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Caught in the net: A high-pitched hometown homage

 

Larry Ryan
Thursday 30 May 2013 18:20 BST
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Julia Holter returns in August with her third album in three years
Julia Holter returns in August with her third album in three years

LA musician Julia Holter (pictured) returns in August with her third album in three years in the shape of Loud City Song. Last year's much praised Ekstasis was a stand-out, full of great experimental baroque pop, strange electronics, fine songwriting and Holter's lovely high-pitched vocal.

The promotional bumf cites Colette and Frank O'Hara as influences on this album themed around Holter's relationship with her hometown, all of which might make one uneasy, but in her skilled hands it should all be OK.

The first track from Loud City Song has been a released and it is an intriguing opening effort. “World” is an extremely sparse affair with those high-end, poised vocals leading the charge over spare hints of synths and strings. The song can be heard with its lo-fi, LA-shot video at youtu.be/BmT7GKPsxto.

Sign up for two free Liars downloads

One of my favourite bands of recent years, arts-rockers, and more, Liars recently put out two new tracks, and a video, following on from last year's altogether underrated album WIXIW. The two tracks come as a free download at mad.ly/signups/80640/join when you sign on to their mailing list – alongside the chance to win some of the band's artwork.

Both tracks “I Saw You From The Lifeboat” and “Perfume Tear” follow the same electronic textures as last year's LP. Whether they're straight outtakes from those sessions is unclear, though they have a darker, harsher tone than the album, which was a relatively smooth affair by the three-piece's experimental standards. The former track also came with a video of sorts made up of a montage of photos taken while the band toured. See it at youtu.be/vbXD96YYHPM.

Gold Panda's slab of melancholy techno

Nearly three years after Lucky Shiner, his sparkling debut album of glitchy instrumental techno, Gold Panda is back on 10 June with new album Half Of Where You Live. This week, the UK producer shared a track from the record, the second to emerge from the album after the excellent “Brazil” a few weeks ago. Both tunes can be found streaming at soundcloud.com/goldpanda with the new one, “We Work Nights”, being a lovely slab of melancholy techno.

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