What's New(s)?

Lana Del Rey drops a new track

Lana Del Rey broke through on the strength of the rueful "Video Games", so it's only appropriate that her sound would now mine the video-game aesthetic. A bouncing slice of electronica that Spin went so far as to call "J-Pop", "Behind Closed Doors" rides drum machine claps and synth firing to pop overdrive. It's a far cry from the orchestral inflections and bellowing coos Del Rey's typically trades in.

Idolator points out the song originally dropped a few months back, but there wasn't any real traction until late last week when the song popped up on YouTube in a "final studio version." Still the song hasn't made an official appearance on Del Rey's account, so it may be another of Del Rey's numerous past personas coming to light.

Lana Del Rey's second studio LP Ultraviolence has a rumored May release date, which could be featuring "Behind Closed Doors". To hear something much more in her wheelhouse, the dark fairytale of "Once Upon A Dream" is featured below and its worth every listen.

 



Hear Sufjan Stevens rap project Sisyphus' "Rhythms of Devotion"

 

Sufjan Stevens last studio album, 2010's Age of Adz cried out for a rapper to go in over the twitching electronic soundscapes. Soon enough that will be made reality as Stevens and collaborators Serengeti and Son Lux prep a full-length LP. The trio has already released "Calm It Done" and  "Alcohol", and today has yielded the aural onslaught of "Rhythms of Devotion".

The unwieldy effort which sees Serengeti globehopping and assuring "I don't give a f*** where you at" mutates into gigantic choruses and screeching walls of sound. Stevens' unmistakable tenderness hasn't gone away however. In the midst of all this chaos, he comes (Autotune and all) offering "an open heart and an open hand." No matter how long he takes between releases or what he does to manipulate his sound, some things will never change.

Sisyphus is arrives March 18 through Asthmatic Kitty and Joyful Noise.







A-Trak & Lex Luger team up

A pairing between trap-rap revivalist Lex Luger and electronic DJ/Fool's Gold Founder A-Trak doesn't seem unlikely, it seems impossible. But the two have found a way to intertwine their disparate styles and soon enough they'll be releasing an EP's worth of the resulting effort.

Under the name of Low Pros, the duo has already released the hypnotic boomer "Jack Tripper" featuring Young Thug and PeeWee Longway, and today they've followed up with the monolithic "100 Bottles", featuring G.O.O.D. Music artist Travi$ Scott. "100 Bottles" has exactly zero of the subtlety or dark menace "Jack Tripper" possesses. Instead it goes for a gut-punch in the initial seconds with gladiatorial horns. Scott's desperate wailing has an unmistakable malevolence to it. The background claps are dying to materialize into an army. If you had to craft a soundtrack for a war circa 2525, this effort would have to make the cut.

Low Pros' EP doesn't have a release date other than Spring 2014, but it will certainly be dropping on the Fool's Gold label.





For news updates throughout the day, follow @AllFreshSounds on Twitter and check back in tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s).

What's New(s)?

James Blake remixes Drake

 

Anyone who worried the 2011 mash-up James Drake was just a lark, can now rest easy knowing that Blake (a recent performer at Drake's OVO Fest) has remixed the Toronto-rapper. The original "Come Thru" rode a steady clap and unobtrusive synth through memories of sleeping on basement floors. In the outro, Drake settled on the accusatory "where have you been tonight?" his tender crooning barely concealing a hint of contempt. 

Blake's remix gives the claps a greater crispiness and his fluttering electronic accoutrements provide a sense of paranoia found nowhere on the original. Here "girl you got that thing" goes from misplaced compliment to borderline predatory. If nothing else, the remix proves Drake's lingering "nice-guy" personae is as much a product of the music as anything. 

James Blake's been having an excellent year with rapper collaborations and you can see his still great teaming with Chicago spitballer Chance the Rapper here. 

  




Action Bronson announces Blue Chips 2

Action Bronson & Party Supplies anything goes Blue Chips mixtape was one of the best releases of 2012, and now that YouTube ripping, Ken Caminiti namechecking, everything but the kitchen sink approach continues in 2013. The heavily-anticipated Blue Chips 2 drops November 1 through Vice/Atlantic and like the first installment is 100% free. First-cut "Practice" borrows Allen Iverson's infamous "we talking about practice?" clip and lets the eternal braggart Bronson cross-over the competition with every rhyme. Check out the song and tracklist below, and head here for the insane promo trailer which features a mafioso Bronson in 1995 barking threats at Patrick Ewing.   


