The fight for diverse and conscious voices

Two weeks since I posted any new music so there are a few things I want to talk about. This is another broad collection with something to appeal to lots of different tastes. I'm going to split this into two parts. First the single tracks...

http://vimeo.com/38177410
The Superhumanoids (http://superhumanoids.com/) are a new to me trio. They describe their style as "music to help kiss the doldrums away." This song, "Geri", is the first single from their upcoming album. Their sound is light and sweet in this track, unlike some of their more experimental past stuff, which you can listen to on their homepage or on Soundcloud. Even the experimental stuff has great vocals, too. Recommended.

http://soundcloud.com/johnnyjewel/chromatics-into-the-black
I've mentioned before that I think there are two ways to do covers of classic songs: the right way (respectfully) and the wrong way (disrespecting the original). Of course, like all of these things it's subjective and in my subjective opinion the Chromatics got it totally right, here. Neil Young's "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" is one of my favorite of his tunes - and I'm not a big Neil Young fan. The tune lives on two things - Young's voice, which is surprisingly gentle on this track compared to so many of his others, and the iconic twangy guitar lines. The Chromatics manage to keep both things, but in a slower envelope that plays on both the beauty and sadness of the original.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzlW838Tn8c
I'm trying to remember who directed me to this so I can thank them. This is Elite Gymnastics doing "Here, in Heaven 4 & 5". It's slow ambient electronica with muted vocals, downplayed snap-beats (nice Art of Noise homage there). They're sometimes referred to as 'chillwave' - as if that term itself had any meaning. I recommend reading this review from Pitchfork which paints a much more nuanced view of their style. Also it gave me the name of the keyboardist I thought they were stealing from - Ryuichi Sakamoto - when I couldn't remember his name.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/03/the-partysquad-lighterman.html
The Partysquad's (http://www.facebook.com/thepartysquad) "Lighterman" is definitely built from and grounded in old-style slow reggae, but they've fused it with a very modern up-tempo electro-dance beat style. If the banging electro style isn't for you then you may not like it. I love the way it shifts back and forth between the slow and slinking and the banging/bouncing.

http://audioporncentral.com/2012/03/lamb-butterfly-effect-ban-this-sick-filth-remix.html
Ban This Sick Filth remixes Lamb's "Butterfly Effect" (http://vimeo.com/35916779). The original is a kind of eerie electro that hums with barely contained energy. BTSF's mix almost doubles the track's length and draws out some of its more eerie effects, while giving it a stronger and almost tribal beat feel, as well as referring back to the kind of triphop Lamb used to be associated with. Sometimes I like a remix better than an original; in this case I think both are excellent and bring different things.