Daily MPfree: Mountain Man

Bella Union signings Mountain Man sing dew-sweet three part harmonies over plucked strings or, sometimes, nothing at all; we were captivated recently by their final song at a Union Chapel show, performed bravely off-mic and acappella. These two songs are from their debut album, “Made The Harbour“, out now.

Follow Snipe’s Daily MPfrees at Hype Machine.

Mountain Man – Animal Tracks by snipelondon

Mountain Man – Soft Skin by snipelondon

Daily MPfree: A Scholar & A Physician

The best pop band you’ve never heard of, unless you were one of the 50k viewers of the She’s A Witch video on YouTube. AS&AP are purveyors of the most perfectly unhinged electronic pop music imaginable, and you can see them live at Ill Fit on July 13th.

A Scholar & A Physician – She’s A Witch by brainlove

A Scholar & A Physician – Shouldn’t Dwell by snipelondon

(Photo: Sonny Malhotra)

Daily MPfree: Best Coast / Vampire Weekend / Kid Cudi

This unlikely collaboration comes courtesy Converse Music, who’ve presumably wooed these guys into the studio with sacks of cash and free trainers. The results? Pretty great, apart from Cudi’s tacked-on rapping. Stream it below, download it here, and look forward to the Eminem / Lee Ryan / Max Cavalera track that’s no doubt being planned as we speak.

Best Coast, Rostam & Kid Cudi – All Summer by snipelondon

Daily MPfree: Common Prayer

Common Prayer is the new side project from Jason Russo, formerly of Mercury Rev. But unlike Mercury Rev’s psychedelic grandiloquence, this is a thrillingly ramshackle affair. Escaping the cultural branding of his native Brooklyn, Russo decamped to the home of Truck Festival – Steventon in fair Oxfordshire – to record Common Prayer’s debut, “There Is A Mountain”. Here’s one of the first cuts from the album – a delightfully shonky bar jam of forlorn optimism, not dissimilar to a bourbon-mellowed Walkmen, and complete with a lovely tinkly piano and whistle-a-thon ending.

Common Prayer – Us vs. Them by snipelondon

Daily MPfree: Teeth

Teeth have been making a noise on the LDN gig circuit for a while now, always playing shows around Hoxton’s hot spots and being excitable and colourful all over the internet. Turning to esteemed remixer DREAMTRAK is a smart move – he has previously turned songs by Gaggle, Foals, Internet Forever, and more recently Mat Riviere and Pagan Wanderer Lu into exciting 80’s pop numbers or elongated techno anthems. His refined sensibility is put to great use here, slowly building the intensity into a euphoric blowout that sounds something like The Knife turned up to eleven.

Teeth – See Spaces (DREAMTRAK DIAMOND SOUND) by snipelondon

Daily MPfree: Thesaurus Club

Thesaurus Club is made up of Amelia and Stef (two thirds of DIY girl group Pens) and a chap called Dan. This is a pretty, simple drone track made of of a few loops, lyrics and some “heys”, of which the final one is the best.

Thesaurus Club – All the Things I Do Wrong by snipelondon

Daily MPfree: Fang Island

Brooklyn quintet Fang Island‘s euphoric rainbow-coloured rock ‘n’ roll is reminiscent of the hyperactive noise generated by extroverted funcore merchants The Mae Shi. They’re coming to London for some dates in September – keep an eye on the mag for details.

Fang island – Dreams Of Dreams by snipelondon

Fang Island – Daisy by snipelondon

Daily MPfree: Best Coast

Best Coast is LA’s Bethany Cosentino, a lo-fi girl group with just one girl. Freshly signed to Wichita in the UK, “Boyfriend” is a preview of what’s to come on the forthcoming debut album. If it’s all as catchy as this, that’s our summer soundtrack sorted.

Grab the MP3 here.

Daily MPfree: K Anderson

“Shrug” is a pleasingly unhinged shuffle of a song from Australian ex-pat and animal impersonator K Anderson. Built out of a used double-bassline and garnished with keyboard squelches, it’s a taster from his first album, “The Overthinker”, out soon on Edna Sounds.

Daily MPfree: Snorri Helgason

Art Garfunkel-looking Icelandic singer Snorri Helgason has a very beautiful voice that I really wasn’t expecting, for some reason. “Ólán” is a track that’s previously seen the light of day on a compilation of Icelandic music called “Hitaveitan” that also featured Reykjavik scene stalwarts and upstarts like FM Belfast, Hjaltalin, Mugison, Retron and Sudden Weather Change. Snorri is apparently heading over to London for a while this year, so we’ll look forward to seeing (and hearing) a bit more of him around the doors.