Minus the Bear holds a special place in the hearts of hipsters and 20-something college students searching for meaning everywhere.  Luckily they make good music for the rest of us too.  Their new album OMNI continues their long standing run of fantastic album releases and shows the band is still evolving.  What more could one ask for?!  How about the same poignant and slightly melancholy lyrics?  Check.  This is very possibly the summer album this year, and by that I mean it screams “LISTEN TO ME WHILE SIPPING LEMONADE”.  The up-beat electro-pop that is delivered on nearly every track is a breath of fresh air after the decidedly mellow Planet of Ice, their last release.  If you’re a fan of Minus The Bear you’ve probably already picked this up, great job.  If you’re unfamiliar with them, jump right in, this album is a perfect starting place for a newfound love for a band you should have been loving for years.

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And check out their video for My Time, the first track from OMNI

Ok, let us lay something out and be absolutely clear about it.  I love the Gorillaz.  Like there is no other.  I’ve listened to D-Sides more times than I have said good morning to beautiful women… significant.  Their new album is out now, get it on here!  ”WAIT A MINUTE” you say, “what if it’s terrible!?”.  It’s not.   It’s so so so not.  ”Prove it” you respond in time, like an expert fencer parrying in trice.  EN GARDE!

Our new venture into the works of 2D, Noodles, Murdoc and Russel begin  with a very very mellow track.  We get a pleasant orchestral intro followed by none other than the Boss Dawg, the Doggfather himself, Snoop Dogg.  Say whaaaaat?! Yes, oh yes.  and it’s about to get better.  What is the last thing you would expect to follow an appearance by such rap loyalty?  Oh, The National Orchestra for Arabic Music and some brit rappers?  BOOM, Gorillaz delivers.  Finally in Rhinestone Eyes we are graced, and in being so blessed our ascent into musical clouds begins with a greeting at the pearly gates of audio heaven.  Who is this glorious being greeting us? Why, none other than 2D!  And off we go…

From here the album spirals off the beaten path to a mixture of acoustic mellowdies and techno-boppy upbeat potential remix club bangers (say that three times fast, you know Russel could). Sometimes even in the same 4 minutes of a track (see Empire Ants (feat. Little Dragon).  And immediately afterwards we get a load of super fuzzy bass and Murdoc’s incomprehensible moaning “Where’s north from here?”.  How can you not be enjoying this by now?!

Mos Def, De La Soul, and even Lou Reed stop by on our auditory journey.  And, when your head is spinning, your ear drums pounding from this welcome assault?  Cloud of Unknowing brings our delicious roller coaster of sounds to a calm, wondrous finish, Bobby Womack and sinfonia ViVA do it right.  BUT WAIT!  What’s that, you say?  You bought the deluxe version?  Well ho ho ho, what’s this?  Three extra tracks?  Oh Man!  Pirate Jet (also included in the normal version of the album), Pirate’s Progress and Three Hearts, Seven Seas, Twelve Moons give us more of this same halting, boop filled eccentric horror show that we have been enjoying up until now.  The Gorillaz have certainly returned, and what a triumphant return it is after too long in hibernation at Kong Studios.  The album delivers, in the same unpredictable way the first two have defined music for us in the past.

My only complaint, yes, yes, there is one.  Where is my ultra-catchy track?  Where’s the thing I’m going to be humming to myself over the course of the next year endlessly?  I don’t see it.  Stylo, the first track to have a video made for it is very very good, but, as much as I absolutely enjoy Mos Def’s lyrical stylings, I’m not sure about it being that top 10 Billboard hit.  We will see how the masses recieve it, maybe this is the album that’s not going to be played to death on the airwaves, and maybe, just maybe, that’s a good thing.  Only time can tell… until then, enjoy your days sunning on the Plastic Beach.

After being provided with a pair of the Chopper2 headphones by Aerial7, a robot does what he can to test them, put them through the ringer, and see if they emerge proper. These guys certainly put down some beats, but are they the pair for you?  Read on

I’m a headphone junkie . . .  I’ve gone through countless pairs since the time I was in 6th grade when our school started to allow us to bring CD players to class.  It wasn’t long before I was begging my mom for those “DJ style” headphones and got an entry level pair of Sony headphones.  Since then I’ve been through them all; Phillips, Bose, Apple iBuds, Sennheiser, Skullcandy and recently I picked up a pair of Beats by Dre.  I use headphones all day, every day.  At home I have a pair on almost every minute I’m there.  So of course when I’m sitting down with a new pair I have a set test I use to see how much I like the sound and feel.

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Listen to Let There Be Horns from The Colossus

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Ladies and Gentlebots, RjD2 has a new album and if you haven’t heard it in the two weeks since it’s release, it’s time to get on the wagon.  Or get down off it and boogie.  The master of beats, drum slayer and beat maker is back, and has blessed us with his greatness.  Opening with “Let There Be Horns”, it forces you out of your seat and demands that you boogie-oogie-oogie.  Percussion is the name of the games, jive cats and kittens and RJ knows how to play it in spades.  With solid sampling and delicious drumming this album will redefine your view of electric music and open your eyes to what you could have been enjoying all these years.

Including a sample of the ever enjoyable “Salad Fingers” in “Salud 2″, the album is replete with old and new, shiny and downright dirty… and the dirty is so so good.  All at once soulful and robotic, this album is what the year needed to start out right.  We can now expect so much more from a year with a beginning like this.  Go ahead listen to it all, or, “Let There Be Horns” and then take some time to smell the “Tin Flower” where the album really hits it’s high, the kind of music you could walk down the street to in bellbottoms and star shaped shades, platforms and all.  Enjoy.  Do it for you, do it for me, just don’t do it for free, Artists like this are one in a million, they deserve your funding and believe me, they give back in droves.   If you don’t know who RjD2 is already (FOR SHAME) get in touch and download his newest work, The Colossus available on iTunes for a mere 10 dollars.  It’s going to be possibly the best thing you’ve done on the internet since you typed Trendrobot into your browser.  After you’ve acquainted yourself with the new, get down to the old and start listening to Deadringer.

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For those of you unaware, the group is Socalled.  The music is amazing.  The front man is Josh Dolgin…and he’s from Canada, eh?  A mix of various styles and genres; his music is most often referred to “Klezmer Hip Hop”.  Klezmer, being a form of traditional Jewish music, has a very unique sound.  Go forth, educate your circuits. This robot recommends beginning your journey with the “You Are Never Alone” music video.