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Vessel- Order of Noise

While Vessel does create a pretty consistent and well-groomed style on this album, which fuses elements of IDM and techno with some of the most shadowy sounds on record, some tracks are clearly more well-developed than others.

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Nicolas Jaar- “Play the Drums”

Some sampled poetry and a hypnotic beat surrounded with ethereal tones coming through on this newly buzzed Nicolas Jaar track. Dig on it via the embed above, and check my review of Jaar’s debut album right here.

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Cold Cave- “A Little Death To Laugh”

Cold Cave pulls together a dark, moody, synth-driven post-punk ambiance on this new track, “A Little Death To Laugh.” You can read a bit ab out the band’s new lineup here, and expect a new album on the way next year.

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Dan Deacon- America

On his latest effort, Dan Deacon starts fleshing his heavily electronic and classically influenced compositions with some top-notch orchestral instrumentation.

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Luke Abbott- “Modern Driveway”

Electronic music producer Luke Abbott–creator of one of my favorite 2010 albums, Holkham Drones–has a new track out titled “Modern Driveway.” The track’s hypnotic repetition executed by subtle beats and analog synths is to be expected, but the chord progression on this track feels pretty uplifting to me, which isn’t an emotion I came away from his last album with.

Abbott is set to release a new EP on Gold Panda’s label, Notown, on May 28th. It’s titled after the track above. Enjoy!

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Orbital- “Wonky”

Featuring the intense flow of Lady Leshurr, and a progressively tense beat, this new Orbital track leaves no question as to why the Kent duo has been able to maintain its place as one of the most significant duos in electronic music.

The synths that are constantly revving up throughout this song get pretty unsettling after a while, and if that wasn’t enough, co-director and producer Mat Horne saw fit to add evil, talking cats into the mix with this music video. See where the internet’s obsession with cats has brought us? The end is nigh!

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Julia Holter- “Marienbad”

This is the first time I’m hearing of California singer-songwriter Julia Holter, but the forthcoming album the above song comes from is not her first rodeo. From what I understand, this will be her second official album, and it’s titled Ekstasis.

Hopefully, all the songs on this album are as charming as “Marienbad,” which features a shy, stripped-down introduction and Julia’s chilly winter vocals. About a minute and thirty seconds in, the song hits a groove and growing instrumentation come together to create an atmosphere that feels sort of indebted to Kate Bush. The finale is pretty beautiful as well. It’s the sound of sweet modesty, amplified by a wash of reverb effects.

Look for this Julia Holter album in March via RVNG International.

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Zebra Katz- “Ima Read”

Yesterday was the first time I was exposed to this video, or any music at all from Brooklyn MC Zebra Katz. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, but it seems to make a little more sense to me 24 hours later.

Yeah, the visuals throughout this track are kinda tense. Tense in a the Shining sorta way. Yeah, it’s an obvious reference due to the twins, but I think the comparison goes beyond that. Everything in the video looks somewhat normal, but something is clearly off. The lack of a climax makes the tension build higher, and the repetitive beat and lyrics make the lack of change more and more apparent.

I guess this could be called a hip hop song, but there’s actually a track far out of the genre that “Ima Read” reminds me of: Suicide’s “Frankie Teardrop.” Zebra Katz definitely has a similar dedication to repetition, darkness, and minimalism on this track.

A majority of the tracks Katz has dropped so far fit into this mold. “Sex Sellz,” “ICU,” and “DnS” could be compared to the aesthetic of “Ima Read,” sure, but the details don’t seem to be completely hammered out yet.

Some of Katz’s tracks border on laughably bad–even if they are meant to be a slight joke–and the flows on a few of the slower songs here get kinda lazy and fall off tempo.

Still, despite the flaws, Katz is heading into a direction of his own, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it ends up. You can download “Ima Read” for free right here.

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Andy Stott / Haxan Cloak Remix Holy Other

The Haxan Cloak and Andy Stott remix two tracks from fellow experimentalist Holy Other. Grab these remixes at Bleep.

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Perfume Genius- “All Waters”

First track to drop from the forthcoming Perfume Genius album, Put Your Back N 2 It. It’ll be out in Feb. 2012 via Turnstile.