what do you think?

Shirley Ellis - The Clapping Song (Player One Rethink) (MP3)

Please check out his myspace for more....

(this is a daeitmasel exclusive and will only be available for evaluation for a week or so).

Stray Dog Cafe

Hailing from Wigan, Stray Dog Cafe take their cues from The Fall, Shellac, Captain Beefheart and the whole world of angst ridden, edgy alt-rock. The three piece of wiry guitar, thunderous bass and pounding, angular drums form their own self titled brand of itchy, restless and noisy Minimal Dirt Rock.

Although the band have been around since 2004, today sees the release of their first shiny 7" - "Maxamillion / Theme: From Warlock".

(Admittedly, this post is spam for some friends, but I think they rock in an interesting way that you will enjoy!)

Streaming audio from their website.

Fever Tree

Fever Tree were just a normal folk-rock band until they left Houston, Texas in 1967 and headed for the lysergic love-in that was San Francisco.

They soon changed their sound to the fuzzy pop of flower power and whilst not being a huge name in that field, they still managed to break into the Top 100 with the San Francisco Girls single.

But we’re heading for their second album for this weeks instalment.

Ninety Nine and One Half = 2 Minutes and 49 seconds of dirty, scuzzy garage psyche.

The guitars wail, the bass and drums groove and Dennis Keller shrieks his heart out over the top.

Fever Tree - Ninety Nine and One Half

Enjoy.

The Six Parts Seven

Hitting the shelves today is the new long player from The Six Parts Seven, Casually Smashed to Pieces on Suicide Squeeze. Refining the alt.country/post-rock sounds of their previous albums (Things Shaped in Passing, [Everywhere] [And Right Here] and assorted split releases and remix projects), the album is a distilled piece of instrumental americana. Not afraid of adding lap steel and Memphis horns into the rarified world of post-rock, they mark a refreshing shift from the more apocalyptic work of the leading lights of the genre such as Godspeed, Mono and Mogwai.

To celebrate the new release, their record company has posted a MP3 best-of, containing a couple of the new album's tracks (Stolen Moments and the divine Falling Over Evening) while revisiting some of the band's back catalogue.

The Six Parts Seven - MP3EP on Suicide Squeeze

Mark Eitzel

Mark Eitzel - Candy Ass (2005 - Cooking Vinyl)

Hardly a stranger to the scene of leftfield songwriters, Eitzel has somehow managed to maintain cult status whilst unassumingly infiltrating a hefty number of music collections. The buzz surrounding this 2005 album, however, was less of a hum and more of a 'hmmmm', as a thousand indie critics stroked their beards and furrowed their brows simultaneously; described on Indiefolkforever as containing "a lot of Pro Tools wankery" and on Pitchfork as a "crushing bore of a detour". I, being a sucker for awkward underdog releases and an arbitrary penchant for anything Pitchfork hates, have decided to like this album. Yes, it's hit and miss. Yes, Eitzel has been blogged to buggery before. No, I don't care; this album is a bold manouvre by a veteran and contains some strange, interesting and wonderfully heavy-eyelid inducing songs, like this one:

Mark Eitzel - Song Of The Mole (mp3)