WILLIAMHAUN

If the rest of 2010 keeps looking as good as its first quarter, it’s going to be a great year for music. This mixtape features some tracks off some stellar new releases that have come out in the last few months. In fact, my plans to compile 10 tracks quickly turned into 17 (which I finally trimmed down to 13).

I should note a few worthy new releases that didn’t make this mixtape: The Knife‘s opera Tomorrow, In A Year, Eluvium‘s Similes, Clogs‘ The Creatures in the Garden…, The Album Leaf‘s A Chorus of Storytellers, Peter Gabriel‘s collection of cover songs: Scratch My Back, and Shearwater‘s The Golden Archipelago.

Enjoy the tunes and if you hear something you like visit the artists’ web sites and support them by buying their albums.

You can listen to the individual tracks below by clicking on the artist name and track title, or download the zip of them all by clicking the green arrow to the left.

Jónsi – “Go Do”
From the album Go
http://jonsi.com/
Jonsi is the front man for the popular Icelandic band Sigur Ros. This is his first solo album and it sounds a bit like a more upbeat and optimistic variation on his usual band’s music. It is also the first time he has sung in English (he usually sings in his native tongue and sometimes in his own gibberish language “Hopelandic”). I also recommend you check out the article Christian magazine Relevant recently ran on “The Spiritual Side” of his music.

Aufgang – “Good Generation”
From their self-titled debut album
http://www.myspace.com/aufgangsonar
When I read the first line of Pitchfork’s review of Aufgang I knew I was going to love it. They said ‘If you’ve ever listened to Bach’s Goldberg Variations and thought, “Pretty cool; could use some hot beats,” then you’re going to love Aufgang.’ They were right. The album blends piano, live drums, and electronica incredibly well. Some tracks highlight the piano, others the beats. Overall it makes for a great, unique mix. Now if they’d only remix some of the classic Glenn Gould recordings!

Frightened Rabbit – “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”
From the album The Winter of Mixed Drinks
http://www.myspace.com/frightenedrabbit
This Scottish indie band is back with their 3rd studio album. Somehow Scott Hutchinson manages to sing about sentimental love and heartbreak without getting sappy. He’s also one of those vocalists who can make his voice waiver and crack without detracting from the song. And man can he sing a catchy hook!

Four Tet – “Circling”
From the album Love Cry
http://www.myspace.com/fourtetkieranhebden
The latest electronic tunes from Keiran Hebdan (aka Four Tet) have a heavy dance influence than his past work, but it’s his minimalist tendencies that keep me coming back. I’d easily place Four Tet in my Top 5 electronic musicians of all time (up there with greats like Aphex Twin and Boards of Canadad).

Broken Bells – “The Ghost Inside”
From their self-titled debut album
http://www.brokenbells.com/
Oddly enough, I’ve never listend to much of The Shins’ music or work produced by the legendary Danger Mouse. Broken Bells is a collaboration of The Shins’ lead vocalist James Mercer and Danger Mouse’s Brian Burton. They kept this project a secret for 5 years before finally putting out this incredible and eclectic album. Every track offers something different and unique from Mercer’s vocals and Burton’s soundscape.

Beach House – “Walk in the Park”
From the album Teen Dream
http://www.myspace.com/beachhousemusic
Beach House’s third dream-pop album is their best yet in my opinion. Singer Victoria Legrand’s voice is one of the best around and is what makes this indie band shine.

Damien Jurado – “Cloudy Shoes”
From the album Saint Bartlett
http://www.myspace.com/damienjurado
One of my favorite singer/songwriters, Jurado’s latest is a bit of a departure from his well-known (loved) folk singer style. This opening track from Saint Bartlett has a grand cinematic quality to it that just slays me.

Laura Gibson & Ethan Rose – “Boreas Borealis”
From the album Bridge Carols
http://www.myspace.com/bridgecarols
Laura Gibson is a soft-spoken folk singer with one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard. She did no wrong by collaborating with Ethan Rose, an ambient electronica musician for this album. The way they created the album is like nothing I’ve heard of before: she would sing random vocalizations and snippets of verses a’capella and he would cut&paste them over top of his atmospheric tracks. Read more about the process at www.bridgecarols.com

Pantha Du Prince – “Lay in a Shimmer”
From the album Black Noise
http://www.panthaduprince.com/
Haven’t figured it out yet? I love minimal techno. This track really starts kicking around 1:49 where musician Hendrik Weber cranks up the bass line.

Vampire Weekend – “Cousins”
From the album Contra
http://www.vampireweekend.com/
Expectations were really high for Vampire Weekend’s sophomore album and in my opinion they delivered. Not only is “Cousins” one of the standout tracks from the album, but it has a great music video to accompany it. I can pretty much guarantee that this album will be on my Top Ten of 2010.

Freelance Whales – Generator ^ Second Floor
From their debut album Weathervanes
http://www.freelancewhales.com/
This band is new on the indie scene and didn’t skimp on their debut album which packs in a whoopin’ 13 songs (the trend of late seems to be new bands putting out 4-6 song EPs to start). You can’t help but love this band which seems to have all the right ingredients: unique instruments (like a harmonium and waterphone), band sing-along oooh’s and aaah’s, some synths, and oh yea, a xylophone (of course). They even started their career by playing impromptu shows in the subways of New York. I caught them live in Atlanta earlier this year and you can see my photos & video of them on my blog. Be sure to add these guys to your “bands to watch in 2010″ list.

Washed Out – “Untitled #2″
From the 2010 tour-only EP
http://www.myspace.com/thebabeinthewoods
The brains behind Washed Out is Ernest Greene of Perry, Georgia (yup, the little ole’ Perry just down the road from Macon!). So far he’s only released two EPs and one of those was on cassette tape. Folks lucky enough to see him live have a chance to buy a CD-R available only at his shows. His music reminds me a lot of M83 and Memory Tapes.

Jóhann Jóhannson – “End Theme”
From the album And in the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees
http://www.johannjohannsson.com/
Jóhannson is a brilliant contemporary composer up there with Max Richter. He has scored lots of films from his homeland of Iceland but also scores music for the stage and art installations. This latest work has some truly beautiful piano and choral segments in it and is one I like to put on as I drift off to sleep at night.

If you are a copyright owner of one of these tracks and wish to have it removed, please contact me and it will be promptly removed. These tracks are not posted for profit, but to promote the artists and their labels.