scissorkick

August 23, 2010

Beat Beep Butterbumps

I was going to post a pretty far-ranging summer mix earlier this week, but something was missing. It was a little too wide open. Then I realized there’s a common theme in the new music that’s buzzing around in the airwaves this summer. Between Best Coast, Budos Band, the Books, Blundetto, and Big Boi, this [...]

August 18, 2010

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Pop Winds

Pop Winds is a group with a distinct, unmistakable flavor. Not surprisingly, distinct unmistakable flavors have a tendency to appeal to a narrow range of people. Thankfully, this Montreal-based trio has done us all the favor of breaking from the norm—at least in this respect. Pop Winds has a sound that, however distinct, should be [...]

August 10, 2010

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Candy Claws

I’ve always been attracted to soundscapes: worlds built out of voices, keyboards, and feedback that balance between detached and alien, as well as emotional and personal. Candy Claws, from Fort Collins, CO, delivers a distinctive brand of organic and atmospheric soundscapes. Warm Forest Floor is exemplary of their discography. The songs have a dream like quality, [...]

August 9, 2010

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Hedzoleh Soundz

This album was recorded in 1972, a year before the band, Hedzoleh Soundz, would rerecord several of the same songs for a classic Hugh Masekela album. Here are those songs, minus the trumpet and dub effects, but given a more primordial force by way of thick basslines, relentless percussion and heartfelt melodies. If the typical [...]

August 5, 2010

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The Macrotones

A few weeks ago I found myself in Davis Square—just outside Boston—where I was unexpectedly greeted by the accumulation of vendors of decidedly quirky sculptures and paintings, selling their wares to decidedly quirky people that can only be an art festival. Fortunately, at the same time my ears were greeted by the groovy rhythm section [...]

July 28, 2010

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Christopher Willits

New offering from Ghostly recording artist Christopher Willits just found it’s way into my inbox. Perfect summertime electro-acoustic jams from the very talented experimental guitarist/producer/software developer/mippie (that’s musical hippie, meant as a good thing) who we’ve covered before here on SK. Densely layered and expectantly complex, “Sun Body” is perhaps one of Willit’s most accessible [...]

July 27, 2010

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Chants

When you run a blog as long as I have, you end up stuck in database hell. Interns adding contact emails from the Hype Machine top 100 eventually land on scissorkick, and after nearly 10 years my inbox is cluttered by PR from labels and bands that have probably never downloaded or read about a [...]

July 14, 2010

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Blog for Scissorkick

We’re looking for people with truly open minds here. If you’ve followed the blog you know the consistent thread hasn’t been genre — we hop around from beats to metal to indie to electronic without blinking — but more the tone of the posts. We focus on instrumental music (not exclusively) that often fits nicely [...]

July 14, 2010

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Conspiracy of Owls – Puzzle People

When I think of the Detroit music scene, I think of a huge amount of musical diversity: the soulful sounds of Motown, Mick Collins’ gritty garage rock with The Gories and The Dirtbombs , the brash hip hop of MCs like Eminem and Guilty Simpson, and the analog synths of the early Detroit Techno scene. [...]

July 8, 2010

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American Men

Jeff sent this EP over and said he was “90% sure” I’d be into it. Fuck, I must be hard to please or something because this is so squarely in my wheel house I can’t imagine why he thought 10% of me wouldn’t be feeling this. American Men are a group of Scotsmen doing instrumental, [...]

July 14, 2010

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Conspiracy of Owls – Puzzle People

July 8, 2010

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American Men

July 2, 2010

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ScissorMix Vol. 4: Sunset Summer Jams

Another holiday weekend means another installment of the ScissorMix series. It’s been pretty crazy for me over the past month (hence the lack of posts) but I had to find the time to put together something for the 4th of July weekend. Because of the general business of the past month, I haven’t had a [...]

May 28, 2010

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ScissorMix Vol. 3: Memorial Day Mix

It’s the first long weekend of the summer and that means it’s time to find a backyard with a grill, hang out with friends and listen to some tunes. So this mix is designed for those who enjoy lounging in the sun, cold beer in hand, while patiently waiting for the next round of meat [...]

May 26, 2010

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Scissorkast 8: Split Personalities

Spring has sprung and as usual there’s a handful of significant releases on the horizon. SK favorites like Broken Social Scene, The Album Leaf and Ratatat all have new ones either recently released or upcoming, but what’s more exciting are the smaller artists who have brand new or sophomore records coming out for summer soundtrack [...]

April 20, 2010

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Mophono (Natural Self Remix)

For some reason, rock has seemed to co-opt the term “indie” when it comes to music. Sure, Indie hip-hop had it’s day in the late 90′s but really, when you think indie, you almost exclusively think rock and roll and all of the trappings of the indie rock world. It’s unfortunate that the spotlight has [...]

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