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Telepathe
‘Chrome’s On It’
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The glut of inspired avant-garde out in the NYC district of Brooklyn has swollen with the addition of Busy Gangnes and Melissa Livaudais’s new Telepathe, one that’s comfortable enough to mess around with the girl-group shenanigans of The Shangri-Las as well as wrestle with the heavier weight of Gang Gang; the broken beat of Black Dice.

With their debut record, Dance Mother, produced by TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek, waiting in the wings, rarely have such haunted pop frolics seemed so essential. With über-pop baron White Williams’ Prophet ’08 synth admired like a shiny new toy, ‘Chrome’s On It’ is viciously sweet, a totemic flutter of pulses and those Prophet ’08’s artfully jostled into place by Don Caballero’s Eric Emm. ‘Chrome’s On It’ will satisfy, we promise. You do want your pulses to flutter, don’t you?

Download: Telepathe – ‘Chrome’s On It’

Gui Boratto
‘Beautiful Life’
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With soil in the fingernails from rooting up morsels, we need some downtown, a familiar face.

A while back Kompakt offered up the delirium-inducing extended mix of Gui Boratto’s ‘Beautiful Life’. With sheets of dusty rain hailing down in London and the São Paulo beatnik due to play his native city tomorrow before embarking on a mammoth worldwide tour, bouts of envy side away long enough to draw any idle minds to Chromophobia and its potent doses of minimal tech.

Download: Gui Boratto – ‘Beautiful Life’

The Mountain Goats
‘Sax Rohmer #1
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We hear a lot about literate music these days. So-and-so's band make literate folk pop, like we're supposed to be all, 'ooh look, someone who can spell the word 'melancholy' has decided to make a pop record', or something.

What we really want is someone who can really write the shit out of a song, and that's exactly what we get with The Mountain Goats. 'Sax Rohmer #1' is our breathless window in on the North Carolina-based outfit's fifth long-player in six years on 4AD, Heretic Pride, a song inspired by the English crime novelist and Fu Manchu creator of the same name.

Charged with palm-muted intent, the song is a lover's homecoming dressed as a starkly-lit pursuit, all wonky camera angles and long-looming shadows, and chock-full of images to reel the listener in: "a rabbit gives up somewhere, and a dozen hawks descend / Every moment leads toward its own sad end".

Download: The Mountain Goats – ‘Sax Rohmer #1'

Late of the Pier x Metronomy
‘The Bears Are Coming’
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Even in these times of rampant genrelessness, Late of the Pier are an act that stands out as cross-pollinators riding a crystalline wave of musical harlotry. The quartet from Castle Donington revel in mashing together broken shards of hammy, glam-electro with scrabbling post-punk abandon, all the while somehow managing to hang the whole thing together fresh and always danceable.

This remix, courtesy of Brighton’s Metronomy, takes that template and extends it out further; the maximalist approach to sound catching that rarest of nu-rave variables in ‘clownstep’ drum’n’bass. So often neglected in favour of pretty much everything else in the sonic palette, clownstep is an abomination, but here, somehow, it manages to hang whole together, fresh and always danceable.

Download: Late of the Pier – ‘The Bears Are Coming’ (Metronomy remix)

Hercules & Love Affair
‘Hercules Theme’
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DFA seems to think Hercules and Love Affair capable of big things and when an act has this much strut Drowned in Sound’s reluctant to argue, lest we get bowled over like some pavement strewn spod. The New York City-based quartet are releasing their debut album this spring, see the full post for details.

For now, here’s a sample – ‘Hercules Theme’ is necessarily proud of its own silver-eyed pomp, a ‘xploitation number done without dumbing down, as if PC never existed and slap bass found a way to keep everyone smiling.

This is a trick by the way - you'll be asked to sign up to the band's mailing list. Trust us when we tell you these conmen are worth it, though.

Download: Hercules & Love Affair – ‘Hercules Theme’