Every week, we get bombarded with emails from PR guys and artists who want their music reviewed. Some of those are industry guys who’ve never checked what this blog is about, because we get stuff like U2, yet some are honest artist/readers of the blog and I’d definitely feel bad if I don’t lend an ear to their music. When I was more actively doing music in the 99-00 period there weren’t any mp3blogs/social networks even netlabels and frankly I thought it was too much of a hassle to send demos to labels and contact people, I didn’t know if my music was good enough either so I gradually stopped making music (time problems as well). Today it’s easier for an artist to contact likeminded people, find a netlabel, self-release their album etc. but it’s also getting incredibly hard to weed out the good from the bad. I really don’t know how the music scene will evolve, it seems to be in a transition phase still. Will the volume of newly released music keep increasing exponentially? Will everyone be a bedroom producer some day as everyone may get an audience these days?

Anyways, today we have Vincent Black Shadow from Baltimore, with a gnarly stoner rock mixed with punk & psychedelics. NYC based I Love you Airlines is a nu-age rock/glam duo with electronics, didn’t like the other songs but this one is pretty catchy. I’m sure you already know about HEALTH, a noise rock band from LA a la Liars. We have Doctors & Dealers from Sweden an lo-fi indie twee pop artist with smooth vocals and melodies. Boiled in Lead which is a cool mixture of progressive rock & world music and Irish Punk a la The Pogues, and what’s more it’s their 25th year in music. The bass player is also in Felonious Bosch another progressive world music band. We have the legendary oldschool rapper Steinski, preparing to release a double retrospective album on Illegal Art soon. Then there’s Take from LA’s Eat Concrete which is a lovely deal in jazzy instrumental hiphop a la Madlib, one of the best finds for me. But what I feel the best of the bunch in my mailbox this month is Capillary Action which is a math rock band from Philly, and I thought I might give them a bit more action, so it’s gonna be our next review. Cheers to everyone who’ve sent music and also to Fanatic Promotion.

I Love you Airlines – CPR
Doctors & Dealers - Snow Child
Doctors & Dealers – Summertime Love
Vincent Black Shadow – Shamanix
Vincent Black Shadow – Wooden Kimono
HEALTH – Perfect Skin
Boiled in Lead – Berber
Steinski – The Payoff Mix
TAKE – Fall in Love Again