"I'll pass the time with our memories"

01. Protomartyr - The agent intellect
02. Björk - Vulnicura
03. Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
04. Other Lives - Rituals
05. Sleater-Kinney - No cities to love
06. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
07. Destroyer - Poison season
08. Deafheaven - New Bermuda
09. Beach House - Depression cherry / Thank your lucky stars
10. Ben Chatwin - The sleeper awakes
11. Oiseaux-Tempête - Ütopiya?
12. Wrekmeister Harmonies - Night of your ascension
13. Wilco - Star Wars
14. Lanterns on the Lake - Beings
15. Joanna Newsom - Divers
16. Deehunter - Fading frontier
17. Blur - The magic whip
18. My Morning Jacket - The waterfall
19. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Asunder, sweet and other distress
20. Mount Eerie - Sauna











"Where has my passion gone?"


Deafheaven's George Clarke: "People can enjoy the band on the music level without needing to understand the lyrics; however, I think that if your investment is strong enough, it only can enhance the listening experience. Once you delve into the themes of the record, you will enjoy it more. Because of that, we do make them readily available for people who want to invest that kind of time. But, I do understand that not everyone wants to."



"How many years have I been sleeping? How many hours did I throw away? Why does everything feel so unnamed?"

Chelsea Wolfe: "Sleep and dream issues have plagued me my whole life, and I think this was my first album where I’ve confronted it... Some of these songwriting sessions were really intense. I’d be writing lyrics and find myself physically shaking. I really felt like I had some sort of prophetic experience.







"Unmake the wild light"

65daysofstatic's Joe Shrewsbury: "There was no possible way we could have done 'Wild Light' at any other time in our narrative. It’s only because we’ve gone through certain things together. I think those sort of ephemeral, intangible parts of the process are actually the key ones, and they are very hard to articulate."

"That record, from start to finish, was an absolute joy to be a part of... We didn’t talk about what we were doing, we just had this excitement that it was coming together."







"Lovers on the run"


Destroyer's Dan Bejar: "I like songs where there’s a balancing act between noble sentiments and lost causes... I think 'Poison Season' is a pretty dour record from beginning to end... Compared to 'Kaputt', the songs on this record feel darker to me, not in a teenage-goth way, but in a way that’s less ready for Internet radio."



Music Alliance Pact - May 2015

Η μηνιαία συλλογή του Music Alliance Pact με όσα ξεχώρισαν 19 συστηματικοί ακροατές μουσικής από την σκηνή της χώρας που διαμένουν. Αποκτήστέ την στο σύνολό της πατώντας εδώ ή μεμονωμένα στον τίτλο του κάθε τραγουδιού.

Manos Milonakis produces modern classical music for films and theatrical plays, as well as for his independent solo work. The original score for Thanassis Triaridis' theatrical play Zyklon Or The Destiny is a magnificent set of 10 tracks awash in textures, atmospheres, moods and emotion. His music winds its way through your mind and moves your soul. You should also check out the main theme for the documentary Drink And Be Merry.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
This new musical project by Martin Reznik (La Filarmonica Cosmica) almost started as a game in 2012, when he recorded several songs on a weekly basis. Some time afterwards, while reviewing the material, Martin realised he had an album in his hands, so he spent the next months polishing the songs and re-recording some instrumental tracks. He also invited musical friends to participate in what became a folk album with a soft psychedelic vibe. Suicidas Melodías is one of these collaborations, in which singer-sonwriter Sofía Viola lends her wonderful voice. You can download the full album from Bandcamp.

Arvo Tanty is an introduction to producer Michael Dolan's solo material, following his work with electronic outfit Perth. White Hum Valley (Hello) is a grandiose, cinematic Casiotone orchestra track where slow, effacing rhythms pulse and dissolve at surface break. Dolan says the song was inspired by Joni Mitchell, Mort Garson's Plantasia and his yearning to make a "Nintendo soundtrack of some kind".

Montag's Dream, the opening track of Otis Trio's debut album 74 Club, probably refers to the main character of the novel Fahrenheit 451. The dark jazz they create fits perfectly with the despair related in the book.

