I’ve never been much of an Of Montreal fan, but I’m currently in love with their video for “Wraith Pinned To The Mist & Other Games”. It follows the psychedelic, Yellow Submarine-esque, slightly violent journey of little square-bodied cartoon characters and friends. Love the purple one’s dance moves at the end (3rd from the right!).

mp3: Of Montreal – Wraith Pinned To The Mist & Other Games – The Sunlandic Twins (2005)

The same friend who turned me on to this absurdist video, also got me into a great site called The Lost Art of the Mixtape. Through their mix of Of Montreal tunes, I found this gem.

mp3: Of Montreal – Disconnect The Dots (mixel pix) – Satanic Twins (2006)

The style of their music still doesn’t entirely capture me, but… as it often seems to be, there can be things you quite like hiding around the corner from a band you thought you disliked.

Said style is theatrical techno-pop glam, one that seems to have changed over the years from a more quirky, indie pop sound. They also tend to fuse gloomy lyrics speaking to apathy, loneliness and death, with bouncy, upbeat melodies and hooks. Certainly, the music is catchy in some bizarre, deranged, and fantastical way.

One more tune. Listen to “She’s a Rejector”, just to hear Kevin Barnes sing the following:

There’s the girl that left me bitter
Want to pay some other girl
To walk up to her and hit her

mp3: Of Montreal – She’s a Rejector – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (2007)

MySpace | Website

Download through Amazon: The Sunlandic Twins (2005) |
Satanic Twins (2006) | Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (2007)

It seems the Swedes have cornered the market on innovative, ambient electro pop. The intentionally cryptic new group jj are another example of this breath of fresh air. The group fuses lushly atmospheric electro-pop and world music with sultry female vocals to create a rather exotic sound. What results is irresistibly beautiful and blissful.

The duo released their debut single jj n° 1 in early 2009 and several months later released their stylistically brilliant debut album jj n° 2. It’s a short opus of nine tracks of island infused synth pop, akin to the music of fellow label mates The Tough Alliance. But the duo emerges on the softer side due to the pervasive lush vocals of Elin Kastlander. Like their peers, jj show a propensity towards sampling, irritable pop hooks, and stylistic diversity to create something gorgeously intricate that shows admiration for both the expansive realms of world music and minimalistic electro-pop. jj sit aside The Tough Alliance and Air France, on one of Sweden’s best and most consistent labels, Sincerely Yours, founded by TTA in 2006.

jj’s dance pop is built on ethereal string and synth samples along with exquisite vocals that float freely through their tracks. The songs are deceptively simple, incorporating a vast array of musical influences from reggae to electronica, new age to hip-hop. The dream-like quality of Elin’s voice is lusciously smooth and textured taking the music even further.

mp3: From Africa to Malaga – jj n° 2 (2009)

The group’s full-length debut jj n° 2 changes styles slightly with every song, which makes listening to the 27 minute album an unpredictable yet alluring experience. Even when they explore 90′s ambient-house, they still allow emotion to flood through the textures. jj expand on the reach of ambient music — defined, as Brian Eno once did, as music that “suggests, a place, a landscape, a soundworld which you inhabit” — offering it a new essence .

mp3: jj – Things Will Never Be The Same Again – jj nº 2 (2009)

“Things Will Never Be Again” opens jj nº 2 sounding much like The Tough Alliance, tying together synth samples of steel drums and MIDI Strings, with Elin’s low vocal tones and harmonies. “From Africa to Malaga” is by far my favorite track with Elin’s celestial, reverb-effected vocals riding atop synthy Caribbean percussion. The sounds wash over you and the winds referenced sweep you up into a blissful state of ecstasy. “Ecstasy” unexpectedly drops a sample of Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” creating a track that is trippy and drug-hazy, turning the sound of the album drastically on a pin. (jj released another track with a Weezy sample in January, titled “My Way”. ) Later the album moves into more lilting folk-pop, and further into the laughing and hammer-dulcimer sampling “Intermezzo”. With jj nº 2, the duo created a visionary new sound that is bound to generate more buzz in 2010.

mp3: jj – Ecstasy – jj nº 2 (2009)

Fascinatingly, jj has kept to almost absolute internet silence. Seriously, not even a MySpace. Info on jj was literally nonexistent until recently, save for a few cryptic sentences, download links, and blood-splattered album artwork on their label’s site. It seems to have made the music all the more endearing and enchanting. Quite a surge of conversation has lived surrounding the identity of jj. Some rightly thought that it might be a side project of The Tough Alliance or Air France, but the mystery quickly unfolded. The enigmatic jj consists of multi-instrumentalist Joakim Benon and vocalist Elin Kastlander. The story almost ends there for now, although I did come across a fabulous interview with jj published on the Drumming On Tabletops blog several weeks ago. Here are a few excerpts.

