Jason Lytle & Aaron Espinoza - This Is Your Day - 2015 (original soundtrack)

jasonlytle.com

Jason says.... 

I was asked by an old pal of mine (Mike Cloward-exec producer of the film) if I wanted to do some music for a film about long distance running. I said ‘yep’ … and knew I would be able to get into it when I realized it wasn’t so much about overly sporty/jockish types and their stringent diets and training regimens….but more about the epic journey your mind and body takes when embarking on a very long and arduous journey. 

Ive dabbled a bit with running long distances myself….completing a handful of 50k mountain running races and even a 50 miler in the Bighorn mountains of Wyoming…..so needless to say I was able to tap into the subject and the stories of the characters…and use some of my own understanding of what it takes to push through levels of pain and doubt and borderline insanity to finally reaching a goal of finishing with mind and body still kinda intact. 

This was also a nice opportunity to work with my dear friend Aaron Espinoza….just basically hanging out in his studio…discussing themes, drinking some beers,moving from instrument to instrument and hitting record ….over the course of a week. 

After a few more weeks of tweaking sounds and adding/subtracting stuff … Aaron got it all mixed and we realized we had an interesting little batch of (mostly) instrumental music that was composed for this film. 

So now here we are …..with the bright idea of making it available as an album…of sorts. 

We hope you enjoy. 

jason 

Aaron says... 

Marathon runners are an amazing bunch…Ultra-Marathon runners are in a class all their own. The level of athleticism that it takes to run 100 miles is without question…astonishing. 

But for me…the most interesting part of Ultra Marathon running is the mental side. The ability to transcend all of the highs and lows that go hand in hand in this endeavor. Equal parts triumph, beauty, darkness and just plain ol’ weird shit… It is truly an incredible feat! 

I think Jason and I tapped into a bit of all these feelings in the soundtrack. I love working with Jason…and I really think we made something cool. Hope you dig it too! ae

The Coolest Nature Video Ever

Ace Bushy Striptease - Slurpt - 2014

From Birmingham England. Five piece diy pop-punk group. Short songs avoiding repetition. Girls crying into microphones.

Kane Strang - Blue Cheese - 2015

Dunedin psychedelic-pop musician Kane Strang has unveiled his debut album entitled Blue Cheese. The self-recorded and self-released offering has been a long time coming, Strang scrapped a whole album's worth of work and started from scratch to carve out Blue Cheese, resulting in a fresh and immediate sound that befits his dreamy style.

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Chastity Belt - Time to Go Home - 2015

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Recorded by José Díaz Rohena, Time to Go Home sees Seattle four-piece Chastity Belt take the nights out and bad parties of their past to their stretching points, watch the world around them break apart in anticipatory haze, and rebuild it in their own image with stunning clarity before anyone gets hung over. Time to Go Home is their first full-length for Hardly Art.

Pitchfork – 

“(Chastity Belt’s) No Regerts sounds young and callow and smart and horny all at the same time. Playing it feels like a night out.”

CMJ –

“But, as with all good comedy, No Regerts is actually saying something too. In between pelvic-thrusting sexual innuendo and self-mockery, Chastity Belt filter feminist theory, cultural commentary and general intellectual bad-assery… Chastity Belt isn’t the band 2013 wants—it’s the band 2013 needs.”

The Finest Kiss –

“What a bunch of punks!”

The Stranger –

“Simple, brilliant chord progressions, shockingly astute lyricism, and noise, oh my god, the beautiful noise. Their first EP Fuck Chastity Belt is a lo-fi bloody spiral of unyielding fury that refuses to leave my MP3 player.”

Reindeer - Just Be Cool ep - 2015

Are a Boston and Providence based psych-pop band, consisting of Seana Carmody, Karen Orsi, Joyce Raskin, and Joe Propatier.

The four members have played in several independent bands including, Swirlies, Overflower, Scarce and The Bevis Frond.

Young Wild Birds by the band Reindeer from Reindeer the band on Vimeo.