Toronto artist Nina Bowz specializes in artful electro-pop that has quirky twists at every corner.

CHILE: Super 45
The lack of spirituality is a recurring theme of living in big cities, and for Urban Monk this is a starting point in their musical history. After a season in Brazil, Chai got together with Dhanur to bring out the sounds inside their heads. They have followed up their 2013 debut Primavera En Secreto EP with this year's release of A Lua - a mixture of pop, rap, shoegaze and Krishna life by these friends from La Serena.

Bogota's Planes (Estudios Universales) previously appeared in the Music Alliance Pact in August 2012 and much has happened to them since then. Many trips, festivals, soundtracks and the release of their 2014 debut album Las Americas. In it, they continue their wave of dream-pop with alternative rock, creating a beautiful place in the soul of those who listen to them. Album closer Fue Siempre Lo Mismo is a song that speaks of encounters and disappointments.

This month we try something different, serving up an exclusive taste of a 15-year-old album. Speaker Bite Me's If Love Is Missing It Must Be Imposed was originally released to little critical acclaim, but it has since grown to become a Danish rock classic and now it's out on vinyl for the first time.

ECUADOR: Plan Arteria
Les Petit Bâtards, with members under 19 years old, have become one of the most acclaimed new bands in Ecuador and are definitely worth keeping an eye on. One reason to believe in them is their intimate, touching first single, Ficción.

INDONESIA: Deathrockstar
With ukulele, guitar, bass and live loops, Yogyakarta band Answer Sheet bring diversity to Indonesia's indie-pop scene. You might love how these guys sing in English with a slight Javanese dialect.

Multi-instrumental, multi-talented member of multiple Derry acts, Neil Burns - known in this particular guise as Comrade Hat - will throw that hat over anything that catches his fancy. One Of Them is a fine example of his work, designed on piano and guitar but constructed using a delicate touch on synths. Think Moby's blissful corners constructed using the Rockies for inspiration. This is out of sync with the zeitgeist and all the better for it.

ITALY: Polaroid
"As if Raymond Carver got drunk in front of the typewriter while Dinosaur Jr's Green Mind plays on the turntables" - I really like this sentence from the press release for Giving Up On People, Pueblo People debut album. I think it really tells something about the way these songs are written, the spirit behind this raw, powerful music. The guitars are loud, the drum and bass are tight, the vocals are harsh and grasping. Life up against the wall, bad luck, growing up and going separate ways. For sure, one of the best Italian indie-rock albums this year.

The image that the beach city of Zushi, south-east of Tokyo, has conjured up in recent years has not been particularly positive. It was a rowdy spot and then the local government banned loud music and other fun times from the coast. Thank goodness for outfits such as Half Mile Beach Group, who on Twilight present a windswept and haunting view. It is not quite summer bliss, as the whole thing sounds appropriate for the slow season, but it is a gorgeous representation all the same.

Mistura is a duo whose songs, exclusively in Maltese, have elements of blues and rock, both electric and acoustic. Debut album U d-Dinja Tkompli Ddur, released in October 2014, is a rock concept record divided into four sections of four songs each. Packed with biting social commentary, especially in relation to local issues, it reflects on the theme of repetition and cycles of life. Antonio Olivari and Malcolm Bonnici are the main members, but they also perform as a full electric band with additional musicians.

Error.Error is the project of Efrén Valenzuela, a young musician and beatmaker from Hermosillo, Sonora on the north-western desertic corner of Mexico. He is the founder of the netlabel LALALA4e and also operates under the Zonzobot alias. Error.Error recently blew us away with his newest track, written as Γ, an incredibly chilling piece which the artist has branded "reggaetrón". Γ was accompanied with a futuristic, must-see 3D video created by the artist himself.

PERU: SoTB
Physic began to attract vast attention with only a couple of songs earlier this year, leaving us eager to hear more of their dark post-punk. Fortunately for us, they have just released their self-titled debut and Never Satisfied is one of the jewels of this remarkable album.

