Artist: The Antlers
Song: East River Berlin Wall
From album: Cold War (EP)
[Buy other Album|mp3s][Website][Myspace]

This wisp of a song is to waking up on a cold dark morning what Hermit was to waking up on an all too sunny one. It’s a long and longing corner window stare; drained of momentum by an ice-covered outlook and one’s own frozen breath.

The Antlers is the work of Peter Silberman of Manhattan, and you can download other Antlers songs (including the rest of this EP) here, and read them here.

Artist: The Luyas
Song: Cats in a Bag
From album: Faker Death
[Buy CD][Website]

Cats in a Bag is a song by The Luyas with an interesting duality.

There’s the carefree unabashedness of the vocal melody, like a developing daydream or breezy stroll; while behind it the sky is dark with some kind of deep burgeoning. Like gray-black airships inflating in the distance, silhouetted by sunset spears.

It’s a peaceful coexistence between the innocent and the ominous.

The whole CD is really quite good, and full of unique songs. It’s worth buying, to support a band worth keeping an eye on.

Artist: Hearts of Black Science
Song: Empty City Lights
From album: Promo 2006
Genre: “Pure Electro Gonzo”
[Buy CD|Mp3s][Website]

This song reminds me of the feeling of waking up before sunrise. It’s a brisk autumn morning with a quick breakfast and an early start on a road trip in the imminent future. It’s a quiet inkling somewhere in your chest that there’s new excitement brewing.

You hit the road in the golden hour, and colors look more real than ever, as if the world was newly washed during the night. Falling leaves seem frozen with fire; everything drips with electricity and a feeling of anticipation tinged with melancholy. The wind whipping past you is cool and filled with abandon; and it floods the car with memories.

Hearts of Black Science is another good myspace find. The songs are lacquered with a restrained but deeply-present darkish sheen. It may be elusive at first glance, so you might have to look twice to see the true colors. Their influences range from Ladytron to Darkthrone, but what they come up with seems distinctly and un-self-consciously their own.

Artist: Cities
Song: Headstream
From album: Cities
Genre: Secret Texturerock
[Buy this album][Site]

“Cities” by Cities from Chapel Hill, NC (itself, in fact, a city of some renown), is like a song-clique of above-average but disaffected students that hang out together after school. Each track fits in with its surrounding track buddies, at the same time managing to show off its own distinctly unique personality, its own brand of special.

Take the song Headstream: There’s this guitar right, it’s doing stuff in all the other songs too, could be brooding in a corner or telling its friends a fun story; but in this one it’s burning like a fuse. It lights at :08 and loops and turns until it sets off a whirling chain of spark-filled explosions at 1:54. It’s these kinds of personality things that give the album its character and likeability.

So maybe you’ll like what you hear and would like to hang out with these songs, get to know them a little. Well you could always go see Cities the band at SXSW, as I hear they will be there with a few pals. Or Buy the Album when it comes out April 18th, 2006.

Artist: Hulk
Song: Elephant Memory
From album: Silver Thread of Ghosts
Genre: Gentle Twilight Atmosphere
[Buy this album][Site]

I was made aware of this artist by Osaka Records and I find it quite enjoyable. Hulk disassembles natural ambient sound settings, and recombines them with his own quiet strains to create pieces that are soundtracks of his recollections.

To me, “Elephant Memory” sounds like lying on your back in warm grasslands with eyes closed as dusk turns to dark. If you listen closely you can feel the sounds of the nighttime waking up; and later, faint drums from some distant village or dream. It’s peaceful, and as you sink more and more into the atmosphere, you feel like maybe you are learning something from this feeling.