Nah Rez Presents: Smooth Summer Sounds (mix)

August 18, 2011 nah_rez 1 comment

DOWNLOAD: Smooth Summer Sounds (mix)

Happy Thursday people! I made you guys a playlist of a bunch of songs I have been listening to this summer that I never got around to posting. Warning: the mix is pretty much all Indie songs, with a dash of electro and some R&B-esque tunes. Hopefully some of you strictly hip hop readers will give it a chance and find something you like. I tried to make the mix so it would be good background music to simply play you through an hour of the day and maybe even relax some nerves. If you like it—write me love letters and tell your friends, if you hate it—I recommend burning it onto a CD-R and running it over with your car or posting mean comments, whatever you prefer. Hit the jump for some info about the artists

1. Motopony – Starting the playlist off with some gentle morning music. Motopony is a Seattle based band and the track is off their debut album that was released earlier this year. Can anyone tell me what the background noise at the beginning of the song?

2. Alt-J – This band’s name is a delta symbol, however they go by Alt-J because the only way you can type that symbol is apparently by pressing that key combination on a Mac. I’m a PC so it’s whatever. I like their music and the movie Matilda.

3. TV Girl – Funny story, the original reason I listened to this song was because I thought it was going to be a female covering the Elton John classic. Well, turns out it is neither of those things but I ended up liking the track a lot and downloading the rest of TV Girl’s EP. Not much info about TV Girl is available except it is two boys from California, download here

4. Vacationer – According to Facebook, “this band creates music for the sole purpose of relaxing the listener and sending their mind on a well-deserved trip,” hence the name. I think they do a great job as I have had this song on repeat for a good part of the summer; oh and I’ve also spent most my summer wishing I was vacationing somewhere else. So Deep.

5. New Navy – Band out of Sydney, Australia. Thumbs up to their accents and their sound. The tropical feel of the song warms the soul, hopefully New Navy will have more material out soon.

6. Active Child (Featuring How To Dress Well) – And now for some bedroom music, Active Child is the solo project of Pat Grossi. His debut album, You Are All I See, is coming out August 23rd and it is currently streaming at the pompous blog aggregate HypeM if you want to give it a listen (And the track name is “Playing House” not “Playground” but I can’t fix it in the player for some reason).

7. Inc – Duo out of LA that makes some funky new age R&B; you can get their most recent EP, 3 on iTunes now.

8. Sleep ∞ Over – This song is layers upon layers of emotion and the vocals kind of remind me of a more aggressive Beach House. I don’t know how I feel about the infinity symbol in their name, are symbols coming back or something? Sleep ∞ Over’s debut LP is coming out in September.

9. Of Monsters and Men – I posted about this Icelandic group when I was still in my toddler stages at MJF. “From Finner” isn’t a new song but I’ve recently been obsessing over it, I have a thing for accordions and big choruses. Every time I hear the lyrics “we are far from home, but we’re so happy” I want to go back to Spain, which is where I took the picture featured on the post.

10. Blood Orange – I already professed my love for Blood Orange, here he is covering NewVillager – Lighthouse, a song I posted a remix of awhile back. That’s some full circle business happening right there.

11. Efterklang – Band from Copenhagen, Denmark. Harmonies, Scandinavia, yeah. Right up my alley, and hopefully some of yours. “Raincoats” was a track on their third album, Magic Chairs which was released in 2010 and is available on iTunes.

12. Air France – Here’s some Swedish electro music. I didn’t even mean to put the two Scandinavian bands on the playlist next to each other, it just happened. Spooky. I can’t tell what they’re saying for most of the song but it always grabs my full attention when I hear it.

13. Cuckoo Chaos – Band with a goofy name out of San Diego, the track comes from their EP, Woman, out in September. If you have a moment read their bio on the Facebook page, quite entertaining.

14. SBTRKT – Never have I ever skipped a SBTRKT track when it shuffles on my iPod; it is easily one of my favorite albums of the summer and probably the year. SBTRKT is for the people, seriously get the album.

15.LIPS Songs — Been meaning to post about this female vocalist for a while, Lips is Steph Brown and she is originally from New Zealand. The song is simple, her voice is sweet, and I like the subtle feel of the beat. I really hope her significant other ended up taking a holiday with her, how can you reject this song?

16. Metronomy (Clock Opera Remix) – Metronomy is a group from the UK that released their third album, The English Riviera, earlier this year. It’s a great summer album, I recommend you look into it before the seasons change. Clock Opera is an electro band also from the UK and they definitely know how to do a remix, their debut EP is coming out in October.

17. Holy Ghost! (feat. Michael McDonald) – Oh how far we’ve come, ending on a completely different note than we began with this tune. Holy Ghost! Is a duo from New York and their debut album was released earlier this year. “Some Children” has pretty much everything you need: the disco vibe combined with yacht rock and those female harmonies that actually remind me of ghosts are a perfect blend of something I never even thought I would like. The mini video for the song is also cool, see here.