Not content with curating a great radio show, Fresh Juice have also recently become a record label. Or, more accurately, a cassette label. Their first release is a compilation of songs all discovered while mining the rich seams of talent to be found on that alien planet we know as Bandcamp, featuring artists from both sides of the Atlantic. What better way to introduce the general vibe of the radio show.

The comp opens with a lean and stylish track from San Francisco’s Concon, followed by a track from fellow Frisco artist Max Gardener’s forthcoming album Memory Lounge. Velcro Team brings pulsing lo-fi electro pop, The Carraways a bright and surfy take on the Britpop formula and Smiles deliver shoegaze-shaded indie pop.

Portland’s Turtlenecked delivers a lovely bedroom pop track, which explodes with noise in the final third, before London’s Real Swell bring oddball electronic pop and Cheltenham producer Samuel Francis closes proceedings with a shimmering slice of electronica, falling somewhere in the valley between emotive ambience and groovy beats.

You can get The Fresh Juice Compilation Vol. 1 right now via their Bandcamp page, on a nifty-looking cassette (see below) or as a digital download. And remember to tune in to Fresh Juice every Monday!

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‘Lucky Cat’ reserved acoustics and hushed, almost whispered vocals, while ‘The Loud Word’ is a similarly acoustic track but with added electronics, little beeps and hums and shimmers, kind of like those which adorn the Lejsovka & Freund album we wrote about recently. ‘Small Wind Power’ is basically an acoustic folk song, and a pretty one at that, the morose vocals seemingly directed to Christie’s feet rather than the audience.

‘Inside Out’ has a laid-back woozy feel, all backed up with the by-now familiar gentle acoustics. ‘Puddle Rock’ is a light and floaty instrumental guitar track, before the EP finishes with a cover of ‘Metamorphic Moon’ by fellow New Paltz band Wet Petals, a track which tentatively feels its way into life before the advent of sadly serene vocals:

“i reach out to touch the moon
and now there is nothing
but the moon;
no hands to touch,
no eyes to devour,
only a tarnished flower
torn from a dream”

Small Wind Power is a lovely collection of songs which conjure a really nice feeling. They are enclosed and intimate, like sharing a heart-to-heart inside a tent at the height of summer, the tape hiss becoming the stridulations of insects, the trickle of the creek.

You can get Small Wind Power on cassette via Apollonian Sound, or as a name-your-price download via the Fraternal Twin Bandcamp page. The release supports the NJ Clean Water Fund, a really cool project that campaigns for some great health and environmental issues.

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‘Forever nervous, man’ is a great opening, catchy indie rock wrapped in lots of fuzz and heartsick wooing background vocals. It’s followed by ‘Burt Squires’ with its big echoey kick drum and lo-fi next-door vocals, all backed up with the constant racket of noisy guitars. ‘nothing’ is a hazy and shimmeringly poignant instrumental, before ‘king ashbeer’ rises from its ashes, dense walls of fuzz and squealing guitars and echoed vocals. The EP ends on ‘ssssshakin’ which has downbeat but not deadbeat vocals behind an acoustic strum, all wrapped up in a warm and reassuring lo-fi hum.

Summer Recordings is a really promising collection of songs and makes me very interested to hear what Strange Friends do next. Part Male Bonding, part Gorgeous Bully, the EP hopefully marks the introduction to a band we’ll be hearing a lot more from in the future.

You can get Summer Recordings now as a name-your-price download or super-limited cassette tape (UK only and for the criminally low price of just two English pounds!) via the Strange Friends Bandcamp page.

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‘Reeling’ kicks things off with its laid back and oddball pop, complete with a clattering barrage of percussion in the finale, while ‘manitoba’ accelerates into being, giving you the woozy-gap-in-your-insides feel of a fast car or accelerating aeroplane, before degenerating into weird distorted drums which clear the air and allow things to get a little more poppy on ‘nothing’, a strange blend of manic and dreamy, messy and catchy.

‘Burn this’ is fronted by Eliza Niemi and has noir-ish, slinky vibes, like an easygoing, guitar-based dream pop version of Sylvan Esso. ‘again’ is all sharp little jabbing guitars and occasional swooshing crashes of percussion, as well as a frenzied build at the halfway point (and again at the end) which falls away even quicker than it arrived, while ‘champs’ begins with gentle acoustics and sounds kind of like Andrew Bird fronting The Dirty Projectors. A good indicator of the album as a whole, ‘benny’ is part dreamy soar, part chopped up pop song, before ‘pulses’ ties things up neatly, the title a fine description of the beautiful and almost neoclassical finale, built on a steady and rhythmic cadence, which to me brought to mind the skewed ambient aesthetic of Lejsovka & Freund.

