“[Dunes] is a lot more realistic, I guess, and there’s a little bit of melancholy in the record that kind of came out of so much time on the road and missing home. But there’s also some beautiful elements on both the records that also came out of that time. Basically, I’m trying to say that getting older and touring a bunch wasn’t all a bad thing; it was actually a good thing. It’s kind of us discovering how we’re going to do this and survive.” - Chris Lynch, Gardens & Villa

Over 500 destitute children are cared for by Scottish Love in Action (SLA), who fund the Light of Love Children’s Home and School in Tuni, India. In association with SLA, Everything is New is an international outreach project run by Transgressive North, an Edinburgh-based arts collective. The project has culminated in a film and two epic albums of music featuring recordings of the voices of every one of these children. The aim of the project is to raise funds and awareness, as well as to instigate an empowering experience for the children involved.

With a lead singer as versatile as Highasakite’s Ingrid Helene Håvik, it’s not difficult for the band to evoke landscapes as diverse as a country road, a spacey sky, or a western plain. On their debut full-length album, Silent Treatment, the Norwegian musicians pioneer the “adventurous brand of indie pop” they’ve introduced on earlier recordings, emphasizing unusual vocals effects and genre contrasts.

Mixtape download of our favorites in pop, psych & soul, for REDEFINE magazine’s Austin 2014 Unofficial House Party, featuring Gardens & Villa, Supreme Cuts, Slow Magic, Diane Coffee, Psychic Twin, Tops, Tei Shi, Midday Veil, and more.

TOP INDIE POPS! New tracks from Phantogram’s sophomore album, Visions, plus Glass Animals and a collaboration between Jeremih and Shlohmo.

“When I listen to Portuguese hip-hop, or West African music, or even punk in the US, I don’t always know the lyrics, but I feel the life that exists in the music. Most of our music is in Spanish, and we have played for audiences where Spanish is not their first language. Folks will come to us after a show and tell us that they didn’t understand everything, but they felt everything.” - Hector Flores, Las Cafeteras