Neutral Bling Hotel - In My G4 Over Da Sea

Released: 31^st May 2012

Label: N/A

Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is one of the most celebrated independent releases ever. It’s just a soundscape of beautiful melodies created using an acoustic guitar, horns and also includes an appearance of some phenomenal rock tunes too. All of these magnificent songs are coated on top with Jeff Mangum’s seemingly endless lung capacity and incredibly passionate vocal delivery. It’s emotional, it’s fun, it’s poignant, it’s perfect.

That is, it’s ALMOST perfect. Have you ever finished listening to it and gone “you know, I really wish there was at least some hip-hop and rap mixed together with these songs!” Well today is your lucky day! Artist Psycosis is known for “accidentally putting one song over the other” and he has done so with Neutral Milk Hotel and various rap songs! Yep. It’s called In My G4 Over Da Sea, and has been recorded by a Neutral Bling Hotel.

It’s uh….surreal at least. There’s a bit of Kanye West in there, that song about a yellow Lamborghini is in there too, certainly creating a topic of conversation for fans of these songs and fans of Neutral Milk Hotel I guess. It’s all a bit too strange. But my favourite thing about this mashup is the cover. The boobs, the aeroplane engine for a head, the wad of cash, and the parental advisory label all makes this a little strange for me.

You can hear In My G4 Over Da Sea in it’s entirety below, and even download it for free if you really enjoyed it that much. 

Milk Maid - Mostly No

Released: 5^th July 2012

Label: FatCat Records

One of the first bands I reviewed when Little Comments started has now released their second album. Milk Maid is a project started by frontman Martin Cohen and he put out a number of songs at home, and mixed it all himself. Mostly No is Milk Maid’s second album, following on from debut Yucca, and it’s a really great listen.

I remember my main gripes with Yucca were how low-fi it was and the lack of variety in the songs. It certainly had potential, but I felt that the recording equipment Martin Cohen had at the time limited his sound a little too much, and the lack of creativity made the album drag on a little too much for me. However, Mostly No sounds fantastic. The production has been drastically improved so Cohen’s vocals and the instruments don’t sound too muddy, there’s a little low-fi in there, but just the right amount.

Mostly No is full of guitar-lead rock tunes, complete with sick guitar riffs and impressive drum beats, making the album progress at a nice pace. With the improved production being so effective, the songs have got their own personality now, and the different instruments are actually clearly audible this time round overall creating an easier and much more enjoyable listen. The appears to be more of a surf-rock genre floating around this time around, especially in tracks such as the opener Dopamine and the single Summertime.

I’m so glad that Martin Cohen’s songwriting has improved ten fold; it’s as if he feels comfortable enough to bring his ideas to the songs now, and they really have paid off well on Mostly No. This is definitely one of my favourite albums right now, and will be for the rest of the year. Mostly No is out on July 9^th via FatCat Records.

Free Download Of The Day #16: Ryan Smith - Waiting

Released: 1^st May 2012

Ryan Smith is a singer-songwriter from Columbus, and this is his new album Waiting. It is currently available to download for free, and it’s a pretty sweet listen too. Ryan uses a ton of instruments throughout the album to create the happiest of instrumentations, and his vocals really help drive the songs forwards.

The mix of piano, electro and acoustic elements is very intriguing and produces some very exciting sounds, and overall it’s just a really good record. Waiting is full of emotions, mostly about the subject of love, but while that may be a subject done to death over the years, Ryan Smith manages to reinvigorate it with the use of these electronic elements. It's definitely difficult to remain a cynical person while listening to Waiting as it's just so optimistic sounding and lovely.