Genres & Styles
As genre-specific tags seem to become less and less useful tools for adequately describing specific sounds and visual styles, our categorizations are extremely general. “Dance,” for example, encompasses everything from dance music and dance-related films to dance performances; “collage” includes sound collages as well as visual or multimedia collages. More medium-specific tags — like “hardcore” or “painting” — are only used to describe music and art, respectively.
8-bit acoustic alt-country alternative ambient animation art rock avant-garde blues chillwave classical collage dance dream pop drone electronic electropop emo experimental fashion female folk funk garage gothic hardcore hip-hop illustration indie industrial installation instrumental jazz landscape lo-fi lyrical metal minimal mixed media outsider noise perfrormance photography pop pop-punk portrait post-hardcore post-metal post-punk post-rock print progressive psychedelic punk rock sculpture shoegaze self-released singer-songwriter soul surf synthpop technical textile typography
Indie Rock & Indie Pop
Gardens & Villa Band Interview : Naturally Mystical (w/ Lyrical Analysis)- Top Pops! Violens, Slam Donahue, James & Evander, Grandparents MP3 Downloads & Streams
“Pop music shouldn’t always get a bad rap,” says Top Pops!, a recurring selection of pop music highlights across a selection of styles. A bit more straight-forward indie rock this time than usual. Slam Donahue With their latest offering to the internet masses, their Big House Nice Dreams mixtape, Slam Donahue sound a bit like [...] - Lyonnais - A Sign From On High / Modern Calvary Music Video (w/ Director Interview)
“There is a certain overwhelming feeling that I get when I think of the Sahara or the Gobi, a place where nothing changes. It could be 2,000 years ago or 2,000 years from now and you wouldn’t know the difference. It humbles you.” - Lyonnais
- Arresting Music Videos: Antilux - Ophelia, Kirin J. Callinan - Way To War {NSFW}
Belgium’s Antilux and bizarre songwriter Kirin J. Callinan command your attention with highly dramatic presentations and plenty of guitar distortion. (Callinan’s music video is NSFW.) Antilux Belgium’s Antilux are pulled around like puppets in this video for “Ophelia,” only to eventually become choked up in a black widow’s tangle of animated strings. This track [...] - Whim: MS MR, Animal Collective, Pure Bathing Culture, Mount Eerie, Feist, Father John Misty
Whim is a weekly collection of media focused on independent rock/pop/garage and everything surrounding it. This week we showcase the new single from MS MR, some Animal Collective news, Pure Bathing Culture‘s debut record and more. MS MR Mysterious Brooklyn indie pop group MS MR have been on the radar for quite some time [...] - Here We Go Magic - A Different Ship Album Review
Bands don’t always show signs of aging by their third album, but Here We Go Magic have grown up with their latest, A Different Ship. The band was never loud and brash before, but they seem to have taken a turn for the drastically mellow on this album. They have clearly become more in touch [...]
Psychedelic
Translinguistic Other Interview (w/ Midday Veil‘s Emily Pothast)- Lyonnais - A Sign From On High / Modern Calvary Music Video (w/ Director Interview)
“There is a certain overwhelming feeling that I get when I think of the Sahara or the Gobi, a place where nothing changes. It could be 2,000 years ago or 2,000 years from now and you wouldn’t know the difference. It humbles you.” - Lyonnais
- Spectral Hypnosis: Lumerians, Midday Veil, Father Yod MP3 Downloads & Streams
SPECTRAL HYPNOSIS A recurring series, featuring mesmerizing songs for one to lose sense of time and space, mind and body. Hitting the electronic-psych-rock tip today with two bands often loved and supported by REDEFINE — Oakland’s Lumerians and Seattle’s Midday Veil — as well as a Drag City release from the somewhat controversial Father Yod [...] - Arresting Music Videos: Antilux - Ophelia, Kirin J. Callinan - Way To War {NSFW}
Belgium’s Antilux and bizarre songwriter Kirin J. Callinan command your attention with highly dramatic presentations and plenty of guitar distortion. (Callinan’s music video is NSFW.) Antilux Belgium’s Antilux are pulled around like puppets in this video for “Ophelia,” only to eventually become choked up in a black widow’s tangle of animated strings. This track [...] - Concept-Heavy Events: Fin De Cinema, The Wiz, Krautrock Classics, Signify Sanctify Believe
This post highlights some of our favorite multi-disciplinary arts events (centered mainly around music) coming up from like-minded co-conspirators in Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles. More events for the next post, including two installments of REDEFINE’s Intuitive Navigation in Seattle and Portland (see last year’s HERE), and Seattle’s ambient music festival Substrata. Signify, Sanctify, Believe [...] - Spectral Hypnosis: Grapefruit, Lyonnais, Tassels MP3 Downloads & Streams
SPECTRAL HYPNOSIS A recurring series, featuring mesmerizing songs for one to lose sense of time and space, mind and body. Here, we start off a bit rowdy with Tassels and sink slowly into the enchanting mellow instrumental shores of Grapefruit and Lyonnais. Tassels Vancouver-based producer Sean Orr will soon be releasing a new LP, the [...]
