BALUN

Astoria, NY/San Juan, Puerto Rico - Indie/Electronica/Folk

myspace.com/balun

Pre-Balun I was truthfully a Glockenspiel and Melodica cynic, but count me a convert. With each featured front and center in their electronic inspired soundscapes and catchy melodies, they never sounded better. If there was a post-electro sound, ala the electro version of post-rock pioneers Godspeed, Slint, Mogwai et al. this might be it. Certainly bands like Tortoise come to mind as predecessors, but this is more like a post-electro Plaid than anything out of the Midwest. The Scene. You're in a tunnel, a beautiful woman with a sultry voice approaching from a distance, as atmospheric blips and bleeps hit off the tunnel walls, the white noise gets louder and then [fill in]. For all your electro-heads, yes really that beautiful. Enjoy.

Recommended Tracks: People, Snol EP Version


DEASTRO

Detroit, MI - German Pop, J-Pop, Italian Pop

myspace.com/deastrothetracker

Hailing from Detroit, Deastro is one of the best up and coming one-man bands out there, the work of one Randy Chabot. Truly new music with 1500 profile views and electro-gaze in the best sense of the word and its evolution. He is in the process of putting out his new album, the young planets. Fabulous compositions with fabulous vocals. They mention unsung electro-pop band Joy Electric as an influence, I would add another great unsung band from Detroit to their sound, Majesty Crush, one of the greatest shoegaze bands of the last 10 years. In fact if I had to use four words to describe this, you couldn't get better than joy, electric, majesty and crush. But, this stuff distinguishes itself with driving electro lines that are much more aggressive than the typical shoegaze fluff sound. What makes this all more exceptional is of course the one man quality of it all.

How lucky I was to have this guy write me this week, we were apparently on the same podcast together and I'm convinced we are pretty lucky to have shared airtime with him. Favorites are "Michael the Lone Archer" which has that undeniably fabulous "Son of Sam" intro and opens up beautifully. "The Shaded Forest" seems to be the newest one and probably the best song of the crew, "Skin worth living in" is the most spacious. "The Old and Treacherous" is the most likely to remind you of Postal Service.

Recommended Tracks: Michael the Lone Archer, The Shaded Forest

DAVID'S PEGASUS

Fayetteville, AR

myspace.com/davidspegasus

Take everything you think you know about Fayetteville, Arkansas and throw it out the window, this band very well might single handedly change your impression of the state they hail from.

Ok, that's perhaps a bit too much praise, but this singer is certainly hip in a way that my time driving through Arkansas did not prepare me for. He has been weasling his way into my head all week. There is a certain x-factor there, something distinct and unique here in the way I felt when I first heard Jeremy Enigk, although absolutely 180 degrees different. Peculiar, unique and downright refreshing. The best scene I could think of if I were to describe thesis vocalist… if Frank Sinatra, Morrissey and Roy Orbison were sitting at a bar together. This band of course being the bar. He has the southern, vibrato tinged voice of an Orbison, the delivery of a ballad belting Sintra and a good dose of Morrissey cool.

Regardless, this is good stuff, not there totally yet, but these guys are going to be real good just you watch. Start off with "My Dirty Days" and move onto the ballad "The nearest star," which is beautiful and heartbreaking. Your intial ambivalence will quickly give way to a desire to lock yourself in a room, and blast this balladic voice, loud, its fucking intense and thoroughly addictive.

Recommended Tracks: The Nearest Star, My Dirty Days