Oceans Vs. Mountains

Oceans vs Mountains by Dear DataNew music from the Minneapolis band formerly known as Yasercise, now known as Dear Data. Delightful.

Yasercise

Yasercise are a relatively new band that has popped up from Minneapolis' always fertile rock scene. They have played a few shows around town over the last few months, and have also been spending some time in the studio recording. These two tracks are the first to leak out from those sessions and they are pretty sweet. Both are cool, atmospheric indie rock songs topped off with the lovely and sultry vocals of front woman Yasmina - who just happens to be a co-worker of mine! Anyway, I dig and hope you will too. Like 'em on Facebook and follow them on Soundcloud...

Yasercise - Lights on For Gaza

(image courtesy of Keri Carlson)
Yasercise - Charlie Machine
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Facebook / Soundcloud

New Music Tuesday - Paper Tiger

John Samels is Minneapolis beat maker Paper Tiger. He is one of the primary beat crafters for the Doomtree crew which includes P.O.S., Dessa and Sims. He is also Doomtree's live DJ and resident graphic designer. And somewhere in between doing all of that he has managed to find the time to record an album of his own. Made Like Us hits record stores today. It is a sweet set of hip hop tunes with nary a rapper in sight. There are vocals - a couple of tracks with Dessa and one with Maggie Morrison (singer in Lookbook), and a lot of sampled snippets too. Remember the golden days of instrumental hip hop back in the mid '90s? This record totally takes me back to those days - DJ Shadow's Endtroducing is a clear influence. Crisply programmed beats, lovely piano riffs, a hint of some '80s electro flavor and lots and lots of layers will keep you entertained. Paper Tiger has name checked Portishead as an influence and you can see that connection on some of the mellower vocal tracks like Palace. Where a lot of people have tried to recreate that DJ Shadow deepness and failed, Paper Tiger gets it right and then some. I really dig this album. Get yer headphones on and drift away...

Paper Tiger - The Bully Plank
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Paper Tiger on Twitter and Facebook

Video of Paper Tiger making beats

MPLS/ Byzantine Beatbox

Byzantine Beatbox - River Crossing
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A lovely bit of instrumental goodness from Christian Erickson aka Byzantine Beatbox. Synths abound on this warm bit of downtempo - a kinder, gentler, less shoe-gazy Ulrich Schnauss if you will. Perfect warm, summertime evening-with-a-drink listening. Brought to you by the always excellent Minneapolis label Susstones.