na: the leftfield leftovers

Man, Jayson wasn’t kidding about today being a big day. In amongst the marquee stuff that’s dropped in, I noticed a bunch (a slew even) of great and/or interesting records that I figured were worth running down here. Even still, I’m sure there’s stuff of note that I missed. Feel free to drop some science in the comments.

V/A, The Minimal Wave Tapes: Volume One: Is 2010 the year of coldwave? Between NYT Salem hype, Cold Cave, the Wierd Records party/scene and now this Stones Throw comp, it’s time to stop being CHILL and start getting COLD. Ugh. ANWYAYYYY, this is pretty great. RIYL: Linn drum-fueled, cheapo ’80s synth sounds. And dreary things.

Side note: Can someone explain to me the difference between coldwave and darkwave? Kthnx.

Hannu, Hintergarten: A great record from last spring. Here’s what I said in October:

Hannu’s Hintergarten is quickly becoming one of my favorite albums of the year. Like a more somber companion to Four Tet’s Rounds, it’s a kind of crackly downtempo electronic album with lots of vinyl pops and piano plinks and, well, space.

Really, really glad to see it on the site! Four Tet definitely on the mind today with this coming in and the new record being pretty legitimately awesome. Also tweeting first thoughts RE: There Is Love In You at 17 Dots Twitter.

Infinite Body, Carve Out The Face Of My God: Some lax Googling tells me that this is one guy (Kyle Parker) who used to record under the name Gator Surprise. Mmmk. This is an interesting take on ambient in that it sounds overdriven. It’s warm and enveloping, sure, but it has this harsh aura. An impressive collection in a (micro)genre where it’s very hard to define your own space.

V/A, The Real Sound Of Chicago: Holy cow are there a lot of regional obscuro comps. This one is from BBE/!K7 so you know it’s at least legit enough to give a whirl. Pretty expansive at 25 tracks, Real Sound focuses pretty much on maximalist disco. It’s a bit too… splashy for me? But definitely of note for disco dudes.

Beach Fossils, Daydream / Desert Sand: We’ve been loving this guy Dustin for awhile now; it’s exciting to finally get some material on the site. I know the whole beach-chill-glo-wave-fi thing has become a bit of a rubbernecking disaster, but this guy has tunes. Seriously. I really like the kind of minimal two guitar interplay. Very optimistic about the LP (also coming through Captured Tracks, sometime in ‘10 I hear).

Quail Lungs, Dumb Dadadum: Like Infinite Body, another artist on PPM, Dean from No Age’s label. Dumb is a pair of ramshackle, probably homemade songs. The A-side is completely falling apart — “Dumb Dadadum” sounds like it was recorded while stumbling home from a drunken night out. You know, slurred lead (and backing) vocals, occasional tamborine randomly showing up, yell-y pub-anthem chorus. The B is a more droning keyboard affair. It’s kind of a slight single, but it’s charmed me for some reason.

Ray Mang, Bullet Proof: NEW DFA, NEW DFA! [Insert Drudge siren] The B-side is probably the winner here — a slow-burning cosmic (overused I know, but it’s cosmic sounding!) disco number with some nice piano stabs.