Shigeto: Pulse

Having stayed quiet for the past two years while touring and working on other projects (like forming the jazz quartet High Risk), Detroit-based Shigeto has resurfaced with the beautifully composed instrumental electronic track “Pulse.” With vocal samples and high-pitched hits adding to the intricate percussion, Shigeto’s polyrhythms make it difficult to locate a strong foundation to cling to, and instead push the listener continually forward. …

Doug Hream Blunt: Ride the Tiger

Amateur SF-based musician Doug Hream Blunt only made one EP and one LP, which he pressed himself, dropping them off in the “local artists” bins at record stores—but the lucky crate-diggers who gave the pretty obscure records a chance became hooked. The seemingly repetitive riffs and chord progressions, led by someone who never had formal education aside from a group class called “How to Form …

Beirut: Gibraltar

Set in a dreamscape-like, trash-filled version of Gibraltar, with its famed Rock nothing more than a purple landfill, Beirut’s brand new video (for the appropriately titled track “Gibraltar“) manages to be both charming and inventive. The track itself, off of the forthcoming album No No No, finds lead singer Zach Condon’s warm vocals resting atop keyboards and congo drums. It’s the second preview the band …