Beautify Junkyards' first album, released in 2013, contained only covers but it drew the attention of many radio stations and journalists, and they were invited to participate in a Brazilian television documentary along with David Byrne, Devendra Banhart and M.I.A. Their new album of original material, The Beast Shouted Love, was released this month and it is one of the best records I have heard this year. It will please fans of Goldfrapp, Beach House, Melody's Echo Chamber and Foxygen.

SCOTLAND: The Pop Cop
Every so often you come across a new song that's so obviously better than anything you've heard in months that it stops you in your tracks and makes you realise how much better life is to have it in it. For me, that special something is Righteous Man by The Great Albatross. The creator of this exceptional acoustic heartbreak is A. Wesley Chung, an American based in Glasgow. Righteous Man (video here) is taken from recent EP Roots, which features Avi Zahner-Isenberg from Avi Buffalo - he and Wesley are former bandmates.

UNITED STATES: We Listen For You
Johnny Azari doesn't pull any punches with his blues. This is in your face, razor-edge reconstruction of a genre that's gotten soft. His music is the last swig of whiskey after a long night of drinking. The dark alleyway. This is real-life emotion through music and he's not cleaning it up just to make a few casual listeners more comfortable.



"Walk with me to a place of trust. Death will no longer silence us"


Chelsea Wolfe: "'Abyss' is meant to have the feeling of when you’re dreaming, and you briefly wake up, but then fall back asleep into the same dream, diving quickly into your own subconscious... There's a blurry confusion throughout the lyrics on the album, as it sometimes is in dreams, like you're new to the afterlife and things are slightly different, more hazy and fluid."





"Until it finds you the ever slow burn of many years behind you..."

Other Lives' Jesse Tabish: ""2 Pyramids" explores the more literal meaning of ritual, and the common human desire to give supernatural meaning to ordinary objects, in the case of this song, 2 pyramids."



Music Alliance Pact - March 2015

Η μηνιαία συλλογή του Music Alliance Pact με όσα ξεχώρισαν 21 συστηματικοί ακροατές μουσικής από την σκηνή της χώρας που διαμένουν. Αποκτήστέ την στο σύνολό της πατώντας εδώ ή μεμονωμένα στον τίτλο του κάθε τραγουδιού.

There's something totally irresistible about Zebra Tracks’ intoxicating third album, Waves. They make thoroughly exciting, perfectly executed music that brims with fresh ideas, shimmery guitars and thundering rhythms, sharp and moving melodies, bleak, brooding but hopeful arrangements. They have wisely retained the elements that worked previously, yet there is a depth of emotion here they have never accessed before. Zebra Tracks have made an impressive stride forward and you'd be mad not to follow them.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Panda Elliot is three in one: woman, band and producer. A fresh new face in the music scene, she recently launched her second album Forastera, which shows a more confident Panda Elliot, well established in her own style. After the eclectic single Ligerita, she released Guerrero, a rockin' feminine song that forces you to move your head. The track is potent and full of energy on its own, so this remix by AlexPatri extends into the realm of fun, uptempo electronic dance.

A continuation of Kučka's future R&B leanings hinted at in her previous work, Divinity is a lush, surreal affair. Undulating rhythms sync perfectly with the swirling, cough-syrupy synths and Laura Jane Lowther's vocals, which sound at once sultry and innocent. Think an antipodean Purity Ring.

Passo Torto is a quartet formed by renowned musicians from Sao Paulo's contemporary music scene. Isaurinha is taken from their second album, Passo Elétrico, in which they explore guitars and effects on acoustic bass and cavaquinho (sort of a small guitar often associated with samba), with the lack of percussion elements leaving space for harmonic and melodic experiments.

Fans of Lykke Li may enjoy newcomer Kathleen Munroe, who simply goes by Munroe. She makes chilling folk tunes like this one with a tinge of Americana (though I guess this would be Canadiana?). Production-wise, Bloodlet doesn't have too much but it's perfect just the way it is. Her lovely voice is all you need.

CHILE: Super 45
Guitars are back in Chilean pop and Patio Solar proves this. After a couple of self-produced releases (Patio Solar and Driminsún), these youngsters from a little corner of Santiago offer dreamy lo-fi melodies, sometimes close to shoegaze and psychedelia, on their 2015 debut album Temporada. The single Pintura is taken from the record, released through Piloto.

