Today's Hotness: Winter, Spectral Park, Panda Riot

>> One marvel of the modern age is the speed at which technology continually reinvents ways for artists to conceive, collaborate and record music together. Case in point: Boston's new dream-pop concern, Winter. The band's terrific new EP Daydreaming is a collaboration between Infinity Girl fronter Nolan Eley and singer and songwriter Samira Winter. "She would write the songs, and send me demos she recorded on her iPhone. Then, I would arrange and produce them, record all the instruments and have her come [in and] sing," Mr. Eley told us late last month. The result is a deft synthesis of shoegaze atmospheres and vintage girl-group vocals. What makes the pair's artistic partnership remarkable is how fully-formed and well-realized the songs are: at no point do the four songs comprising Daydreaming sound like anything other than a group that has tested the mettle of the compositions to the point of comfort and ease on stage. Throughout the EP, glassy guitars brush gently against cloudy vocals that sway with a sunny disorientation. Highlight and closer "Nothing" adds bouncy, slinky keyboard textures and buzzing, treble-kicking fuzz before the song breaches a sleepy but catchy chorus. The tune comes undone in a coda that affords Eley the opportunity to stare in the distance with some Loveless-styled reverse guitar washes. Hopefully, Daydreaming is but the first instance of collaboration between a pair that really do work together so naturally. Grab it for any price via Bandcamp right here. Winter makes what very well may be its live debut Jan. 28 at Great Scott in Boston. Dig the Facebook event page right here. Stream the EP via the embed below, and also check out the video for the title track. -- Edward Charlton



>> Southampton, England's Spectral Park raised our eyebrow with news of its upcoming self-titled full-length due next week. Little is known of the zany band's history, beyond a two-song demo on Bandcamp, but the bio on label Mexican Summer's website indicates Spectral Park is actually the product of a lone man, Luke Donovan. Leveraging loops and samples scraped from 45s Donovan liberated from the trash, the result is a masterful fusion of unhinged garage rock and bizarre sound effects. In lead single "L'appel du Vide" (translation: call of the void), a heavily reverbed click erupts into a manic verse and a short, Jefferson Airplane- echoing chorus. The tune then cycles between the two with abandon. Perhaps the label summarized what's going on here best at its web site, calling Spectral Park's music "clear-eyed flower child reveries of pop chaos." Indeed, Mr. Donovan's music would seem to offer a glimpse into a time (in the '60s) when musicians were still astounded and perplexed by analog electronic wizardry (The Electric Prunes, anyone?). The result is Spectral Park at times sounds like MGMT covering lost Syd Barrett cuts. Clicky Clicky applauds the stylish, higher-profile Mexican Summer for taking a gamble on something like this. After all, with the cheesy organs and buried drum beat, "L'appel du Vide" (stream embedded below) may not be very "of-the-moment" for a youth culture that coexists with dubstep -- but perhaps it should be. Mexican Summer releases Spectral Park Jan. 29; buy the vinyl here. -- Edward Charlton



>> >> Rising, Chicago-based dream-pop powers Panda Riot will release Feb. 19 the full-length Northern Automatic Music. Doing the honors will be Saint Marie Records, the outfit that previously issued Panda Riot's exemplary single "Serious Radical Girls," which we wrote about here last summer. A lush and deliriously beautiful preview single from the forthcoming collection titled "Black Pyramids" indicates the band persists in purveying an alluring mixture of electronic drums, shoegaze textures and palpable distortion. The rhythm tracks here are augmented by new addition to the group, drummer Jose Rodriguez. Digital, endless "ahhhs" serve as a returning riff in "Black Pyramid," then explode in the outro. Indeed, the upbeat build to that all-too-brief climax is a highlight of the number, with Rebecca Scott's sweet lilt providing a nice counterpoint to the group's stormy instrumentation. Also, the brief sing-along breakdown evidences atypical aural elements that Panda Riot occasionally incorporates –- always with one eye on the positive ecstasy that the rhythms bear repeating. Pre-order Northern Automatic Music from Saint Marie here, and stream "Black Pyramids" via the embed below. -- Edward Charlton

