ListenUp
Songs to make up to from Ta-ku, plus new music from Yo La Tengo, Dream Koala and more in this week’s musical round-up
Shura: White Light
With much-adored heartache confessionals like “Indecision,” “Touch” and “2Shy” under her belt, UK-based singer-songwriter Shura switches things up a bit with her latest. “White Light” is a seven-minute jam that boosts the ’80s dance beats and post-rock licks, without losing any of the delicate emotion in her voice.
Ta-ku: Long Time No See
Perth-based producer Ta-ku (aka Regan Matthews) has a penchant for creating atmospheric tracks that are beautifully emotive—provoking the listener to figure out if their feelings are warm and buoyant, melancholy, or a beguiling blend of the two. His latest release since 2013’s EP Songs To Break Up To, “Long Time No See” comes from the upcoming Songs To Make Up To (out 12 June). Featuring Atu, “Long Time No See” is a moody, ambient and tender tune that will no doubt tug on the heartstrings.
Quindar: Twin-Pole Sunshade
Quindar is a newly formed musical project between Wilco’s Mikael Jorgensen and art historian James Merle Thomas (currently a postdoc scholar at USC). Their music, which remixes NASA’s audio and video archive, is a creative extension of Thomas’ research, which explores the connections between postwar American avant-garde art and NASA. The title song from their two-track EP “Twin-Pole Sunshade” walks listeners through NASA’s 1973 Skylab 2 mission, when the crew had to make substantial repairs. History becomes digestible, danceable and wholly immersive as Quindar executes its parallel musical improvisations. Catch the two performing live at Wilco’s music and arts festival Solid Sound, at Mass MoCA later this June.
Dream Koala: Earth
21-year-old Brazilian electronic artist Yndi Ferreira, aka Dream Koala, becomes a helmet-fitted space explorer in the music video for his track “Earth“—and don’t let the title mislead you, as it’s an out-of-this-world journey into the beautiful unknown. Two minutes in, there’s an “Interstellar” wormhole-like sequence that fuses with Dream Koala’s escalating beats for a multi-sensory climax.
Yo La Tengo: Automatic Doom
Three decades old and still going strong, Yo La Tengo celebrates this milestone with a “sequel” album to their 1990 Fakebook, which featured covers, re-workings of their own songs and brand new songs. Stuff Like That There will feature covers of The Cure, Sun Ra, Hank Williams and more—as well as two original Yo La Tengo songs. Stuff Like That There is set for release 28 August 2015 (with the option of the Mystery Bundle) followed by a world tour that kicks off in September. For now, you can hear their take on “Automatic Doom,” a track from fellow Hoboken, NJ band The Special Pillow.
ListenUp is a Cool Hunting series published every Sunday that rounds up the music we tweeted throughout the week, also found in Listen. Hear the year so far via Cool Hunting Spotify.
