Caught in the Net: Plenty of highs, perfectly pitched
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Your support makes all the difference.Stuck on punk's West Coast outpost, The Nerves' fame barely made it out of California. The trio recorded a solitary, self-titled EP in 1976 before breaking up.
LA musician/artist Cameron Mesirow, above, got plaudits last year in this column and elsewhere for her burgeoning one-woman band Glasser. Her debut EP Apply offered a clutch of song sketches mixing offbeat electro noises and Mesirow's delicate, high-pitched voice. Now comes her debut LP, Ring. It picks up where the EP left off but in somewhat higher-fi. Mesirow describes the record as a song cycle and its ethereal sounds land somewhere between electro-pop and arthouse soundscapes. We have the album to stream from Monday before the release on 28 September. Listen to it at independent.co.uk/artsblog.
GOOD Fridays get better and better
Ignoring Taylor Swift's vomit-inducing absolution of Kanye West at Sunday's MTV VMAs (following last year's controversy), it's better to turn to West's ongoing "GOOD Fridays" series, in which he has been giving away a new song every Friday via Twitter (@kanyewest) and kanyewest.com. The fifth instalment was an enjoyable mid-tempo jaunt with guest appearances from Common, Pusha T, Kid Cudi, Big Sean and Charlie Wilson. It's a decent effort but not the best in the series – arguably that's "Monster" featuring Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver and Nicki Minaj. Another should arrive today.
From Twitter with love
As part of a Twitter promotion for their new album Write About Love, Belle and Sebastian sent the lead single from the record to one Twitter follower (@recordingtime) who was then allowed to do whatever she wanted to with the track. Helpfully for the rest of us, she streamed it on her own Tumblr blog (ind.pn/aCZvWO). Later the song, also called "Write About Love", and featuring guest vocals from Carey Mulligan, was officially made available to the rest of the internet; it's a free download from their website, ind.pn/cDoati. Bouncy and upbeat, it's not their best work but it's worth a second listen. In the build-up to the new record the band are doing a series of web-TV events. The first, which sees them play some new tracks and take part in a chatshow, can also be seen on their website.
Shine on, you lucky listeners
A few weeks back we were treated to the stunning "Snow & Taxis" from UK producer Gold Panda's debut LP Lucky Shiner. Now the whole record is being streamed ahead of its release on 12 October. First listens suggest the producer has delivered on the promise of this track and last year's EPs, with an album full of shimmering techno and ghostly digital sounds. Listen to it at Luckyshiner.com, where you can also pick up another album track, "Same Dream China".
l.ryan@independent.co.uk
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