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DOWNLOAD: Tracks From Newest Ghostly Artist, Deastro

22-year-old pop prodigy Randolph Chabot (aka Deastro) has been constructing hyper-colored musical fantasies for over a decade, self-releasing more than three albums’ worth of songs, drawing all his own album covers, and playing countless ecstatic, synth-driven live shows in Detroit’s network of DIY venues.

Deastro’s Keepers is one of the most bounce-off-the-walls joyful records we’ve ever laid ears on, full of the sort of candy-colored pop nuggets that get us all smiley and teary-eyed at the same time. Initially available as a loose "best-of" on eMusic, Keepers is out now on Ghostly. Here's "Michael, Lone Archer of the North Shore," the soaring lead-off track from Keepers:

DOWNLOAD: "Michael, Lone Archer of the North Shore", from Keepers

Deastro’s next album, Moondagger, due in 2009. First single “Parallelogram” (and its B-side “Carol Gilligan”) features Chabot fronting a full live band, and takes Deastro’s boundless energy into grander, rocking-er new territory.

DOWNLOAD: "Parallelogram", from the upcoming full length Moondagger

Ghostly also plans to re-release Deastro's dizzyingly eclectic back catalogue – from the all-instrumental Powered concept albums to the sky-high anthems of The Young Planets – in the not-too-distant future.

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NEW VIDEO: MICHNA – "Triple Chrome Dipped"

The video for Michna's "Triple Chrome Dipped" – the opening track from his excellent debut Magic Monday – is a collaboration between Michna and Philly-based video artist System D-128. The clip creates on odd but heartfelt contrast between the song's slick hip-hop strut and its accompanying imagery: nostalgic footage of Adrian Michna's coming-of-age in New York in the early `90s. Filmed entirely on a Hi8 analog camcorder purchased in 1989, "Triple Chrome Dipped" depicts flashes of Adrian Michna's youth from 1989 to 1995: the local pizza shop; the Metro North from Westchester through the Bronx and into Manhattan; skateboarding through Brooklyn; Michna's little brother staging toy-robot wars; band practice; doing donuts in high-school parking lots. Throughout the video, lo-fi computer graphics flit across the screen, giving the sequences a surreal, DayGlo mood to match the music.

Michna - "Triple Chrome Dipped" from Ghostly International on Vimeo.

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NEW DOWNLOAD: THE SIGHT BELOW'S GLIDER LP - OUT NOW

The leaves are changing colors and floating to the ground, the days are getting shorter, the sunlight is paler – fall is here, which means that winter can't be far behind. Ushering in the season's chill is The Sight Below, the reclusive Seattle-based producer whose Glider LP – dropping November 11th on Ghostly – channels his Northwestern climate into beat-based ambient works of exquisite beauty. On Glider, washes of treated guitar drift through achingly subtle beats, building into the sort of melancholy symphonies that could only originate within a chilly, solitary soul. XLR8R says, "Sunny music this is not, but it's easy to picture the reclusive, unnamed producer behind the album hard at work in drizzly Seattle," and the Wired blog says, "These expansive instrumental epics start out icy, but melt easily enough with proper application of the human ear." We say it's so gorgeous it hurts. Here's "Life's Fading Light," a particularly fine example of the The Sight Below's hopeful gloom:

Download: The Sight Below - Life's Fading Light

The Sight Below's No Place for Us EP is available for free download here:

Download: The Sight Below – No Place for Us EP

And check out this video for "Further Away":

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Alpinisms Arrives

After many rumblings and murmurs, School of Seven Bells' full-length debut, Alpinisms, will finally see release today. The Brooklyn trio – comprising guitarist Benjamin Curtis (formerly of Secret Machines) and twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza (formerly of On!Air!Library!) – recorded the 11-song masterpiece over the course of a year. The resulting album is an absolute tour-de-force, a meticulous mix of shoegaze guitars, globe-spanning electronic beats, and sophisticated pop songcraft. Blonde Redhead's Simon Pace guests on the eleven-and-a-half-minute epic "Semipiternal/Amaranth."

SPIN says that "Alpinisms' sweeping, ethereal pop reveals a range of influences and a sophisticated approach to arrangement that sets the trio well apart from less imaginative latter-day shoegazers." Blender says, "Match the Deheza sisters's angelic vocals to a thick plodding beat and Edge-like guitars, and you've got something close to nirvana."

The band just played a revelatory late-night set at Ghostly's CMJ showcase last Saturday  at NYC's (le) poisson rouge. New York Times blogger Ben Sisaro seemed to enjoy himself – read his very, very kind show review here.

