Festive Fantasy

Gorillaz served up a generous Christmas gift to their fans this year when they debuted a new album, 'The Fall', in full on their website.

While everybody was getting their knickers in a twist about this unexpected release, recorded entirely on an Apple iPad, Owen Pallett (the artist formerly known as Final Fantasy) quietly unleashed his own festive treat - a collection of demos & instrumentals from his last album “Heartland”

Although one of the tracks on the 'Export EP' is entitled 'Owen's Voice', none of the tracks feature vocals by Pallett. Even minus his dulcet tones, the tracks are still well worth a listen.

Owen Pallett - Export [Demo EP] by Owen Pallett

Owen was also recently responsible for scoring the New York Times' excellent 'Fourteen Actors Acting' feature, which paid tribute to the actors that defined cinema in 2010. Among those included are Chloe Moretz, Jesse Eisenberg, Natalie Portman and James Franco, but my favourite is Tilda Swinton, presumably included for her role in the wonderful, 'I Am Love'.



The full collection can be seen here.

Like A Shotgun Needs An Outcome

The new Lykke Li EP hit the web less that 48 hours ago but, already, it's totally permeated the blogosphere.

The Swedish singer's stunning debut, 'Youth Novels', had critics fawning over her lovelorn lullabies back in 2008 but radio stations and the record-buying public were less enthused by the material.

No harm though because, based on the initial reaction to these first two cuts from her sophomore album, Lykke seems set to make more of an impact this time around.

While heart-wrenching ballad 'Paris Blue' treads familiar territory, 'Get Some' marks a change of pace with its rhythmic drums and racy lyrics and makes for a more intriguing listen.

Lykke Li - Get Some

Lykke Li - Paris Blue



Both tracks can be downloaded for free here.

Up To All Sorts

Once upon a time, receiving blog-mail used to make me embarrassingly excited.

Unfortunately, these days, most of the messages I'm sent are generic send-outs from music PR folk or mass-mails by DJs who have obviously never read my blog but would have me believe that they're sat at their computer all day, refreshing every 5 seconds, hoping for new posts.

Thankfully, every now and again, sifting through the spam pays off when you stumble upon a worthwhile recommendation. Take London singer Antics, for example.

With shades of some of Yeasayer's recent output, the Battersea boy's disco-tinged electropop is very much 'my bag' and, even if the production is a little rough around the edges, there's more than enough invention and variety in the few tracks on his Myspace to warrant earmarking.

His track 'Headspace' is especially fresh and available for free download here:

One Track Mnd, One Track Heart...

Marina and the Diamonds has served up probably her most conventional video to date for her latest single, 'Oh No!'.

The track is one of my favourites from her album, 'The Family Jewels' and I kinda dig the pastel palette and comic book aesthetic in the video:



The song is one of the few that wasn't doing the rounds aeons before the album's release so hopefully it'll have a bit more impact than the largely ignored 'I Am Not A Robot' re-release.

Here's a few free remixes of the track, should you be in the market for a re-swizz or three. The David's Lyre one is my favourite.

Marina And The Diamonds - Oh No! (Active Child Remix) by thebubbleboy

Marina And The Diamonds - Oh No! (Grum Remix) by thebubbleboy

Marina And The Diamonds - Oh No! (David's Lyre Remix) by thebubbleboy

The Caged Bird Sings

The more I hear from New York wunderkind Penguin Prison, the more I'm convinced he's poised to deliver one of the finest pop albums of this year.

After the initial teasers of 'A Funny Thing' and 'Animal Animal', he's today released a second double whammy on Neon Gold's record label.

'The Worse It Gets' is a tidy little disco-tinged number, laden with catchy hooks, while synthpop slow-burner 'Something I'm Not' is, to my ears, the best thing we've heard from him to date.

Oh, and both tracks have been made available as free downloads. Nice.

Penguin Prison - The Worse It Gets (Free Download)



Penguin Prison - Something I'm Not (Free Download)



Starsmith is apparently set to unleash a big remix of 'Something I'm Not' but, for now, I'm kinda taken with the club-friendly Friends Electric Remix:

Pin Ups

One of my favourite tunes of 2008 was 'Cryptic' by Pin Me Down, a collaboration between Bloc Party's Russell Lissack and New York-based vocalist Milena Mepris.

Teaming Lissack's trademark monster basslines with 80's guitar riffs and Milena's snarling vocal, 'Cryptic' was a pop-rock gem and subsequent tracks 'Ticking' and 'Pretty in Pink' proved just as infectious.

But then.... nothing.

There was nary a peep out of the band for over twelve months and, honestly, I presumed the project had been scrapped altogether. Then, a couple of days ago, the pair returned, all guns blazing, with a snazzy new website and a new track, 'Time Crisis'.

The track is in a similar enough vein to its predecessors but, to my ears, it's a winning formula and I hope Pin Me Down stick around a bit longer this time. Download the MP3 for free here.