Some ostriches may stick their heads in the ground, but Alex Schaaf has kept his noggin up in the thick of it, absorbing everything and pouring it into his constantly progressing musical endeavors. As Yellow Ostrich, Schaafs sprightly vocals soar over primitive percussion, jaunty guitar riffs and aptly-placed electronic interludes.
These are totally bedroom recordings, and consequently, production is a big lacking. Nonetheless, this is great stuff, usually nothing more than multi-tracked vocals over simple drumming. NYOP
And thats probably belittling. Undeterred and probably amused by whatever crap Ive just been spewing, the one-man-band has, for the past year or so, been working on The Mistress, a project he just kept coming back to before and after previous releases. And its paid off, because its really great. Its filled to the brim with vocal harmonies, vocals which sound curiously reminiscent of Sufjan but still distinctive enough to halt claims of imitation, and these vocal layers bring lashings of charm to each song they grace. Theyre fuzzy and warm, like a hug from the Honey Monster, and, unlike lots of bedroom-folk out there, theyve remembered to make themselves enjoyable by spinning catchy hooks and rising and falling and delivering pretty words in pretty patterns and just sounding ever so nice.
This is my favorite music coming out of Portland right now. Ethereal and beautiful indie rock, with some ambient touches. I think Mojave Bird has already been mentioned in this thread, but I don't think their friends, Port St. Willow, have. PSW was produced by Peter from The Antlers. The Antlers are magic. He brought some of that magic to this other project. Enjoy.
We're actually working on a shopping cart right now. We should be rolling it out in the next month or two. Stay tuned! For the latest updates, please watch the blog (blog.bandcamp.com) or follow us on Twitter (bandcamp).
This is quite pleasant. Acoustic guitar based instrumentals with some light bass and percussion and a touch of electronics - tags itself ambient and post-rock as well if that appeals, but mostly just nice little tunes. Free download.
Carry On by elephant
I'm enjoying this - plaintive, reflective vocals against slouchy electronic and acoustic backing; in places very reminiscent of Thom Yorke, but a bit more laid back/less angsty, at other times more stripped down and lo-fi. Quite varied, and some really nice moments. GBP3. Give it a stream.
Excellent experimental improvisor/microtonal soprano saxophonist Bhob Rainey has several offerings on bandcamp. He has a moderately high profile in the 'eai' community, and several fine releases featured. The BSC release is a fine example of group improv and NYOP. He also has a blog which appropriately just featured a roll call of experimental musicians offering their music to stream online at various places, so check that out.
This music's quite a bit farther 'out' than most (all?) of the music posted here, in case you're unfamiliar.
This might not excite everyone, but I think it's cool that Dust-to-Digital's catalog of archival recordings can be streamed. It's not the kind of thing that can usually be experienced without buying. Stream Only
I wonder what an eai commuinty is. That is, I think I have a handle on the community part, but the eai stumps me. OK, I'll take a shot: experimental, ambient and inscrutable? Impossible? Inaudible?
'eai' ostensibly stands for "electro-acoustic improvisation", but it's long since become a label rather than description. Here's a brief wikipedia article on it, and a more involved discussion from 2004 within the aforementioned "community".
@Brighternow - thanks for the information about multiple purchases. Like me you probably get 'stung' by exchange rate charges on single purchases. It often puts me off buying some things as it adds so much to the cost. Hopefully that will go down soon.
I wouldn't take much credit. I doubt that in the two weeks that the reference was put up that eMu could have moved that fast to pick up the album. The album became notorious on its own, earning glowing reviews from Paste as well as any number of online music blogs and magazines. 1400+ likes is impressive on its own.
My biggest issue is that making Mistress part of eMusic selects seems disingenuous. Getting eMu to pick up the album was perhaps a big coup for the band, allowing them to still provide the album cheaply but give it bigger visibility. However, eMu did little to discover or develop this band. They were well on their way.
BT: good points. I didn't know about the internet buzz for this group or album. You're right though, thinking about some of the other eMu selects like Deastro or of course Rural Alberta Advantage, they really did seem to come from relative obscurity.
Just a sliver of a goodie here - one free track, but a nice one. A band called The First Conception has one free track here that is to my ear very reminiscent of early Bruce Cockburn solo acoustic guitar work. Not quite his level, but nice track.
I'm going to risk a certain amount of "indie cred" here and just state, for the record, that I really, really don't like Yellow Ostrich one tiny little bit. So, there, I said it.
@ScissorMan - I must admit that I do have agreement with you on this. I listened to it yesterday and decided it wasn't for me, in that I'd prefer to buy something more in tune with the kind of thing I am now listening to at the moment. So now we have both lost indie cred!
I'll admit that I was unsure how my wife would react when she first heard YO: either it would sound like a cool update on Adam and the Ants, or it would wear thin quickly like Adam and the Ants. The record had high potential for monotony.
Comments
Zoos of Berlin - Taxis
Zoos of Berlin - EP
Art rock/post-punk from the track I listened to. Sounds pretty cool. Rec'd by Charlene Kaye!
FREE
From a Paste magazine write-up on Yellow Ostrich:
These are totally bedroom recordings, and consequently, production is a big lacking. Nonetheless, this is great stuff, usually nothing more than multi-tracked vocals over simple drumming. NYOP
ETA: From a review at Sputnik Music (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/40144/Yellow-Ostrich-The-Mistress/)
Port St. Willow
Mojave Bird
Post Mortem (The Echelon Effect Remix)
- Free.
- Single, NYP.
- Album, NYP.
Here's the reply:
Hello,
We're actually working on a shopping cart right now. We should be rolling it out in the next month or two. Stay tuned! For the latest updates, please watch the blog (blog.bandcamp.com) or follow us on Twitter (bandcamp).
Cheers,
Jen
november (ep) by Sö
This is quite pleasant. Acoustic guitar based instrumentals with some light bass and percussion and a touch of electronics - tags itself ambient and post-rock as well if that appeals, but mostly just nice little tunes. Free download.
Carry On by elephant
I'm enjoying this - plaintive, reflective vocals against slouchy electronic and acoustic backing; in places very reminiscent of Thom Yorke, but a bit more laid back/less angsty, at other times more stripped down and lo-fi. Quite varied, and some really nice moments. GBP3. Give it a stream.
Clem Leek - Snow tales
- Free.
- "Like marshmellows for the ears".
Warm Under the Covers by Uncle Skeleton
Happy, bouncy, squelchy electronica, kind of a Mouse on Mars-like aesthetic in many tracks. Free/NYOP, "Please feel no obligation to pay"
"Elephant" by La V
This music's quite a bit farther 'out' than most (all?) of the music posted here, in case you're unfamiliar.
This might not excite everyone, but I think it's cool that Dust-to-Digital's catalog of archival recordings can be streamed. It's not the kind of thing that can usually be experienced without buying. Stream Only
Really enjoying that Echelon Effect.
Thanks.
ETA: IT GOT BETTER! The album is the new EMusic Selects.
Also, the Bandcamp page has changed. It only has two songs to stream from the album.
Here's the cached page for anyone that still wants to stream this...
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sGfhEWsQVMYJ:yellowostrich.bandcamp.com/+site:bandcamp.com+yellow+ostrich&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com
It sounds like they've been listening to their Shins albums religiously.
Craig
My biggest issue is that making Mistress part of eMusic selects seems disingenuous. Getting eMu to pick up the album was perhaps a big coup for the band, allowing them to still provide the album cheaply but give it bigger visibility. However, eMu did little to discover or develop this band. They were well on their way.
Now I feel better... sort of...