Prick Up Your Ears

I post new songs, old songs, good songs, and a variety of other things. Follow if you like.

[prickupyourears-blog]

Prick Up Your Ear's Favorite Albums of 2014

30. Arca – Xen 29. SBTRKT – Wonder Where We Land 28. Parquet Courts – Sunbathing Animal 27. Schoolboy Q – Oxymoron 26. Jessie Ware – Tough Love 25. Lewis – Amour 24. D’Angelo – Black Messiah 23. Sun Kil Moon – Benji 22. Clark – Clark 21. Fucked Up – Glass Boys 20. Real Estate – Atlas 19. The Juan Maclean – In A Dream 18. Ariel Pink – pom pom 17. Perfume Genius – Too Bright 16. Shabazz Palaces –…

View On WordPress

[prickupyourears-blog]

NEW TRACK: How to Dress Well - "Face Again"

NEW TRACK: How to Dress Well – “Face Again”

New track from How to Dress Well’s upcoming album What is This Heart?, out June 23.

View On WordPress

[prickupyourears-blog]

NEW TRACK: R. Kelly - "Ignition Remix (Giraffage Remix)"

NEW TRACK: R. Kelly – “Ignition Remix (Giraffage Remix)”

Upon announcing his signing to Fools Gold Records, Giraffage gifted us with this remix to the remix of Ignition.

View On WordPress

[prickupyourears-blog]

NEW TRACK: Caribou - "Can't Do Without You"

NEW TRACK: Caribou – “Can’t Do Without You”

Caribou has just dropped this new track from his upcoming album Our Love. Needless to say it’s great. Listen below. 

View On WordPress

[prickupyourears-blog]

Album Premiere: Blue, The Misfit - "Child In The Wild"

Album Premiere: Blue, The Misfit – “Child In The Wild”

Dallas, TX may not be known for it’s hip-hop/rap scene. Too often is it overshadowed by the Houston rap scene (Bun B/UGK, Zero, Trae the Truth, etc…) but that isn’t to say that there aren’t some really talented acts you’ve never heard to be coming out of the big D.

Enter Blue, The Misfit. He’s a young producer-turned-rapper who’s already made somewhat of an impression on some of the biggest…

View On WordPress

[prickupyourears-blog]

Jaime xx – “Sleep Sound” Really a beautiful video. (Dir. by Sofia Mattioli and Cherise Payne)

[prickupyourears-blog]

Album Recommendation: Leon Vynehall - "Music for the Uninvited"

Album Recommendation: Leon Vynehall – “Music for the Uninvited”

Last night I had a lot of time to kill (hence the higher-than-one-a-week post rate) so I decided to browse through some of Resident Advisor’s recent recommendations and do some catching up. At the top of the list was a recent release from producer Leon Vynehall titled Music for the Uninvited, and it is one of the best albums i’ve heard so far this year.

Since I’ve never heard of him, or this…

View On WordPress

[prickupyourears-blog]

Mix: Four Tet - Boiler Room x Ray-Ban SXSW 2014

Mix: Four Tet – Boiler Room x Ray-Ban SXSW 2014

A few days late getting this up, but if you haven’t heard it, it’s a fantastic mix. Four Tet plays a few unreleased tracks that are going to be coming out on his TEXT label later this year. I was sad that I didn’t make it to this show at SXSW, but the set is a great listen regardless. Check it out.

View On WordPress

[prickupyourears-blog]

Remix: I Break Horses - "Faith (The Field Remix)"

Remix: I Break Horses – “Faith (The Field Remix)”

A new sprawling, 11-minute remix from The Field. Here, Axel Wilner remixes fellow Swedes, I Break Horses. Keeping only traces of the original in tact, the remix feels like a b-side from his latest album Cupid’s Head (which I highly recommend). Listen below.

View On WordPress

[prickupyourears-blog]

SXSW Review: Jessy Lanza brings “Strange Emotion” to Austin As someone who has been listening to electronic music almost exclusively for the last 2 years, there are a number of things that I've noticed.

[prickupyourears-blog]

SXSW Review: And you thought "Bipp" was catchy... SOPHIE is going to change the electronic landscape in 2014

SXSW Review: And you thought “Bipp” was catchy… SOPHIE is going to change the electronic landscape in 2014

“I can make you feel better, 

if you let me. 

I can make you feel better, 

if you want to. 

I can make you feel better, 

and you know you will.”

There really isn’t that much to SOPHIE’s infectious first single “Bipp” that he released last year. It takes a simple hook that repeats through most of the song; the music is very spacious which…

View On WordPress

[prickupyourears-blog]

Changed my name for the Fucked Up show. #soundselect #breakmusic (at Club Dada)

[prickupyourears-blog]

Run the Jewels - "Sea Legs (Dave Sitek Remix)

One of the best hip-hop releases of the year is getting an extended edition with 1 new track, 2 remixes, and instrumentals of all 3. Listen below to the remix of standout track “Sea Legs” from TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek.

View Post

[prickupyourears-blog]

Burial - "Rival Dealer" // A discussion on the divisiveness of the EP, and the social issues that it presents

I wrote some words about the new Burial EP, "Rival Dealer".

It seems that every time Burial releases a new song, it is either hailed as the greatest release of his career so far, or the worst track he has ever made. Such divisiveness is a rare occurrence within music fandoms, where opinions usually meet at the…

View Post

[prickupyourears-blog]

Put in Work: 2013 and the Rise of Footwork

Trends within electronic music come and go so fast that sometimes it's difficult to keep track of them unless you've been there since the beginning. This year saw a revival in garage music and deep house with the likes of Disclosure, Duke Dumont, George Fitzgerald, and others, and the beginnings of a resurgence in jungle thanks to a fantastic album from Machinedrum. But it's not very often that electronic music finds something completely new and different. 

2013 saw footwork, a genre of music that has been a staple in the chicago underground scene for years now, rise to a worldwide consciousness thanks mostly to DJ Rashad's breakout album Double Cup. Along with his Teklife crew, Rashad stormed onto the scene this year in an unrelenting way, touring heavily alongside chicago native Chance the Rapper, along with high profile and well reviewed sets at Pitchfork Festival, Boiler Room, among others. 

Rashad's specific blend of hip-hop samples, minimal bass, and a jungle tempo create something original, but also something that is alienating to a large group of people within the electronic community. Everything in footwork though comes back to the dance. Footwork started with dance, it is rooted in dance, and people who don't know about the dance culture surrounding footwork are indifferent to the music. But Rashad and Teklife don't seem to be phased that majority of people don't understand his vision. He is more concerned with his own artistic integrity and creating the kind of music that he would want to hear if he were still on the dance floor. 

It's an admirable endeavor, to be sure. But as footwork continues to permeate into the mainstream consciousness, how long will it be before it is only a shadow of its former self? Will it go the way of dubstep and become the summation of the exaggeration of its worst parts, or will it maintain its connection to its roots? Will footwork ever be able to attract a large enough audience to lose its integrity in the first place? Its hard to tell right now, but if 2013 is any indication, footwork is one of the more promising subgenres to arise in a long time, not only because of the music, but because of the culture that it has given rise to, and we have Rashad to thank for that.  

[prickupyourears-blog]

Preview Dusky's new Careless EP

[prickupyourears-blog]

DJ Yolo Bear - "That Good Good" [LMW003]