During live appearances, Oh! Tiger Mountain, the alias of the captivating French songwriter Mathieu Poulain, will often don and perform behind a tiger mask. Poulain’s decision to hide himself comes off as particularly bizarre in light of his new EP, New Religion, out next week on Microphone Recordings. The five-song EP finds Poulain singing in a more powerful and assured voice than on his 2011 LP Sings Suzie, bringing to mind such stately crooners as Leonard Cohen, the National’s Matt Berninger and the Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser. Furthermore, tracks like “New Religion” and “He’s Not Alone Anymore” demonstrate Poulain’s heightened sense of structure; the off-kilter carnivaleque vibe that pops up on Sings Suzie has been tightened down a bit in favor of a subtler, more controlled sound.

Which isn’t to say that New Religion isn’t full of playfulness. Surf-rock guitar noodling sneaks in alongside Buddy Holly-era backup singing, and the mix makes everything sound bright and airy. Part of what makes Oh! Tiger Mountain so memorable is the juxtaposition of Poulain’s deep, gravelly voice, intoning cryptic lines like “I must have fallen asleep someplace / between a bride and a commercial break” with whimsical jangly guitar lines and syrupy synths. Poulain never enters into gimmick territory, however; his songs are downright intriguing in their odd mix of styles.

Earlier this year French superstars Phoenix took another surf-rock enthusiast, Mac DeMarco, on the road with them. Maybe next time they’ll shoot for someone from their own neck of the woods. Because if they do, Oh! Tiger Mountain will be sure to turn some heads.

Everyday, everyday people, struggle to get by. “Come on feet don’t fail me now…” We wander through life with nothing more than a hope that we have a direction. “All this time I didn’t know who I was meant to be.” Questions swirl around us like unshakeable gnats that arrive at dusk. “I would lay my head down till sense has been found.”

These uncertainties arise  like motifs in Fyfe’s debut EP, Solace. It’s easy to imagine Fyfe (Paul Dixon) walking down empty streets at night caught within the web of his thoughts. While young at the age of 23, Dixon made his formal debut as David Lyre, but struggled with his label about distribution. His new EP, which you can stream below, is all that is currently available. Lyrically, on Solace, Fyfe seems to be searching for questions about himself and life. Sonically, his high pitched vocals rise above the dark hitting tones on “Conversations” (featured above), but brisky move across the bubbly synths on “St. Tropez”  garnering him comparisons to Miike Snow.

I remember when I was fourteen: I hadn’t a care in the world. It was summer. Days began when I awoke and ended when my eyes teared up from staring at a computer screen or television late into the night. I would spend my summers across the street with my neighbor. In the mornings our parents would go to work, leaving us alone to our own devices. We’d create obstacle courses out of deflated gym balls, wrestle in the backyard pool until our hands shriveled, and bike through the neighborhood with no destination. We didn’t care.

I remember most the heat. On the hottest days the asphalt would burn the soles of my feet, and if I stayed out too long my skin would eventually feel pricked by the sun’s rays; but still, we laid in the grass–letting time and the cloud drift by.

It’s time like those, or even as I reflect, that seem to resonate most with Washed Out’s newest single “It All Feels Right” from their upcoming album, Paracosm, which is scheduled for release on August 13th.  You can pre-order it now.

When I was growing up in the Bay Area, KMEL and Wild 107.7 (at the time) used to play “real” hip hop and R&B. If you’re like me, reading “real” is either puzzling or imbues a guttural reaction of “oh please, spare me the comparison of what hip hop is now.” Don’t worry–I’ll spare you the extended analysis, but I will say this: in the early 90s (my youth) mainstream hip hop and R&B were only starting to be commercialized, so the packaging of dance hip hop like Flo-Rida, T Payne, etc. hadn’t consumed the market because it was just a facet–not a genre. It wasn’t until 1996 that the Grammy even had an award for hip hop.

This is all an exasperated way of evoking the feelings that arise from me as I listen to Quadron. Lead by Danish singer, Coco O, who’s sultry, cool tone can easily shift from aching heartbreak to sullied “you did me wrong” tracks reminds me of the 90s R&B of a young Brandy, Monica and Carl Thomas. Tracks like “Sea Salt” and “Neverland” are minimalist in nature, letting Coco O’s voice shine, drawing comparisons to the formerly mentioned artists and showing its roots in the Quiet Storm that built the modern version.

Quadron will be playing at the Stern Grove festival 2013 on June 23rd, if I were you, I wouldn’t miss it.

“Como Te Vas” is the new single from Bay Area based, Trails and Ways, who we’re enamored with. Like the group’s previous work, the single is a dreamy pop tune with international undertones. In the press release, the group explained the inspiration for the song comes bandmate, Emma Oppens’ last days in Spain, remembering “cold-water dives from jagged rocks, a coastline in the grip of early summer, and a lover asking ‘Como te vas?’ (‘How are you leaving?’)–until the question becomes its own answer: ‘This is how you’re going.’”

The group plays The Independent tonight (quite a feat given they only have an EP out), and then hit the road. Check out the photo for the full list of tour dates.

Fresh off the heels of his new album(s) announcement, Beck has shared a new track with Rolling Stone titled “Defriended.”

It’s been nearly five years since Modern Guilt was released, and we are ripe with anticipation to see what this enigmatic artist can conjure up next. What we do know is this track will not be featured on either of the two forthcoming LPs, and that one of the albums will be purely acoustic, while the other will serve as the proper follow-up to his 2008 release.