Electronic
Trip Report (#17) Mixtape Stream & Download- Bleep: Shit Robot, Nicolas Jaar, Carl Craig, Elite Gymnastics, Duke Dumont
Bleep is a weekly column focusing on varying degrees of electronic music news, videos and MP3s. This week we feature the new Shit Robot 12″, a mix from the impeccable Nicolas Jaar, another Carl Craig project to keep track of, and more. Read previous Bleep columns here. Shit Robot Marcus Lambkin’s debut record From [...] - Top Pops! Violens, Slam Donahue, James & Evander, Grandparents MP3 Downloads & Streams
“Pop music shouldn’t always get a bad rap,” says Top Pops!, a recurring selection of pop music highlights across a selection of styles. A bit more straight-forward indie rock this time than usual. Slam Donahue With their latest offering to the internet masses, their Big House Nice Dreams mixtape, Slam Donahue sound a bit like [...] - Beca - Fall Into Light Music Video (w/ Director & Musician Interviews)
“I like that ['Fall Into Light' is] left open for interpretation. Maybe it means opening opening up yourself enough to see your true self.” - Beca
- Stanislav Markov: A Lush Photographic Universe Presented As Sound
Though the relationship between sound and moving images is certainly easy to define, the relationship between sound and non-moving art is much more understated, for obvious reasons. Russian photographer Stansislav Markov is the first to work with REDEFINE in an audio-visual experiment of highlighting the musical inspiration that strikes one’s soul just as powerfully as [...] - Remix City: Fixers, Memory Tapes, Jonas Schwartz, Rebel Rebel, Command V MP3 Downloads & Streams
Remix City Sifting through mountains of remix trash so you don’t have to, in an attempt to find the ones that contribute to their originals. Fixers get remixed by Memory Tapes, Jonas Schwartz by Rebel Rebel, and Command V by Max Pask. Fixers This Memory Tapes remix of Fixers’ “Crystals”, from their debut EP, [...]
Dance
Twin Sister – In Heaven Album Review- Bleep: Shit Robot, Nicolas Jaar, Carl Craig, Elite Gymnastics, Duke Dumont
Bleep is a weekly column focusing on varying degrees of electronic music news, videos and MP3s. This week we feature the new Shit Robot 12″, a mix from the impeccable Nicolas Jaar, another Carl Craig project to keep track of, and more. Read previous Bleep columns here. Shit Robot Marcus Lambkin’s debut record From [...] - Bleep: Disclosure, Physical Therapy, Chandeliers, Van She, Paradis MP3 Downloads & Streams
Bleep is a weekly column focusing on varying degrees of electronic music news, videos and MP3s. This week we highlight new tracks from Disclosure and Physical Therapy as well as a new video from Paradis. Read about all that and more below, or check out previous columns here. Disclosure The slow trickle of material [...] - Remix City: Fixers, Memory Tapes, Jonas Schwartz, Rebel Rebel, Command V MP3 Downloads & Streams
Remix City Sifting through mountains of remix trash so you don’t have to, in an attempt to find the ones that contribute to their originals. Fixers get remixed by Memory Tapes, Jonas Schwartz by Rebel Rebel, and Command V by Max Pask. Fixers This Memory Tapes remix of Fixers’ “Crystals”, from their debut EP, [...] - Top Pops! Teen Daze, Auto Body, Another MP3 Downloads & Streams
“Pop music shouldn’t always get a bad rap,” says Top Pops!, a recurring selection of pop music highlights across a selection of styles. Getting dancey on the pop music tip today with Teen Daze, Auto Body, and Another. Another Head over to the Bandcamp of solo electronic artist Another to get a free download of [...] - Embroidered Works: Shaun Kardinal, Erin Frost, Stacey Page, Jose Romussi, Peter Crawley
Coinciding with bright spring threads come a fascination with brightly-colored, geometrically-minded embroidered works! In this post, we examine works from artists who painstakingly thread through paper to vastly different ends. Shaun Kardinal This year, Seattle’s Shaun Kardinal has taken a bold leap from minimally embroidered postcards to more involved pieces set upon multi-layered collages. [...]
