F

Flavorwire

Featureless Ghost

Music

The 10 Best Dark and Weird Electronic Albums of 2012

By Russ Marshalek on

We’re not ones for preemptively compiling “best of the year” lists, particularly in music. There’s always one or two records or, as is coming increasingly more common, a small flurry of mixtapes that drop at the tail end of December that cause us obsessive, neurotic critics to compulsively rearrange our lists (see: last year, and The Weeknd’s Echoes of Silence, his surprisingly perfect ending to a trilogy that most thought lagged a bit in the center). That said, we’re ready to put a lock down on 2012 as it relates to the year’s releases in the brilliantly flourishing “weird” dark electronic scene. We’re living in a post-witch house landscape now, where the pop music landscape is slurring and blurring into a weird, dark hybrid of what we used to know… and that’s an awesome thing. It allows for the likes of Charli XCX’s Super Ultra tape to rub against the epic void of releases from Blackest Ever Black. So, in this festive time of year, let’s get dark. … Read More

  • 0

Music

10 MP3s You Need to Download for Free This Week: Interpol, Hype Williams

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, which means that we still feel ill from eating our body’s weight in turkey yesterday — and also that it’s time for another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. This week the music industry is starting to wind down for the holiday season, but never fear, because there’s still plenty of action worth your bandwidth: a hitherto unreleased Interpol demo, a free track from the excellent new Clinic album, lots of weird atmospheric music, Dave Sitek remixing Norah Jones, classic Gary Numan, and more. Since all this action costs precisely nothing, what are you waiting for? All the download links await after the jump. … Read More

  • 0

Music

Flavorwire’s 2012 Halloween Mixtape

By Russ Marshalek on

Face it: music for your Halloween party can be tough. It’s really cheap and easy to go, say, strictly ’80s, or strictly metal, or strictly horror film soundtracks, but that’s not how we do things around here. As such, your author has created a Halloween party mix of some dark, moody and thematically appropriate new tunes for your Samhain enjoyment, because, really, how many times can you listen to “The Monster Mash”? Feel free to use this as a soundtrack to your Halloween seance/rave/get-together, or just to creep out the neighbors. … Read More

  • 0

Music

10 Dark, Weird Candidates for “Song of the Summer”

By Russ Marshalek on

We’ll admit that this year, we’re just a little overly-invested in the battle for “song of the summer.” It’s partially because we hate how damn catchy Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know,” one major contender for the #1 spot, is, partially because the song it’s going toe-to-toe with, Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe,” is legitimately amazing, and partially because we’re unable to get the incredibleness of jj’s new High Summer EP out of our heads. Now, we know what you’re thinking: there’s no way the dreamy electronic pop of Swedish duo jj’s going to end up in a knock-out fight for the top Billboard spot, but it should. In fact, this summer there’s a plethora of tunes that are just begging to come blasting out of every boombox in the park on sweltering Saturday afternoon, but for whatever reason — too dark, too weird, too obscure, etc — it’s just not going to happen. So here, then, are our candidates for alternate “song of the summer.” And tell us, please, in the comments, what songs are in the heaviest rotation on your iPod this season. … Read More

  • 0