Juan Carlos Torres, the frontman of Bogotá's Globos de Aire, also goes by the pseudonym Okraa, and with this solo alias he makes deeper, more personal work within electronica. Okraa, who has done remixes for Scottish artist Turtle, shows the well-woven sounds that lead us to take a walk in our minds on Healing, from his debut Dreamachine EP.

The quintet Virgin Suicide will release their eponymous debut album on May 18, co-produced and mixed by Sune Rose Wagner (The Raveonettes). Here is first single Virgin Suicide as a MAP exclusive download.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: La Casetera
Behind The Tigers is a new, mysterious project from Santo Domingo. Their name is a literal translation of a colloquial Dominican way of referring to fun-loving guys as "tigres". Their first song, Behind The Tigers, is a breezy electro-pop tune, but as simple as it sounds, the duo claims there's more than meets the eye in their lyrics and wordplay.

ECUADOR: Plan Arteria
Se Fue El Sistema is the first single on the new EP by La Orden Del Baile Atrevido (L.O.B.A.), an electro-rock band with a euphoric style dubbed "rotten glamor". This song mocks the nightmare of Ecuador's paperwork, but it's also a criticism of the system in which we live. L.OB.A.'s debut album, Musica Del Cosmos, will be released this year.

INDONESIA: Deathrockstar
If you watched a lot of MTV and crowdsurfed at gigs during the 1990s, then you may have the era forever in your heart as one awesome memory where lots of weird-sounding bands emerged and you love them. Nic Fit will bring back those happy feelings.

No Monster Club is the solo guise of Bobby Aherne, an ever-present at the heart of some of Dublin indie's more eccentric and memorable moments. I've Retired sees colorfully upbeat verses and bouncing choruses adorned with contrary lyrics: it's themed around a departure from the scene that's clearly not about to happen. What's bound to happen eventually, though, is one of Aherne's acts make a major, major impact. A space worth watching.

ITALY: Polaroid
A Love Explosion is the new album by Go Dugong. Spring is approaching here in Italy, so a record full of love and sensuality seems appropriate. There are mellow beats and psychedelic melodies influenced by 60s and 70s Italian soundtracks plus samples from old school Northern Soul hits. The album is free to download via Bandcamp.

Indie-pop shall truly never fade out of style. As long as there are young people out there with access to some instruments and a computer to record with, the twee stuff will keep on coming. Caro Kissa have released one of the first great indie-pop EPs of the year in Japan with Perfect Dream, and Saturday Morning is an easy-going highlight, showcasing their skippy tempo and solid singing.

Vapor and sine waves are certainly bubbling under the skin of Animación Suspendida II, a duo comprised of Beto Ben and Mou (formerly of Bam Bam, the space-rock band that delivered Red Bull Panamérika's 2011 album of the year). With an amazing recording process, the pair improvise on iPad music apps, record to tape and then edit the final track. So, no Ableton Live here, just pure Monterrey psy-fi-phuture juice. The video is a must-see.

PERU: SoTB
The Deep Sea Monster, who formed in 2012, have emerged from Lima's independent music circuit with a sound encompassing psychedelia and garage rock. Their new self-titled album is a perfect match of experimentation and euphoria. Their challenge is to not limit their music in any way and their full discography is available for free on Bandcamp.

The Tape Junk, who first appeared on the Music Alliance Pact in October 2013, release their eponymous second album in April. It was produced by another talented Portuguese musician, Luís Nunes (Walter Benjamin), and recorded in a makeshift studio in Alvito, Alentejo. The calmness of the place comes across on the recording and its sound.

SCOTLAND: The Pop Cop
Tongues. is the electro project of Kill The Waves frontman Tim Kwant, who is wildly succeeding in his mission to create inspiring pop songs that combine raw energy with a delicate touch. Bold synths, deep subs and soaring vocoders have justifiably drawn comparisons to Alt-J, Hot Chip and fellow Glaswegians Chvrches. With around 50,000 plays so far, Colours In The Dark sparked an online stir after being "accidentally" left public on SoundCloud earlier this year. However, MAP exclusive download Anymore is an even more impressive offering, a perfect union of uplifting and emotive.