Where does the name “jj” come from?
jag & joakim. joakim & jag. (“jag” means me or myself in Swedish)

What’s the plan for live shows? Did you originally ever expect to perform live? I ask that because it seems (from the various YouTube videos I’ve watched anyways) that the stage show is really based around the recorded music and projected images rather than the typical “live performance”.
We have grand plans for our public executions, it will be magic, soon enough. Now when we’re out there Elin is just trying to get over her social phobia and anxiety. She sings for her life, as always. And I’m (Joakim) trying to learn everything I recorded, and decide if I should play the guitar solo or the piano, the drums or the flute, or maybe get someone else to do it; so many decisions. Maybe we’ll get James Cameron to do the visuals, and perhaps Kanye will have some ideas. Whatever we do I hope people will understand that being on stage is a fucked up situation in the first place, where everything can happen: you can live more than you’ve ever lived or be wanting to die, feeling things will never be the same again.

The newest album, jj nº 3 has already leaked online. What does it feel like to have to deal with a leak? Do you mind it considering that almost every album leaks online now before the release date?
Beautiful, sad, scary, nice, confusing. It (jj nº 3) should’ve been released in September though, so it’s all good. A slightly fairer chance for anyone to keep up with us.

How much are drugs involved with your music (the song ecstasy, the pot leaf on the cover of jj nº 2)? Do you feel like the two can be separated or are they intertwined?
Our music is dope, you know that.

For the full interview, visit Drumming on Tables.

In December, jj signed with the indie label Secretly Canadian who will release the duo’s next LP, jj nº 3, in the U.S on March 9th in conjunction with the release on Sincerely Yours in Sweden. Following, they are set to perform 14 American dates with fellow lowercase, double-lettered electro group, The xx. These shows, along with SXSW, mark the first U.S. live appearances ever for jj.

JJ tour dates:

3/22 – Spanish Moon, Baton Rouge, LA w/ The xx
3/23 – Bottletree, Birmingham, AL
3/24 – Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA w/ The xx
3/25 – Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NC w/ The xx
3/28 – Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, Washington, DC w/ The xx
3/29 – First Unitarian Church Sanctuary, Philadelphia, PA w/ The xx
3/30 – Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY
3/31 – Webster Hall, New York, NY
4/2 – Paradise, Boston, MA w/ The xx
4/3 – Le National, Montreal, QC w/ The xx
4/4 – Lee’s Palace, Toronto, ON
4/5 – Wexner Center, Columbus, OH w/ The xx
4/6 – Buskirk-Chumley Theater, Bloomington, IN w/ The xx
4/8 – Lincoln Hall, Chicago, IL w/ The xx
4/9 – Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN w/ The xx
4/12 – The Nightlight Lounge, Bellingham, WA w/ The xx
4/13 – Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC w/ The xx
4/14 – Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR w/ The xx
4/16 – Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA

More on jj nº 3 to come…

Sincerely Your’s – Website

Download through Amazon: jj nº 2 | JJ N° 1

The energetic, Swede pop perfection of The Tough Alliance immediately entangled me when I first heard “Neo Violence”. It’s spring loaded, synth heavy, techno-tropic and gets you giddily dancing. I adore their wry humor at the end. I finally dove into their last two releases and got turned on to more TTA. The songs are bright, emphatic, and uplifting, buoyant with constant explosions of sounds. I’m surprised they haven’t yet hit the scene harder in the U.S.

mp3: The Tough Alliance – Neo Violence – A New Chance (2007)
mp3: The Tough Alliance – 1981 – A New Chance (2007)
mp3: The Tough Alliance – Miami – A New Chance (2007)
mp3: The Tough Alliance – Silly Crimes – New Waves (2006)

Check out the rad video for “Simple Games” from the New Waves EP (2006). It’s got girls jumping rope in the breathtaking, sun-dappled outdoors and projections of breaking waves (a recurring visual motif of theirs).

Childhood friends Henning Fürst and Eric Berglund formed The Tough Alliance in 2003. The Göthenburg, Sweden duo have polished their glammy blend of pop and electronica through a series of EP and album releases, first on the locally based Service label (home to Jens Lekman and Studio) and then on their own label, Sincerely Yours, beginning in 2006. Each critically acclaimed creation helped to establish them as a central force within the Swedish indie music scene. TTA began attracting greater international attention in 2007 due to outstanding reviews for A New Chance (2007) and American distribution.

Adding some color to their story, The Tough Alliance amusingly have an infamous reputation for their live appearances and receive frequent attention in the Swedish media for lip-synching to their backing tracks while ambiguously wielding baseball bats. The resulting accusations of glorifying violence and hooliganism haven’t gone unnoticed. TTA directly confronts all detractors in the lyrics of “Neo Violence”, which ascended to number 13 on the Swedish album charts in 2007.

No U.S. dates at the moment, but keep your eyes out for The Tough Alliance.

Neo Violence
No no need for a baseball bat
Don’t need no knife for a sharp attack
No excuses, no looking back
We think too much about the things we lack

This neo violence
Pure self-defiance
This neo violence
The Tough Alliance

I hardly noticed your short romance
Your careless manners and your anxious glance
Kissed and telled, got paid in advance
You’re far behind now love you missed your chance

This neo violence
Pure self-defiance
This neo violence
The Tough Alliance

Truly sorry thought you’d get the wink, it’s in our nature to be out of sync
Truly sorry thought you’d get the wink, it’s in our nature to be out of sync

This neo violence
Pure self-defiance
This neo violence
The Tough Alliance

This neo violence
Can’t stand the silence
This neo violence
The Tough Alliance

MySpace | Website

Download through Amazon: A New Chance | New Waves