The Ephemeric

As you all know, I am always on the look out for interesting new music. The usual schlocky crap doesn't cut it with me, I crave ingenuity and originality. I scour blogs and forums and new releases in order to find the best of the best, and it is working under this modus operandi that I find the vast majority of my music. Fleet Foxes rose to prominence last year, while I was salivating over them a full year before. Same with MGMT and the Last Shadow Puppets. More recently I have been extremely impressed by Passion Pit and Dan Deacon as well as up and coming band Air France. Now I would like to share with you the newest songs that have me very excited.



Basement Jaxx are back!
I'm sure most of you remember UK house duo Basement Jaxx, consisting of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe. They've been around since the mid 90s and released a number of mega hits including Red Alert, Romeo and Where's Your Head At.

However, that was a long time ago, and they haven't released much of any real note in a while. But now, they are back, and they might just be better than ever.


Raindrops is their new song off their upcoming album, Scars. And thus we have the first mega mega dance hit of the year.

This is one of those songs that I first listened to and was not immensely impressed with. The song opens with fairly cheesy Shakira-esque beat that had me reeling just a tad (though in hindsight, even this works well with the rest of the song as a whole), but quickly melts away into sweet melody.

Basement Jaxx take a distinctly scientific approach to their music and the result is a finely tuned track that combines classic pop stylings with a typically offbeat and restless hook. What follows from here is like musical candy, a giddily psychedelic number brimming with exquisite detail. Think of this as the Heston Blumenthal of dance pop.

This is one of the best songs of 2009 so far, and it bodes well for the rest of their album.


The Best of the Rest
"I'm Walking This Road Because You Stole My Car" by "Fascinoma" - One of those amazing songs of a truly rare beauty, reminds me a little of this Cranberries song and that song from the end of the first American Pie movie. This band are going to be huge, and it's all thanks to the tv show American Dad.


"Skeletons" by "Yeah Yeah Yeah's" - I've heard good things about this band for a long time, but this is the first song I've heard from them that I thought was actually stunning. Enjoy.


"Big Jet Plane" by "Lady of the Sunshine"



Also the new Passion Pit Album Manners, which I have already reviewed for you.