SOUTH KOREA: Indieful ROK
Seoul-based Flash Flood Darlings, who was raised in Christchurch, New Zealand, describes his music as romantic synth-pop. Debut album Vorab And Tesoro was released in February and is filled with a dreamy blend of genres. In The City has been well chosen as one of the album's two lead tracks, offering a synth line that makes it the perfect soundtrack for a night drive through any city.

SPAIN: Musikorner
MIWA* is the moniker under which Barcelona-based DJ and producer Sergi Miwa releases tracks inspired by avant-garde Japanese pop. His music is an open invitation to a galactic getaway, or a one-way ticket to wherever your imagination takes you.

UNITED STATES: We Listen For You
There are thousands upon thousands of singer-songwriters in the world - and not a single one of them is like Hip Hatchet. His music is highly personal yet also universal. Every lyric packs a punch and every play reminds you just how powerful sound can be.



"ANTI"


Ένα από τα πιο συγκλονιστικά, εκστατικά, απαράβλητα, ανατριχιαστικά, εκθαμβωτικά υπέροχα κομψοτεχνήματα της τελευταίας δεκαπενταετίας! Υποκλίνομαι!



"Ütopiya / On Living"

Συνταρακτικά εξαίσιο απόσπασμα από το 'Ütopiya?', το δεύτερο δίσκο των Oiseaux-Tempête.





"Fool"

Nadine Shah: "I suppose 'Fast Food' is a coming of age album of sorts lyrically. Rejecting the romanticised idea of 'perfect' love and maturing in respects to relationships and accepting partners pasts. But it isn’t begging for your sympathy, it doesn’t wallow in self-pity. It’s unapologetic and, I hope, empowering.



"Take away these thoughts, take away the fog. Acetate"

METZ's Alex Edkins: "We were more focused on the feel of songs as opposed to the idea of getting something right... In the first record, we were pretty clinical and meticulous in trying to get it perfect as it is in our heads, whereas this one is just a bit grittier and rougher around the edges."



"Retrospective memory"

"'ANTI' is confronting us with despair – pitch-black and constricting. A long cry in the darkest night, turning against the world, and baring all the frustration; seeing the end of everything, but being incapable of talking. The few lighter shades scattered over the record convey a melancholic reference to something that is already dead. A brief review, seeing the beautiful things we made, the potential of humanity, considering that an end has been reached..."



"There's no shade in the shadow of the cross"

Sufjan Stevens: "For so long I had used my work as an emotional crutch. And this was the first time in my life where I couldn’t sustain myself through my art. I couldn’t solve anything through my music any more. Maybe I had been manipulating my work over all these years - using it as a defense mechanism or a distraction. But I couldn’t do that any more, for some reason.
I just didn’t feel like I needed to… work through the death of my mother with noise, but with words.
I definitely felt the desire to rewind and return to a more traditional form. You have to cast out your demons and rebel against your traditions and pursue your interests through the adventure of discovery, but you always have to crawl back to the homeland like the prodigal son."



"Everything is turning out like it wants to. Feels like I've been here before."

Other Lives' Jesse Tabish: "This one was a real journey. It was a long time spent searching for a new identity, still trying to retain the past of our musical palate but also really trying to stretch ourselves into a new type of music."



"Mirroring"

Το θαυμάσιο "Mirroring" εγείρει μνήμες και συναισθήματα και προαγγέλει με τον ιδανικότερο τρόπο την πρώτη κυκλοφορία του Ben Chatwin, που γνωρίσαμε και αγαπήσαμε ως Talvihorros.


"I wanted 'The Sleeper Awakes' to represent the idea of a future that has been and gone. Before the information and telecommunications revolution there was a beautiful yet weird, naivety about what the future might bring and it was this that I tried to tap into whilst making the record. I sourced a one hundred-year-old Dulcitone (a kind of portable piano that was made for a short period of time in Glasgow at the turn of the Twentieth Century) and used it extensively, making it sit with modern electronics and synthesis. The pairing of older, traditional instruments with modern recording techniques and processes is something that I'm very interested in."