Articles by "Flashlight Tag, Author at PORTALS"
Camp Counselors ft. Psychic Twin – “Attean”
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Kyle Reigle usually makes clouded dream-pop love under the extremely fitting moniker Cemeteries.
Recently, the soon-to-be Chicago resident was heavily inspired by Memory Tapes‘ 2012 LP Grace/Confusion, and decided to conjure up a lower-pressure, electronic-focused project called Camp Counselors. The latest single “Attean” features a bewitching vocal take from Erin Fein of Psychic Twin, which syncs up perfectly with the faded, haunting glow that hangs overhead.
He’s currently putting the finishing touches on a full-length album titled Huntress, set to release sometime this month via Kyle’s own digital/cassette label, Snowbeast Records.
Stream “Attean” below:
Thunderhank – “House” / “Tracker”
This brand new LA-based duo are showing some serious potential with two stirring debut singles, “House” & “Tracker”–both quietly released via SoundCloud & Bandcamp. “Tracker” is easy and inviting–a real daytime mellow tune. “House” is a bit more of an attention-grabber with its slick, punching drum kick slowly leading you into a hollow mix of rippling synth stabs and wind-wailing guitars. The cooled down vocal melody grows bigger and bigger until it reaches the heights of what sounds like a full on choir confidently belting to the sky, “Dream baby dream!”.
It really grows on ya.
Stream “House” & “Tracker” below:
MedicineHat – “Spells”
Ann Arbor’s MedicineHat (aka Ned Sasi) completely took my breath away with his extremely underrated and intensely gorgeous single, “Migrants“, (shout out to the very first PORTALS mixtape) back in January 2012. His latest track “Spells” sounds so perfectly refreshing for the spring season with its scintillating piano backdropping Ned Sasi’s finely tuned vocals. The second half immediately picks up the pace and all of a sudden we are headed straight for summer.
Stream “Spells” below:
Wondr – “I Learned”
The LA-based producer Wondr (aka Kyle Hamon) first caught my attention back in October of 2011 with his deeply UK-influenced beat, “Rough Start”. At that time, Wondr only had one or two pieces floating around on his SoundCloud page and he was also playing drums in the now defunct surf-pop band, Tuesday Glass. There was always talk of a forthcoming EP, and after about a year of waiting, we are finally presented with Down Love via the 6bit Collective.
“I Learned” is a particularly striking cut with an opening bird call that will immediately reel you in. Stream and watch the official video below:
Fresh Cut: Phantom Posse – ‘Separate Ways’
It’s been awhile since we heard anything from the bedroom-pop crooner, Phantom Power (aka Eric Littman) and his slowly growing NYC-based collective, Phantom Posse. Last year they put out their debut mixtape Let’s Rally Vol. 1—a perfect introduction to the collaborative musical world that Eric is trying to create. They’ve been steadily working on their second release, Separate Ways, which features rising artists such as the Atlanta-based weirdo iLoveMakonnen and the highly underrated Brooklyn-based vocalist, Nadia Hulett.
Today we’ve got an exclusive stream of Separate Ways, along with a personal promo video from the whole crew. Stream it below:
From Phantom Power:
‘Separate Ways’ is a collection of songs recorded over the last year since our first release ‘Let’s Rally (Vol.1)’. The first track, “Posse Posse” was recorded as a vocal toss up [via the interwebs]. I made a beat of sorts and asked everybody to independently do a vocal track and email it back over, with my task being to string the resulting vocal ideas together…I like to think of it as one those rap songs where they pile on verse after verse after verse.
For the most part, the album is simple sad loopy music. Some of the tracks I’m most excited about are tracks derived from loops Makonnen made in Atlanta on his Fantom X7 ["makloop##"/"sometimes i think there's only sadness"]. Cale of cult & leper plays trombone on a track, Sandra (who done did the album art) sings on a song, and Chris who recently released an EP as “nicholas nicholas” is a welcome new addition to the posse. “Sunshine”, “Mrs. Sandy”, and “Play for us”, resulted from an in-person session at my apt in November (Makonnen’s first time in New York!). Lastly, while jay of Hot Babes/Moonlight Mischief Club isn’t featured on this album (he was all over vol.1), we did recently release a ‘blue is true’ EP.
The album runs on the longer side, probably only because we waited too long to wrap it up. Hope you like.
Separate Ways is officially out tomorrow via Bandcamp.