Today's Hotness: Fridge Poetry, Panda Riot, Fashoda Crisis

>> [UPDATED] Based on his remarks in our interview with his band a year ago about logging copious hours jacked into his beloved Japanese 8-track machine and Fruity Loops, it's little surprise that Johnny Foreigner drummer Junior Elvis Washington Laidley has finally revealed a bedroom project, the beats-and-electronics concern Fridge Poetry. The name itself is apt, as Mr. Laidley -- in the spirit of Dntel and The 6ths -- produces the music and then invites vocalists in to complete the tracks. Fridge Poetry's debut tune, a demo titled "Crash Down," is a remarkable, undulating dreamer that comes off as something of an update of the very early Johnny Foreigner song "Sword Buried," morphed into a contemporary remix of Crooked Fingers' "Crowned In Chrome" with a touch of Lali Puna thrown in because that is always the best thing you can do to a song. "Crash Down" features vocals and lyrics from Thomas Sherwood Nicholls, a name we assumed we knew until we did some fact checking and discovered this is not Tom from Calories or Tom from Tubelord or even Tom Campesinos! But as it happens, Mr. Nicholls' vocals previously appeared on an all-time-favorite song here at Clicky Clicky, Johnny Foreigner's somber and impressionistic ballad "All Moseley Gardens," which longtime Johnny Foreigner fans will recall as the hidden final track on the trio's smashing debut EP Arcs Across The City. Fridge Poetry's Soweto Slo Mo EP, which will contain a heretofore undetermined number of tracks, will be self-released late September or early October via Bandcamp. Fans can expect more collaborations with recognizable figures from Johnny Foreigner's constellation of indie pals, although it's a touch early for us to be naming names. For now, you've got the electronic bliss-out of "Crash Down" to occupy your ear canals; stream it via the embed below. For its part, Johnny Foreigner is about to reveal a slate of North American tour dates. Can we say that? Well, we guess we just did. The only date that's been announced as of this writing is Nov. 7 in Boston, Massachusetts. More details to come.



>> While much has been made about the more rock-oriented shoegaze revival acts of the past few years, there's less mention of the sugary, dance-oriented facet of the genre. But it's one that never truly dissipated and has been raving underground for years. Newer bands includingRumskib, Airiel and even the long-running Cocteau Twins continued to reliably release massive guitar washes paired with electronic beats long after My Bloody Valentine was left flummoxed by its own genius. Another proud and notable foot soldier of this ecstasy-rush movement is Philly-born and Chicago-based Panda Riot, whose limited-edition "Serious Radical Girls" 7" was released in early June by Saint Marie Records. The quartet's 2010 EP Far And Near established the band as a quality act, and the new three track single marks a welcome return, boasting more fully realized and bombastic production with just the right amount of cloudiness. The title track "Serious Radical Girls" features proudly chorused guitars and singer Rebecca Scott's sweet and clear vocal work (which pleasantly echoes that of Velocity Girl's Sarah Shannon). Follow-up "Golden Age Precursor" is a quick pastiche of clipped vocal samples and delay effects, and the single also includes a remix of "Serious Radical Girls" by Dean Garcia, formerly of U.K. dream-pop band Curve. Mr. Garcia is arguably one of the main drivers of the aforementioned shoegaze/dance stylistic melange, and it's doubtful Panda Riot could have identified a more logical partner for a remix. Listen to all three tracks via the embed below, and click through to Bandcamp to purchase the single, which is available in a limited edition of 400 vinyl pieces packaged with download code. -- Edward Charlton



>>Essex, UK-based smartpunx Fashoda Crisis are in the throes of creating a new vinyl EP for release this fall, according to an email from fronter Simeon Ralph. But in the meantime the act has released a characteristically cracking shouter "He's Got Gills" on a new compilation from the label Cognitive Dissonance. Well shy of two minutes in length, "He's Got Gills" touts a bruising guitar and bass attack, skull-rattling stops and starts and Mr. Ralph's throat-shredding vitriol, all of which could be said to earn the band a designation as Future Of The Left Jr. Cognitive Dissonance's compilation is titled Now That's What I Call Cognitive Dissonance Vol. 1, and you can stream the entire thing right here; it is selling for the criminally tiny price of one pound. Fashoda Crisis' previous full length, the deliciously caustic sophomore set Him They Make Learn Read, was issued last November. Stream "He's Got Gills" below.