Folk & Freak Folk
Chad VanGaalen Interview (w/ Animated Video Retrospective)- Binary Fluidity: A Short Interview With Belgium Artist Arn Gyssels
I discovered the work of Belgian artist Arn Gyssels years ago, thanks to Flickr. At that point, he seemed like he was just beginning to hone in on a tripped out collage style full of decay, glitches, and geometries, and I was instantly captivated. Now, on May 25th, 2012, Gyssels has a solo show in [...] - Multicultural Sounds: Bonde do Rolê - Kilo, G-Dragon And TOP - Knock Out Music Videos
Multicultural Sounds travels the world for contemporary reinventions of cultural staples. This post is a miniature celebration of a couple of globe-trotting musician and producer Diplo’s latest works. Bonde do Rolê Turning genre-mashing into a gun-slinging festivity of high delights are the theatrical Bonde do Rolê, who have a new album coming out later [...] - Here We Go Magic - A Different Ship Album Review
Bands don’t always show signs of aging by their third album, but Here We Go Magic have grown up with their latest, A Different Ship. The band was never loud and brash before, but they seem to have taken a turn for the drastically mellow on this album. They have clearly become more in touch [...] - Chelsea Wolfe Musician Interview: Shedding Natural Light On Visions Of Doom
“If we really open our eyes, we’ll notice poverty cycles, human trafficking, boredom, anger, forgotten humans… etc…. all around us. I’m not saying that’s all there is to life, and that’s why I usually contrast the dark side with something light…” – Chelsea Wolfe
- Artemio Rodriguez Woodcuts And Etchings Recalling Mystical And Morbid Traditions
The man behind La Mano Press — an artist-run center dedicated to the promotion and appreciation of printmaking — Artemio Rodriguez’s works fall somewhere between old alchemical and biblical illustrations and Mexican folk art. His woodcuts and etchings ring of death and dying and simultaneously of playfulness, making spit-roasted rows of heads look downright adorable, [...]
Hardcore & Post-Hardcore
La Dispute Band Interview : It’s Like Medicine. It’s Self-Discovery. (w/ Full Album Stream & Lyrical Analysis)- Rise Against, A Day To Remember, Title Fight Live Show Review
There is no real way to write this review without making it a personal journey of one kid’s hardcore/punk ideals slowly but surely being whittled away by the realities of the world around him, until he finally realizes that as he grows older, the world doesn’t necessarily grow old with him. For me, at [...] - Charitable Musicians: La Dispute Collect For Youth And Poverty, Locally And Abroad (w/ Interview)
“Everything goes a long way. Every little thing counts.” – Jordan Dreyer
- Black Breath - Sentenced To Life Album Review
STREAM BLACK BREATH’S “MOTHER ABYSS” You have five seconds to prepare yourself on Black Breath’s newest release, Sentenced to Life. That five seconds of preparation has to be enough, because after the guitars and drums finish fading in on the opening track, “Feast of the Damned,” your neck muscles are forced into a blistering half-hour [...] - Ceremony - Zoo Album Review
I’m going to say it right off the bat: anytime a hardcore band does something that isn’t the stereotypical hardcore sound, it gets automatically bumped up at least one full letter grade for ingenuity in its genre. That may be unfair, but it is one of those things that can’t be fully understood until you’ve [...] - Title Fight Band Interview : Space For Memories
“A lot of the inspiration for the record came from us being on tour and us growing up the last couple of years on the road – [which is] pretty much in the most unconventional way possible.” – Ned Russin
Post-Rock & Instrumental
REIGNS – The Widow Blades Album Review- Lyonnais - A Sign From On High / Modern Calvary Music Video (w/ Director Interview)