You can but Rough Master now on cassette tape, CD, or as a pay-what-you-can download via the Mauno bandcamp page.

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Opener ‘I’m Sorry’ is an indisputable summer jam, full of a sunshiney swagger and effortlessly cool vocals. ‘Girl Of My Dreams’ adds a splash of shoegaze sweetness, with muffled lo-fi drums and aching, pining lyrics about a girl who doesn’t exist. ‘Pipe Dream’ decelerates into a slice of sluggish and slothful pop, while ‘I Don’t See It That Way’ sounds like it’s being played in your neighbour’s basement. ‘You and Me’ shimmers with effects as Eroğlu’s downbeat-but-dreamy vocals snake through the haze. My favourite track is ‘Go’, all strummed acoustic guitars, unhurried percussion and a very languid, surfy electric guitar in the background. It gathers pace in the last third, culminating in a joyous, carefree refrain of:

“I think I’ll go my own way
to the other side
where the grass is green
and the sun will shine
forever”

‘I’m So Needy’ has a laidback tropical vibe, shuffling drums and slacker “oh oh” harmonies, and closer ‘Alphabetical Disorder’ is an alphabet song that isn’t aimed not for the usual target audience of such tunes, a lo-fi rock song with lines such as, “G is for Genocide, H is for hate, I is for idolizing people who are fake”.

You can buy Bedroom Buzz right now via Plastic Response Records or Danger Collective Records. It’s available as a download or on a fancy cassette tape (see below). Green tapes are from Danger Collective, blue from Plastic Response. Your choice.

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Ruth & Trudy is the recording project of Mitchell Young who lives in Houston, Texas. His latest album is called Still Pond Songs a record he describes as, “songs of earth, love, heartbreak, family, encounters with the occult, and fun”. If that doesn’t capture your attention then you’re reading the wrong music blog buddy. Luckily, the music sounds as good as its description, an unorthodox brand of lo-fi pop that blends a laidback hipness with heartfelt naivete.

The opening track, ‘Greens’ is a ramshackle indie pop song complete with keyboard, tambourine and handclaps. The song also gives us our first glimpse of Young’s vocals, which he delivers in a slightly detached manner, capturing the feigned indifference of youth. Next up is ‘Star Projector’, a brisk instrumental number that’s all playful xylophones and swirling guitars, while ‘Late Swim (tfl)’ brings a mellow lo-fi aesthetic, a drum beat emerging around the halfway mark, a beat which sometimes overtakes the guitars and sort of stutters back in time. This gives the track a slightly agitated air, like that feeling when you can’t quite get your mind to focus right. The lyrics add to this unsettling feeling,

“who was there
standing on the lake
under the moon
above you
is he your friend
do you trust him
is he even alive?”

‘Pond Scum’ begins with a warbled vocal sample which loops and loops as the track continues as a slice of lo-fi folk, bringing to mind the Lucas O’Connell album we featured last year. ‘Captain Falcon’ is a blast of sunny indie pop, complete with kid giggle samples, sounding like a lazy summer afternoon, a tall glass of icy lemonade sweating in the sun. This is followed by another instrumental track, ‘Cop Island’, an almost tropical 70 seconds of shimmying guitars and gentle percussion, before ‘Provide For Family’ announces itself with odd little rattles and squelchy sounds, like the shambling whir of some clockwork contraption. The lyrics are about what the title suggests, “make sure your mother still feels she’s needed” it begins, before the oddly uplifting chorus of:

“provide for your family
uplift their spirits
we all share the same fears
no one wants to lose their loved ones
no one wants to die”

Then we get ‘Diane’, a sweetly unpolished love song, ‘When You Can See Your Breath Outside’, which rumbles along with the now familiar echoey vocals, and the finale ‘Here Last Year (Era Crathmania)’, which switches things up with a slice of rousing, 80s-tinged electro-pop, not unlike M83 at their most shimmering. But my favourite track is number 10, ‘And You Meant the Sea’, which is just the epitome of summer, all sea and sand and surf. Even the guitars seem sun-drunk as the track strolls along, a tale of beachside romance:

“we were eating candy at the beach
and I was playing with your hands
our hair was blowing in the wind
do you remember what it feels like
when our skin in sunlight would meet?
‘come on in,’ you said
and you meant the sea”

You can get Still Pond Songs on super-limited cassette tape or as a name-your-price digital download via the Z Tapes Bandcamp page.

P.S. Stay tuned for a review of the second Z Tapes release in the very near future!

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