Inc. - "The Place"

Inc. used to be called Teen Inc. (if you know me, then you've most likely heard this cut of theirs from '10). The dudes are in their 20s as a group now, I guess, growing into more of a polished R&B tip on "The Place." Stick around for the smooth jazz guitar that'll stick it's soft tongue right in your ear toward the end.



Song just premiered over at 4AD headquarters and is off an LP to be released by that label sometime next year.

.L.W.H. - CIA TV

Really digging a couple items in particular off of Green Ova fixture .L.W.H.'s new CIA TV LP: the below video for "Figurehead," which is a preview of "CIA TV: THE MOTION PICTURE," apparently (we'll see what that's all about, but the first video is promising), and his also charming track with Green Ova figureheads (not to confuse you) Main Attrakionz, titled "Draco Jr," maybe the most unabashedly melodramatic production on a hip hop track I've ever heard. Squadda and Mondre get that swaggy-drunk slowflow on it and make the shit just melt, though.

The whole LP is good. Pay whatever for it aqui.

Thin Gaze - "Geisty"

Not much info on this dude, Thin Gaze, 'cept he's from Vancouver and tags his bandcamp as "r&b/soul croongaze lounge noir & b." Sounds about right. Comparisons to Leonard Cohen at his most jilted are unavoidable on "Geisty," as he moans, "To the women in my life/I'll have you know I'm changin' it all up/'Till I've got no conscience to bear," like some moping sexual bogeyman. The B-side, "Black Collar," brings more of the noir&b he's referring too. Allllllmost danceable, but the dancing would be too eerie for me.

This stuff is only available on cassette right now through Student Loan Records. Excited to hear more.

Matt Carlson - All Moments

NNA has made available a stream of new LP, All Moments, by Portland's Matt Carlson (one half of the duo, Golden Retriever). Flowy synth textures recorded, surprisingly, all analog. I'd recommend listening to this while browsing the paintings and sketches of cover artist, Jason Traeger. His painting on the cover of All Moments is titled "Book Worm."

Imperial Topaz - "Moonlit Mind"

Kewl new track here from Brooklyn's Imperial Topaz. I blurbed about their SO killer Imperial EP back in June (if you haven't picked that up yet, do). These guys remind me of High Places if High Places lived up to their potential. To be fair, it seems IT have a little bit of a bigger bag of tricks than HP, but come on...

AXIS:SOVA - "Caustic Plume"

If only Daniel had dropped "Caustic Plume" by Chitown's AXIS:SOVA on that little boombox and gotten the beachpsych going before Johnny and his Cobra Kai sandcycle sidekicks showed up, things would've turned out much less bloody. Well, maybe just as bloody, but more in the sense of a mutually agreeable and sacrificial bloodletting to precede the naked fire dance and beach orgy. You fucked up, Daniel. Johnny would've shared Ali with a little coaxing and the musical promise of inner growth and spiritual expansion, and the night would've ended very, very differently.

AXIS:SOVA is the solo project of Brett Sova. His debut LP, Weight of a Color, is out now on Kill Shaman. Don't get beat up.

Loathes - Loathes EP

Cleveland/Louisville duo, Loathes, make cloudy, haunted, sample-heavy ambient experiments. Their new self-titled EP reminds me in the best way of Leyland Kirdy's (also haunted) Caretaker project. Especially digging those first two tracks, but give the whole thing a spin, and also you should download it because it's free.