It's been three years since the last release by Spanish indie pop duo Lost Tapes and it was about time they brought out some new material. Since late December 2018 they had been teasing their fans with news of a fresh 4-track EP. The Bill will be out on February 22nd and Pau Roca and RJ Sinclair promise to immerse you into vibes of pure happiness in song format. The first single they are sharing today is proof of that. The electronic drumroll begins and it brings along melodies and bubbly arrangements that will fill your being and put a smile on your face. From Pop 2 Top is happy to be premiering a lyric video for the title song 'The Bill' created by Adriá Martínez Roda. The EP will be out on 7" via Kocliko Records (EU), digitally via Shelflife (USA) and on cassette via Shiny Happy Records (Asia). Watch the video and listen to 'The Bill' below!
Loners is the brainchild of Coventry based musician Alex Benetatos with the recent addition of Carlos Dias on vocals. What started out as a solo instrumental project has evolved into a duet and today their full-length debut album is coming to light. 'Intimacy' has nine tracks that blend in the reminiscent and haunting atmosphere you can expect from a dreamy and bedroom pop record. The album is out digitally and on limited edition CD via Beko disques. You are invited to stream it and get intimate with it below.
Sometimes there is in the air, diffuse and indefinable, something that catches, snaps, something that leads to the faint-hearted, to the creative and inventive. It may be an idea, a trend, a state of mind; unable to escape. Jean-Marc Le Droff might not pay attention and stay comfortably in what animates, since 2002. He stayed in the "rock fight" in a Brest electro-rock duo. But then, his fighting pessimism needed to be expressed differently. After making more personal compositions with his machines and his guitar, he kept discreetly to himself before giving in to pressure from his entourage, seduced by his music. Listening to Egoprisme, it is hard not to think of a cold wave-post-punk-80s inherited music. While we tend to dream about the future, sometimes it reinvents the legacy of past decades without taking forcing consciousness. Reminiscent? Perhaps. Or maybe not.
The indie scene also feeds on itself. So according to his musical knowledge, especially in Egoprisme, we find what we want to see. A cold wave that will be sensitive to this dark world, this serious and monotonous song that will evoke the glory days of rock which wanted Gothic. The synthetic side of his music also recalls of the boom times of synth pop, and the electro and indie rock audiences will find themselves immersed in an echo of their own references. Returning things intuitively where they were left, Egoprisme built a modern music, with a dark wave and dark synth pattern, which is the junction of many currents; at the intersection of cold, rock and indie, a resolutely upbeat electro. This music, moving and moving, is made to be listened to and dance. And with Egoprisme, we dance with much gravity with levity. In Paris, Rennes and Brest we have been able to see Egoprisme share the bill with Tropic of Cancer, Qual (Lebanon Hanover) Try not , Fuzeta, mode in Gliany, the Wheal, Republic of Dahu and Icesun. EP2 is out today digitally on Beko Disques. The cover artwork was made by French artist Jb Stephan. FP2T is excited to premiere the 4-track EP as well as the video for the opening track 'En Secret'. Stream, watch and dance to one of our favourite 'unkept' secrets of the year!
With the Rio Olympic Games just a few days away and in a mood for bringing people together, French label Beko Disques are releasing a summer compilation featuring tracks from well-known and loved artists of the label's pertaining to various Olympic sports. The tracklist was out a few days ago and is as follows: Balladur_Olympique Layat Chevalier Avant Garde_Heavy Discus Rémi Parson_Basketball Drug Train_1976 Super Crayon_Marathon Djokovic_Relay The Royal Landscaping Society_Swim Finnmark!_Cycling Photon_Discobolus Procedure Club_Triathlon Ski Saigon_Mekong Olympics Splash Wave_Synchronschwimmen. The compilation will be released on both CD and digitally. The CD, which is available to purchase separately or as part of Beko's summer pack, will be out on August 5th in 200 copies, each bearing a different sleeve. FP2T is happy to present today the first excerpt of the compilation by Leeds-based pop band (and one of our favourites) Finnmark!. 'Cycling' is a shimmering summery track, perfect for those who love riding to great pop tunes. Have a listen below and be on the lookout for the rest of the Bekolympics!
