September 25, 2008

Today's Hotness: Stricken City, Asobi Seksu, GAS

Stricken City
>> Stricken City's forthcoming second single "Lost Art" reminds us of a charming blend of Haircut 100's new wave pop and Kiss Me Deadly's dancable indie tunes. The track has a bouncy rhythm, plucky bass rides high in the mix and singer Rebekah Raa's clear, bright voice recalls that of Bow Wow Wow fronter Annabella Lwin. Blue Flowers Records will issue the London-based quartet's single -- which will be backed with a new version of the track "The Traveler" -- in the U.K. Nov. 17. Stricken City's debut single "Tak O Tak" b/w "Bardou" was issued by the label Adventures Close To Home Recordings July 28 and the pressing of 500 copies has already sold out (which makes you wonder why ACTH isn't releasing the second single, right?). The A-side of that single boasted a pulse similar to "Lost Art," and we think you'll agree after listening to the latter cut that the band is on to something good. Stricken City plays London tonight and plans to announce a strand of UK tour dates in the near future.

Stricken City -- "Lost Art" -- "Lost Art" b/w "The Traveler"
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[pre-order "Lost Art" b/w "The Traveler" right here]

>> Speaking of forthcoming singles, New York-based dream pop heroes Asobi Seksu will issue "Me & Mary" b/w "Breathe Into Glass" Nov. 18 on Polyvinyl. The A-side will appear on a forthcoming full length that Polyvinyl plans to release in early 2009; the b-side is a non-album track. Like the duo's fabulous 2006 sophomore set Citrus, the as-yet-untitled new full-length collection was produced by Chris Zane. The forthcoming single will be available as a vinyl 7" and via the usual digital music storefronts. Finally, Asobi Seksu commence a two-week tour of North American Oct. 17; the tour's second stop will be the following night at T.T. The Bear's in Cambridge, Mass. Check out the entire slate of dates at the band's MySpace drive-thru right here.

>> Only one email today was able to tear us away from our obsessive consumption of news concerning the U.S. political campaigns and economy, and it was in German. Fortunately, with a little help from Babelfish, we think we are able to tell you that electronic music luminary and Kompakt co-founder Wolfgang Voigt will perform for the first time under his GAS moniker in Leipzig, Germany Sept. 28. Cologne-based Voigt has a number of different aliases, but has apparently never performed any of its music live. Unless we are misunderstanding our translation. Readers may recall that one of the nicer surprises earlier in the year (before the world went crazy) was the five-disc GAS box set; more recently Voigt issued a collection of photographs in a book titled "Wolfgang Voight -- Gas." We were turned on to GAS sometime before that via Kompakt's absolutely delightful Pop Ambient series of blissed out ambient electronic music. We're posting one of our favorite cuts below.

GAS -- "Pop" -- Pop Ambient 2005
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[buy GAS and Kompakt music from EMusic right here]

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