“There is a certain overwhelming feeling that I get when I think of the Sahara or the Gobi, a place where nothing changes. It could be 2,000 years ago or 2,000 years from now and you wouldn’t know the difference. It humbles you.” - Lyonnais
- Concept-Heavy Events: Fin De Cinema, The Wiz, Krautrock Classics, Signify Sanctify Believe
This post highlights some of our favorite multi-disciplinary arts events (centered mainly around music) coming up from like-minded co-conspirators in Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles. More events for the next post, including two installments of REDEFINE’s Intuitive Navigation in Seattle and Portland (see last year’s HERE), and Seattle’s ambient music festival Substrata. Signify, Sanctify, Believe [...] - Spectral Hypnosis: Grapefruit, Lyonnais, Tassels MP3 Downloads & Streams
SPECTRAL HYPNOSIS A recurring series, featuring mesmerizing songs for one to lose sense of time and space, mind and body. Here, we start off a bit rowdy with Tassels and sink slowly into the enchanting mellow instrumental shores of Grapefruit and Lyonnais. Tassels Vancouver-based producer Sean Orr will soon be releasing a new LP, the [...] - David Daniell & Douglas McCombs - "30265" Music Video (w/ Director Interview)
“Dealing in the macro universe, an extremely wide variety of imagery will present itself in a relatively short amount of time.” – Timothy Leeds
- Top Pops! Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside, Dems, Gracie, Yards MP3 Downloads & Streams
“Pop music shouldn’t always get a bad rap,” says Top Pops!, a recurring selection of pop music highlights across a selection of styles. In this post, tracks from Portland musicians Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside and Yards, as well as minimal electronic informed pop jams from Dems and Gracie. Dems Dems gently lay [...]
Metal & Post-Metal
Mastodon Music Videos- Binary Fluidity: A Short Interview With Belgium Artist Arn Gyssels
I discovered the work of Belgian artist Arn Gyssels years ago, thanks to Flickr. At that point, he seemed like he was just beginning to hone in on a tripped out collage style full of decay, glitches, and geometries, and I was instantly captivated. Now, on May 25th, 2012, Gyssels has a solo show in [...] - Charitable Musicians: Red Fang Benefit Portland Arts Education (w/ Interview)
“I think we need to re-program society to put a bigger emphasis on the arts, so that it would be inexcusable to cut an arts programs funding in the public schools.” – Aaron Beam
- Rise Against, A Day To Remember, Title Fight Live Show Review
There is no real way to write this review without making it a personal journey of one kid’s hardcore/punk ideals slowly but surely being whittled away by the realities of the world around him, until he finally realizes that as he grows older, the world doesn’t necessarily grow old with him. For me, at [...] - OM Announces New Record, Advaitic Songs + mewithoutYou Track Premiere, "February 1878", From Forthcoming Ten Stories
mewithoutYou and OM are vastly different bands, but both of their releases have centered heavily on their own relationships to religion and spirituality. This post takes a slight peek into their pasts and what you can expect from their upcoming releases this fall and summer. Influences from Islam and Christianity abound on OM’s upcoming Advaitic [...] - Black Breath - Sentenced To Life Album Review
STREAM BLACK BREATH’S “MOTHER ABYSS” You have five seconds to prepare yourself on Black Breath’s newest release, Sentenced to Life. That five seconds of preparation has to be enough, because after the guitars and drums finish fading in on the opening track, “Feast of the Damned,” your neck muscles are forced into a blistering half-hour [...]