True I.T.C. are an electronic pop duo formed in Bergen, Norway in 2013 by John Olav Nilsen and Eirik Vestrheim. FP2T is happy to premiere their third single 'Please Don't Die', which is out now on Beko Disques. Through seemingly smooth synth lines and vocals the duo have managed to create a powerful track proving that true beauty sometimes lies in simplicity.
The silent love is Ganesha Mahendra's solo indiepop project coming to you alll the way from Jakarta, Indonesia. His influences of The Field Mice, Brighter or Blueboy are evident in his music, though he has acquired a distinctive sound for himself making music for some time now. It is easy to distinguish his songs among others; cheerful guitar melodies, bright synths and lovely vocals are the basic ingredients to a recipe that never fails. FP2T is excited to bring you the premiere of 'Unloved', the new single off TSL's sophomore album 'Whisper'. It is a song dedicated to people who dream about being in love and cannot leave anyone untouched. The 8-track album will be out on CD on January 4th 2016 via the French label Beko Disques and available to pre-order this Friday. Check out the beautiful video for 'Unloved' below.
German indie rock/dream pop quartet Shoreline Is released their debut album 'Deal Kindly' in 2012. Almost two years later, they started sharing a few tracks on their soundcloud from their second full-length album, which Fp2t is honored to premiere today. Sven Riehle, Jannick Frömming, Julian Prott and Stefan Dierkes are based in Cologne and they worked hard and patiently in order to create an album that was surely worth the wait. Drenched in chiming guitars, soft synths and wonderful vocals, the ravishing melodies of the 9-track album seem to get better and better with every hearing and make for an album that is easy to repeat and hard to 'hear' it go. 'Watch It All Go' is available digitally on the band's bandcamp and you can stream it in full below.
Blush Response are Alister Douglas, Luke Eygenraam, Tony Marshall and Emily Retsas from beautiful Adelaide, Australia. The band was born out of the conflicting desire to combine catchy pop songs with the ear-splitting sound of speakers tearing themselves apart. Recorded in an Adelaide bedroom, the debut EP, 'Telltale', snuck onto BandCamp in February 2014. While quietly released, the EP was anything but; thick layers of fuzz and reverb decimating the simple pop songs found within. Wasting no time, the band soon followed up with a second EP, 'Dead Air'. The two EPs quickly found their way into the ears and hearts of the online shoegaze community, appearing in a variety of Best of 2014 lists and compilations across the internet. 2015 has already seen the release of 'Blasphemy' on The Blog That Celebrates Itself (Brazil) Autumn Noises compilation, as well as a run of shows with the likes of Lowtide, Contrast, Day Ravies and Mosman Alder reaching a peak with their forthcoming appearance in Roogaze 2015. Fp2t is proud to premiere the video for the band's upcoming single, 'Your Room', which is due for release in June, on Oz Do It Better, Vol. 2 by Beko (France). Feel the fresh, summer breeze fill that room. Watch the video below.
Jon Kohen is a young musician from Boston, MA. He plays acoustic music over ambient electronica. His music is comprised of acoustic guitar and soft vocals over subtle electronic drones, beats and samples drawing influence from Elliot Smith and The Postal Service. His debut album 'Dead Reckoning' is scheduled for release on April 13th. Searchlight is the first single off the album, which follows The Heart of the Machine, an EP which came out last June. Today we premiere the video for 'With Monsters At My Heels' directed by talented Michael O'Connor. A metaphorical song about moving on that could be a part of a compilation of poems dressed in equally evocative music. And a video that succeeds in visualizing this atmosphere.
