new Balam Acab - "Motion"

Omnipresent, yes, but with very good reason, so no less essential a post.  "Motion" is our third taste of Balam Acab's debut full-length for Tri Angle.  Robin Carolan of the latter record label must be blushing.  Just relishing the moment, really.  Not only at Balam Acab's marvelous Wander / Wonder.  But also at his own year-old upstart being named America's best indie label by Billboard.  It was only one year and three days ago that this writer posted about Balam Acab's See Birds EP, the first release for the artist and the label.  What's happened since can only be described as meteoric, even miraculous, rise in exposure for both.  The apparition-inspired swells and twitches of Balam Acab, oOoOO and Holy Other birthed a micro-genre among the blogosphere.  Not to be pigeonholed, though, Tri Angle brought the fractured R&B of How To Dress Well to Europe and put out Clams Casino's hobbled hip-hop beats at the very height of the hype.

That brings us to today, less than two weeks before Balam Acab's Wander / Wonder sees release.  Gone is the grating haziness of See Birds; what's left behind is the morning dew and a moist fog, water droplets forming rings in cave puddles.  A spirit has been calling out, cheekily coaxing you into and out of a deep slumber.  Wander / Wonder is that mystical excursion, that mental escape.  It will absorb you, or you will fall into it.  Either way, it is beautiful and essential.  Go and get.  It can be all yours.  Buy it from Insound (CD / LP) or Rough Trade (CD / LP).

  Balam Acab - Motion by TriAngleRecords

  BALAM ACAB - Apart by TriAngleRecords

MP3: Balam Acab - Oh, Why

How To Dress Well - "Escape Before The Rain" (Pariah Remix)

Tri Angle Records uploaded this excellent edit of How To Dress Well's "Escape Before The Rain" as engineered by Pariah.  The London-based post-dubstep artist basically extracts the fractured R&B from the original, leaving behind an agitated, ambient soundscape that's equally as beautiful, and a bit more harrowing.

How To Dress Well - Escape Before The Rain (Pariah Remix) by TriAngleRecords

Water Borders - "Feasting On Mongeese"

On first listen, Water Borders' "Feasting On Mongeese" sounds pretty much like how a song with that title, by a band with that name, should sound.  That is to say dark and creepy.  That drag/witch house label Tri Angle Records is releasing Water Borders' full length later this year only confirms the freakish vibe.  And yet, there's a lot more than just pitch-shifted vocal samples and tribal beats going on here.  There's a cornucopia of sonic bits that hint at animalistic murmurs and Eastern instrumentation.  The result is something akin to a chopped and screwed version of Kala-era M.I.A. that's come down with a bad case of typhoid fever. 

Feasting on Mongeese (unmastered) by Water Borders

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