Artist Making Waves: Waterstrider - "Nowhere Now" [indie rock / afropop / world]

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So far this year, Oakland, California's indie-rock five-piece Waterstrider has been featured on Hype Machine's weekly Most Blogged Artists list three times. That's saying a lot, considering they aren't a major label electro-pop band or remixing already popular songs. What they are doing is making danceable indie rock with afro-beat percussion, catchy guitar hooks, and energetic vocals, which certainly deserves all the hype it's getting.

In preparation for the release of their debut album Nowhere Now, Waterstrider has shared four beautiful singles, each one differing quite a bit from the last while sticking to the worldly instrumentation that sets them apart from the rest of the indie scene. With their most recent single, the title track "Nowhere Now", the band really embraces the upbeat guitars and percussion characteristic of afropop but the distorted bass and lead singer Nate Salman's frenzied falsetto and not-so-sunny lyrics provide a unique contrast, a slight contradiction that really makes Waterstrider interesting.

Stream Waterstrider's 2011 Constellation EP on Bandcamp (available for free download) and listen to the first four singles ("Nowhere Now", "White Light", "Redwood", and "Calliope") from the upcoming Nowhere Now LP below. You can pre-order the album on Bandcamp (and get 4 tracks now) or get your hands on one when it hits shelves April 6.

holaTUBE: Sylvan Esso - "Hey Mami" (live on Brooklyn rooftop) [electropop / indie pop / experimental]

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I just came across a really cool video of Durham, NC electropop duo Sylvan Esso performing their single "Hey Mami" (from their eponymous debut album, which made #46 on our 2014 end-of-the-year list) live on a rooftop on a sunny day in Brooklyn, as part of the "Noisey Acoustics" video series. The lack of electronics makes for a unique version of the song, a version that somehow doesn't stray far from the original thanks to the brass musicians and percussionists backing singer Amelia Meath for the video. She's got some pretty sweet dance moves (and platform shoes) too.

After the video, check out my favorite song from their debut, "Coffee".

Swell Album: The Migrant - Flood [indie rock / folk rock / psychedelic / blues] (FULL ALBUM STREAM)

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The Migrant is the moniker of Danish musician Bjarke Bendtsen, which, intrinsically, is what he is—a migrant. Although Bendtsen is from Copenhagen, he is also a sporadic resident of Austin, Texas, a place he says "has everything a Dane needs" and where he even has a second backing band (for US tours), the first being in his natal city. He has been performing as The Migrant for five years now and has four albums to show for it, the latest being Flood, which was released this past January.

Flood is essentially a guitar record, something that is, unfortunately, becoming more and more archaic in the constantly changing world of indie rock. Throughout the album, Bendtsen skillfully draws from his colorful palette of influences—rock, folk, blues, psychedelia—to produce captivating songs that range from soothing ("Flood", "Silence", and "Row Row") to rocking ("Belly of a Man", "Water", and "Tiger"), and ones that find a happy balance between the two ("The Climber" and "Give Up").

While listening to Flood, a couple of my favorite bands/musicians come to mind. Bendtsen's nimble fingerpicking and tender vocals alongside the driving percussion on "The Fixer" wouldn't sound out of place on a Dodos record, while his occasional quivering voice and falsetto tend to give off Thom Yorke vibes, which would make sense seeing as Radiohead is one of his main influences.

Similarities and influences aside, Flood is an excellent indie rock album from start to finish with equal doses of folk and psychedelia injected into it. The fact that The Migrant isn't already flooding the blogosphere with his new album is beyond me, but he's got the perfect chance to change that this upcoming weekend in Austin, where Bendtsen will not only be playing with his local backing band at SXSW, but he will have a handful of songs featured in an independent film called Limbo that will be showing tomorrow (March 18) at the festival.

Check out the tour dates on his website or Facebook page and stream the entire album for free below. To listen to his first three albums in full, head on over to The Migrant's BandCamp page.

Just Rolled In: Crepes - "Stages of Fear" [slacker pop / indie rock / jangle pop / psychedelic]

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The promising Melbourne-based slacker-pop band Crepes have just put out their second single, "Stages of Fear", which sticks to the psych-tinged jangle pop we were introduced to in "Ain't Horrible" but shows that they can do upbeat just as well as downbeat. This bouncy track along with its contrasting predecessor paint a pretty clear picture of the range of songs that you can expect on their debut EP being released in mid-April. In the meantime, boogie down with "Stages of Fear".

holaTUBE: Pepa Knight - "Coyote Choir" [world / indie pop] ***FREE EP STREAM***

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Previously featured on holaOLA twice in mid-2014 following the releases of his enrapturing singles "Rahh!" and "Clams", sitar-wielding Pepa Knight, from Central Coast, New South Wales (and of Jinfa Safari fame), is back with an official video for the vibrant third single, "Coyote Choir", from his six-song debut EP Hypnotized Vol. I, which was released this past November.

