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Thursday, January 29, 2015

Artist Making Waves: Cannons [electronic / dream pop / r&b]

Cannons is a blossoming three-piece electronic outfit based in Los Angeles that draws from funk, R&B, and darkwave to brew up their own futuristic brand of electropop that's equal parts groovy, sexy, and dreamy, so I can see why they've decided just to go with "future boogie".

South Florida native Michelle Joy is front and center on the keys, drawing the listener in with her chilled-out hypnotic vocals while bandmates Ryan Clapham and Paul Davis lay down the funky guitar riffs, ominous melodies, danceable beats, and slick electronic production. The fact that it all comes together so beautifully and that they've been pushing out singles every month or so for over a year goes to show that Cannons know what they're doing and that they're here to stay, and more importantly, to make you dance.

Cannons' debut four-song Up All Night EP can be download on iTunes or BandCamp for just a few dollars. Check out the recent tracks "Evening Star", "Night Verses", and "Spells" plus two of my favorites from the EP and hop on over to their SoundCloud page to hear a bunch more!

Monday, January 26, 2015

Swell Album: Jape - This Chemical Sea [electropop, synthpop] *FULL ALBUM STREAM*

Dublin native and current Malmö, Sweden resident Richie Egan and his bandmate Glenn Keating are back with their fifth album This Chemical Sea as Jape, this year's follow-up to 2011's Meteor Choice Music Prize-winning Ocean of Frequency. While most of their discography has been tagged with the subgenre 'folktronica' for its unique blend of acoustic guitars and synths, what we hear on This Chemical Sea is pure electropop, leaving the acoustic component out of the final mix and focusing more on the rich electronic production. Catchier, smoother, and groovier than ever before, This Chemical Sea is, hands down, Jape's greatest and most tenacious effort to date. Stream its 10 tracks below and purchase yourself a copy if you like what you hear.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

holaOLA's 60 Favorite Albums of 2014

This is holaOLA Indie Music Blog's 'best of 2014' list, which I've decided to call holaOLA's 60 Favorite Albums of 2014 this year. I know what you're thinking: "60 albums? Why not 50, or even 40?" Well, the fact is that once I finally trimmed down my year-end list to 75 (I started with about 100), I couldn't imagine taking away 25 more, since that would mean keeping quality music from you, so I decided to do things a little differently. That way, holaOLA can stand out as the blog that does the '60 best albums' list, and you get to hear 10 more records! If it really bothers you, just think of the extra ten albums as the 'honorable mentions'.

Anyway, like last year, I've only considered LPs released in 2014 and ignored any re-releases, rarities/b-sides albums, compilations, demos, mixtapes, etc. And unlike last year, I've managed to include full album streams for each and every one of my 60 favorite albums for your listening pleasure. However, if you're more of a singles person, or if you prefer mp3s to streaming, I've also put together the first-ever holaOLA music compilation (over 4 hours of music!), the aptly titled holaOLA's 60 Favorite Albums of 2014 Compilation (just click the title to download the zip file). Regardless of how you decide to listen, if you like any of the music, please support the artists by buying their records and merch and by going to their concerts like the bonafide music lover that you are!

Before you check out the top albums list, I'd like to give a big special thanks to all my regular followers, to everyone who visited holaOLA this past year, and to the people just discovering it now. Everyone, please come back for new music in 2015 (and for the rest of eternity) and follow/like holaOLA on Facebook for blog updates (usually weekly)!

You can access holaOLA's 60 Favorite Albums of 2014 list by scrolling down or navigating the links below, but if you're in a hurry or have a limited internet connection, click here for the simple-and-to-the-point artwork-and-music-free list.

Thanks for taking the time to read and listen! Enjoy!

-Sean

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click here to download holaOLA's 60 Favorite Albums of 2014 Compilation

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