The Future Dead - Feelings - 2015

http://thefuturedead.bigcartel.com/products

fun slacker rock coming out of Belgium… 

Guy Fox - Night Owl - 2015

It’s not born out of decades of psych-rock, surf-rock or even folk, but lies at the very foundation of Bay Area music—soul and funk. Punctuating brass, playful bass lines, and even funk-pop make its way into a musical aesthetic found at the fingertips of Guy Fox. 

Stolen Jars - Kept - 2015

http://stolenjars.com/index.html

Stolen Jars is the indie music project of Cody Fitzgerald and Molly Grund. Inspired by acts as diverse as Sufjan Stevens, Elvis Costello, and Dirty Projectors, the music is a vibrant mixture of looping intricate guitar lines and floating melodies all brought to life by a live band featuring Elena Juliano, Connor McGuigan, Matt Marsico and Tristan Rodman.

Fitzgerald and Grund are building off the success of Stolen Jars' self-titled album released in 2011. The single off that album, "Driving," was featured in an international Apple iPad commercial and was awarded Song of the Week by Alt Mag. Their sophomore album Kept is decidedly more ambitious. Fitzgerald composed and layered tracks in his bedroom, tinkering to ensure precision. He and Grund then worked together to build vocal melodies around the tracks. When premiering, "Folded Out," the first single from Kept, Wondering Sound wrote, "Cody Fitzgerald and Molly Grund's voices spiral and intertwine . . . flutes dart like fireflies, strings swoop down - what started modest and pretty becomes mighty and bold and imposing." After the release other music bloggers enthusiastically agreed, describing the music, as"exuberant," "sweetly supple," "grand, an anthem." The album was mixed by Eli Crews (tUnE-yArDs, Deerhoof, WHY?) and mastered by Jeff Lipton (Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, LCD Soundsystem).

Seamus Fogarty - Ducks and Drakes - 2015

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Seamus Fogarty’s soul-stirring blend of alt-folk, country, blues and electronica – performed by Seamus himself on a variety of instruments against a background of fragmented recordings and found sounds, from broken household appliances to snippets of random conversations with friends and neighbours – is like nothing else in contemporary music: an intriguingly uneasy handshake between the ancient and the modern. Where God Damn You Mountain – recently hailed by Mercury Prize-nominated artist Jon Hopkins as “a shambolic masterpiece” in an interview with Mojo – was recorded in a cottage in the West of Ireland where he grew up, the Ducks & Drakes EP took shape in his adopted home of London. “The album was kind of me looking back where as these tunes are more about where I am now and how I got here,” says Seamus. “I’m from the country but soon I’ll have spent most of my life living in cities. Fields and rivers have been replaced by parks, ponds and the tube but I don’t think I’ll ever fully adjust to city life, and that’s fine with me. That’s probably why I fill songs with samples of various friends and neighbours I grew up with, to remind myself of where I come from, who I’ve met and where I’ve been.” 

Candelaria Varela - The day that I cried so hard I ran out of tears and cried music & Confesiones de un sábado a la noche - 2014

Frog - 2015

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It's a different sound to "Kind of Blah" (heyitsfrog.bandcamp.com/album/kind-of-blah) but everything that makes them Frog is there. This mini-album promised more to come, in the shape of their debut LP but Frog arrived fully formed and totally originally. It's beautiful, noisy, mumbly, shouty, tragic, frantic, funny, accidentally country and unavoidably NYC.

"A safer bet there’s never been – this record is essential." - GoldFlakePaint 

"A bit of a masterpiece." - 7BitArcade 

"Oh, god. Help me, words. Help me convey what a blessing Frog is." - Collapse Board 

"A record whose sheer flood of ideas couldn't be denied...Irreverent, strange and just a little addictive." - CLASH 

"Utterly brilliant...they make you nostalgic for memories you never had and take you back to places you’ve never before been." - London In Stereo 

Jess Ribeiro - Kill it Yourself - 2015

Kill It Yourself’ is the anticipated second album from Jess Ribeiro, arriving in August 2015 via Barely Dressed and Remote Control Records. To celebrate the release, Jess Ribeiro and band have announced an Australian tour for September.

