This week’s track is It’s Alive by Chill Bump off of Back To The Grain. I’ve been jonesing for some classic raps over beats for a while and this track by Chill Bump showed up,  burning up the Hype Machine charts a few weeks back. The hook “hip hop is not dead” sums up the sentiment of the EP: real hip hop still exists. It apparently doesn’t have a Wikipedia page anymore, but is available with suggested payments on Bandcamp.

This week’s track is Pretender by Miike Snow, off of Happy to You. This is Miike Snow’s sophomore album, after his self-titled eponymous debut. If you like the original album for it’s fun, keyboard laced dance pop, you’ll love the new album. It’s in the same vein with a fresh take on the Snow sound. There are a handful of great tracks on the album but I love Pretender’s horn and piano line that gives it a pumping/pulsing pop sound.

This week’s track is Dance Or Die by Janelle Moane off of The ArchAndroid. I can’t get enough of this nu-funk sound (like Feb 20th’s TOTW), and Janelle Moane’s album is chock full of that fun, upbeat, and horn+synth heavy texture. I’d originally been turned on to Moane with her song Tightrope, a collaboration with Big Boi. It’s probably the most friendly / fun song on the album, but I liked this song as it’s a little more laid back and showcases Moane’s lyrical delivery and is just more funky. It’s mixed to run right in to the following track, Faster, which takes the melody from Dance or Die, and pumps it up to a full on dance song, four on the floor with a solid hook. The album as a whole is worth a stream/download.

This week’s track is D.D. by The Weeknd, off of Echoes of Silence. It’s a cover of Michael Jackson’s Dirty Diana, in a hauntingly simular delivery by The Weeknd. The track is less poppy and more ethereal with heavy synths covering filling in the sound and it’s also a bit slower compared to MJ’s original. I’m a new fan of The Weeknd (thanks Raz for the tip), who is somebody that apparently has been blowing up the indie R&B world since last year. Echoes of Silence is his third full length in 18 months, each one getting rave reviews from both the Pitchfork universe and the hip-hop universe. Having listened to two of the albums, I get what the hype is about. His music is different, and he can sing the hell out of his songs. I’m a bigger fan so far of the third, Echoes of Silence, versus House of Balloons, which seemed to have received the most acclaim. They’re all free downloads, and worth checking out.

This week’s track is Grass Roots Horizon by Kinobe off of Soundphiles. I can’t really put Kinobe or this album in to a specific genre. The album starts out a bit harder with more breaks, but by the end it morphs in to a beautiful dream-pop with a beat kind of sound (maybe trip-hop? who knows). Top to bottom the closest thing I can compare Kinobe to is the Supreme Beings of Leisure (TOTW #16, March 5 2008). I picked this specific song since it’s more vocal than the other tracks in the album, and has a fully built out lounge sound.

This week’s track is Love Will Be On Time by Disko Matique off of Freshman. A Dutch or French (can’t really tell) duo that puts down some solid nu-disco, indie-funk. This is their first album, a little 6 track EP that comes in at about 20 minutes. It’s a fun dance-y, disco-y modern groove and this is the first track off of the album. If you want something to get you moving on this short President’s Day week, put this little song on and have some fun.

This week’s track is †elepa†hy (Telepathy) by †††  (Crosses) off of their EP †† (EP #2). Crosses is Chino Moreno’s side project from the Deftones. If you love rock, and you love America, you’ll love Crosses. The track, Telepathy, has a jamming bass and guitar line with a bit of synth thrown it and soaring, strained vocals. I haven’t heard rock that rocked this hard in a long time, it’s a sound that I’d forgotten. It’s so poppy, so 90s, yet so original.

This week’s track is One (Know Your Name) featuring Pharrell, off of Until One, by the Swedish House Mafia. It’s gloomy as all get out in the Bay Area, but ultimately this mood enhancing track by the mega-group Swedish House Mafia fits the bill. An old song, from mid-2010, but it still feels super fresh and features a huge, epic, sound that’s become the group’s signature (you can also find them on Tinie Tempah’s Miami 2 Ibiza). The track is best listened to loud, as loud as possible. Trivia bonus: apparently, Pharrell’s vocals were never intended for the track; they intended for another song, and layered in after production.

This week’s track is Feels Like The First Time by Corinne Bailey Rae, off of her sophomore album The Sea. I’ll admit, I’d heard of CBR for a while, but had never heard any of her music. This song came up on KCRW one morning and it absolutely stood out on the playlist, so I picked up the song and the album, and have loved it since. It starts with a discordant/minor (no idea if those are the right words, but it sure sounds like that) piano riff which disappears as the song enters a jazzy, upbeat melody and returns to the theme during the chorus. CBR’s lyrics and delivery enchant through the whole track, moving from sticking right to the beat to sliding just behind in classic jazz vocalist style.