No Pain In Pop

Days they blur

Photo by Amalia Chimera

What and where is it, that private, wry glee riding tandem with resignation: like getting thrown from a club but being sober enough not to argue about it, or settling down to prise all the splinters from the day and still finding yourself no closer to sleep: some lost itch nonetheless hovering over and vibrating the murk within, impossible to grasp and reason with. How is it they’ve come this far, Winks, but still they sound like Psychobuildings if Peter LaBier hadn’t figured out how to dance yet, defied forever in thudding drums of resignation, “re-sig-nay-shuuun”. Tangling themselves in knots. Kicking themselves in their own head. Leafing through one thousand photographs, not one of which is their youth.

Or future… Oh.

There’s a pink silk mist on this horizon. We’d better head for that then, I suppose.



MP3: Winks - Sometimes I Can Fake a Smile

Tags: winks

We go to house parties with girls in the city

This lush, lax, go-slow version of Patten’s ‘This Sharpened Mist’ aches with the whir of guilt through brain gears: each regret squeezed by ribald synths that lead it on into snare-snaps. The synapse working original version shall appear soon on a special, new No Pain In Pop compilation. Details to follow…



MP3: Patten - This Sharpened Mist (Slow Turn Version)

Tags: patten, the bedroom club

Vondelpark has a mind’s eye

Something comes into view: behind your buzzing head.



MP3: Vondelpark - Caliornia Analog Dream

Tags: vondelpark

Mix Link: Grievous Angel and John Talabot

Shot by Lizzy King

For you: two cops of beautiful swelter, the first Grievous Angel’s 2-Step Heaven: Volume 2 mix, the second a beguiling, indefatigable melee of Balearic disco and houses both deep and cosmic made by John Talabot for PlayGround.

Sweat out your crimes.

John Talabot’s ‘Summerized’ Mix (SoundCloud)
Grievous Angel’s 2-Step Heaven: Volume 2

Tags: 2-step, balearic, disco, grievous angel, house, john talabot, playground magazine

Hatas Our Motivation

The new Nate EP Planet Mu have compiled neatly tears Nathan Clark’s recent past in two: pairing itchy, hyperactive aggro-display music with softer, more soulful swipes like this that tug the heart strings but do so at around 160bpm.

Which is pretty dangerous, obviously. The 20-year-old Chicagoan’s Hatas Our Motivation EP arrives August 2nd: an album some time beyond that.

MP3: DJ Nate - Make Em Run

Tags: dj nate, footwurk, juke, planet mu

Troubles collide + kill each other

Two birds, no stone for Denver’s Weed Diamond, who can afford to let cares melt in the fever of things left. It may be ludicrous cabriolet, but you know the views - fringe hair on forehead, fingertips on arms, there. And, while our faceless protagonists brush tanned skin happy, it’s warming to me, loitering in what’s left, to hear how “Mint in My Mouth” relaxes the further it speeds from small-town border: chorus opening out into the embrace of something infinitely promising and vast, like the film script you’d write if you’d never seen a film at all and weren’t as jealous of other love.

Found on Carry On + Sweater Kids combo CD, out now through Bridgetown.



MP3: Weed Diamond - Mint in My Mouth

Tags: weed diamond