Next, School of Seven Bells are flying to London for a few shows tonight and tomorrow, and launching an extensive November tour with Ghostly faves M83 afterward. Check out all of SVIIB's tour dates here.

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Michna At Home (And Away From Home)

MICHNA AT HOME (AND AWAY FROM HOME)

In this video profile, Adrian Michna (aka Michna, the brains and ears behind the glitchy, effortless artistry of Magic Monday) welcomes Ghostly's camera crew into his apartment, whips up some vegetable soup, and chats about his formative years in Miami, his artistic process, and the internet's deadly effect on the mixtape.

Our boy's also headed out on tour, with live and DJ sets scheduled at Ghostly's CMJ showcase, in his sometime-home of Miami, at the Standard in LA, and at NYC's Natural History Museum.

10.24  Baltimore, MD
Live set at the Hexagon Space
9pm / 21+

10.25 New York City, NY
Live set at the Ghostly CMJ Showcase @ (le) poisson rouge
11pm / 21+

11.04 Gainesville, FL
Live set at Sharab Lounge
9pm / 21+

11.05 Miami, FL
Miami Record-Release Party @ PS14
9pm / 21+

11.08 Detroit, MI
DJ set in Detroit
(Venue TBA)

11.13 Los Angeles, CA
LA Record-Release Party
(Venue TBA)

11.15 Los Angeles, CA
DJ set in Downtown LA after-hours w/ Gina Turner
(Venue TBA)

11.21 New York City, NY
@ Museum of Natural History w/ Catchdubs
Doors at 8pm / 21+

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FULL ALBUM DOWNLOAD: The Sight Below - No Place For Us EP

Every once in a while, something comes along that stops us dead in our tracks; the Sight Below's melancholy drift does just that. By pinning barely-there electronic beats to wisps of guitar melody, the Seattle-based producer turns ambient music into a hybrid strain of breathtakingly intimate, small-scale dance music. It’s a sound that encompasses shoegazers' obsessive tone layering, ambient's mood-setting sprawl, and techno's horizon-spanning momentum at once. Here's "Life's Fading Light," a standout track from The Sight Below's full-length debut Glider, which we're proud to be releasing later this fall.

Stream:
 The Sight Below – Life's Fading Light

Ghostly's also offering the No Place for Us EP as a free, three-song introduction to The Sight Below’s hopeful sonic gloom.

Download: The Sight Below – No Place for Us EP

The Sight Below makes his live audio/visual premiere at this year's Decibel Fest in Seattle. The Ghostly showcase will be held at the beautiful Baltic Room and features live A/V sets from Tycho, Lusine, and Ghostly co-conspirator Deru alongside The Sight Below's luminous debut.

09.27.2008 Ghostly Label Showcase, Seattle, WA – The Baltic Room (8pm)

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Stream: New 2AM/FM + Broker Dealer 12"s

Two great Spectral Sound artists recently got the 12" treatment, and we're streaming the results just for you.

From 2AM/FM – aka the duo of James T. Cotton and D'Marc Cantu – comes another thick slab of classic dance music. "Electronic Justice" may well be 2AM/FM's manifesto, a rolling vocal creeper whose laser-beam pulses ebb and flow around a synthesized mantra: "Experimental vision / This is us, who we are / This is our religion." Fitting words to chant, shout, or whisper in the flicker of a strobe at 2am, after all.

Exclusive Stream: 2AM/FM - Electric Justice

Broker/Dealer's second pressing for Spectral sells itself softly — at first. The Soft Sell EP retains the dreamy expansiveness and seamless production of Broker Dealer's album work, but places its foot firmly on the dance floor. In the title cut, reverberated hisses and whispers oscillate in and out of the depths with the metallic vibrato of copper under water. Then the handclaps drop in, the subtle bass takes hold, and "Soft Sell" unfolds into a sophisticated nighttime scene-stealer.

Exclusive Stream: Broker/Dealer – Soft Sell

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Steam: Matthew Dear remixed + tour with Telefon Tel Aviv

Ever since Matthew Dear's "Dog Days" became a sensation in 2003 (it was the most popular single off his debut album Leave Luck to Heaven), producers have been itching to take a crack at the track. Five years later, Dear has synced up with Paris' Robsoul Recordings to release a top-notch remix collection: Dog Days- The Robsoul Remixes. DJ Sneak, playing his role of Chicago partyman to the fullest, engineers "Dog Days" into an eminently ebullient house romper. Acid creaks and squeaks fills in the spaces left by Sneak's grinning bass line, like the evil tricks of a balloon animal loose in a Moonbounce full of static electricity.