We’re in love with this new non-acoustic cut that seems to resonate with many of today’s most visited genres – we’ll let you decide for yourself how you feel about it.

This collaboration between Jacques Greene and Tinashe entitled, “Painted Faces,” is a part of the Adidas and YoursTruly “Songs From Scratch” sessions. One of many interesting collaborations, which includes Shlomo and Jeremiah, Nosaj Thing and Chance The Rapper and more.

Make sure to check out Yourstruly.

“‘Those tools [computers] were very good at many things,’ (Thomas) Bangalter says, but they were worthless in terms of ‘generating emotion as musical instruments.’” (GQ)

“‘Computers were never designed in the first place to become musical instruments,’ Mr. Bangalter said. ‘Within a computer, everything is sterile — there’s no sound, there’s no air. It’s totally code. Like with computer-generated effects in movies, you can create wonders. But it’s really hard to create emotion.’” (The New York Times)

“I think [contemporary EDM producers] might be missing the tools. The problem with the way to make music today, these are turnkey systems; they come with preset banks and sounds. They’re not inviting you to challenge the systems themselves, or giving you the ability to showcase your personality, individuality… We really felt that the computers are not really music instruments, and we were not able to express ourselves using a laptop. We tried, but were not successful.” (Billboard)

This is how the Daft Punk duo recently described their sonic departure towards live instrumentation on their latest album, Random Access Memories. In a wonderful critique for SPIN, Phillip Sherburne included these quotes as framing the landscape: in the foreground is a recent shift of electronic artists showcasing themselves with live instrumentation (he also cites Zedd and Avicii), and in the background are the naysayers like Boards of Canada exclaiming that “at the end of the day, emotional melodies are going to last a lot longer than impressive drum programming.”

(For those unfamiliar with Daft Punk’s previous work, the French duo have been a staple of house music since the 90s. Their music has breathed through drum machines and spoken through vocoders. Even their appearance, noted for wearing robotic helmets, highlights their futuristic place in contemporary pop music. In 2004, their mainstream appeal was a perfect match for Apple’s commercial for their growingly popular device, the iPod, which featured their song “Technologic.”)

It seemed fitting that Sam Valenti, the founder of Ghostly Records, mentioned Daft Punk’s shift during the panel “The Future of Music Creation” at this past Tuesday’s SF MusicTech Summit. Valenti referenced how an artist on his label, Tycho, was making a similar jump from electronic to live instrumentation as the French duo. He suggested the move was an attempt to break from the mould, drawing the comparison to J Dilla, whose loose time signature differentiated him from hip hop’s more rigid drum production. It seems that in this light, like Daft Punk, electronic tools seemed to be implicitly holding Tycho back from perfecting his artistry.

Led by Billboard writer, David Downs, the panel, which also included Dweezil Zappa (Musician), Chris Kantrowitz (Founder of Gobbler), Daniel Walton ( Co-Founder of Retronyms) and Dot Bustelo (Producer and Technology Strategist), explored how electronic instrumentation is changing the way music is created.

Dweezil Zappa, the son of the legendary Frank Zappa, described how technology enabled him. Zappa uses Fractal’s Axe FX-II, a preamp guitar processor, to replicate the ranges of different types of guitar amps. Downs was quick to make jest of Zappa, suggesting his inauthenticity for replicating old “tubes,” but Zappa wasn’t fazed. He quickly dismissed the comment stating that many of the amps were either out of production or highly coveted.=

Similarly, towards the end of the discussion, Dot Bustelo, who said she hadn’t found time to learn many of the latest technology tools, explained how using Logic on her tablet freed her creative process. Bustelo felt like technology enabled her, through consciously knowing she could make music wherever, whenever.

Midway through Sherburne’s critique of Daft Punk, he pivots stating, “The tools, in fact, are a red herring. There’s nothing wrong with the state of electronic music, in part because its most innovative (or at least most thoughtful) practitioners are well aware of the traps posed by the tools.”

I agree. Regardless, it’s interesting that EDM musicians like Tycho and Daft Punk are using more live instrumentation because of the electronic tools’ limitations to express real emotion, while musicians like Zappa and Dot embrace technology as freeing and helping them move forward. Sherburne describe the critique EDM musicians feel when he states, “ you can’t swing a USB stick without hitting someone complaining about presets or plugins or crappy, identikit EDM productions cranked out on cracked copies of Ableton,” and I wonder if this is what’s actually propelling EDM musicians to use live instrumentation. As more live instrumentalists musicians like Zappa integrate and normalize electronic tools, I wonder if the critique Sherburne suggest will even remain.

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The SF MusicTech Summit brings together visionaries in the evolving music/business/technology ecosystem, along with the best and brightest developers, entrepreneurs, investors, service providers, journalists, musicians, and organizations who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. We meet to do business and discuss, in a proactive, conducive to dealmaking environment.

On April 30th, Chance the Rapper released this summer’s unofficial hip hop mixtape, Acid Rap. I haven’t able to stop listening to for a month now. Chance, who comes to us by way of Chicago, knows exactly how to keep our attention with his playful world that draws inspirations from LSD, acid jazz and Kanye West. Acid Rap oozes with optimism and love. Hip hop is starting to bring some soul back and, in my opinion, the 20 year old Chance is leading the pack.  Listen below and download the album at Chanceraps.com

Is it just me, or does the excitement and build up around this UK ground feel similar to the summer Fatboy Slim released You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby? Expect to hear a lot from these guys this summer.