Punk, Pop-Punk & Emo
I Am The Avalanche – Avalanche United Album Review- Hot Water Music - Exister Album Review
Before bands started reuniting to be cool, Gainsville, Florida punk stalwarts Hot Water Music gave a quick hiatus the middle finger it deserves. The quartet put out a few live 7″ in past years, but Exister is the band’s first full length in eight. The question remains as it always does with all punk — [...] - Rise Against, A Day To Remember, Title Fight Live Show Review
There is no real way to write this review without making it a personal journey of one kid’s hardcore/punk ideals slowly but surely being whittled away by the realities of the world around him, until he finally realizes that as he grows older, the world doesn’t necessarily grow old with him. For me, at [...] - Charitable Musicians: La Dispute Collect For Youth And Poverty, Locally And Abroad (w/ Interview)
“Everything goes a long way. Every little thing counts.” – Jordan Dreyer
- Black Dice Mr. Impossible Full Album Stream, "Pigs" Music Video, Tour Dates
As unthrilled I am to have to link to Spin Magazine to make this happen… you can now listen to the entirety of the new Black Dice record on their site. It also comes with a track-by-track breakdown of themes. Mr. Impossible comes out on April 10th on Ribbon Music, and it’s the band’s first [...] - Charitable Musicians: Wetlands Support Guatemala's Xela AID (w/ Interview)
‘Trying to ‘brand’ the band as a business just had no romantic appeal, no energy… I think it often gets in the way of milking the truly transcendent moments that music allows us.” – Jeremy Reineck
Garage
Grooms – Prom Album Review (w/ Full Album Stream)- Top Pops! Violens, Slam Donahue, James & Evander, Grandparents MP3 Downloads & Streams
“Pop music shouldn’t always get a bad rap,” says Top Pops!, a recurring selection of pop music highlights across a selection of styles. A bit more straight-forward indie rock this time than usual. Slam Donahue With their latest offering to the internet masses, their Big House Nice Dreams mixtape, Slam Donahue sound a bit like [...] - Whim: Campfires, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall Band, Perfume Genius, The Memories, Eric Copeland, Eternal Summers
Whim is a weekly collection of media focusing on independent rock/pop/garage and everything surrounding it. This week we feature a new video from Thee Oh Sees, a free Campfires album, the first clip from Ty Segall Band and more. Perfume Genius Perfume Genius’ Put Your Back N 2 It remains one of the most [...] - Ty Segall & White Fence - Hair Album Review (w/ Live Performance Videos)
When Ty Segall announced that he’d be releasing three albums in 2012, there seemed to be more excitement than skepticism, though the latter is usually the reaction toward most artists trying to pull off such a feat. I’m not sure if that speaks to the value of the Bay Area rocker’s music, or if it [...] - Pour Le Corps||MIND Mixtape (#18) Stream & Download
A 23-track mixtape to celebrate two unofficial SXSW showcases taking place the same evening in 2012. BODY||MIND Friday, March 16th 2012 : DETAILS COMPLICATED DANCE STEPS / POUR LE CORPSFriday, March 16th, 2012 : DETAILS Curated by Marjorie Owens & Vivian Hua Download Mixtape (206 MB) Stream Mixtape Tracks 01 through 10, for BODY||MIND With [...] - BODY||MIND 2012 : An Unofficial SXSW House Party
“The only thing you need to know to understand the deepest metaphysical secrets — is this: that for every outside there is an inside and for every inside there is an outside, and although they are different, they go together.” – Alan Watts Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/events/317699598279306/ Download a mixtape of BODY||MIND artists HERE (206 MB). [...]
Classical & Acoustic
Little Wings Interview : The Symbolism Behind Black Grass (w/ Full Album Stream & Lyrical Analysis)- Spectral Hypnosis: Golden Retriever - New LP On Thrill Jockey + UMA - Track Featuring Silver Apples + San Gabriel - "Can't Work"
SPECTRAL HYPNOSIS A recurring series, featuring mesmerizing songs for one to lose sense of time and space, mind and body. Golden Retriever As a long-awaited response to the question of many a Portland music fan, of — “When will people start paying attention to Golden Retriever and stop letting their genius slip under the radar?” [...] - CFCF Producer / Musician Interview: Exercises, A Classical Experiment (w/ Full Album Stream)
“Everything you lose you can either try to recreate and get back or just let go and start anew.” – CFCF, Michael Silver
- Sleep Party People - We Were Drifting On A Sad Song Album Review (w/ Full Album Stream) + "Chin" / "A Dark God Heart" Music Videos {NSFW}
In this compound post for Danish band Sleep Party People, we review the music videos for “Chin and “A Dark God Heart,” and continue with an album review and full album stream for their latest, We Were Drifting On A Sad Song. “Chin” Music Video Sleep Party People are really trying their best to present [...] - Top Pops! Beach House - "Myth" And "Lazuli", Dirty Projectors - "Gun Has No Trigger" MP3 Downloads & Streams
“Pop music shouldn’t always get a bad rap,” says Top Pops!, a recurring selection of pop music highlights across a selection of styles. Two of indie rock’s big hitters, Beach House and Dirty Projectors, continue to explore their own sonic universes with new tracks, upcoming releases, and extensive tour dates. Beach House Today, Beach House [...] - Wymond Miles - Earth Has Doors EP Album Review
Guitarist and songwriter for The Fresh & Onlys, Wymond Miles, has just released his first solo effort on Sacred Bones, entitled Earth Has Doors. In just twenty minutes, the visually-evocative four-track EP seems to progressively journey through vast territories of earth and space. Side A, with the tracks “Hidden Things Are Asking You To Find [...]