No stranger to critical acclaim, Ribeiro’s 2012 debut, My Little River, was awarded ABC Radio National Album of the Year, Best Country Album at the 2012 AIR Awards and was shortlisted for the prestigious Australian Music Prize.

The new album is recorded in collaboration with Mick Harvey (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey) and is representative of a significant and exciting departure from Jess’s folk-country roots. red rattler

Home Alone Music - A U T U M N - 2015

http://homealonemusic.co.nz

AUTUMN 2015 features unreleased songs from Home Alone bands French for Rabbits, Urbantramper and Eb & Sparrow.  The cassette and corresponding digital release will be the only way to get hold of these songs – none will be released on future albums.

The album also showcases radio hit ‘Good Keen Man’ by Lake South, an unreleased version of City Oh Sigh’s ‘Still Let Me In’, and a live performance of ‘When You Find That Love’ from Timothy Blackman’s last (but not final) performance in downtown Auckland. It is rounded out with new material from Home Alone friends Glass Vaults, Womb (Charlotte Forrester), Fraser Ross and Oscar Doorne.

Side A

Lake South – Good Keen Man

Womb – Airplane #1

French for Rabbits – Holding Hands

City Oh Sigh – Still Let Me In

Oscar Doorne – Loyalty 

Side B

Eb & Sparrow – Tried So Hard

Fraser Ross – Lead Me Out Tonight

Glass Vaults – Ancient Gates

Urbantramper – Karori Afternoon Existentialism

Timothy Blackman – When You Find That Love (Live)

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Town Topic EP - 2008

cftpa.org

Town Topic EP is the soundtrack of the Laurel Nakadate film Stay the Same Never Change.

VARSITY - Cult of Personality / So Sad, So Sad - 2015

"this personal taste and direction make varsity unlike many of its local peers. the band formed only two years ago, and yet its music sounds refined and sophisticated, with a level of charisma that would typically be found in a group years older." - chicago tribune

http://varsitytunes.com

An Occasion For Balloons - 2015

Shadowed beneath a melody drenched in reverb, Nate Wagner outcasts his vocals to become one with the instrumentation – an ambient buzz evoking a tropical aesthetic. ‘Revival’, the preview to the reissue of the bands self-titled EP drifts you into transparent waters, with the dreamy drum beats and the muffled synths resembling the many sounds the ocean possesses, challenging your senses into a confusion, mutating eventually into relaxation. The track continues the pleasant hazy sounds An Occasion For Balloons have produced in previous works, a chilled atmosphere minus the lethargic song structure which outlines a steady balance for the rest of the EP. POND

Centre Negative - Emotion Is Cringey - 2015

“It’s fucked!” 

As we all know, familiarity breeds, uh, that thing, can’t remember what. In a haze of selfish delirium and the usual crying sessions, I bothered to make a ‘popular music’ album so as to get my friends to like it. Here's hoping this doesn't suck! 

Finally, it would be unlike me to under-think, so check out all my marks of shame and regret in the form of lyrical annotations, included for your amusement.

http://www.meltedicecream.co.nz/

Slow Meadow - 2015

Meditative music from ambient artist, Matt Kidd. Matt uses guitar, piano, and synthesizers to compose minimalistic changes and arranges strings throughout each work. The songs weave in and out of substantial neoclassical "pop" arrangements to whimsical textural soundscapes. A mixture of obsessive planning and instinctive improv, Slow Meadow is the foreground and background of thought provoking leisure. 

Seize the modest moments.

two white cranes - Radisson Blue - 2015

This release is great in a couple of important ways; for one it has wonderfully smooth, distinct angelic female vocals that have tons of character, second the instrumentation is very rhythmic yet simple, guitars and heavy bass lines chart the path. These two aspects combine in the most organic fashion creating a release that is worth your time and cash!