Stream: Matthew Dear – Dog Days (DJ Sneak's 420 Dog Mix)

At the heart of Matthew Dear's electro-pop opus Asa Breed lies "Pom Pom," a miniature slice of sound and vision whose rallying cry of "I've got to figure out love" is one of the record's most neck-tingling moments. For "Pom Pom"'s 10" release, Dear hands the tune over to DFA's Juan Maclean. If the hero of Dear's original "Pom Pom" stands shyly in the corner, "The Juan Maclean Mix" shoves him in a car and sends him hurtling downtown at top speed, chattering sixteenth-note high-hats in his ear as the city lights whiz by.

Stream:  Matthew Dear – Pom Pom (The Juan Maclean Mix)

Dear plays a live PA under his Audion moniker at Seattle's Decibel festival before taking his three-piece Big Hands band on a headlining tour in October, where he'll be accompanied by friends Telefon Tel Aviv as openers. Do not miss this.

AUDION
09.26 Seattle, WA  @ Decibel Festival - Chop Suey

MATTHEW DEAR'S BIG HANDS
10.08 Seattle, WA  @ Chop Suey*
10.09 Portland, OR @ Holocene*
10.10 San Fransisco, CA @ Mighty*
10.11 Los Angeles, CA @ Avalon Hollywood*
10.15 Montreal, QC @ Lambi*
10.16 Toronto, ON @ Wrongbar*
10.17 Chicago, IL @ Sonotheque*
10.18 Ann Arbor, MI @ The Blind Pig*

*w/ Telefon Tel Aviv

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Full Album Stream: Michna - Magic Monday

We are proud to announce the release of Magic Monday, the debut full-length from producer Adrian Michna, aka Michna. Having co-founded Miami's legendary Secret Frequency Crew, Michna's been mixing instrumental hip-hop and experimental electronic music for years; in the process, he's collaborated with an early-career Diplo, lent a production hand on Brazilian group Bonde do Role's debut on Domino/Mad Decent, and landed on URB's "Next 100" list. His talents as a multi-instrumentalist also feature prominently on the album- much of what sounds like samples are actually played by Michna himself. Magic Monday is a distillation of Michna's life and attitude- his youth, his talent, his sense of humor, his stories- and it's fun as hell.

And catch Michna in your area as he tours this fall:
10.10 Brooklyn, NY - Magic Monday release party (venue TBD)
10.16 Poughkeepsie, NY @ Vassar College
10.24 Baltimore, MD @ The Hexagon
10.25 New York City, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge (CMJ)
11.04 Gainesville, FL @ Common Grounds
11.05 Miami, FL @ PS1
11.13 Los Angeles CA@ The Purple Lounge (Standard Hotel)
11.15 Los Angeles CA @ Downtown Warehouse (after hours)
11.21 New York City, NY @ Natural History Museum

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Stream: School Of Seven Bells- Half Asleep 7"

STREAM:
"Half Asleep" - from Half Asleep 7" / Alpinisms
"Caldo" from Half Asleep 7"

DOWNLOAD:
"Connjur" - from Alpinisms

School of Seven Bells will be hitting the road in the coming months, playing a handful of shows at New York City's CMJ festival in October and mounting a tour with Ghostly faves M83 in November:

09.27.2008 Boston, MA - Urban Outfitters Newbury
10.17.2008 Pontiac, MI - The Pike Room
10.18.2008 Kalamazoo, MI - State Theater
10.22.2008 Brooklyn, NY - Cake Shop (CMJ)
10.24.2008 New York City, NY - Levi's Fader Fort NYC (CMJ)
10.25.2008 New York City, NY - Le Poisson Rouge (CMJ)
10.28.2008 London, UK - Old Blue Last
10.29.2008 London, UK - The Social
11.11.2008 Atlanta, GA - The Earl *
11.12.2008 Charlotte, NC - Tremont Music Hall *
11.13.2008 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
11.14.2008 New York City, NY - Webster Hall *
11.15.2008 Philadelphia, PA - Starlight Ballroom *
11.16.2008 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street *
11.18.2008 Boston, MA - Middle East Downstairs *
11.19.2008 Montreal, QC - Studio *
11.20.2008 Toronto, ON - Opera House *
11.21.2008 Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge *
11.22.2008 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock *
11.25.2008 Seattle, WA - Neumo's *
11.26.2008 Vancouver, BC - Richard's on Richards *
11.27.2008 Portland, OR - Doug Fir *
11.28.2008 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore *
11.29.2008 Los Angeles, CA - Fonda Theatre *

* = w/ M83

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