This psychedelic music video was shot on 8mm film over a period of two weeks in Australia and New Zealand by filmmaker Sam Kristofski, with extra footage recorded by Pepa Knight percussionist Jozef Oldfield and trippy watercolor animations provided by Daniel Foothead. After the video, stream the entire EP for free before buying it here.

Just Rolled In: Abram Shook - "Understood" [indie pop / psychedelic / experimental pop / funk]

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First featured on holaOLA about a year ago for his genre-melting debut album Sun Marquee (#22 on holaOLA's Favorite Albums of 2014 list), Austin, Texas multi-instrumentalist/singer/songwriter and Shearwater touring member Abram Shook is back with a new single in support of his upcoming sophomore release, Landscape Dream. The single is entitled "Understood" and picks up where Sun Marquee left off in terms of rich melody, psychedelic touches, and good vibes, but Shook lays some pretty off-kilter percussion behind his usual funky guitars and sun-soaked vocals, which makes for a glitchy, yet dreamy indie pop song that evokes the warmth of the summer sun.

Abram Shook is performing live with a full band tonight (Feb. 26) at The Mohawk in Austin and will be playing two dates of the upcoming SXSW music festival in mid-March.

Stream the new single "Understood" below and look out for the Western Vinyl release of Landscape Dream on May 12. Until then, you can follow Abram Shook on Facebook and pre-order the album via iTunes. Enjoy!

Swell Album: Gibberish - 'Winter Coat' [psych pop / indie rock / experimental]

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Released just after the turn of the year, Winter Coat is the beaming debut album by Fayetteville, Arkansas psychedelic duo Gibberish, a.k.a. married couple Derek and Lorie Bromley. They started writing music together under the moniker 'monsterheart' last year but were recently forced to change their name, deciding on 'Gibberish' a couple months ago, just before the release of the self-produced and self-released Winter Coat. Considering that the Bromleys had only been performing live for audiences for just over two months at the time their debut effort hit the proverbial shelves, it shows that they are wasting no time in establishing Gibberish as a force to reckon with in this ever-expanding world of independent music.

With only one song coming in under the five-minute mark, this gem of a record pushes along for a solid 45 minutes, relentlessly charming the listener with its penchant for lustrous melody, abstract soundscapes, and spacey ambience. Winter Coat is a psychedelic concoction of organic instruments, electronic embellishments, and reverb-heavy vocals carefully thrown together with plenty of loops and effects via lo-fi-leaning production techniques. By listening to its eight individually diverse tracks, I was able to draw some comparisons to Animal Collective, Atlas Sound, Gauntlet Hair, and Youth Lagoon, but when asked about Gibberish's influences, this is what Derek had to say:

Our influences vary, but lately we've really been getting into Morgan Delt, Viet Cong, and Cant. We've also been listening to a lot of ambient, space-hop type stuff (or whatever you call it) like, Shlohmo, Balam Acab, Gold Panda and Teebs. When I first started really getting into music as a teenager, Radiohead was the gate-way drug that led to what's probably our "main" musical influences like – Animal Collective, Pavement, Stereolab, Sonic Youth, Beck, The Flaming Lips, Sigur Ros, Deerhunter, Grizzly Bear, Menomena, Chad VanGaalen, Modest Mouse, Portishead, Broadcast, etc... 

Stream Winter Coat in its entirety below and hit up Gibberish's BandCamp page to download it on a pay-what-you-want basis.

Just Rolled In: Froyo Ma - "I Live All Alone (Abby Diamond's Figure Remix)" [electronic / r&b / beats]

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New Orleans beatmaker Zack Villere, a.k.a. Froyo Ma, has made a name for himself for his complex electronic soundscapes littered with glitchy harmonies, obscure and retooled vocal sampling, and complementary guitar embellishments. This signature style of his is evident on last November's offering "I Live All Alone (feat. Bill Murray)" , which recently underwent the remix treatment by another New Orleans musician, singer-songwriter Abby Diamond.

Unlike most remixes, the music for the track itself remains the same and Abby's sensual vocals are simply layered over top, which, as you can imagine, yields an even better song. Having heard the remix first, the original track (featuring dialogue between Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray from Lost in Translation) just sounds like an instrumental version to me. This all goes to say that Abby Diamond fits flawlessly into Froyo Ma's already beloved track.

Aside from Abby Diamond's alluring R&B presence, what really impresses me on this track is how Villere manages to take an easygoing (and super pretty) contemplation-inducing loop and then turn it into a trip hop banger halfway through with the flip of a switch. It's gotta be the best "drop" in a non-dubstep song ever.

Enjoy the remix below and check out more music from Froyo Ma and Abby Diamond on their SoundCloud pages.