The title of a song really doesn’t need to make any sense.  Just ask Low Roar.  While the title, “Vampire on the Fridge” may be distracting, the true focus should be on the slowly crafted, haunting track that supports its name.  Low Roar is the brainchild of Ryan Karazija, a musician who transplanted himself from California to Iceland and as a result, has created an icy track to send shivers up your spine.  String arrangements snake through the track and add a level of craft Karazija didn’t reach while living in the States.  Amazing what a change of scenery can do.  Enjoy.

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Voyageur sort of snuck onto the scene with its debut EP a few months ago.  The vocals were impactful and promising and held us at bay until one of Voyageur’s newest tracks, “Pharaohs,”  an acoustic track that is stripped down to the bare bones, and has more of an emotional blow than an entire orchestra or stadium rock band.  Just a piano as support, “Pharaohs” echoes love and loneliness about as good as any other heartbreaking track out there.  If you have heartstrings, Voyageur is pulling all of them.  Enjoy.

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This is surprisingly the first entry on EWH for Alt-J.  The UK outfit have a reputation of crafting music that is a bit shy or subdued.  However, there is a complexity to the music that eliminates the need for it to be aggressive or laden with upbeat commercial choruses.  Their recent single, “Hunger of the Pines,” continues the path of stripped melodies.  The track starts off barren but slowly leads into a synth-based chant, with a sample from Miley Cirus’ single, ‘4×4.’  Don’t run from this track simply because a 3 second blip of Miley Cirus is on it.  Alt-J seems to have picked the few words to loop and embed perfectly, adding confusing yet irresistible dimensions to the track.  “Hunger of the Pines” is the first single off Alt-J’s sophomore album, and I have a feeling more surprises are on the way.  Enjoy.

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Aww yeah, time to slow things down.  Electronic producer and songwriter Dexter Tortoriello is working under the name Dawn Golden and producing some seriously weighty music.  “All I Want,” off his debut album, Still Life, released last week, is a somber, heart aching track that avoids crossing the line into sadness.  The production is as naked as Tortoriello’s emotion, baring everything extraneous and keeping the sounds and words honest and simple.  Put this track on the shelf and break it out when you got some romantic stuff goin’ on.  Trust me.  It’ll do the trick.  Enjoy.

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The Antlers have announced Familiars, the follow-up album to their spectacular 2011 release, Burst Apart.  With that album release has come several new singles, including the most recent, “Hotel.”  Very similar to what we’ve heard on Burst Apart, Hotel is subtle magnificence, painfully slow at times but having us crave more.  Never overdoing the production, The Antlers rely on the weight of their words and the emotions behind them.  The end of the track is injected with a (unique for The Antlers) guitar groove that gives us a sweet little reward for our patience.  Enjoy.

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You can sense all the international flavors Pepa Knight sprinkles into his debut solo track, “Rahh!”  A surprisingly cheerful title, “Rahh!” is the first of many songs Pepa Knight is in the process of recreating after accidentally deleting an album’s worth of music he made over a two year period while traveling in India.  This first recreation, “Rahh!” is a masterful eclectic collection of sounds and rhythms, soaring at times and spiritual at others.  For Pepa Knight, looks like the second time’s a charm.  Enjoy.

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What a shock.  Another post about Glass Animals.  But when they come out with amazing tracks so consistently, can you blame me?  The group’s combination of psychedelia and R&B is unlike anything out there and always mesmerizing.  Their recent single, “Holiest,” featuring the alluring vocals of Tei Shi, is anything but holy.  It’s slow, seductive and meant to be heard with the lights off.  Glass Animals recently released their new EP, Gooey, and my anticipation grows for their debut album, whenever that may be.  Enjoy.

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Scoop “Holiest” here

Incan Abraham has always been a personal favorite.  One of the bands that sparked my obsession with indie music, they were psychedelic, harmonic, and unlike anything else I had heard before.  Understandably, over the past year or two, the LA-based quartet have put their efforts towards a more commercially favorable sound in order to broaden their exposure.  It seems with their new single, “All You Want,” off their long awaited debut album, Tolerance, they struck the perfect balance between the uniquity that previously defined them and the accessibility needed to attract a larger audience.  “All You Want” is an emotionally charged track that proves IA’s evolution is not the antithesis of creativity.  Long story short, this track is awesome and brings me to a realization: All I want is more.  Enjoy.

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Polyenso is something special.  Formerly named Oceana, the band disbanded, reformed, changed names, changed the lineup, and emerged as something far greater than what we could have expected.  Polyenso is an alternative rock outfit whose latest album and first under their new identity, One Big Particular Loop, immediately draws comparisons to the later releases of Radiohead.  Lead singer Brennan Taulbee has many Yorke-esque qualities to his vocals and the tracks have dark tones and off kilter, sputtering beats that are clearly influenced by the Kid A era (and beyond).  “Always Ending in You,” one of the best tracks on the album, and one of the best tracks I’ve heard in a while, has Taulbee’s pained voice begging for someone over tribal beats and a fragile melody that fades into a surprisingly fitting trumpet solo.  Definitely give Polyenso your attention because its groups like these that get us excited about being music fans.  Enjoy.

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Straight from London comes Bat and Ball, a quintet founded by brother/sister duo, Chris and Abi Sinclair.  Firing out sticky electronics, a lethargic bass and verses in a passively aggressive fashion with their debut single, “We Prefer it in the Dark,” Bat and Ball displays a sharpness even though they roll it out so nonchalantly.  Their debut EP came out a few months ago and is equally impressive, sporting some eclectic digital displays and vocals that at times are uninterested by the music playing behind them.  Enjoy.

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