Today we got our hands on the new Lost Tapes 7" Limited Edition EP and we were pleasantly surprised by a)the amazing package that BoxBedroomRebels catered for and b)the superb songs that we heard. Lost Tapes are an indie pop duo from Spain. RJ Sinclair and Pau Roca have been making rad music for the past two years and they caught our 'ear' with their previous releases on Cloudberry Records and Beko Disques. After listening to the new EP we had a little chat with RJ. Fp2t: So, how did you start the band? RJ: Well, I’ve known Pau from a long time ago; we used to meet in different summer festivals but we just hung out, you know. And by talking , we saw we got a lot of similar influences and we liked the same bands. We started the band in Madrid where he was living in that moment...2 years ago. I had some ideas for another band. I was in a really dark and bad time then and Pau talked to me and he told me we could record the songs that I had at that moment and we should try to run a new band together. Now he's living in Valencia again, we're just 3 hours away from each other. I live in a small town, south of Barcelona, so I get a train directly to Valencia and in just 3 hours I’m there… We used to record our music where Pau was; we started in Madrid and now we're doing the sessions in Valencia. Fp2t: So 'Lost Tapes'...Where did you get your name from? RJ: You know, when you start playing with a band, it's the last thing you do..I mean we were recording our first songs and it's like always you got a show and... " Damn it, we don't have a name...so we have to find something cool". Our first name was horrible, something like ‘The Black Museum Shop’... it was our dark and noisy period. Finally, we decided to change the name before the first show. 'Lost Tapes' is more like us. You know, we're coming from a tape generation, before the CDs. Tapes were the actual internet. We were crazy fans of music, listening to tons and tons of music…Before the internet, people did mixtapes and the name comes from that period… something to say we miss those things. 'Lost Tapes', means something like that…our lost mixtapes... Fp2t: When you wrote ‘Lost In Youth’ what did you have in mind?
RJ: Mmm.. it's an old idea, I mean the riff of guitars. Pau got the riff but we didn't record the song until last year. We had in mind to do something similar to bands from New Zealand that we love, like The Cleaners or in this case The Chills. We wanted to play our own ‘Pink Frost’. We got lots of influence from different kinds of music, one of them is the 80's, pop bands from that decade. Fp2t: This EP is a bit different from what we're used to from Lost Tapes. There a lot of different sounds. Does this mean that Lost Tapes are not just another indie pop band? RJ: Yes, we recorded ‘Lost In Youth’ and ‘Slumber Party’ and another song that eventually we didn't finish, but after we talked to the record label, they explained to us that it was a 7" EP 33rpm so we needed more songs.. So they asked for old songs that we had never put out. So maybe that's the reason for the difference between the songs. Fp2t: ‘Dreaming On The Waves’ gives the EP a more shoegazey touch. ‘Cry & Lie’, the bonus track, too. RJ: Well, we’ve always been related with the shoegaze and dream pop scene. We say we play music that we like to play, music that we'd love to listen to. Fp2t: Music to get lost in… So, what are the things you get lost in? RJ: Innocence [RJ copies the lyrics of ‘Lost In Youth’] Fp2t: And if you were to do some kind of 'mixtape' of your favourite things, what would these be? RJ: You know, you always get great memories from your early years. When you're young you think everything sucks, but now I’d love to be back. And most of these things make you lose your innocence because the past will not be back again and you got special memories about the good things... We grew up in the 90's. Everything was special. Everything was a discovery…Of course now I say I’d want to be back, but of course with the experience that I got now. But this is impossible. Fp2t: So your music is your means of going back to those days... RJ: My first shows, my first records, my first music magazines. Music was the most important thing for me. I was like a sponge. My first show was the Rollings band. I was a hardcore kid but I really didn't care about anything. One day it was a Fugazi show, the day after it was Gigolo Aunts. Pop, indie, punk, hardcore, folk, hip hop…whatever was good for me if I thought that the bands were good enough. Fp2t: Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now? RJ: Puff... I don't know…doing records with Kanye West and Beck. [Laughs] I'm a country guy, I don't have too many future ideas. I'm taking everything step by step. Fp2t: What should Lost Tapes fans expect from you in the near future? RJ: I hope great songs. That's the most important thing for us, to record great songs. Fp2t: Do you have any other releases scheduled for this year? RJ: We're going to start recording our debut album this month. We got most of the songs, I mean demos. We've played these songs on our shows. I think 'She’s Over Guitars' could be a single off the new album. We also have to record a cover of Rose Meldberg for a February Records compilation. And we'll put out an LP compilation of our best singles before our first album including 2 bonus tracks on Shelflife Records, from Portland, OR. Fp2t: Any shows? RJ: This year we will be at Primavera Sound and we'll do it with a band, less electronic stuff and drums and bass players. We’re looking forward to the experience! Be sure to catch them on one of their shows and listen to the smashing first track off the EP here.
