Rooftop Playlist

I have been following Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (Orlando Higginbottom) since early last year. He does not have a lot of music readily available but I have listened to remixes that are on iTunes, Household Goods, Prehistory, and Prehistory II over and over again. Wednesday he was in Austin playing at The Mohawk.

Unfortunately because it was on a Wednesday, the show was held inside so T.E.E.D did not have his dancers on stage or his lighting setup. It did not leave anything to be desired, though, because T.E.E.D does what he does so well that after the first song, you do not miss the gimmicks. Still, I would be lying if I said some light tricks would not have been fun to dance with. Nonetheless, T.E.E.D went on stage with his signature feathered outfit.

His set was just under 90 minutes and there were minor pauses and a little stage banter. Each track faded into each other, creating a continuous flow of thrashing dance beats. T.E.E.D blends your conventional electronic synthesizer styles but pairs it up just enough with vocals, drum beats, and some stark bass. He is a magician behind 3 full tables of equipment. He has formula for making music people love, no gimmicks needed, just some tenacious beats. Try playing his music at home, or in the car, or even walking down the street. I guarantee everything else would just be background noise because his music invokes a powerful even sublime set of emotions.

No disrespect to The Mohawk because I absolutely love their venue but their indoor stage is not made to accompany tons of people who went there to dance. I would have liked to see T.E.E.D in an indoor venue like The Parish. (I saw Digitalism, another electric group there and it was a great dancing experience.) It would have also been nice to see T.E.E.D. on the outside stage of Mohawk where people can comfortably dance with the visual effects (some people were upset if you danced into them, can you believe that noise?) Granted, though pitch dark,  constant camera flashes did make for an interesting “dancing” atmosphere.

T.E.E.D has a heavy fan base in the UK, with his first album dropping early June.

Music Video of Tapes & Money with live footage:

Live Version of Closer/Space Ballad/Trouble in London:

Wednesday night I checked out Grimes at Lambert’s BBQ. Grimes prefaced the performance sharing that she had a sore throat but that did not stop her from bringing it. Her vocals are what make me like the music. The electro-pop, sort of dancy is becoming slightly more popular and not quite mainstream hype but not as unique as it once was unless done well and Grimes does it well. It is her unique and peculiar vocals that make the electric synth music work. Unfortunately, her set was rather short (I could listen to hours of her stuff) and covered her new (fantastic) album, Visions than her other 2 LPs, both of which were released in 2010/11 for free at some point. Grimes has amazing stage presence that sets the tone for the atmosphere in the venue. There are moments where the audience was so enthralled in her energy and times where one is just tranquil in the comfort of her soothing, yet high vocals. I would definitely love to check her out in another venue to fully appreciate the art of her music. As usual Lambert’s BBQ cannot handle such an elaborate sound setup that is not your basic bass, guitar, drums, and vocals. Anything synth driven makes it the sound so broken that it takes away from the quality of the performance, which is not to be attributed to the performer because Grimes is a dimensional talent.

Grimes will be at South By Southwest in two weeks.

Check out her new video Oblivion.

I haven’t done some free music in awhile. Alienhouse is a bunch of noise really but an agreeable noise full of effects, electronic percussion, and guitar that lets you delve into a lazed soundscape. This free 6-track album is a nicely done, mostly instrumental type narrative. According to their facebook they will be releasing a full length album “before the world ends,” which means you can expect some enticing tracks from them before the end of 2012.

It seems remixes are always a hit or miss. But Shabazz Palaces delivers a methodical remix on Battles’ “White Electric,” off of Gloss Drop. But that should be no surprise as their debut album Black Up was rightfully one of the best hip-hop albums of 2011. The remix version, along with other remixes are available today on vinyl.

Remixed Version:

Original Version:

Categorized as psychedelic and experimental,  ∆AIMON produces a hypnotic and haunting sound that helps turn off the things that preoccupy oneself, veg out, and free the mind of weary things.  AMEN was released by Tundra Dubs- an independent music label out of California that puts out an interesting scope of electronic music most people have not heard.

Listen and download for FREE AMEN Remixes by ∆AIMON then buy the AMEN EP.