1. "Silverado"  
2. "Intro" ft. Big Body Bes
3. "Pepe Lopez"  
4. "The Don's Cheek"
5. "It Concerns Me"  
6. "Practice"  
7. "Jackson & Travolta" ft. Meyhem Lauren  
8. "Through The Eyes Of A G" ft. Ab-Soul  
9. "Contemporary Man"
10. "Twin Peugots" ft. Big Body Bes & Mac Miller
11. "Man & The Mirror"
12. "Midget Cough"
13. "It's Me"
14. "Flip Ya" ft. Retchy P
15. "9.24.13" ft. Big Body Bes
16. "Rolling Thunder" 
17. "Amadu Diablo"
18. "In The City" ft. Jeff Woods
19. "I Adore You"







Sufjan Stevens shares home recording

Lately when he's not offering Miley Cyrus free grammar lessons, Sufjan Stevens has been on a bit of a giving streak, proving his generosity extends past the holiday season. This latest freebie, entitled "Jamila" was recorded in 1998 (by Stevens recollection) on a four-track recorder for Stevens' sister, nearly two years before his debut A Sun Came dropped. Stevens motivation for releasing the homespun track so far removed from recording? To wish his sister a belated happy birthday of course.







Check back in tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s).

Sufjan Stevens- "Silver & Gold"

For all of its crass-commercialism, Christmas still sits atop the calendar as the most wonderful time of year for one reason: intimacy. It's a time where families, friends, and lovers huddle around an idyllic fireplace tightly tucked in warm winter coats. Amidst all the sales and last-second shopping sprees there still radiates a certain geniality, a feeling of "good cheer" that like the Christmas tree will never die but spring anew every year. And only a select few musicians channel the earnestness of Christmas as well as Sufjan Stevens. 

On first listen "Silver & Gold" serves as an inversion of that aforementioned earnestness. The quivering guitar and muted piano-playing convey an uneasiness, a fear of the coming "cold winter" of one's life. "Oh I'm getting old," Stevens sings in an affective coo. "Everyone wishes for youth" is the only follow-up he can muster, before coming to the question of "how have I wasted my life?" It's a question an individual in their darkest days is likely to ask, an open-ended question with no right or wrong answer. Instead, Stevens projects his own pain onto the world, chalking it up to an unceasing search for "silver and gold." 

In the midst of all this despair, Stevens prays for fire to drive away the cold. As the last embers of his own life begin to flicker and fall by the wayside, he's accompanied by everyone else "waiting for death." In this way, everyone is again joined together, akin to that fireplace scene Sufjan so desperately longs for. The track takes on a "hushed admiration" for death, for the cold of winter, and for Christmas. It is here that "Silver & Gold" becomes cherubic. The reverence Stevens has for death then is not far off from the quiet contemplation keeping a child up in the middle of the night, wondering when Santa will arrive.  

Note: Sufjan Stevens' Silver & Gold  Christmas boxset is out in stores and available online now. Check back here for a review in the coming week. Also posted below are dates for Sufjan's Christmas tour, tickets are still available on select dates.

11-23 Philadelphia, PA - 
Union Transfer
11-24 Washington, DC - 
9:30 Club
11-25 Saxapahaw, NC - 
The Haw River Ballroom
11-26 Athens, GA - 
The Georgia Theatre
11-27 Chattanooga, TN - 
Track 29
11-28 Oxford, MS - 
The Lyric Oxford
11-30 Dallas, TX - 
Granada Theater
12-01 Austin, TX - 
Emo’s East
12-03 Tucson, AZ - 
Rialto Theatre
12-04 Los Angeles, CA - 
The Fonda Theatre (formerly The Music Box)
12-05 San Francisco, CA - 
Great American Music Hall
12-06 Portland, OR - 
Aladdin Theater
12-08 Seattle, WA - 
Neptune Theatre
12-09 Missoula, MT - 
Wilma Theatre
12-12 Minneapolis, MN - 
Mill City Nights (Formerly The Brick)
12-13 Milwaukee, WI - 
Turner Hall
12-14 Indianapolis, IN - 
Deluxe @ Old National Centre
12-15 Chicago, IL - 
Metro
12-16 Cleveland, OH - 
Beachland Ballroom *
12-18 Buffalo, NY - 
Asbury Hall @ Babeville
12-19 Providence, RI - 
Fete
12-20 Boston, MA - 
Royale
12-21 New York, NY - 
Bowery Ballroom
12-22 New York, NY - 
Bowery Ballroom

"Silver & Gold"