It's A Brand New Day
Tarwater (who's website www.tarwater.de isn't up yet) hail from Germany, where they spent several years cranking out records for Kitty-Yo. Their latest release, The Needle Was Traveling will be the band's first on Morr Music, and shows a slightly stronger sound from the boys. You can still tell that they come from Berlin, with subtle flashes of techno, a thin veneer of rock sleeve, and even a reverbed piano sample that reminds me of early house.
The entire album is very good, and comes highly recommended. It's a brooding, meditative thing that isn't quite a dance album, but isn't quite the chill-out scene either. It's definitely on its own, and Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram have really created an awesome album. Their latest will hit the states on March 12. It should be available in your local indie store, as well as online at bleep or through iTunes.
Emperor X is Chad Matheny, who has been quietly releasing insane jams on discos mariscos for the last few years. His music is basically pop, not too far off from what folks like Modest Mouse or Casiotone for the Painfully Alone are doing. It's fast, off-kilter stuff that's surprisingly good. He seems like a total nut to me, which is a good thing. In this genre it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, but I think there's enough different and exciting about this kid to warrant repeat listens.
This track comes from the upcoming and excellent Central Hug / Friendarmy / Fractaldunes [And The Dreams That Resulted] album. I'm not sure of the release date, but I'm positive you'll be able to buy it from our good friends at insound, where you can buy his back catalogue. There's more song links at his site as well, so it's worth checking out.